Camden Council finally discussed the British Museum\'s South Portico on 31 May after putting off the matter six times while they waited for an independent report from a QC they had commissioned to look into it.

The council is concerned that the Museum\'s Great Court scheme has not adhered to planning consent as given, not least by the South Portico having been built of French Anstrude Roche Claire limestone rather than the Portland stone that the council thought it was consenting.

In December the council\'s officers advised the council, in line with the stance taken by English Heritage, that no action could be taken against the Museum. However, the councillors wanted a second opinion and sought it from a QC who is a specialist in planning law.

At the end of May the Development Control Sub-Committee finally received their officers\' recommendations in the light of the QC\'s comments. The officers still recommended that no action be taken and the councillors still (unanimously) rejected the recommendation, preferring to seek further legal advice.

The councillors have backed English Heritage in requesting that the Heritage Lottery Fund withholds the £1.7million grant it had earmarked for the portico.

The matter of the portico has had its impact on the stone industry. Peter Harrison, stone consultant and chairman of Stone Federation Great Britain, says it has made clients in London extra cautious about ensuring what they use really is Portland stone.

Perhaps it is coincidence, but the four big Portland limestone supply contracts so far placed this year have gone to Hanson Bath & Portland rather than Michael Poultney\'s Albion Stone. They are the only two suppliers of Portland stone and it is Michael Poultney who has publicly complained about the use of the French stone in the South Portico while Bath & Portland have kept quiet.

Michael Poultney believes Portland stone has benefited from the attention focussed on the stone by the south portico affair. Portland stone has come of this shining like a white night, he says, although adding that he thinks the matter has now run its course as far as any advantage to Portland is concerned.

And Stephen Mold, managing director of Easton Masonry (UK) Ltd, says he is fed up answering questions about the portico. It was Easton Masonry (Portland) Ltd, run by Geoff Smith and operating from the same site on Portland from which Mold now trades, that were contractors on the south Portico. Mold has always sought to distance his company from the other.