黑洞社区

Rumours persisted that Rogers鈥� plan would be dropped, even though if is understood Jeremy Titchen, managing director of Qatari Diar鈥檚 UK operations, made contact with some project team members to assure them of the architect鈥檚 continued involvement with the scheme, blaming partisan private briefings for the media storm.

Nevertheless, the architect was called in for an meeting with senior figures at Qatari Diar late on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the future of the scheme.

A source close to the project team confirmed that the meeting had been arranged at short notice. He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 frankly quite disturbing that this is happening at the eleventh-hour.鈥�

The national media reported sources that said Rogers鈥� designs were 鈥渄ead in the water鈥�, thanks to opposition from public figures including Prince Charles, who branded them 鈥渦nsympathetic鈥� in a letter to the emir of Qatar.

But sources close to the 拢1bn scheme told 黑洞社区 that Qatari Diar was still committed to Rogers鈥� design, which is due to go in front of Westminster council鈥檚 planning committee on 18 June.

It鈥檚 frankly quite disturbing that this is happening at the 11th hour

Source close to project team

One said: 鈥淚t would be commercial suicide to change its mind now. This application represents three years of hard work and heavy investment.鈥�

Amendments were made to the scheme last week after consulting local stakeholders. These included cutting a tower designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris from 13 storeys to six.

A spokesperson for Project Blue (Guernsey), the development joint venture led by Qatari Diar, said on Wednesday that the Rogers scheme was still 鈥渙n the table鈥�.

He said: 鈥淭here are various parties who want to wreck this. We are engaged in dialogue with the scheme that is on the table.鈥�