§ 29. Mr. Toucheasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that anxiety is felt that the building operations taking place at the Fire Service College, Wotton House, is destroying the architectural and aesthetic merits of John Evelyn's Elizabethan mansion; and if he will consider consulting the Fine Art Commission or some other appropriate body on this matter.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Geoffrey de Freitas)I am not aware of any general anxiety about the building work at Wotton House. The property was largely re-built about 1860 and only a very small part of the interior, and none of the exterior, dates from the 16th century. The work has been carried out in full consultation with the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of the Ministry of Works and with the planning authority.