Saintly conversion on the road to an election
As general election fever hots up, and MPs look for vote-winning gestures, Northampton South backbencher Brian Binley – a long-time campaigner for keeping local shops local – appears to have had a change of heart.
Binley, who chaired the Conservative commission on small shops in the high street in 2008, has been strangely quiet on proposals to build a £40m ASDA superstore on the outskirts of Northampton.
He told Diary that he was “neither for nor against” the development, and that “it was more a matter for the planners”.
What could be the reason for this rectitude? The proposals form part of a wider plan by Northampton Saints Rugby Club to extend the stadium from 13,500 seats to 17,000. That means more seats for a lot of local sports fans – and potential voters.
Tories try to appeal to QC over Green Paper
Spare a thought for Peter Village QC, an Inner Temple barrister specialising in planning law.
Last week, Village analysed the Tory planning Green Paper, describing its proposal to encourage developers to financially incentivise local people to support schemes in their local area as “state-backed bribery” and a “grotesque affront to the rule of law”.
He sent his paper via e-mail to his friend and local MP who, unfortunately for him, immediately passed it on to David Cameron’s advisers.
Just days before Village was due to give a presention of his controversial paper to solicitors Collyer Bristow, Tory HQ asked him to come and “discuss his ideas” with them first.
There, John Howell MP, one of the Green Paper’s authors, told him he had “misunderstood what the paper hoped to achieve,” and proceeded to explain to him why he was wrong.
But it didn’t stop Village going ahead with the talk – coupled with a few carefully worded asides about his experience.
High court claim clinches Pinsent’s deal
It could have been a very inauspicious start to international law firm Pinsent Masons’ occupation of Greycoat’s entire 197,000 sq ft City development, 30 Crown Place, EC2.
Pinsent had been searching for three years for a prominent City base for its 600 London-based staff and operations, and negotiations had been protracted.
But when it looked like the deal was getting a bit wobbly last month the firm decided to act. Only one week before the lease was due to be signed, it filed a high court claim against its prospective landlord which it said was “to seek clarification of some technical points”.
The action worked, and the deal went ahead without a further hitch.
Rose gets a bit prickly
Marks & Spencer supremo Sir Stuart Rose was in defiant mood at this week’s Movers & Shakers breakfast in London.
He hit back at critics of his store investment programme saying that, not only was it the right thing to do, but if he had to do it all over again, “I’d have done it quicker and spent more”.
He dismissed the government’s efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainability as “nigh on useless”. And he complained that, while other retailers had jettisoned underperforming stores using the CVA process, there would be an outcry if M&S adopted the same approach. “It’s one rule for one, another for somebody else,” he concluded.
A touch grumpy? Must have been the early start.
Boris’s baton in the Cannes? No worries
Every year, the Aedas Cycle to Cannes cyclists making the long journey from London to Mipim pass a baton – a gift to London mayor Boris Johnson – between teams on the 1,500km ride.
At the end of the six-day trip, the baton is passed to Boris.
However, it didn’t quite go to plan last year when, on the final day, one rider went to the toilet and left the baton behind.
So this year, rather than risk the embarrassment of having to tell Boris they’ve left his gift in the salle de bains again, the C2C folks have made a spare, just in case.
Jones scrums down
Busy he may be, but Andrew Jones, the former British Land retail chief, definitely has his heart in the right place.
Jones has been a popular contributor to EG‘s Six Nations Blog. At the beginning of the week, EG sent out a gentle reminder to its bloggers – Jones, Cushman & Wakefield’s David Erwin, King Sturge’s Eric Peters and Dexter Wood & Partners’ Gordon Wood – seeking their expert views ahead of the weekend’s fixtures.
There was some concern that Jones, who was busy meeting investors ahead of the float of his new property company Metric this week, would be otherwise engaged. But Jones quickly responded: “My copy will be in by Wednesday. I know where my priorities lie.”
BL’s Cheesegrater gets sliced up
Rumours from the City this week suggest that British Land’s iconic, 621,000 sq ft Cheesegrater scheme at 122 Leadenhall Street, EC3, could be cut back.
A key City source said the REIT was on the verge of submitting a scaled-back planning application for the consented development.
Another source said he had seen BL conducting wind tunnel tests on scale models of revised versions of the Cheesegrater which looked like “the top had been sliced off”.
BL this week said there was no update on its plans for the scheme, although it is known to be seeking alternative uses for the site.
