London Mayor approves plans to double size of proposed Vauxhall hotel

A new luxury hotel in Vauxhall in South London is to be double the size of the original plans after the developer scrapped a proposed office development.

According to the BBC, Chinese developer Dalian Wanda has shelved plans for office space at the site next to Covent Garden wholesale flower market.

Wanda operates a number of hotels in China, and now has plans to demolish Market Towers in Vauxhall to build two new skyscrapers containing a hotel, apartments, offices and shops.

The changes to the plans have been accepted by the London Mayor Boris Johnson after local planning authority, Wandsworth Council, approved the revised proposal.

Deputy Mayor of London for policy and planning, Sir Edward Lister, said: "There would be no sound legal basis for the mayor to object to this application and he is fully in support of a building that is just one part of a much a wider rejuvenation of a once neglected part of London."