IT WOULD have even dwarfted Canary Wharf Tower, Britain’s tallest building, but now town planners have knocked the scheme for six. They voted six to two against Commercial Estates Group’s vision for a 63-storey skyscraper to join Canary Wharf’s high-risers on the Thames waterfront

By Victoria Huntley

IT WOULD have even dwarfted Canary Wharf Tower, Britain’s tallest building.

But now town planners in East London have knocked the scheme for six.

They voted six to two against Commercial Estates Group’s vision for a 63-storey skyscraper to join Canary Wharf’s high-risers on the Thames waterfront.

Tower Hamlets council has decided the scale and mass of the proposed 700ft Columbus Tower would be totally unsuitable.

It would have a negative’ impact on the nearby West India Dock conservation area and on the amount of light reaching neighbouring properties, the authority’s strategic development committee has decided.

Yet the authority agreed a virtually identical proposal four years ago, which shortly runs out of consent’ time.

Commercial Estates said in a statement: “This new application is for a virtually-identical proposal to that originally approved in 2005, which received support from Tower Hamlets Council, the GLA and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. There was also no objection by English Heritage.”

But the committee rejected it, despite agreeing to the principle of the development four years ago.