Foster & Partners has reworked part of its controversial proposals for the Tulip tourist attraction after Greater London Authority planners raised “significant concerns” about the scheme.

While power to approve the 305m viewing tower earmarked for a site next to the Gherkin rests with planners at the City of London Corporation, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s City Hall staff have the chance to feed their views into the process.

Among their concerns expressed last month was the quality of space made available to schoolchildren as part of the scheme – a big selling point of the proposals was free access to 20,000 London schoolchildren a year – and the lack of any other free-to-enter public space at the attraction. Free viewing space is a planning-policy requirement for new tall buildings.

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