Blears tower ruling blasted at High Court

Plans for a 43-storey tower block on the South Bank have come under attack at the High Court.

Hazel Blears gave the go-ahead for the Doon Street tower behind the Royal National Theatre while she was Communities Secretary.

Westminster City Council joined forces with English Heritage in a bid to quash the planning permission.

Ms Blears called in the scheme and gave approval against the advice of a planning inspector last August.

Rosemarie MacQueen, head of planning at Westminster, described it at the time as "an act of architectural vandalism".

In court Neil King QC, for Westminster and English Heritage, said the building was too tall for its site and would have an unacceptably adverse impact on the setting of the Royal National Theatre and Royal Festival Hall and would harm views across the Thames from Somerset House and St James's Park.

Both the current Communities Secretary, John Denham, and Lambeth council, the local planning authority for the South Bank, are defending the Blears decision in a hearing expected to last two days.