MAJOR plans to expand Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper headquarters near the Tower of London are not green enough,’ according to Boris Johnson. The News International global media group is hoping to get the go-ahead to create a campus for UK businesses’ at Wapping, in London’s East End

By Gemma Collins

MAJOR plans to expand Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper headquarters near the Tower of London are not green enough,’ according to Boris Johnson.

The News International global media group is hoping to get the go-ahead to create a campus for UK businesses’ at Wapping, in London’s East End.

Murdoch’s plans go under the spotlight at the local planning authority at Tower Hamlets on Thursday (June 25).

CRITISISM

But the proposals which include developing 924,000sq ft of offices as well as shops and a museum, have been criticised by the Mayor of London for not complying with parts of the London Plan.

The mayor wants the redevelopment to be more eco-friendly’ and use more solar panels to help towards reaching a target of generating 20 per cent renewable energy at the site.

Boris also wants money spent on providing more buses and to improve access for pedestrians.

CRITISISM

The massive printing presses were moved out from Wapping to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire last year.

But Murdoch has now abandoned plans to pack up altogether and move out of East London and sell the lucrative site 10 minutes from The Tower that he moved his publishing empire to from Fleet Street in 1986.

If he gets the go-ahead on Thursday, the 20-acre site where The Sun, The Times and News of the World are produced could also become home to other companies in the News International group including Dow Jones, Harper Collins, MySpace and 20th Century Fox.