UNDER-pressure planning chief Brian Woodrow has accused trade journalists of “consistent hostility”, adding that he has done nothing to jeopardise his impartiality over the massive redevelopment of King’s Cross.
Councillor Woodrow, Camden’s planning chairman for the past seven years, is facing a Standards Board investigation after being reported by borough solicitor Alison Lowton last month.
He is accused of speaking out on the planning brief for land behind King’s Cross and St Pancras stations before the designs were discussed by his committee.
The veteran Labour councillor has reserved comments on the controversy after taking legal advice.
But in a blazing letter to Thursday’s edition of industry magazine Architects Journal (AJ), Cllr Woodrow maintained he was not barred from chairing future meetings.
It was in an article in the magazine that Cllr Woodrow commented on King’s Cross late last year, raising concerns about the size of the planning brief for the scheme valued at £2 billion, making it Europe’s largest construction project.
Cllr Woodrow’s name has cropped up in the pages of the magazine twice since, once after the New Journal had broken the Standards Board scandal and again two weeks later when children’s charity Coram Family said it was upset by a decision made at Cllr Woodrow’s committee over a site in Bloomsbury.
The councillor insists reporters should have given him the chance to comment on the issues raised before the articles were published.
In his letter to the magazine, Cllr Woodrow said: “I am dismayed by what appears to be consistent hostility towards myself in the AJ, and I am astonished that articles of this nature can appear without even approaching me for my comments.
“I believe this to be unprofessional and in breach of journalistic codes of practice, especially as the articles were full of inaccuracies.”
The planning chief added: “It is the opinion of the borough solicitor that I may be seen not to be impartial on this subject, but this is an opinion that I firmly reject. The matter has now been referred by the borough solicitor to the Standards Board for England, who may or may not investigate her allegations.”
Approached by the New Journal, Cllr Woodrow declined to comment further.