Member

I would hope that the impact assessment also covered the moral aspect of taking a park such as this and turning it from a tranquil place to be enjoyed by residents and workers in the area to a place most likely to become the centre of controversy and bitterness. I am not in any way against a memorial to that shocking and inhuman tragedy—indeed, I would encourage such a thing—but to place the proposed monstrosity in one of the smallest parks in London, next to the Houses of Parliament, where inevitably it will become the target of demonstrations, is both foolish and reckless. To me, it is beyond imagination that the Government should seek to introduce 1 million visitors a year into a small space in a limited area without carrying out an impact assessment. I comment on the remark by the noble Lord, Lord Austin, at an earlier stage of our debates: the estimate of 1 million is at the lower end of the various estimates.