Morning:
11°c
Property developers have been consulting Prince Charles for years on London's biggest projects, it emerged today.
Schemes like the £4 billion regeneration of the Battersea Power Station site and the £2 billion Kings Cross Railway Lands redevelopment were shown to the Prince before they were submitted.
Major developers, including Land Securities as well as Kings Cross developers Argent and Battersea owners Treasury Holdings, told Building Magazine they routinely show the Prince proposed schemes and sometimes receive letters from his office offering “opinions and advice”.
Robert Tinknell, managing director of Treasury Holdings, said, “Yes, we have run our designs by Prince Charles”. Peter Freeman of Argent said: “The Prince has a big voice”.
It comes amid calls for leading architects to boycott the Chelsea barracks scheme following the row over Prince Charles's intervention.
Developer Qatari Diar abandoned Lord Rogers's steel-and-glass design after the prince got involved and will shortly ask architects if they wish to submit alternatives.
Lord Rogers has demanded a national inquiry into the Prince's role in his scheme being scrapped.
And former Royal Institute of British Architects president Jack Pringle said he would ask members not to supplant Rogers' if he was still in charge of the body.
But the prince's views are not always listened to, even when developers seek his opinion.
The initial Treasury plan for Battersea was to glaze over the entire site and top it with a massive 300 metre chimney which would have dwarfed the iconic power station.
It was ditched - but because of opposition from Mayor Boris Johnson, not the Prince.
A spokesman for Land Securities said: “Prince Charles has always been very vocal. He didn't like 20 Fenchurch street (the Walkie Talkie)”.
In spite of this, however, Land Securities went ahead with the scheme and it won planning permission following a public inquiry.
Its construction has, however, been delayed by the credit crunch.
Other major developers, including Gerald Ronson's Heron Corporation and British Land, said they had never run plans by the Prince.
David Roberts, deputy chief executive of developer Igloo, said that checking major schemes with Clarence House was accepted practice, but developers could then decide what to do with his advice.
“Personally I agree with a lot he says, but it's inappropriate that he has so much influence”.
However, Rynd Smith, director of policy and the Royal Town Planning Institute, said he had never seen any evidence of the Prince trying to influence a planning decision.
“It's up to the developer if he listens to the Prince”, he said.
Sorry, but we cannot display user comments at the moment.
