The afternoon session consisted of Matthew Dale-Harris making the lead architect, Will Burges of 31/44 Architects, reveal that in the early stages of their plans, which went out to public consultation in June 2018, no effort whatever was being made at that stage to retain any element of a foundry. There was no effort to keep bell making as intrinsic to their design. They then identified a local Foundry to be inserted into the plans as a placebo, not because they believed in it, but in order to get planning permission, without adapting their plans in such a way as to ensure that real foundry work could take place.

This is radically different to the approach of Re-Form and Factum Foundation which have always been 100% committed to retaining a proper working Foundry on site.