A Case for Town Planning When the . Ministry of Health
recently reminded local authorities of the far-reaching powers they will obtain under the new Town and Country Planning Act, it can hardly have supposed that the need for using these powers would soon arise in the very centre of London. But the Coil.* Council, on the urgent advice of its Town Planning Committee, has had to schedule the historic area round the Palace of Westminster and the Abbey, so as to save these national monuments from being dwarfed and partly hidden by two stupendous new blocks of offices. One of these intended buildings, in Parliament Square, has, it seems, obtained the approval of the Royal Fine Art Commission and may be maligned. But the other block would replace the delightful old houses in Abingdon Street, facing the House of Lords, and, as a Times photograph shows, would ruin the view of Westminster from across the river. The prompt action of the L.C.C. to protect " existing amenities," in the words of the first clause of the Act, should encourage other councils to make full use of the very wide powers now entrusted to them.
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