I can contribute to this one, being one of the few qualified Town Planners on the board here (though thankfully after qualifying I never worked for a day in it !! ).

The Town & Country Planning Association are a load of self-appointed nutcases who come up with various silly ideas and have, for long, known how to manipulate the media to get a good story in. For many years it has been the personal fiefdom of one man, Sir Peter Hall, who seem to be behind this one as well (he was an old duffer 30 years ago). We all had to read his books at university, I was writing arguing against his ideas then.

They also campaigned for years to close Charing Cross railway station on the ridiculous grounds that the Hungerford Bridge across the Thames was ugly. Because of this, they felt that the thousands of passengers a day who find walking straight out into Trafalgar Square to be so convenient should be forced to get off their train south of the river. Of course none of the TCPA ever used Charing Cross every day. Fortunately many civil servants in Whitehall do, so they were sent packing. But they carried on campaigning. Ooooh, what an ugly bridge.