.This response is typical of the sort of excuse that Brent’s planners come up with, writes Philip Grant, Kingsbury (full address supplied), in response to an e-mail from Brent Council’s planning team about his Wembley Stadium concerns (“Stadium view is vanishing”, Times):

They admit that their planning policy recognises the importance of views of the stadium, and say they will protect them.

They say that “this matter [planning permission for a tall development near the civic centre] was considered by officers and members”, and then they say that it was only a “small/slight reduction” in the view of the arch, so planning permission was granted.

Brent must be seen as a “soft touch” by developers.

It has planning policies, but it seems it is willing to allow developers to ignore them, as long as they only breach them by a small amount each time! But those breaches are cumulative, and would not happen if Brent stuck to policies the council had adopted after public consultation.

The council’s response does not answer my second question on why it has failed to protect the iconic view of Wembley Stadium, despite its promise to do so.

It HAS failed to protect the view. The evidence is plain to see.