Impression of how the proposed development at Selkirk House could look

• ON April 25, at a meeting in St George’s Church on Bloomsbury Way, Cllr Julian Fulbrook correctly voiced the need for refusal of LabTech’s 22-storey office block on High Holborn: “We need every voice in the community… to say no.”

I am adding my voice to say no to the Selkirk House development in its current form and encourage the retention of the former office building / housing.

The new building is at the junction of Drury Lane and Museum Street, south of which is the Royal Opera House and to the north is the British Museum.

High Holborn is on high ground which soon moves steeply towards the Strand and the River Thames. So the new development will have more adverse visual impact from the south than the north.

Given that the redevelopment of Covent Garden was brought up to COP26 standards, as if they were already in force, it is therefore a model which is envied all over the world as suggested by Richard Rogers.

On this basis could not Peter Scutt, the chair of Covent Garden Trust, and Joanne Chamber, its vice-chair and a specialist in open space planning, hold a meeting in
St Paul’s Church piazza market square?

They, along with the other Covent Garden trustees, are “guardians of the lands”. The special character of the area must be preserved. They have the power to revoke LabTech’s proposal and should use it to prevent inappropriate development of this historic area.

ALAN SPENCE
Bury Place, WC1