Hampton Court hotel and flats get go-ahead

PLANS for 66 flats and a hotel near Hampton Court have been given the go-ahead.

Protesters include historian David Starkey, who described the scheme as not only "a national scandal, but an international scandal".

But a planning application for the project, which also includes a 61-bed Royal Star & Garter care home and an underground car park, has been approved by Elmbridge council.

Developer Gladedale Homes, with the Royal Star & Garter and Network Rail, will now be able to build the flats and hotel on a three-acre Hampton Court railway station site known as the Jolly Boatman.

Objectors included Historic Royal Palaces, the agency responsible for Hampton Court plus the Tower of London and Kensington and Kew palaces. It had asked Communities Secretary Hazel Blears to intervene urgently to prevent "significant and irreparable" damage to Hampton Court.

Ms Blears expressed interest, but almost immediately withdrew, saying the council should decide.

Mary Brook, of the Hampton Court Rescue Campaign, said: "If this scheme goes ahead the original landscape of the palace could be lost forever."