Our petition has gone viral in the last ten days...We cannot thank you enough for joining in to support us....Today, no doubt, we will exceed the 5000 milestone - quite unbelievable! Thank you to all, specially to those who write in comments on why they object to building in the park - we are very much hoping that these comments will be allowed and considered once we get to the Planning Application Consultation phase, probably in late autumn.
As an update, I would like to remind all of you in Central London that the revised scheme if available to be seen (this week only) in Church House, Great Smith Street. Times:
Tuesday 4 September 5-7pm
Wednesday 5 September -Friday 7 September 12-7pm
Saturday 8 September 10-4pm
The scheme has changed quite considerably, and sadly not for the better. Not only has it moved further into the centre of the park, in order to avoid the precious roots of the plane trees, but the creation of a new sunken courtyard means that a large swathe of the lawn is now paved over- and as it is still somewhat below grade, it might well still constitute a serious threat to the well-being of the roots of the trees. At the southern end there is now a new, very un-prepossessing gateway building, looking very much like a public toilet block, encroaching on the area that is currently used by the playground. The playground is still shown, but smaller, and immediately up against the entrance of the Memorial - hardly a place you would choose for your two-year-old to play! All views of Parliament from the southern end are now hidden by the dreaded bronze fins embedded in an a very arbitrary and out-of-place mound. It is obvious that this expedient device was conceived to hide under grass the entrance to the underground chambers ..though we are - slightly deviously- told that it is in reality a wonderful conception that will allow visitors a better view of the river (in winter time only, as the canopies of the plane trees gets thicker the higher you go).
Yesterday two private viewings were held for the benefit of groups opposing the scheme. It was a good opportunity to express our frustration in relation to this choice of location for the Memorial and Learning Centre, and to question in great detail the architects and their design team about issues such as traffic, security, numbers of visitors, relationship to heritage assets, duplication with the IWM Holocaust programme, the general design of the project etc. It became soon clear that the architects and their advisors still have a lot of work to do, and huge hurdles to jump in order to resolve their scheme. Their current answers were in many ways still vague and unconvincing. What was however clear is that the other side has no intention to listen to our long and very rational list of objections to this site, much as we can count on very experienced and knowledgeable supporters to make our case.
We fight on...with great determination!