How the proposed accommodation could look

SIR Sadiq Khan has intervened after the city council refused to approve plans for a 20-storey student accommodation block on the canal opposite Paddington station.

In a letter to the Labour-run authority, the London mayor insisted the scheme – which would build 605 student rooms on the Travis Perkins builders’ site in Harrow Road – would make a “positive contribution towards London housing targets”.

City Hall is taking control of the application and will host a public hearing at some point in the coming months to decide whether to overrule the council or allow its decision to stand.

Sir Sadiq said: “The support from a higher education provider with campuses in boroughs other than Westminster demonstrates the potential contribution of the proposed development to higher education providers across London.”

Westminster’s planning committee had voted to refuse the project by three votes to one at a meeting in January. Councillors opposed to the scheme argued that it would cause a “significant loss of daylight” and a “sense of enclosure” for neighbouring residents, and would “harm the setting” of nearby Grade II-listed buildings.

A new Travis Perkins branch would be created at ground level below the accommodation block.

The plan also incorporates an indoor community space with access onto a new canalside path, canal mooring improvements and a new public walkway under Bishop’s Bridge Road.

A date has not yet been set for the public hearing on the application.