Minister puts £12m hotel on ice to probe planning decision

THE Government has called in a council's decision to approve a 10-storey hotel.

The hotel with 259 rooms, shops and a restaurant was to be built on wasteland at the Olympia centre.

Residents said the £12million cube-like building could create traffic problems and overshadow homes. But a Hammersmith & Fulham council investigation found the increase in traffic would be "negligible" and the impact on residents minimal.

Now Communities Secretary Hazel Blear has called in the decision for investigation. It is the second such move in less than three months. In August she stepped in to hold up the new health centre in White City, but the council's decision stood.

Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh said: "Only 150 applications across England and Wales are called in per year, so two applications from the same borough in just over the same number of months seems distinctly odd."

It is thought Ms Blears has concerns over the design of the Sunlight Projects hotel and its impact on the Olympia and Avonmore conservation area. A spokesman for her department said: "There is a long-established process in place where less than 0.01 per cent of all planning cases are called in." The investigation could take 18 months.