Vauxhall Cross views released

Planning officials recommended that the Vauxhall Tower project on a sensitive Thameside site in central London should have been refused by former deputy prime minister John Prescott, according to correspondence detailing their views just released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Prescott approved the scheme, which includes plans for a 50-storey residential tower (the capital's tallest) in 2005, against the advice of the planning inspector who considered the inquiry into the proposals.

Officials recommended that the deputy prime minister should reject the plans on three main counts. First the amount of affordable housing was inadequate. Second, the scheme's visual impact would harm the setting of the Palace of Westminster Heritage Site and other conservation areas. And thirdly that the harm caused by the scheme outweighed its benefits which could be delivered by a less obtrusive proposal.

The scheme, which has yet to climb off the drawing board, was backed by London mayor Ken Livingstone and the Government's architectural and design adviser, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

View further details of the scheme here.

Roger Milne

5 July 2007