PEOPLE fighting to save part of Erith Marshes from development are pressing London Mayor Ken Livingstone to act.

London Assembly Green Party leader Darren Johnson says the Mayor is wrong to claim he can no longer intervene in the row over plans to build a business park on 69 acres of grazing marshes off Waldrist Way in Thamesmead.

Site owner Tilfen Land has been forced to resubmit its planning application for the marshes after environmentalists threatened a judicial review.

Opponents claimed the environmental impact assessment was inadequate.

Following Bexley Council's approval of the application last November, Mr Livingstone could have intervened to block the development but, after calling in the plans, he decided not to act.

Now he has told Mr Johnson because the new application has been submitted after he waived his right to block the plans in the original application, he could not now look at the development plans again.

Even worse, Mr Livingstone added: "As the merits of the proposal remain strong, the revised information is unlikely to lead me to a different conclusion."

The Mayor refused to say whether the London Development Agency would be supporting funding for an Innovation Centre, planned as part of the business park development.

Nor would Mr Livingstone say if he would write to the Government Office for London, which is sponsoring the Innovation Centre plan, drawing attention to the ecological damage the development would cause.

Mr Johnson says the Mayor is "ducking his responsibilities" on the issue and says Mr Livingstone has been wrongly advised that he cannot intervene.

He added: "Building a massive business park in the middle of rare grazing marsh is the clearest possible example of bad planning. The Mayor must act."