Controversial plans for a £1.5bn redevelopment of the entrance to Liverpool Street Station have been formally submitted despite growing opposition.

Network Rail, developers Sellar Property Group and Elizabeth Line developer MTR, want to build a pair of towers over the entrance to the station.

But the Victorian Society and its Suffolk-based president Griff Rhys Jones warn that the plans will ruin one of the most important buildings in the City of London.

The applicants have now formally lodged the plans with the City of London planning authorities.

They say the development includes £450m of improvements to the station itself which will incorporate the iconic former Great Eastern Hotel and turn it into a destination in its own right like St Pancras station.

Network Rail and the developers also say the new station would be better for passengers - especially those with mobility issues or travelling with young children.

However the objectors say that the proposal to build two wide towers over the existing building would destroy the character of the building.

They want the application to be called in by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and have called for the current proposals to be abandoned.

Griff Rhys Jones said: "The final version of this scheme is as bad as we expected. It is insensitive and unnecessary and traduces a famous gateway to London, a listed working part of our history.

"I know all the heritage bodies combined are appalled by the precedent it would set. It must be rejected, and we will fight to ensure that it is."

Liverpool Street Station was last redeveloped in the late 1980s when the neighbouring Broad Street Station closed and was incororated into the Broadgate Development next to the station.

The new-look station was formally opened by the Late Queen in 1991 - but since then the number of passengers using it every day has increased significantly.