I note that the St John’s Foundation has withdrawn both its applications for an extension of its museum.

Coincidentally, on the same day this was reported, a number of buildings collapsed in Cologne, Germany, requiring hundreds of rescue workers to search the debris for the three people who might have been trapped beneath the rubble of the city’s historic archive (housing documents up to 1,000 years old) and two other buildings.

Reporting from the scene, CNN’s Ben Brumfield reported that the city is building a new subway line directly under the buildings that collapsed, “Some of the earth underneath the building that collapsed slid into the construction space, which caused a hole under the building,” he explained. “The building fell literally into that hole and fell forward into the street. Susanne Motter at the Cologne tourism bureau told CNN that it was not clear if the underground construction played a role in the incident.

I well remember that at the time of the cancellation of the St John’s museum extension project, there were many assurances from experts about how the latest studies, technology and overseas experts could guarantee that cracks deep in the rock-bed could be traced and that St John’s Co-Cathedral would not be affected by excavations. Well, these studies proved useless to trace passages just three feet under St George’s Square, and it seems that the latest foreign technology is not infallible when it comes to preventing damage to buildings either.

In the case of a treasure like St John’s Co-Cathedral one can never be too cautious. I think the above incident proves that the Prime Minister and the Archbishop were very wise in their decision.