Do councillors have style?

Annexe

Do councillors have style?

The "aesthetic whims" of local authority councillors and planners are preventing architects designing attractive buildings, claims a new report from the Royal Institute of British Architects. The report's authors, including the Modernist Michael Manser and Classicist Robert Adam, want the current planning system replaced by local authority guidelines covering issues such as height, density and access, but not style. According to Mr Adam, "the imposition of personal taste and opinion of officers and committees ... wastes time and often results in design of poor quality governed by the lowest common denominator." Schemes that fail to meet guidelines would be "called in" by planning committees and discussed in public.