Page 643 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK
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The site as it is today
ALAMY
I can understand why Mitsubishi wants to pack as much office space as it can into a site that it
bought (from ITV in November 2019) for £145 million. What I can’t understand is why it is
being allowed to do so, when the result so blatantly contravenes all the aesthetic considerations
the government says it supports — and right in the heart of the capital city too.
“Preventing ugliness should be a primary purpose of the planning system,” the government’s
Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission declared in 2020. If that’s the case, Michael
Gove, the communities secretary, should set up an inquiry immediately to discover how this
monstrosity got through.
