Delighted by Society's victory in vital planning battle

IT is excellent news (Vale of Health development beaten for second time, H&H March 20) that the Court of Appeal has fully endorsed the 2006 High Court decision to quash Camden s earlier planning permission for the Garden House in the Vale of Health to be

IT is excellent news (Vale of Health development beaten for second time, H&H March 20) that the Court of Appeal has fully endorsed the 2006 High Court decision to quash Camden's earlier planning permission for the Garden House in the Vale of Health to be replaced by a very much larger modern building on land designated as Metropolitan Open Land (the urban equivalent of Green Belt).

The court's decision is particularly satisfying not only because the Garden House will not now be replaced by such a wildly inappropriate building, which would have significantly damaged the views from Hampstead Heath across the Vale of Health, but also because any other outcome would have had potentially very serious adverse effects for other MOL sites around the Heath, and indeed for Green Belt sites across the country.

May I, through your columns, express the Vale of Health Society's immense gratitude for the enormous efforts that the Heath & Hampstead Society has put into fighting this critical battle over a period lasting almost four years.

Ian Harrison

Chairman, Vale of Health Society