The Victoria Tower Gardens Millbank London SW1P 3YB Data via plota.co.uk

26/05170/ADV - Advert Application (ADV) Approved

Proposal

Display of 15ft traditional tree planned for Victoria Tower Gardens with white lights and silver, blue and purple mixed size baubles with London Heritage Quarter branded base (from 10 November 2025 until 03 January 2027) Data via plota.co.uk

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View original council record ↗Last checked 3 Oct 2026, 05:18

Street View

Application progress

✓

Received

31 Jul 2026

✓

Approved

21 Aug 2026

Approved on 21 Aug 2026 · Delegated Decision · Last checked 27 Aug 2026

Documents 14

Site constraints 13

Flood zone 3, rivers and sea

High chance: a 1 in 100 or greater annual chance from rivers, or 1 in 200 from the sea. Any development here needs a flood risk assessment. Defences are not counted.

The Environment Agency flood map for planning. Homes in zone 3 must also pass the sequential test. Surface water flooding is a separate map.

Flood map ↗

Registered park or garden: Victoria Tower Gardens

Nationally designated heritage. Its significance and setting carry great weight.

Registered parks and gardens, battlefields, world heritage sites and protected wrecks are designated heritage assets: harm needs clear and convincing justification.

Historic England ↗

Westminster Abbey And Parliament Square conservation area

Demolition needs planning permission and permitted development is restricted.

The council must give weight to preserving or enhancing the area's character and appearance. Not every council has published its boundaries as open data.

Council document ↗

Article 4 direction

Article 4 Basement Development Permitted Rights Removed. Named permitted development rights are withdrawn here.

An Article 4 direction withdraws particular permitted development rights, so work that would normally need no application needs one here. Not every council has published its directions.

Agricultural land, grade 3a

Best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. A site survey can differ.

Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.

Archaeological priority area: City of Westminster APA 1.1

An assessment or field evaluation may be asked for before ground works.

The council or Historic England considers archaeology likely here. A desk-based assessment, and sometimes trial trenching, can be asked for with the application.

Air quality management area: Westminster AQMA

The council has declared the area as failing an air quality objective.

Schemes that add traffic, parking or combustion plant are assessed against the area's action plan and may need an air quality assessment.

Council record ↗

Habitat network: Network Enhancement Zone 2

Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.

Central activities zone

The core of central London in the London Plan.

Offices, culture and the other strategic functions of the centre take priority over new housing here.

Also on the record

15 listed buildings within 150 m; Scheduled monument 188 m away: The Jewel Tower; Thames Path 29 m away; Priority habitat 34 m away: Mudflats.

Not affected

Not green belt

Checked on 25 September 2026. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council: Westminster
Application type: Advert Application (ADV)
Postcode: SW1P 3YB
Received: 31 Jul 2026
Validated: 31 Jul 2026
Ward: St James's
Case officer: Show
Target decision: 25 Sept 2026
Decision: Application Permitted
Decision date: 21 Aug 2026
Decision level: Delegated Decision
Applicant: Show

How this decision compares

Decided in 21 days from validation, 15 days faster than Westminster's median of 36 for signs and adverts. Approved, as 84% of signs and adverts here are.

This one21d

Council36d

UK55d

74%decided within 8 weeks

84%approved

856decided in the last year

Plota live figures for signs and adverts decided by Westminster in the last twelve months, from validation. Westminster decision record →

Public comments

No public comments yet.

Last counted 27 Aug 2026

Read the comments on the council site ↗

Consultation & key dates

Alt. reference: PP-15108866
Env. assessment: No

Westminster

Planning Authority Score

3.5/10

Below average

#221 of 296 councils

Relevant to this application:

Other decisions

Westminster is slower than most councils at deciding householder applications, ranking #258 out of 296. Only 28% of applications have the time limit extended, well below the 41% national average - the council usually decides on time. Westminster is also one of the strictest councils - it refuses more householder applications than almost any other, with only 81% approved vs 90% nationally.

One of the strictest councils

only 81% approved vs 90% nationally

These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance

Westminster decision statistics

Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026

86%

Overall approval rate

Below avg (87%) #201 of 296

81%

Householder approved

Below avg (90%) #277 of 296

44%

Decided in 8 weeks

Below avg (63%) #258 of 296

28%

Extended time limit

Below avg (41%) #46 of 296

83%

Minor dwellings approved

12 decided (1-9 homes)

67%

Major dwellings approved

3 decided (10+ homes)

81%

Change of use approved

133 decided

4,602

Total decisions

648 refused in the year to March 2026

The Victoria Tower Gardens Millbank London SW1P 3YB Data via plota.co.uk

Proposal

Application progress

Documents 14

Decision & officer reports 2

Statements & assessments 1

Plans & drawings 4

Application forms 1

Consultation & comments 3

Other documents 3