• Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has indicated that he may intervene in the planning decision, before it reaches the Mayor of London for a decision, by issuing a holding direction to the London Legacy Development Corporation

• Gove’s intervention at this stage is significant because he has the jurisdiction to block the development entirely

• AEG has written to both senior politicians to urge one of them to refuse the application (available upon request)

• Obtrusive LED lights on the external façade – which will number over one million and will display adverts brighter, and on a scale 42 times bigger, than Piccadilly Circus – are unacceptable to residents and local elected politicians

• It is almost four years since the planning application for the MSG Sphere was submitted to the London Legacy Development Corporation, but the opposition of politicians, residents and many other stakeholders means that it has not been able to proceed

• Local council Newham, all the neighbouring boroughs and the local MP object to the application, but Newham Council is not the final decision maker due to leftover powers that lie with the LLDC after the London 2012 Olympics

• Elected representatives of the east London councils who sit on the LLDC’s Planning Decisions Committee voted unanimously against the MSG Sphere last March - approval was only secured due to votes from the committee’s independent non-elected members

AEG Europe, owner of The O2, has called on Michael Gove MP to use his call-in powers and refuse the planning application for the proposed MSG Sphere mega venue in Stratford, east London, after the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities indicated that he is preparing to call in the planning decision.

At the end of last week, Gove asked local officials “not to grant permission on the applications without specific authorisation” by issuing a holding direction to the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Gove’s intervention comes after the London Legacy Development Corporation last month signed off the highly controversial MSG Sphere’s external advertising.

Gove’s intervention at this stage is significant because he has the jurisdiction to block the development entirely.

AEG claims that the London Legacy Development Corporation’s decision-making process has been seriously flawed and that the proposed LED-covered live music and entertainment venue will add congestion to the local public transport infrastructure and blot London’s skyline.

The LLDC’s decision to approve the MSG Sphere has been made against the backdrop of opposition unprecedented in the post-Olympics era, including from the majority of the area’s elected representatives.

A petition opposing the plans has been signed by thousands of local residents and there are vocal objections from local politicians including Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz, Member of Parliament for West Ham, Lyn Brown, Newham Council and all the other Olympic Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest, the Royal Borough of Greenwich (where The O2 is located), rail operators, Transport for London, Historic England, and local campaign group Stop MSG.

Many London stakeholders have questioned the democratic integrity of the LLDC

Despite its opposition to the project and the Sphere’s potential significant impact on local residents, decision making power has not rested with the local council, Newham, but instead with the LLDC.

The LLDC was set up to secure the legacy of the Olympic Park following the London 2012 Olympic Games. It is a Mayoral Development Corporation and, therefore, directly accountable to Londoners through the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. The LLDC is, amongst other things, the local planning authority for parts of four London boroughs – Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.

The journey of the MSG Sphere application has highlighted the undemocratic nature of the LLDC’s planning process, exemplified last March when all the elected councillors representing the underlying east London boroughs voted unanimously against the MSG Sphere and approval was only secured for the controversial venue due to the votes of non-elected independent members, who voted as a bloc.

Many London stakeholders have questioned the democratic integrity of the LLDC – which is due to be disbanded at the end of 2024 - and have called for its significant planning powers to be discontinued and handed back to the local authorities in east London.

The exterior display continues to be the main point of controversy

The exterior display continues to be the main point of controversy despite the LLDC’s Planning Decisions Committee last month signing off the advertising strategy for the one-million-LED-light external advertising panels that are proposed to cover the huge new live music and entertainment venue, essentially removing one the final planning hurdles for the MSG Sphere before it can go ahead.

The exterior of the MSG Sphere – thought to underpin the financial viability of the proposed entertainment venue – is an area of two hectares and more than 90 metres in height (broadly the height of St Paul's Cathedral), comprising a digital display of over a million LEDs, which will display moving advertising images up to 17 hours per day. It is expected to be brighter than Piccadilly Circus despite its location in and immediately adjacent to residential developments.

To date, there is no qualified professional assessment of the potential health and wellbeing effects of light, moving images, and visual distraction to local people, including vulnerable groups and children, nor has any specialist assessment been undertaken of the health and amenity implications of the advertising façade.

Recent testing of the LED façade of the first Sphere to be built, in Las Vegas, showed the extraordinary luminance levels that east London could experience.

Alistair Wood, Executive VP Real Estate and Development at AEG Europe, said:

“More than a decade after the Olympic Games, the LLDC’s planning decision process is now at odds with the views of the communities that it was set up to support and develop.

“With the LLDC due to be disbanded at the end of next year, it would be democratic for the Government to intervene and back the wishes of elected councils in east London who want this inappropriate development blocked to protect the wellbeing of local people and existing businesses.

“Since these proposals first emerged back in 2017, AEG has consistently raised its objections to the unacceptable impact that this proposal will have on the operation of The O2 and the hundreds of residents who will be even more directly affected.”

Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, added on Twitter:

“Last year I wrote to the Government and Mayor of London about stopping the monstrous MSG Sphere. Michael Gove has now issued a legal notice and I'm hoping he'll act. The undemocratic LLDC steamrolled all local elected opposition, so it's only right to take the final decision out of their hands.”