Walkie Talkie skyscraper accused of melting cars

Drivers in London have been complaining after a number of cars and vans have melted after parking near the new 'Walkie Talkie' building in the City. Martin Lindsay parked his Jaguar XJ on Eastcheap at about midday on Thursday, went into a meeting, came back two and a half hours later to find people taking photos of it.

The heat from the glare of the sun reflecting off of the glass sided £200 million skyscraper had caused several parts of his car to buckle and melt. "I've taken the car to Jaguar and Jaguar have turned round to me and said they've never seen anything like it," Martin said. "Their parts go into the oven and kilns to be sprayed and the heat in there is quite high so it really shouldn't have done this to the car.



"The people who were there said they could smell the plastic burning. I don't know what heat plastic starts to burn but it must have been some tremendous heat. It's unbelievable." The wing mirror, panels and Jaguar badge had all melted, Mr Lindsay said. "You can't believe something like this would happen," he added. "They've got to do something about it. It could be dangerous. Imagine if the sun reflected on the wrong part of the body.

"On the windscreen, there was a note from the construction company saying 'your car's bucked, could you give us a call?'" In a joint statement, developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf said: "We are aware of concerns regarding the light reflecting from 20 Fenchurch Street and are looking into the matter. As a precautionary measure, the City of London has agreed to suspend three parking bays in the area which may be affected while we investigate the situation further." Mr Lindsay said the developers had apologised and agreed to sort out the £946 repair costs.