Olympic Park zipline tower proposal to be assessed

A decision is due on the zipline on 22 October

Plans to run a zipline from the ArcellorMittal Orbit tower in the Olympic Park are due to be considered by councillors next week.

ZipWorld, which operates the tower, needs planning permission for the wire to be granted by both the Tower Hamlets and Newham councils.

Plans say the zipline would "offer a unique and exhilarating experience" for a predicted 60,000 extra visitors a year.

According to the proposal, the slide would launch from the tower on the Newham side of the border, but cross the boundary into Tower Hamlets on the other side of the River Lea, where a new structure would be built.

Tower Hamlets councillors are set to consider a planning application for the return tower by Marshgate Way at a strategic development committee meeting on 22 October.

The new zipline tower would be 39m tall

A report by planning officers says the new tower would be just under 39m (128ft) tall.

Riders would not disembark in the borough but would instead be returned to the Orbit in Newham.

Planning officers say they do not consider the return tower to have an impact on protected Metropolitan Open Land, and are recommending that councillors vote to approve it.

However, Zipworld's planning application to Newham Council for the launch platform attached to the Orbit is still pending consideration.

Plans submitted to both councils also say that ZipWorld plans to install a "gravity descender" attraction on the tower, and that a separate planning application for this would follow.

They say that once both are running, the two could attract 60,000 extra visitors to the tower a year.