The National Trust may appeal a decision to allow a five storey building to be constructed next to a 300-year-old landmark.

The Development Applications Board (DAB) has granted approval for the Paragon Trust to build "Windward Place" on No. 22 and No. 24 Crow Lane. The site borders the Queen of the East building, described by the National Trust as "a significant historic landmark on the Hamilton entrance and a Grade One listed building". The Queen of the East used to be a brothel, bakery and laundry as well as a club for soldiers and sailors.

The National Trust has objected to the plan and will soon decide whether to appeal the board's decision to Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield.

"We have just heard that the building 22 Crow Lane ? just west of the Queen of the East ? has been granted planning consent for another multi-storey building," National Trust director Steve Conway said yesterday.

"The Trust submitted an objection to this and we now have to decide if we wish to appeal it."

Architectural drawings by Linberg & Simmons show a generator room and fuel tank in the eastern boundary wall of the proposed new block, which will be very close to the Queen of the East.

Three days after the application for Windward Place was received, on January 24, a note was made on East Broadway Marine's file at the Department of Planning that it had been de-listed by the Environment Minister.

The Environment Minister has free reign to take any building off the historical buildings list if the owners desire it as there is no other formal process.

But in order to build Windward Place, the newly de-listed building will have to be demolished and the site excavated by up to three storeys.

Mr. Conway said the National Trust was surprised to see that the Listed Building protection on No. 22 had been removed.

"The trust questioned the Minister's discretion to lift the listed building protection arbitrarily at that time," he said.

"This is one of several old buildings along East Broadway which are significant as they protect the original townscape and architectural scale of the entrance to Hamilton. The listing on this building served to protect the architectural and the historic interest of the buildings of East Broadway. However it seems that they are now being whittled away and the approach to Hamilton is becoming a corridor of offices.

"No. 22 was once part of the same property [as Queen of the East and was built by the same man George Darrell in the 1700s.

"This building is extremely important as one of the earliest merchant's houses built on the waterside before the City of Hamilton was even created. The construction of a five story office building will ultimately impact on the Queen of the East and detract from its setting. Additionally, the construction work necessary at this site will pose a physical threat to the Queen of the East."