Griff Rhys Jones with members of the Save Museum Street campaign group outside under-threat Selkirk House in Bloomsbury

• AS a resident, member of Bloomsbury Conservation Areas Advisory Committee, and founder member of BRAG, Bloomsbury Residents Action Group, I am writing in support of the long-running campaign to reconsider the scale of the proposed development at One Museum Street.

Demolition of the former Travelodge hotel to build an even larger structure seems inconceivable when sustainability is so high on Camden Council’s agenda, (Don’t demolish this building, August 17).

This is a new application due to the recent listing of several heritage buildings that form part of the development site. In terms of placemaking, they have no historic connection with the Selkirk House tower, except they have the same owner (formerly Labtech, now BC Partners). Nevertheless it seems they can be harmed with equanimity. Why?

I then read about the development on the planning consultants’ own Project Showcase  https://issuu.com/jamesbompas/docs/central_london_and_city_fringes_-_high_resolution_

Interestingly the Museum Street development is described as a prominent site in Holborn. Holborn?

Well, yes, perhaps if you focus only on the tower on the southern end of the street.

The fact that the heritage block to the north is low-rise and part of the Bloomsbury conservation area has been conveniently ignored, likewise the site’s proximity to two Grade I-listed buildings, the British Museum and Nicholas Hawksmoor’s St George’s Church.

The northern end of the site is definitely part of historic Bloomsbury.

Let’s go back to Iceni Projects’ showcase blurb, which states that the site occupies a strategically important and prominent position “in the heart of one of London’s most important opportunity areas… surrounded by several high-profile development sites that have either been built out or are in the planning pipeline.”.

Therein lies the answer.

Selkirk House may not be a council land asset to be developed as part of Camden’s Community Investment Programme (one of Iceni’s directors is an experienced consultant on such projects) but we learn that for the Museum Street project, Iceni have been “working collaboratively with Camden Council and the GLA through extensive pre-application discussions…”.

Connections are important.

If the development is part of Camden’s own aspirations, and it’s Camden’s planning department who will make the case for approval, and Camden’s planning committee who will make the decision, how can those who regard the preservation of Bloomsbury’s heritage assets ever compete, unless serious attention is paid to the compelling alternative approach, as described in the CNJ (Griff Rhys Jones joins campaign against tower block demolition, August 10)?

DEBBIE RADCLIFFE, WC1