Dyson Says Planning is 'A Blight on Progress'

James Dyson, the engineer who appears in vacuum cleaner ads in the States, rails against planners in Bath, England who he claims thwarted the engineering school he was attempting to found there.

1 minute read

October 17, 2008, 9:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

"Dyson had pledged to invest £12.5 million of his foundation's money in the cancelled school. He had already spent four years and £3.5 million on securing planning permission for the Wilkinson Eyre-designed project."

"I'm appalled when it comes to the planning system,' he says. 'Funnily enough, I didn't mind the fact that it took us four years, because that's the democratic process and everyone had their say, and [planning] was passed.

'What seems odd is that it then got bogged down, and they called a public inquiry. The inquiry would have been utterly pointless, a waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of everything. It's not the third runway at Heathrow, it's a school.'"

FULL STORY: James Dyson: 'Planning is a blight on progress'

Thursday, October 16, 2008 in The Architect's Journal

Architecture Government / Politics United Kingdom

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