The Marylebone Association

PERSONNEL

Two years in succession, I am having to open my report with sad news. Very soon after our Annual General Meeting last year we learned of the death of John Reed. John worked tirelessly for the Association for many years, and was an invaluable and highly respected member of the Planning Sub-committee. He had worked energetically for the Harrowby and District Residents' Association prior to moving away from that neighbourhood and joining us in the mid-nineties. John was a fascinating and extremely knowledgeable architect with experience in many fields of the profession. Eloquent and forthright, yet gentle and self-effacing, he enjoyed a debate, and was an extremely valuable colleague, adding weight and wit to our positions on many occasions.

John was also very keen artist, and had a studio at home full of vivid canvases and intense charcoal and pencil drawings which he worked on with love and passion, particularly during the latter years of his life after retiring from full time practice. Moreover, he had an enviable collection of twentieth century art covering almost every space on the walls of his apartment. He was a terrific man in many ways and his charm, intelligence and humour, will be sorely missed.

On a happier note, over the past year we have acquired more new faces on our Planning Sub-committee. The existing members, Philip Vernon, Cressida Toon, Gary Toon, Neil Wilson, Luke Tozer, and myself have been joined by Tina Frost, Kelvin Campbell and William Hulbert.

Tina lives in the west of Marylebone and is an architect. She works as a client advisor for a large consultancy, meaning that she has a different perspective on architecture and planning from an interesting position within the profession. Kelvin runs an important urban design practice in Fitzrovia and lives in Marylebone. Given his skills and experience he is a valuable addition to the team, able to feed into our policy and strategy document responses which, up to now, we have often struggled with. William is a partner of a successful architectural practice in Marylebone Lane and his practice produces high quality buildings of varying scales, in Marylebone and beyond.

All of these dedicated, professional individuals are willing to give large amounts of their spare time and energy to the Association. Amongst our duties is the studying, considering, and issuing of judgement on the many planning and listed building applications, and policy and strategy documents that are sent to us for our comments. We are very lucky in our Association to have such a rich seam of professional expertise to call upon, and this is perhaps one of the things that helps us maintain our reputation in the area.

GUIDELINES

Over the past year we have issued comments on 450 planning and listed building applications, objecting to 100 or so of them. The bases for our objections will have been wide and varied, but our intention is to try to insist on any proposed development, no matter how small, having some sort of positive contribution to our environment, or at the very least, having no detrimental impact.

However, from time to time we find ourselves in a position where we need to balance conflicting views, where perhaps detailed matters conflict with a need for us to consider the impact of an application on Marylebone, or even Central London as a whole. This is sometimes a difficult balancing act, but one which is important if the Association is to retain its current status. For instance, the new annex to the St. Marylebone School on the corner of Blandford Street and Aybrook Street is a wonderful addition to the area. Primarily, and very importantly it provides much needed educational facilities for our neighbourhood. It also results in a considerable presence of young students in and around the High Street as they to and fro in and out of the building, bringing life and vitality to the environs as they do so. However, the building has been disappointingly executed. The materials are cheap, the detail-design is poor, and there is a lack of generosity to the public space in and around the building. Moreover, we suspect that the building will not wear well and it will not be long before there are maintenance problems. Given that these issues are a result of deficient state procurement methods, and that the alternative to a poorly executed school building is no school building at all, we find ourselves in a position where we must support the project, as the presence of the St. Marylebone School for Girls in our area is of paramount importance.

Another example which also happens to be a school project, is the recent arrival of the Wetherby School on Bryanston Square. At the time of the planning consultation we supported it vigorously, taking a view that the presence of a school in this location, even though not a state school, was desirable when considered with needs of the whole of Marylebone in mind. This was in spite of some of our valued local members' objections. The school has been open for several months now and seems to be settling in well.

To help us reach these sometimes difficult conclusions on the numerous applications that we receive, we use the Association's ‘Planning Guidelines' document. This text was written ten years ago and was adopted at the Annual General Meeting on 18th June 1998. Over the past year we have reached the conclusion that there are a few aspects of the guidelines which could be amended to reflect the changing circumstances that have evolved in our neighbourhood over the past few years. Therefore we are currently in the process of looking again at this document to update it to reflect any changes to our views since 1998. We are keen to canvas opinion on this process and to obtain views on any revisions which should be made to this document from as much of the membership as possible. So, we encourage members to take some time to study this document, and to let us know if there are any alterations which should be considered. The document is available here on our website. Planning Guidelines

COMMUNICATION

We continue to have regular meetings with the senior officers at Westminster City Council planning department. Central Area Planning Team leader, Sarah Gatehouse, and her colleague Robert Ayton who is Head of Design and Conservation are keen to maintain our close links, and we are very grateful to them for devoting their time to us. Our links allow us to get to know the council officers and their concerns better, and to clearly communicate the issues that we feel are of importance. They have also enabled us to work together more closely with the Council on various matters of mutual interest.

We also meet regularly with the Portman Estate and the Howard de Walden Estate, and we are extremely grateful to them too for their commitment to close ties with the Association. I am convinced that everyone believes it is in the interests of all involved that these lines of communication are strong.

These forums are amongst some of the very useful ways for us to get our views across to other parties with significant influence in our area, and they are also very useful for others to understand what it is that motivates the membership of the Association. If there are any items that you feel ought to be discussed at one of these meetings, please do not hesitate to let us know.

THE YEAR AHEAD

We in the planning subcommittee are extremely keen to do all we can to ensure that the physical fabric of Marylebone keeps evolving in positive ways to meet the demands and desires of all who live, work and visit this area.

I am sure that over the year to come there will be many new important issues for us to consider. We believe that the physical character of our built environment is key to many aspects of living and working in Marylebone. We are very keen that, as Marylebone continues to evolve, it should do so in such a way as to provide all of us with an attractive and interesting place to enjoy.

As is the case with many other aspects of the Association, there is a degree of frustration involved in our activities. We are aware that there are so many additional areas that we could get involved in, and there is so much more that needs to be done, if only we had the time to devote to it. We are keen to be reactive - responding to planning applications and development issues, and also proactive - pressing the Council and other parties on issues that concern us.

Unfortunately, almost all of us who are active within the Association have other commitments. Most of us have full time jobs to hold down, families, and leisure to consider. I am sure that each one of us could make a full time job out of our activities on the planning sub-committee. Instead, we have to make do with squeezing out as much as possible from our free time.

If you believe you can add something to it, please do not hesitate to make contact. We are always looking for keen volunteers to help out in what is a very important part of the Marylebone Association's duties.

Stephen Quinn