| Topic: | Re:St George's Church (aka Piano Museum) appeal to demolish has arrived | |
| Posted by: | Stephen Browne | |
| Date/Time: | 17/04/06 13:59:00 |
| The last of my series of three articles in the Brentford Chiswick & Isleworth Times - this one in Letters to the Editor 14-Apr-2006. My appreciation to Chris Briddon for running the articles in the newspaper to help get this subject exposure. ======== Dear Sir Following on from my comments in Letters to the Editor (31/03/06) regarding the Kew Bridge and St George's Church sites going to appeals because the developers don't get their way, it occurred to me that the general change in attitudes towards conservation and heritage being felt more and more across the nation is not reflected in the board rooms of the developers. They simply argue that land is land, and building targets set down by central government must be met. To that end the significance of a heritage site or historic building is just not considered in the slightest - they are just 'issues that need to be overcome' during their progress to a successful planning application. In other industries across the land and indeed the world we have seen considerable change in attitude, with banks, oil companies and credit card companies all running for the moral high ground taking their shareholders along with them. These companies have come to realise that no matter how big, they can suffer on the bottom line when practices society are no longer comfortable with are let to continue. When was the last time you saw a large building developer donating something to the community, other than when it had to via Section 106 contributions as a way to get their planning applications passed? We have large (non-developer) multinationals already in or moving in to Brentford making contributions to the area above their requirement, some measuring many hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits to improve the area not only for their own employees but all other Brentford citizens as well. But the developers only make donations to political parties around election time. What a wonderful display of social and community spirit it would be, if the developer who has appealed against the council decision to refuse their application to demolish St George's Church for a paltry 19 apartments, cancelled their appeal and stopped wasting the community's time and money. This very developer has made considerable profit from Brentford by way of the 1500+ apartments they have been allowed to build or will build in the near future. Millions and millions of pounds. But not enough - St George's Church can't get in the way of more profit. No, I'm afraid in the days of Corporate Social Responsibility property developers will not be found high in the list of who's who. |