The Government is pushing ahead with moves to give London mayor Ken Livingstone wider powers to overrule boroughs’ views on major planning applications. Following its July announcement that the mayor would get new planning powers, the Department for Communities and Local Government has set out how the new system would work. The mayor would be able to take over the determination of more strategic applications, including for waste facilities, allowing him to grant them against boroughs’ wishes – rather than merely directing refusal, as now. Livingstone told a press conference last month that he would tackle ‘nimbyist’ opposition to vital new facilities (Surveyor, 20 July). The mayor will be able to take over planning applications in cases where either the scheme ‘is of a nature and scale that would significantly impact on the implementation of London plan policies’, or ‘the application has significant effects that go wider than a single borough’. The new consultation paper also reveals that the mayor will be able to intervene in a greater number of development proposals. The Government says it is right that the ‘small number of the most strategically-important applications’ should be decided at the regional level, and these include waste facilities with a throughput of 20,000t – as opposed to the current 50,000t – where these go against a development plan. ‘We believe, in a limited number of cases, the mayor is best placed to determine the application, given his responsibility for regional planning in the capital as a whole,’ said communities secretary Ruth Kelly. But the boroughs reacted angrily to the proposals, warning they would erode London’s democracy. The Association of London Government said the definition of a strategic application was too wide, and urged a more narrow definition based on thresholds. ‘Giving powers of approval to the mayor on such applications moves local people further away from the decision-making process,’ said ALG chairman Merrick Cockell. ‘An opportunity has been missed. The Government could have reinforced its commitment to localism by devolving more powers to London councils.’ The Environmental Services Association says that it was crucial that the boroughs and mayor worked hand-in-hand to meet the landfill directive targets. Livingstone has tended to oppose waste-to-energy facilities but has stressed the importance of the capital ‘dealing with our own waste,’ as per government guidance. His draft alterations to the London plan set out the need for the capital to manage 4.8Mt of municipal waste by 2020, compared with the 2.6Mt target for 2010. Responses are required by 2 November.