The Mayor of London disregards professionals and the London Assembly to push ahead with the Earl Court demolition proposals described by Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson as “an act of cultural and economic vandalism”.
Earl’s Court at night, photo courtesy of the whiteness.
Darren Johnson is accusing the Mayor of snubbing the concerns raised by 30 leaders in the field of arts and music including designers Ozwarld Boeteng and Bella Freud, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys regarding proposals to demolish Earl’s Court Exhibition Centres. The concerns include:
· it’s an act of cultural vandalism; the venues attract millions of international visitors and crowd-drawing events on the world map
· maintaining Olympia open is not a replacement for them;
· the substantial loss of income to local traders and to London as a whole is inexcusable;
· a mere 11% of the proposed development is “affordable” and that affordability will be out of reach of the majority of hard-working people.
The Mayor of London whose role in the demolition was condemned by the London Assembly referred them back to his planning decision documents and did not answer the individual points. The response was obtained in an answer to Darren Johnson’s written questions submitted at the December 2013 Mayor’s Question Time.
Darren Johnson said:
“Boris Johnson has snubbed the pleas from the exhibition industry, and now legitimate questions raised by top leaders in the field of art and music. He also refused to consider the London Assembly’s call for a delay to his decision until the economic impacts of the loss of the exhibition centres had been properly considered.”
“The Mayor’s decision has been challenged by leading figures who know the industry well and he hasn’t even given them the courtesy of a point by point response. These demolition proposals are an act of cultural and economic vandalism and make absolutely no sense to anyone but the shareholders and property investors who stand to make a killing in this developers feast.”