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Park café blunder
We’ve been hoodwinked, planners admit
A CATALOGUE of errors in the Town Hall planning department led to a park café in London’s oldest square being replaced by an exclusive restaurant, red-faced councillors have admitted.
The Covent Garden Community Association (CGCA) has boycotted the Terrace restaurant, which opened last year in historic Lincoln’s Inn Fields, because it is too posh.
The CGCA believes fancy lunches and fine-interior design provided by award-winning celebrity chef and proprietor Patrick Williams are “totally inappropriate” for families looking for a cheap cup of tea and a bun in the park.
But Mr Williams insists his cordon-bleu menu is “competitive” and popular.
A meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny commission has considered claims that councillors were not properly informed when planning permission was granted in October 2005.
Brian Woodrow, Labour councillor for Covent Garden and Holborn, who was on the planning committee that made the decision, admitted there had been an in-house “failure”. Council officials had inadvertently withheld information about the application.
Sue Vincent, Labour councillor for Holborn and Covent Garden, said: “We did not have the full information. The executive was not aware and may have acted illegally in granting the lease. We have been hoodwinked.”
Mr Williams was granted a 20-year lease for the park restaurant.
The meeting’s chairman, Lib Dem councillor Russell Eagling, said: “Legally and morally, there is an obligation to Mr Williams.”
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