Improved proposals adopted and planning permission granted

There was very welcome news in July 2013 when the Council announced that it was withdrawing its plans for the Town Hall redevelopment. The new leader, Cllr Nick Botterill, said the Council would be going back to the drawing board, that new proposals for the site would go no higher than the Town Hall extension and it would listen to residents and amenity groups in order to find a more acceptable solution. The footbridge over the A4 will no longer be part of the scheme. That, and the reduced height, will be a tremendous relief to local residents.

Meanwhile we and Save Our Skyline will be pressing for an early meeting with the Council to seek to ensure a good design solution to this vexed site and to incorporate retention of the cinema in a reinvigorated form to give real regenerative boost to the area. Many congratulations are due to Save Our Skyline for their highly effective campaign without which this turnaround would not have happened, and to all the thousands of residents who wrote and emailed the Council, the Mayor of London and the Government.