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Email - nimby@zerblattzoo.co.uk

Britain is populated by NIMBY's. First coined by Nicholas Ridley a NIMBY means Not In My Back Yard and is used to address hypocrites who are happy with things happening anywhere that isn't near them but if it happens next door they come out and complain. Skyscraper building and infrastructure development are one of the NIMBY's pet hates and so we'll be exposing the local hypocrisy of some of the most determined, misguided and hopelessly conservative people this country has to offer.

• Meet Richard Gosling. 18 months ago he heard that there were plans to redevelop Wood Wharf, a vacant ruined site next to Canary Wharf and he busily started campaigning against any development long before the developer British Waterways had announced the details of the plans.
  Today thanks to the complaints of local residents who were faced with the water of what has become their personal marina being partially overshadowed at certain times of the day, a 65m tall arch that would lay in the center of the development and provide the focal point has been removed.
  Says Richard, "I'm delighted, I've been lobbying for this for over a year-and-a-half since I first heard about the plans and this is a victory for local residents and pressure groups."
  Don't despair though as the rest of the uninspiring development remains including all the tall buildings, however buildings overhanging the water Barbican style have also had 20ft shorn off them so they no longer do so.
  We're sure Richard is over the moon at having campaigned against a development so successfully since before he knew what it was about, removing the only piece of interesting architecture from it and lowering it to the bland level of its many neighbours.

• Whilst most major cities in the U.K are falling over themselves to build tall buildings the opposite can be said of Newcastle.
  Following local opposition JJ Galachers have withdrawn the application for a 23 storey 77m tall hotel tower for pottery lane. The project which was to be built on derelict land with no structures of importance anywhere near it faced complaints that it would overshadow the Tyne so now nothing is to be built and another hotel will be lost from Newcastle to another city.
  Only a few months back a proposed 29 floor tower for Gallowgate was also withdrawn following stinging local criticism.
• Meanwhile controversy rages over a proposed 72m tall tower tower to stand next to the gallery. Despite being a unique design 44 Hopton Street has local residents have complained about overshadowing and the lack of affordable homes in the tower without a shread of irony given their own house prices.
  The head honcho of the Tate Nicholas Serota has complained that the 72m building will overshadow the 100m tall powerstation whilst the Evening Standard has been publishing doctored renderings showing the height of the tower greatly inflated.
  Quite how a building three quarters of the height of it's neighbour can "tower over it" is a mystery to all those that can count.

• The proposed 133m tall residential tower for Paddington Green has run into trouble at a council meeting. Conservative Westminster council has requested that the developer reduce the height of the building by six floors to approximately 110m because it infringes on views from the neighbouring royal parks.
  This would be all good and well except for one small problem - Westminster council recently approved the 132m tall Grand Union Building which is closer to Hyde Park and will stand inbetween the park and this particular building. Whether the developer does this remains to be seen, as refusing this project on the grounds of it being behind a similar sized one would be legally shaky ground for any council.
  It should be remembered that Westminster council remain the most anti-skyscraper council in the whole of London and are at odds with the Mayor over central planning rules regarding high-rise architecture. I wonder if this tower would stand more chance of approval if it was a half timber tudor one.

• English Heritage and local residents are calling for a public inquiry after a 13 floor block was approved for construction in Newcastle on Quayside next to a Grade A listed church.
  The argument is that the building will ruin the historic views of the church from the river, limit future investment in Newcastle and ruin the chance of the city becoming the European capital of culture.
  Proof of their NIMBYism comes from the fact that the Church isn't actually visible from the other side of the bank which rather defeats their argument but backed by the local M.P, opponents of the scheme are planning to continue their campaign against tower blocks on the Tyne.