Mayor ‘calls-in’ controversial tower

The Mayor of London has called in the planning application for a controversial 20 storey tower in Brixton. He will now take over the role of the Local Planning Authority and there will be a new hearing later this year. Initially, the Mayor decided not to take over the planning application. However, following representations from the #FightTheTower campaign the Mayor’s office acknowledged that there had been a breach of The Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008 as he had not received all representations presented to the London Borough of Lambeth. The Mayor agreed to reconsider whether to ‘call-in’ the application. After further representations from the #FightTheTower campaign and others, the Mayor has agreed to take over the application describing the benefits and impacts as ‘finely balanced’ and warranting ‘closer scrutiny.’ The decision to call-in has received local press coverage here and here and has appeared in the Architects Journal here. #FightTheTower were represented by Jamie Beagent at Leigh Day and advised by Joe Thomas.