After a long period of silence from the Secretary of State as to whether or not he will endorse the recommendation of his Planning Inspector and, as most people fervently hope, overturn the approval given by Tower Hamlets in a meeting of seven people to the wrecking of the Bell Foundry, a very disingenuous photograph has appeared in the business section of the Sunday Telegraph of HRH The Prince of Wales ringing one of the bells at Whitechapel with a caption which subtly implies, but does not state, that he might be in support of the destruction of the Bell Foundry.
I regard this as unlikely. He and his mother were great supporters of the Bell Foundry and visited it when it was in the fourth generation of the Hughes family and run as a family business, preserving long-established craft traditions. I cannot imagine that they are overjoyed that the Hughes then sold the business to a New York venture capitalist. Nor do I think the Sunday Telegraph should be lending its support to the recommendations of a notoriously corrupt Labour Council.
Please stand firm, Secretary of State, and allow the Bell Foundry to survive, and not as a hotel.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 