Business figures get behind Maggie’s campaign
City figures such as Centrica’s Sam Laidlaw and Gerald Kaye of Helical Bar, have got together to back a £5m scheme to build a new cancer care centre in the centre of the capital’s banking district.
The scheme for St Barts Hospital, put forward by charity Maggie’s at Bart’s request, will be presented to Canada Planning Committee later this week.
“We’ve been working with the hospital to develop plans for the centre for four years and we’ve raised the funds needed to start building as soon as we get the go ahead,” Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive told CityAM
The centre, which will provide emotional and social support for cancer patients and their families, has had some opposition from a group that believes its building will impede planned restoration to the Great Hall at St Bart’s, an 18th century building which is part of the hospital.
The group, called The Friends of the Great Hall & Archive of St Bartholomew’s, has suggested an alternative site for the Maggie’s Centre to be built on but the Bart’s Health NHS Trust feels this site is not viable.
“Both Bart’s Health NHS Trust and Maggie’s have made clear that the alternative site the Friends are proposing is not suitable, mostly because this would have an adverse impact on the running of the hospital as it is situated directly above major infrastructure services,” Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive told CityAM
The plans will be presented to the committee on Thursday when they will vote on whether to give the project the green light or not.
Joining Laidlaw and Kaye in supporting Maggie’s are Peter Harrison, director at Schroders, chief executive of Delancey, Jamie Ritblat, and Pierre Goad, global head of communications at HSBC.
MAGGIE’S BUSINESS AND CITY SUPPORTERS
Sam Laidlaw
Chief Executive at Centrica
■ Ricky Burdett, Director of London School of Economics and Political Sciences
■ Jamie Ritblat, Chairman and Chief Executive of Delancey
■ Sallianne Taylor, Global Manager Exchange Business at Bloomberg
■ Gerald Kaye, Director at Helical Bar
■ Stewart Grimshaw, Chairman of The Monument Trust
■ Lawson Muncaster, Managing Director of CityAM
■ Graham Cartledge, Main Board member and Chairman of Benoy
■ Peter Harrison, Executive Director at Schroders
■ Lord Palumbo of Walbrook, House of Lords. Property developer, art collector, former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain
■ George Robinson, Partner in Sloane Robinson LLP and Maggie’s Board Member
Stuart Gulliver
HSBC Boss
■ Robin Woodhead, Chairman of Sotheby’s International and Maggie’s Board Member
■ Sir David and Lady Primrose Bell, Maggie’s Donors and Sir David is former Director for People at Pearson Group and Former Chairman of the Financial Times
■ Tim Garnham, Joint Chief Executive at Minerva
■ Dominic Collins, Chairman R K Harrison Group Limited
■ Ian Marchant, leading businessman in the Energy sector in the UK serving on the Boards of three quoted companies, Infinis Energy, John Wood Group and Aggreko, President of the Energy Institute and chair of Scotland’s 2020 climate group.
■ Robert Harris, Praedia Investments
■ Michael Metliss, Berwin Leighton Paisner
■ Peter Harrison, Executive Director at Schroders