The World Architecture Festival director Paul Finch has condemned Prince Charles’s interference in the planning process at Chelsea Barracks.
Today Qatari Diar confirmed it would withdraw its planning application for a residential scheme at the important London site after Westminster planning officers declined to make a recommendation on the plans.
The decision comes after weeks of criticism of the plans by some local residents and modernist architecture critic Prince Charles.
Finch said the decision to withdraw the application was a ‘dispiriting decision which will harm London’s reputation as a city which is well governed, and which hitherto has had a welcoming attitude to major overseas investors’.
‘It will affect job prospects for thousands of workers in the construction and building product sectors, and delay much needed affordable housing in Westminster.
'The council’s positive report on the Rogers Stirk Harbour scheme was written following two years of work, extensive consultation, and a series of design revisions responding to comments and criticisms,’ said Finch.
‘The withdrawal of the application is the result of a highly irresponsible intervention by the Prince of Wales which calls into question the benefits of a constitutional monarchy. The whim of a prince is no way to guide the future of a world city.’