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Clive Sinclair, the author and former literary editor of the JC, has suggested that the money being spent on the national Holocaust memorial might be better used to fund scholarships for Syrian refugees.
The £50 million memorial and learning centre, planned under the auspices of the government's United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Foundation, is to be built in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament.
On Monday, Mr Sinclair was quoted by The Times as saying "the world has enough Holocaust memorials. I don't know what purpose this is meant to serve."
But Mr Sinclair told the JC he is not against such projects. He suggested that the money in this case could be better spent elsewhere. He said: "Why not use the money to fund Kindertransport scholarships for Syrian children? What better way of remembering a horrendous atrocity than to increase the measure of human kindness."
The Thorney Island Society, a community group for residents around St James' Park and Green Park, is urging Westminster Council that a "more suitable" site should be found.
Lucy Peck, the group's planning advisor, said the installation of the memorial and the learning centre would add congestion to an area where there is "already a huge amount of pedestrian traffic".
● Over 2,600 people have signed a petition objecting to plans by English Heritage to build a visitor centre at Clifford's Tower in York, where an estimated 150 Jews were massacred
during antisemitic riots in 1190.
Opponents say the centre, which has been approved by York Council, will make the site "look like Disneyland".
Ben Rich, chair of York Liberal Jewish Community, said English Heritage had shown him the plans four months ago. He said: "The primary purpose is to introduce more educational material at the site. At the moment there is virtually no information on the massacre.
"The other purpose is to reduce the gradient up to the Tower to make it more accessible. Personally speaking I definitely welcome both aims.
"Doubtless there will be a range of views on the design in the community here."
