Heritage buildings merit more respect

DEAR Editor, It’s a pity that Councillor Barry Henley’s reply ( Post, Feb 16) to Joe Holyoak’s criticisms is such a defensive list of his work in the Planning Committee and his travels, and then a repeat of a speech he made last November. Repeating your speeches is a bit like Basil Fawlty: if they don’t understand you, say it again louder. Democracy needs real debate on issues. In that spirit can I ask Councillor Henley a few simple questions?

When he says “We are better off now the Central Library has gone... some of these buildings have reached the end of their design life and useful life”, does he realise that he is repeating exactly the arguments made against its wonderful Victorian predecessor?

English Heritage, our official guardians, not normally fans of Birmingham’s post-war architecture, twice recommended the Central Library for listing only to have it turned down by politicians. That is somewhere towards an objective judgment. Why does he ignore it? Does he accept that there are measures of architectural importance and quality apart from “I don’t like it”?

Does he know that you can refurbish postwar commercial buildings for modern use rather than demolishing or nastily re-cladding them? He need only look at 12 Calthorpe Road, a sixties Madin block elegantly brought up to modern standards. The new rooftop plant room is particularly good. The planning department insisted on retention and refurbishment. It was a very different organisation then.

Why does he deliberately equate a group of Madin buildings of considerable quality with the awful Bull Ring Centre, a commercial lump which no one tried to save? It reads like smear tactics.

He says we are better off now the Madin NatWest building in Colmore Row is being demolished, but is quiet about its replacement. Whatever you thought of Madin’s design, its tower was set back behind a front building which respected the height of its Victorian surroundings. Does he like the prospect of 26 storeys at back of pavement, in the heart of the old city?

Councillor Henley is “really looking forward” to the demolition of Madin’s Powergen building in Shirley with its curving