Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will reconsider his decision to approve a 20-storey tower block in Brixton as he did not receive full details of the opposition to it.
The Hondo Tower, nicknamed after developers Hondo Enterprises, was given the go-ahead by Mr Khan back in December despite fierce opposition from local campaigners.
But this week it was announced that the Mayor’s decision “should be of no effect” and the decision process should start again as opposition groups were not given fair consideration.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Due to an administrative error in the planning process, the Mayor has agreed to reconsider this application with all the relevant information available to him and will make a decision in the coming weeks.”
Last month, campaigners from #FightTheTower claimed they were “misled” by Sadiq Khan after an administrative error led to them receiving a letter that said their concerns would be heard, days after the decision had already been made.
The campaigners have today welcomed the mayor’s decision to reconsider and have urged him to hear their concerns.
A spokesperson for #FightTheTower said: “We in #FightTheTower are happy to see that Mayor Sadiq Khan will reconsider his hasty approval of Taylor Tower. We really hope that he now does what Lambeth Council and its officers and councillors failed to do – which is listen to the thousands of local people who have put in real, evidence-backed and substantiated objections to why this tower proposal needs to be scrapped.
“Our neighbourhood is experiencing a lot of hardship and Covid has wreaked havoc on our local economy. What we need is long-term, sustainable investment in our local services and businesses.
“We deserve a say in what happens in our neighbourhood, and we hope that Sadiq Khan will bear our deeply held concerns in mind when he makes this decision, which will reshape the future of our area as we know it.”
Hondo Enterprises is led by billionaire Texan DJ Taylor McWilliams and already owns several sites in Brixton, including the historic covered market.
A previous campaign from locals forced Hondo to back down from plans to redevelop the Nour Cash & Carry Supermarket.
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