Motivated by wishing to balance your rather negative report on the London mayor’s draft supplementary planning guidance the London View Management Framework (22 April, page 16), I should like to point out that the approach is not generally protectionist but informative.

The aim has been to diagramatise cental London by taking certain significant views and revealing their threefold dimensions. This gives developers and planning authorities a greater knowledge of the physical world they are working in, and where the “hot spots” are. The active schemes that are mentioned in the article will either have to rise to the occasion or get behind the parapet. The view corridors to the main London monuments are more precise than existing guidance and are derived from meaningful principles. Their management allows for interaction with the established skyline rather than a blanket ban, which is effectively the present approach.

These are the advantages. May I also point out to your readers that John Hare of Miller Hare has played a fundamental role in this work.

Richard Coleman, the Richard Coleman Consultancy