After our recent look at Peter Hendy, Boris’s Transport for London chief, building.co.uk have run a fascinating article that g
ives a glimpse into the mind of another one of BoJo’s closest advisors — this time the man described as his chief of staff and planning guru, Sir Simon Milton.
While his name might not be intimately familiar to many people outside London, he’s in charge of sorting out the myriad planning applications that go through Boris’s office, a concern that is apparently top of the Mayor’s list of priorities. Milton apparently spends two hours a week with Boris setting out their vision of London’s future, and states that Boris’s enthusiasm for the job is one of the most refreshing things about him, calling him ‘probably the most fun person [he’s] ever worked with’.
Of course, Milton is pretty famous in his own right, standing as one of surprisingly few high-profile gay Conservatives, and as such is one of the more recognisable people heading the Mayor’s office at the moment.
The rest of the article deals with Milton’s views on London’s development prospects under Boris’s governance, and whether or not he thinks the City will be better off at the end of it. Thankfully, he seems to be under the impression that things are ticking along fairly well in the capital, and that Boris’s legacy will be a positive one.
What do you think? Is Milton right, and will people ten or twenty years from now view the Boris years as a turning point in the face of London and its architecture, or is it all just hype to disguise the fact that (as Sir Simon himself says) the next few years are likely to be ‘very difficult’? Let us know in the comments.