2012 Octopus ‘will distract M4 drivers’

Developers and council planners are locked in battle over a giant structure intended to welcome visitors to the London 2012 Olympics.

The 170ft-tall office block, known as the Octopus because of its design, would be built near the Chiswick roundabout.

During the Games, images of athletes and adverts linked to the event would be projected on to screens on the "body" and "legs" of the multi-million-pound building, visible to drivers at the roundabout and on the M4 flyover.

The plan is backed by Mayor Boris Johnson and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the Government's design watchdog. But Hounslow council has rejected it, citing fears of light pollution and of motorists being distracted.

Kim Gottlieb, managing director of the developer, London & Bath Estates, vowed that the application would be resubmitted. "This is one of the most important routes into one of the most important capital cities in the world," he said. "The building was to be a new landmark."