A choir performs at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in central London, Jan. 27, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Chris Jackson / Pool.

Plans to erect an ambitious Holocaust memorial center in the heart of London have been opposed by Westminster City Council — the local authority that rejected the proposal on Tuesday on the grounds that it would place extra pressure on an already-busy area of the British capital.

Campaigners for the memorial said they were nevertheless confident the council could not prevent the construction of the memorial.

In a statement explaining its decision, the council said that the memorial would compete with “existing monuments and the adjacent world heritage site of the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.”

The memorial could also mean the “loss of valuable open, public green space in a very busy and popular location,” and loss or damage to trees, the council added.

The proposal for a memorial and education center to the Holocaust in Victoria Tower Gardens surfaced in 2013. Jewish community groups, Holocaust educators and a broad range of public figures have all endorsed the center.

Robert Rigby — chair of the council’s planning committee — was careful to emphasize that Westminster was not opposed to the concept of a Holocaust memorial.

“As a council we’re completely behind the principle of having a Memorial and Learning Centre in central London to commemorate those that lost their lives in the most heinous crimes of the 20th century,” he said.

However, Rigby continued, “the location in Victoria Tower Gardens, its size and design would cause considerable harm and would have a significant, detrimental impact on one of the few remaining green spaces on the Thames Embankment.”

Prominent advocates for the center called the council’s decision “regrettable.”

In a statement, Lord Eric Pickles — co-chair of the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation — asserted that “the nation needs this Memorial. It will stand next to Parliament as a permanent reminder that legislators always have a choice, either to protect or oppress human rights.”

Pickles said he was encouraged by the support of all political parties for the memorial to be constructed as planned.

Following the council’s decision, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the government remained “implacably committed to the construction of the Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre right at the heart of our democracy, beside our national parliament to ensure that future generations never forget. No one, whether in national or local government should shirk their duty to deliver on the promise of this memorial, and the government certainly will not.”