Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, last night threw fresh doubts upon the Legacy consortium's plans for the Millenium Dome, by threatening to veto planning permission.. The consortium, which has links to Imperial College, intend to transform the the Grenwich attraction into a science park for incubating high-tech businesses, and have been granted "preferred bidder status" by the Government.

Mr Livingston has been angred by Legacy's plans to develop premium housing for high-tech workers in land next to Dome. Part of the Government's reasoning in selecting Greenwich to host the Millenium attraction, was to act as a catalyst for economic regeneration in the local community. Mr Livingston has vowed to use his legal power to halt redevelopment unless a minimum of 25% of the land is used for "affordable housing for key workers such as nurses, teachers or police officers."

Imperial's involvement in the Legacy consortium has been less than clear. Legacy orginally claimed that several higher education institutes, including Imperial, the London School of Economics, and the Open University would act as non-funding "intellectual partners". But all three repeatedly denied involvement, stating that they had merely "had discussions" with Legacy. However, since Legacy were announced as preferred bidders, both Imperial and the Open University have confirmed that they plan to work with the consortium.