SAVE has long campaigned for public inquiries as the best forum for debating and deciding controversial issues. SAVE went to the High Court when the Secretary of State for Transport refused to hold a public inquiry into the proposed route of the Whitway bypass on the A34 which would have seriously damaged the magnificent landscaped park at Highclere Castle. We won. The judge concluded that "no properly direct minister acting reasonably could not have been satisfied that a public inquiry was unnecessary . . . when two substantial groups with conflicting views are involved".

SAVE took the same view over the Baltic Exchange, that a public inquiry was necessary to examine all the issues. It is only in the open forum of the pubic inquiry that the assertions of all parties can be properly tested and challenged.

This summary of SAVE's recent challenge on the Baltic Exchange makes it alarmingly clear that Ministers are prepared to forsake inquiries even on large towers that will have a major impact all over London. The fact that they are controversial is no longer enough to decide for call in. They are apparently prepared to leave it upto local councils to decide. The chairman of the planning committee of the Kensington and Chelsea has come out firmly in favour of new towers, as has London's mayor. In these circumstances it is hard to see how proposals can be examined dispassionately and the pros and cons weighed with due care if the major players have already expressed such a preference for high rise buildings. In SAVE's view this presents the most serious threat to London's skyline since the high-rise towers were erected around Hyde Park in the '60s and '70s with results that have been lamented ever since.