Replacing old ITV Studios building ‘just greedy’, inquiry hears

Developers have been urged to “stop demolishing youthful concrete towers at whim” on the opening day of a planning inquiry which will examine plans to replace ITV’s former headquarters on London’s South Bank with a £400m office complex.

Objectors say the plans for 72 Upper Ground, nicknamed “the Slab”, will generate more carbon emissions in its construction than if the 4,000 officer workers it is designed to house were to drive in from Surrey for 30 years.

The inquiry, which comes hot on the heels of a probe into Marks & Spencer’s plans to raze and redevelop its Marble Arch store on London’s Oxford Street, will again highlight the carbon impact of redevelopment as well as the rapidly changing landscape of central London.

Michael Ball, speaking for the Save our Southbank campaign group, acknowledged the inquiry had mainly been prompted by concerns about the visual impact of a prominent site on a bend in the River Thames between St Paul’s and the Palace of Westminster.

But he argued that the climate impact should be taken into consideration as well. “Does it meet…