been attending online a largely futile "consultation" meeting all afternoon.

who was doing the consulting?

some intermediary consultant firm for the developers who bought up a building which a bunch of us wanted to do better things with - including preserving its old facade. Whereas they want to tear it all down for inner city offices with a tiny community space as a mere sop to planning.

preservation can triumph.

about as certain as possible that it won't be preserved but trashed. The evil developers have been trashing everything in the local area - even resorting to rather convenient seeming arson when planning decisions go against them.