Memorial during the lifetime of Holocaust survivors, a matter to which considerable
weight should be attached. If the scheme at Victoria Tower Gardens were to be
refused, work may have to begin on the scheme at an alternative with consequent
further delay (IR15.170-172 set out in full above).
Analysis of Ground 4
142. Mr Drabble’s case on this ground is based on one sentence in IR 15.64 by which
he seeks to derive a quasi-legal test said to be applied by the Inspector, at IR 15.69.
The Courts have on many occasions cautioned against a forensic and overly legalistic
focus on individual sentences in the context of, as in this case, a lengthy, sophisticated
and nuanced report. The Report must be read as a whole and in proper context.
143. In this respect, the key building blocks to the Inspector’s approach to alternative
sites were as follows:
1) Great weight should be given to locating the Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens,
next to the Houses of Parliament, given the profound connection between the
location and the purpose of the Memorial.
2) There are obvious constraints on locating the Memorial in the Imperial War
Museum including that it does not appear able to fulfil a key Commission
requirement for a striking and prominent Memorial.
3) Other constraints on the Imperial War Museum site include potential impact on
heritage assets; security and impacts on local residents.
4) The suggestion that locating the Memorial in the Imperial War Museum will be
free from controversy is optimistic.
5) Though unusual in planning terms, it is of material weight that the Holocaust
Memorial should be raised within the lifetime of at least some of those survivors.
6) In the event the Minister was to refuse permission for the Memorial in Victoria
Tower Gardens the detailed process of selection, evaluation, preparation, design,
consultation and formal consideration of a new proposal would begin again. This
suggests approximately five years of further work, which will add to the number
of survivors who do not live to see the outcome.
7) Achieving a memorial within the lifetime of survivors has a resounding moral
importance that can legitimately be considered a material consideration and a
public benefit of great importance, meriting considerable weight in the planning
balance in this case.”
144. I am not persuaded that the Inspector fell into the error suggested by Mr Drabble
in impermissibly elevating a matter of planning judgment into a hard-edged principle
53
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