Stop the bulldozers – it’s Princess Pushy

and doesn’t she look youthful for 70!

PRINCESS Michael of Kent’s l avish f l at in Kensington Palace was once t he s ubject of repeated barbs — until 2010 she paid a peppercorn rent of just £69 a week — but she can now at least claim to have done her bit for the community.

The royal — known as ‘Princess Pushy’ — recently threw her forthright personality behind a campaign to save Kensington’s Odeon cinema, built in 1926, after an application was made to develop the Art Deco building into luxury flats.

In a wholehearted letter of support to campaigner Donald Walker, who has been fighting to save the cinema for the past eight years, the Princess claimed both she and her husband Prince Michael were regulars at the Odeon, calling it an ‘historic’ site.

Her missive, written several weeks ago, was posted among other letters of objection on the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s website.

Thankfully, Pushy’ s ti mely intervention appears to have won the day. Following a meeting at Kensington Town Hall on Tuesday evening, planning officers voted overwhelmingly to refuse the application, on the grounds that the proposals ‘would fail to adequately replace the cinema to an equivalent or better standard’.

This is the third time the developers have been thwarted, though they are expected to resubmit amended plans.

It’s not just the Kents who have given the Odeon royal patronage. Prince Harry was photographed there last September escorting his ex, Cressida Bonas, to a screening of Cameron Diaz’s film Sex Tape, sparking talk of a reunion.

Other supporters of the campaign to save it from the wrecking ball were Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, who even attended Tuesday’s meeting to voice his concerns.

The cinema was also a favourite of late film director Michael Winner. The management allowed him free ‘pick and mix’ sweets for life in return for an annual donation to charity.

The Odeon narrowly escaped being bombed in the Blitz, so good to see Princess Michael — whose father, Baron Gunther von Reibnitz, was in Hitler’s SS — making up for her forebears.