Lynne Featherstone

Meeting with Charles Kennedy who is seeing us new kids on the block. Again a good meeting with lots of ideas and good humour. Charles seems very happy with his new intake.

Then back to the constituency (glad I’m a London MP!) for a meeting (“Development Control Forum”) on a proposed development in centre of Wood Green. It is revolting. There is no other way to describe the design - insensitive, unrelated to the buildings around it, ugly, poor materials and so on.

The residents attending gave the architects what for and then some. Three members of the planning committee were there - so hopefully they noted not only the adverse comments of everyone in the room but also the genuine planning objections that could rise from them.

The Mayor's London plan was often sited as the reason they had done this or that. But it’s not much of an excuse. The London Plan at least aspires to good and sustainable design – it doesn’t demand cramming nor ugliness nor lack of appropriate infrastructure.