The best we can do for the poorest parts of our cities right now is to make do and mend And beautify And

The best we can do for the poorest parts of our cities right now is to make do and mend And beautify And give everyone a chance for some delight and fun.. Albert’s adverts

As if London Transport’s daft idea of sponsoring Tube stations was not crass enough, now English Heritage is seeking permission to sell advertising space on the hoarding surrounding the Albert Memorial. The Albert Memorial Trust, which must raise pounds 4m towards the pounds 14m repair bill for the Grade I-listed monument, claims it could raise pounds 1m over four years from advertising. An English Heritage spokeswoman says the idea is a “good solution” and might well set a precedent for the repair of other listed buildings in public ownership.

The proposal has been fiercely resisted by the Royal Fine Art Commission.. Finn winner

Juha Leiviska, a Finnish architect, has won the Carslberg Architectural Prize, worth 200,000 Ecu (about pounds 166,000). Leiviska beat off strong competition worldwide on the strength of his contribution to regional architecture in his native country over 20 years. Judges, including Peter Davey, editor of the Architectural Review, praised Leiviska’s use of light, the way his buildings responded to the form and texture of local topography and his particular sensitivity to social context.. New school heads

London’s reputation as the place to study architecture has been reinforced with the appointments of three lively heads of school. At the Royal College of Art, Nigel Coates has taken over architecture and interior design. On the other side of town, Peter Salter, an architect-artist, is to take over at East London University.

At the Architectural Association in Bedford Square, Mohsen Mostafavi, from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, has been elected chairman by staff and students. The AA, a private school that is nearly 150 years old, connects all three appointments: Coates and Mostafavi have taught there in the past and Salter is currently teaching there.
Amanda Baillieu. The small print will have to become the fair print and the intelligible print in July, when new rules (the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations) implementing a European Commission directive come into force. An extensive range of business supplying goods and services – including banking, holidays, car hire, insurance, mortgages, burglar alarms and mobile phones – will have to review their standard term contracts.

From 1 July, a consumer will not be bound by a contract term considered to be unduly one-sided or otherwise unfair Contracts will also have to be written in plain language. The director-general of the Office of Fair Trading will be empowered to take action against businesses that use unfair terms. But the Consumers’ Association believes that others should also have this authority, and it has won a judicial review on the issue.
“A law is only as good as its enforcement,” says Sheila McKechnie, the CA’s director. “In terms of the way the regulations are worded, they should improve the small-print get-outs. But if there is no effective enforcement, a lot of organisations won’t bother to rewrite their contract terms.”At the moment, only the OFT can take action. We are not very happy with their record and we don’t think they have the resources to do it.”The decision to allow the OFT sole authority to act was taken by Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, who argued that under British law only the parties to a contract may sue and that the CA has no legal standing.This view is dismissed as “gobbledegook” by Ms McKechnie.