China has temporarily shelved plans to build a new embassy in London, angrily accusing the British government of not doing enough to force through planning permission for the project.
China had been given until Thursday to file an appeal to Tower Hamlets council in east London after the proposals for the embassy were rejected.
Beijing bought the Royal Mint Court site for its new embassy in 2018 for £255m, with the plan to move from its long-term but relatively cramped site in Portland Place, near Regent’s Park.
Chinese officials appear to have decided that rather than appeal through the local Tower Hamlets planning process, where they have relatively little chance of success, they want central government to intervene and give assurances that it will back a resubmitted application.
It looks like the location would be noisy, as it’s adjacent to the end of the line running to Fenchurch Station to the north and a major road interchange.
I wonder what security issues might be present? There’s a lot of movemwnt through there. I guess that you could monitor radio emissions, see what Bluetooth and cell devices are passing the location.