[Fraser White_Save Britains Heritage]

LET’S hope Oxford Street is not a lost cause, even if the vape stores and the American candy shops were allowed to colonise the nation’s high street a long time ago.

This hard gum infection should not be used as an excuse to bring in the bulldozers at any opportunity though. Marks & Spencer learned yesterday (Thursday) that Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove would be blocking its plans to knock down its store at Marble Arch as part of a redevelopment scheme.

The company immediately acted liked they were the wronged heroes of the matter.

“We cannot let Oxford Street be the victim of politics and a wilful disregard of the facts,” its chief executive Stuart Machin said in a Churchillian statement.

“At a time when vacancy rates on what should be the nation’s premier shopping street are 13 per cent higher than the average UK high street and Westminster Council is pleading for help in managing the growing proliferation of sweet shop racketeers, the Secretary of State has inexplicably taken an anti-business approach, choking off growth and denying Oxford Street thousands of new quality jobs, a better public realm and what would be a modern, sustainable, flag-bearing M&S store.”

On and on the statement went, with Mr Machin adding: “Towns and cities up and down the country will feel the full effects of this chilling decision, with decaying buildings and brownfield sites now destined to remain empty as developers retreat.”

It was “galling” that other demolitions had been allowed on Oxford Street, Mr Machin added.

While great stock has been put on the history of the building by conservationists, it’s not listed and more interesting is the fact that at last Gove, we might hope, has come to a conclusion that not everything has to be demolished.

I’ve heard for decades the line that the West End is a nice place, but it will be even nicer when its finished. In recent years, there has always been one empty hole or another on Oxford Street – a warzone of diggers.

It’s part of a now long-standing trend to maximise every drop of profit on every corner of this city by smashing everything up and cashing in with a new building – regardless of what’s good for any particular street or more importantly the climate.

In the middle of an eco emergency, you can see why environmental campaigners warn of the carbon folly of demolishing buildings that can all be smartly retrofitted with a fig of imagination.

Surely much of the good green stuff M&S boasted about for its redevelopment could have been achieved this way.