UNESCO: Westminster World Heritage Site

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jolly]

Noble Lords may not be aware, but the Government Whips all sang happy birthday to him first thing this morning. There are planning guidelines and protocols, which have been used all the way through this process. Everybody in your Lordships’ House values the skyline. I have seen many maps and reconstructions of how the whole thing will look alongside Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower. From where the Supreme Court is you can still see clear sky, which is one of the things that caused concern.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that there is a great deal of confusing guidance here? Might everybody’s life not be made a little simpler if we went for one clear set of regulations that we could all refer back to and have a nice argument about that when we pass them?

[Baroness Jolly]

My understanding is that there is plenty of policy at a national and a local level, and there are probably people who are not terribly happy about that policy.