On Monday, May 25, 2020, representatives of the Club for Old Prague, historian Kateřina Bečková and architectural historian Rostislav Švácha, left the Gremial Council of the Prague Institute of Planning and Development. According to their own statements, they do not want their membership in the council to serve as a cover for wrong decisions that threaten the character of the heritage conservation area and damage monuments. As an example of this, they cite the favorable position of the city council regarding the oversized construction project at Masaryk Station or the insensitive reconstruction of the monumentally protected department store Máj. Both also disagree with how city authorities downplay the recommendations from last year's UNESCO mission. "We will not provide an alibi for these erroneous steps by being members of the Gremial Council,” declared Bečková and Švácha.
For similar reasons, on the same date, the chairwoman of the Club for Old Prague, Kateřina Bečková, is resigning from her status as a permanent guest in the World Heritage Council, an advisory body of the Prague City Council.
