Lord Pickles speaks of ‘desperate’ need for Westminster Holocaust memorial
The co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation cited the dwindling number of survivors still alive
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Lord Eric Pickles has said he is “desperate” to finally start building the Westminster Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, after noting the dwindling number of survivors.
On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak pledged he would “legislate” to overcome around a court ruling preventing the memorial and learning centre being erected on the Grade II listed Victoria Tower Gardens.
Pickles, who co-chairs the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation with former Labour education secretary Ed Balls, said:”Given the numbers now dying I really am desperate to begin construction.”
The peer cited the death of the Auschwitz survivor Zigi Shipper last week on his 93rd birthday.
More than 100 survivors have died in the past two years, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Despite the PM’s signal to progress with the memorial project, opponents have vowed to carry on with their campaign to halt it being raised at the Westminster location.
The London Parks & Gardens campaign group urged MPs “to fulfil their generational responsibility to ensure Holocaust education in a way which also protects parks as places for everyone to reflect, relax and play”.
A spokesperson for Westminster council, whose planning committee previously voted against the scheme, said: “We await the details of any new scheme. Westminster city council has always been supportive of the principle of a Holocaust memorial centre in central London.”
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