PLANS for Liverpool’s second tallest skyscraper were approved yesterday amidst suggestions from the council it may never be built.

The application, which has caused residents of the nearby City Lofts block to object en masse, has been in the system for several years and had already been approved once.

Developers Peel Holdings’ planning permission expired, so it had to seek a new consent.

The plan is for a 34-storey tower block and eight-storey building alongside it. The scheme has 133 apartments and a 129-room hotel with around 12,000sq m of office space and 500sq m of retail space.

Residents said they feared the building would overshadow theirs and create traffic chaos, as well as adding to the number of empty apartments in the city centre.

However, city centre planning officer Peter Jones - responding to objections from heritage campaigners who claim the development could undermine the city’s historic waterfront - said he believed there was a chance it may never come to fruition.

He said: "This is a resubmission for a scheme previously approved.

"The applicant Peel’s priority is to pursue the Liverpool Waters’ scheme and in my view there’s a good chance this proposal may not be implemented."

The Liverpool Waters scheme is one of the largest planning applications ever submitted, and although its boundary begins at Prince Dock, much of the planned development is further up the waterfront, including the Shanghai Tower which, at 55 storeys, would be the country’s tallest residential building.

The project has created much controversy with local heritage lobbyists and the national body English Heritage, which is carrying out a study to determine whether or not it will damage the city’s World Heritage Site.

Campaigners fear the project threatens to undermine the grandeur of the Royal Liver Building, which was once the country’s tallest building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, which are in the designated World Heritage Site.