Piazza plan is appalling

Plans for a huge traffic-free piazza in front of Buckingham Palace were dismissed yesterday as 'fundamentally ill-conceived'.

The chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission, Lord St John of Fawsley, said the scheme - aimed at improving the palace as a tourist attraction - was 'appropriate to Paris, possibly, but not to London'.

He said the commission was 'appalled' by the plan, which he claimed destroyed the in-tegrity of St James's Park.

'It threatens the peace, security and setting of one of our great national treasures, Buckingham Palace, and its royal inhabitants.

'Any pedestrian area should be strictly limited in size so that it does not attract large crowds with all the consequent disadvantage of noise, litter and other urban menaces.'

The remarks put the commission at loggerheads with another Government advisory body, the Royal Parks Review Group, which put forward the proposals in April.

It published a report condemning the setting of Buckingham Palace as a 'national disgrace' and calling for the pedestrian precinct as well as a ban on car parking in Horse Guards Parade in the Mall.

A royal parks spokesman said the scheme had since been revised. He could not give details, but said: 'It reduces the size of the pedestrian area considerably. Whether it fully addresses the concerns of the commission I cannot say.'