Watford's mayor says he agrees it is "important" to preserve Watford's heritage after he was asked for his thoughts about a plan to demolish an historic clock tower.
At a full council meeting on Tuesday night, Watford Labour leader Cllr Nigel Bell asked Peter Taylor whether he agreed the proposed demolition of the Sun Printers Clock Tower would be a "bad blow" for the heritage of the town.
It comes after an application was submitted to Watford Borough Council last month by a man called Paul Stacey to knock the clock tower in Ascot Road down.
Cllr Bell, whose Holywell ward covers the clock tower site, said: "Would you (the mayor) agree with me that the Sun Printers Clock Tower would be a bad blow for the heritage of our town if it were to be basically destroyed and demolished?"
The mayor responded: "It is a locally listed building. I know of course it's got significance for the heritage of the town with our printing heritage.
"As I’m sure he’ll (Cllr Bell) know as a long standing member of development management, any member of the public can make a planning application for any building anywhere in the UK, so I could make a planning application if I wished to change Buckingham Palace.
"That’s the way the planning system works so I think it's important residents don’t believe this is a fait accompli, that something will happen to the clock tower.
"We have got a very rigorous process in place. Members of the public have been able to feed back their views on this and I think that it is really important that we preserve and enhance the heritage of the town, and I’m really proud of some of the things we’ve done over the last year, for example at Frogmore House and All Saints Church Leavesden."
More than 150 objections to the scheme to demolish the tower, which has fallen into disrepair, have been lodged by the public on the council's planning portal.
Cllr Bell welcomed the mayor's response and called for the tower to be "preserved" within any new possible future development, adding he'd be "grateful" to work with the council to "try and preserve this part of our history".
Mr Taylor added: "I think it’s important that we agree to preserve our heritage of the town."
The planning application can be found here.
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