"The Duke of Northumberland, one of the richest landowners in Britain, a man not often seen queuing with his lucky numbers on a Saturday night, yesterday hit the national lottery jackpot.Its heritage fund has agreed to give the National Gallery £11.5m to try to stop him handing over the most expensive few square inches of oil paint in the world - Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks - to the Getty Museum in California for £35m.While the gallery celebrated last night, the arguments about whether the painting, barely nine inches square, was worth saving for the nation raged on.Even Liz Forgan, chair of the heritage lottery fund, admitted that she was "in some ways quite surprised" by her trustees' decision."I think you'll find precious little time for the Duke of Northumberland in Isleworth considering he wants to build over the allotments in Park Rd. Clearly this is an individual to whom history, heritage and responsibility for them mean sod-all. Greedy, grasping and without any conscience sort of sums it up. However, a lot of people DO care about these things and are fighting back - we have to preserve these old houses and grounds for future generations. Local people need to get behind The Isleworth Society in their efforts to stave off this rapacious development which will benefit the Northumberland coffers but do nothing for the local area or the people who live here, and care about the local environment. A public inquiry into the proposed development is to start in October.
Vanessa Smith ● 2765d