Michael Gove

MICHAEL Gove has waved in the O2 Centre bulldozers after refusing to use his powers to “call-in” the regeneration scheme.

The Housing Secretary has decided not to overturn a decision by Camden’s planning committee in March.

The council gave a green light to the first phase of a 1,850-home scheme that will see tower block homes built on the car park between Sainsbury’s and Homebase.

Mr Gove’s reps wrote to objectors this week saying “he is satisfied that the application should be determined at a local ­level”.

Keith Moffitt, from the West Hampstead Neighbourhood Development Forum, said: “I don’t want to sound defeatist, but this was really one of our last remaining hopes. All sorts of people have written to Gove on this – loads of residents had urged him to call it in.”

Opponents of the O2 Centre redevelopment had been pinning their hopes on an intervention by Mr Gove, who had used his call-in powers for similar projects in sensitive areas of the country.

How the new neighbourhood will look

More than 1,000 residents wrote to the Town Hall objecting to the scheme with concerns ranging from the housing blocks to poor quality design.

An independent evaluation of the approved scheme found it would create a £200million loss to the developer, leading to concerns that affordable housing and other community gains would be stripped away at a later date.

The first phase of the O2 plans – for 650 homes to be built on the car park – must now clear a final hurdle from the Mayor of London, who is not expected to challenge the Camden’s position.

The council is now in final negotiations with the developer Landsec about tying up planning gain from the scheme, including £10million towards the cost of “step-free access” at West Hampstead tube station. Last week the Mayor of London announced that West Hampstead would be one of 10 stations to be put on a “priority list” for a further review of how improvements could possibly be made in he future.

It has been more than 15 years since campaigners began calling for a lift to be introduced at West Hampstead tube station.

Equality Act legislation was supposed to make it unlawful for publicly-owned buildings not to have full disability access in 2010 – but many tube stations, including Finchley Road, are yet to catch up.

The Mayor of London has been criticised for failing to get anything done on the issue during his two terms in office, but money from the 02 site deal could now see the upgrade paid for.