Sir Terry Farrell

• WESTMINSTER City Council are once again showing concern for their elderly residents during periods of lockdown by activating the local support network to help with shopping, food, and prescription deliveries and befriending etc. So someone has a heart.

Why is it, then, that elderly residents of The Colonnades, Bayswater, are once again living under the shadow of totally unnecessary extension proposals, put into planning and actually recommended for approval by Westminster, on behalf of a handful of developers and their landlord?

Google: “World renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell objects to extensions at The Colonnades.” This was one of Sir Terry’s early major projects, undertaken with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.

So seven prefabricated extensions and two empty shells / dummy mesh dwellings, to fill in some empty gaps, are to be craned and dumped on the roof of the architectural prize-winning Colonnades building, Porchester Square, in the heart of the conservation area.

No matter that they will be a mere 10 metres in front of the homes of elderly residents, blocking their light and rendering their balconies overshadowed, overlooked and useless.

All this at a time when having at least a little outside space is so vital for those needing to be shielded.

Very soon a virtual meeting will be convened of a faceless, impersonal, planning committee charged with deciding on the quality of the last years of these old folks’ lives.

That is, whether their beloved homes will be ruined or whether the extensions proposal will be refused and they will still be allowed to sit in the sunshine on their balconies.

The odds don’t seem to be in their favour.

SANDRA KOVLER
Address supplied