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Friday 21st October, 2005

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By JOEL TAYLOR

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‘GET OUT OF OUR SQUARE’

Assembly member hits out at US Embassy over C-Charge

A SENIOR London Assembly member has accused the American Embassy of “abusing our hospitality” and has called for them to leave Grosvenor Square.
And the residents association in Mayfair have described Grosvenor Square as a “little Iraq” and called for the embassy to leave the square and set up at Chelsea Barracks.
Labour member Murad Qureshi launched his attack in the week that further security measures were agreed between the embassy and Westminster Council and it emerged that the embassy was leading a diplomatic rebellion against paying the Congestion Charge.
The embassy owes £150,000 in fines after its lawyers ruled that the Congestion Charge was a tax, rather than a charge, and therefore not applicable to diplomats.
Germany is also not paying the charge, Swiss lawyers have also ruled it is a tax and last night a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy admitted it was something they were closely following.
The spokesman said: “We have taken notice of the dispute between the embassies and the government and we will be following its development.”
Mr Qureshi said: “I find it astonishing that they have raised the issue at all. They have been paying it for the last two years so what has changed their mind is curious. It can’t be because of the price because they can afford it. I think they are abusing our hospitality, I think it is about time they left.”
The controversy follows an agreement last Thursday night between Westminster Council and the embassy over security arrangements in Grosvenor Square.
City Hall agreed to barriers and security cabins to be sited in the square and planning permission for the concrete planters has been agreed.
They will also get the facility to close Upper Brook Street and Upper Grosvenor Street as rising bollards are to be installed. But the roads could be closed for up to two years and the residents association have called for the roads to be closed permanently.
Tony Lorenz, the chairman of the Residents Society of Mayfair and St James’s, said closing the roads to traffic, except for deliveries and emergencies, would save a lot of trouble.
He said: “There is no doubt that we are getting nearer to a solution, to clearing up ‘little Iraq’.” And he admitted that the association was pressing for the embassy to leave. He said: “We have put to them that they should go to Chelsea Barracks, they already have all the security they need.”
The MoD announced in September that the barracks are to be sold off.

Give power to the people

POST-war, early 1950s Britain was still experiencing food rationing and was a disillusioning place for English gourmands. The war had destroyed the restaurant trade and, with few exceptions, post-war eateries made the worst of a bad situation.
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