About The Memorial

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Jan 2015: Holocaust Commission Report (by a Commission chaired by Mick Davis)
The Report mentions three possible sites: 
Imperial War Museum (under one mile from VTG)
Potter’s Field (between Tower Bridge and City Hall)
Millbank Tower site (Class D1 use of south podium permitted)

2015 (unknown date): UK National Holocaust Memorial Foundation (UKHMF) - formed at some point in 2015 with, as moving spirits: Gerald Ronson, Lord (Andrew) Feldman, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Lord Pickles and Natasha Kaplinsky. It operates within HM Cabinet Office but is officially part of MHLCG.

September 2015: National Holocaust Memorial Foundation specification for search for site from Regents Park to Whitechapel and the IWM in Harmsworth Park.

26 October 2015: Feldman letter to Whittingdale in which he proposes VTG for memorial, Millbank for Learning Centre (LC).

29 October 2015: Imperial War Museum bid
IWM writes to UKHMF submitting a bid to host both the Memorial and Learning Centre, partly in the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, but with the Learning Centre mainly within their own building, as part of their own gallery developments.

27 Jan 2016: Announcement by David Cameron that the Memorial would be built in VTG. He also pledged £50m and said that plans for ‘an associated world-class learning centre’ to be announced ‘in the coming months’.

Unknown date in early 2016: Tessa Brewer, with James Lupton - meeting at No 10 with Mick Davis, ex-Xstrata Mining, then chair of the Holocaust Memorial Commission (since resigned, with the Commission defunct) and Tim Kiddell (Cabinet Office), at which Davis said they did not want to upset local residents.

15 September 2016: Theresa May announces design competition announced in House of Commons, with the Learning Centre ‘associated’ (ie co-located) with the Memorial in VTG. Expressions of interest sought from international design teams. But NB: the `Brief has a flawed and contradictory brief, eg there is an obvious contradiction between ‘The spatial requirements of the Learning Centre must be located below park level (i.e. underground), with only step-free access routes emerging at the surface.’ (p.24) & ‘To draw in natural light; where and if needed, insertions can be created in the landscape’ (p.25).

24 October 2016: UKHMF (Freeman, Morris, Bramwell) dinner with SVTG at Tufton Street, at which Andrew Morris agrees to re-examine College Green option.

15 November 2016: Thorney Island Society meeting in Cabinet Office with Andrew Morris (DCLG) and Foundation members Sir Peter Bazalgette and Peter Freeman.

18 November 2016: Ten Memorial design teams selected and invited to submit designs. 





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As you can see, the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is totally out of proportion to
the park and Buxton Memorial and may destroy the trees that are planted near it.

​Queueing for the memorial and the Controlled Entrance security pavilion will be right next to the children's playground with the cafe the other side of the playground.
    

The fins will obscure the protected views of the UNESCO world heritage site, The Palace of Westminster.


12 December 2016: Theresa May backs Memorial and associated Learning Centre in speech to Conservative Friends of Israel
https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2016/12/mays-speech-to-the-conservative-friends-of-israel-full-text.html

17 December 2016 – Theresa May’s personal message to the Jews – including Pickles’s work on the international definition of Anti-Semitism, which the Conservative party has yet to adopt
https://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2016/12/15/theresa-mays-personal-message-to-the-jews

January 2017: Ten competition designs published online public consultation begins for the design, firmly located in VTG. NB Neither at this point, nor at any point or since, was there was any public consultation on the choice of site.

March 2017: Public Exhibition of competition designs in Parliament and in the Scottish Parliament.

2 March 2017: ‘Public’ meeting in House of Lords, at which a very significant majority of the 50-odd people present expressed strong opposition to the VTG site and therefore to all the entries.

March 2017: formation of new Royal Parks charity (actually ‘launched’ only in July 2017).

15 March 2017: Loyd Grossman (chair of Royal Parks) letter to Bazalgette, copied to Cabinet Office, DCMS, and CLG voicing Royal Parks concerns about LC in VTG.

April 2017:  Public exhibition in the Welsh Assembly.

7 April 2017: Loyd Grossman letter to Bazalgette, copied to Cabinet Office, DCMS, and CLG reiterating Royal Parks’s position on LC in VTG: against

August 2017: Public exhibition in the V&A, London.

15 September 2017: Loyd Grossman letter to PM saying that Royal Parks are happy with the Memorial but not the Learning Centre in VTG

 Loyd Grossman resigns from UKHMF judging panel. 

24 October 2017: Announcement of competition winning team (David Adjaye + Ron Arad)

April 2018: Peter Bazalgette replaced by Lord Pickles and Ed Balls as Co-chairs of UKHMF.

4-8 September 2018: Exhibition of the partially-developed Adjaye scheme in Church House, Westminster. 

16 October 2018:  All Party Parliamentary Group on NHMLC meeting disrupted by MPs and Lords - Ian Austin, Bob Blackman et al - and taken over after being set up by Peter Bottomley/Lady Deech.

4 December 2018: Final exhibition (and ‘consultation’) on the more fully-developed Adjaye scheme, at Church House, before 

7 Jan 2019: Submission of Planning Application to Westminster Council 

April 2019: Lord (Eric) Pickles wrote undated letter to WCC leader Nickie Aiken to complain that the planners were minded to refuse pp  

May 2019: Revised plans and £25m extra funding announced by HMLCJanuary 

7 October 2019: Gerald Ronson met with Robert Jenrick to discuss the Holocaust Memorial

29 October 2019: Pickles and the MHCLG QC Katkowski met with Jenrick to discuss the HM.

5 November: Pickles tweeted that the application had been called in by Esther McVey, Housing Minister. Undated letter attached to the Tweet.

December 2019: Application called in by Secretary of State


11 February 2020: WCC Planning Committee meeting to decide whether to accept the Planning Officer’s recommendation for refusal. This was agreed at an emotionally charged meeting.

15th April 2020: Planning Inspectorate postpones the Inquiry because of Covid-19 pandemic.

June 2020: London Parks and Gardens Trust initiate Judicial Review over the non-independence of the decision-maker from the applicant.

October/November 2020: Public Inquiry held through Microsoft Teams

July 2021: Decision by Planning Inspector to allow development.

April 2022: Decision in High Court that the 1900 Act prevents building in VTG

23 February 2023: The Government introduces the Holocaust Memorial Bill (HMB), which authorises unspecified funding and states that the sections of the LCC 1900 Act that relate to VTG do ‘not prevent, restrict or otherwise affect the carrying out of any of the activities described’ in the HMB.


17 April 2023: Examiners of Parliament hear arguments about why the HM Bill should be treated as hybrid

18 April 2023:  Examiners report that the HMB should be referred to the Standing Order Committees of both houses

13-26 June 2023: Standing Order Committees of both Houses confirm that the HMB is hybrid

28 June: Second Reading debate of HMB takes place in Commons - 

24 July 2023: 10 Petitions against the HMB submitted to Commons Select Committee on the HMB, including by Buxtons, Baroness Deech, LPGT and TTIS
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