The development, which could provide thousands of new jobs and help fund the crucial London Crossrail transport project, is to be decided by the Mayor after the planning application was rejected by Tower Hamlets council.
So under new planning powers the Mayor has 'called in' the proposal for Columbus Tower, which includes 31,000 square metres of office space, a 192 room hotel and over 70 apartments. The Mayor believes the development is of major strategic importance for the whole of London and will now scrutinise the application and make a final decision.
‘This is a decision I have not taken lightly, however the Columbus Tower proposal clearly meets the test of a planning application of major significance to the whole of London. Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs form a key part of my economic development strategy and I have also made it clear that I consider Canary Wharf to be suitable for tall buildings,’ Johnson said in a statement.
‘There is already a planning consent for a tall building on this site and the development itself would deliver a significant contribution to Crossrail, the most important new infrastructure project London has seen since the first tube tunnels were dug by the Victorians.
For these reasons, I believe this application requires me to scrutinise it in greater detail,’ he added.
The tower, intended for a site at West India Quay, would overtake the Canary Wharf office center’s One Canada Square to become east London’s tallest building.
Until April 2008, when considering planning applications submitted to him, the Mayor could either leave London's local borough planning committees to decide whether to approve or refuse them or, if they did not conform with London Plan policies, direct the borough to refuse them.
Since then, where development proposals have implications for the capital as a whole, his new powers allow him to completely take over such planning applications from local planning authorities
