PLANNING COMMITTEE

The Battersea Society objects to this application which is an unneighborly and poorly configured over-development of the site with concerning plans for access, a likely underestimate of traffic and no mention of affordable housing provision, within a site formerly used by a Council facility. The redevelopment offered an opportunity to provide functional new facilities within a building better related to the site. This opportunity has been lost with a large building set too close to the pavements in Parkgate and Battersea Bridge Roads.

Many people in Battersea will have seen the recent announcement about the agreement between Wandsworth Council and Battersea Power Station to build 200 new houses for social rent as part of Phase 5 of the Power Station development. That’s obviously very welcome.

But at a more strategic level, the Council published proposals back in October 2023 to increase the amount of affordable housing across the borough. Essentially, the proposal was to increase from 35% to 45% the minimum proportion of affordable housing for any large development of more than 10 homes; and of that affordable housing, 70% would have to be for social rent. If they proposed lower proportions, developers would have to submit to a series of detailed viability assessments. The proposals also included further restrictions on the building of student accommodation, of large-scale single-room ‘co-living’ developments, and on build-to-rent schemes.

If you travel along the Wandsworth Road towards Vauxhall from Battersea, you cannot but be aware of the vacant site just before you get to the one-way system and the bus station. The site is just over the boundary between Wandsworth and Lambeth, and it has been empty for more than a decade, while the Thames City development across the road has been built up. Now there are proposals for a huge development with the two tallest towers yet for Vauxhall.

Works at the bridge are now well over half way, and we are looking forward to completion. At this very late stage, a new planning application (2025/3448) has been submitted showing the designs for the panels that will be paced on the walls. It is a pity that these were not sublmitted when they were prepared back in July, along with the details of the work as whole, and before it actually started.

You can find the designs here. They are vibrant and colourful, and will make a real difference to the experience of walking - even driving or going on a bus - through the tunnel.

We wrote on these pages in February about Wandsworth Council’s partial review of its Local Plan , and again in March about the GLA’s opposition to most of the changes. The review is now reaching its final stages. An inspector has now been appointed to assess the changes, and he will hold an ‘Examination in Public’ in the Town Hall from 4-6 November.

The Local Plan currently in force was drafted under the previous Council regime in 2020-2021. The current Labour Council initiated the review in 2023, a year after it was elected. Its core aim has been to increae the amount of affordable housing required when large developments take place, from 35% to 50%, along with changes to the need for ‘viability assessments’. Other changes seek further restrictions on the development of purpose built student accommodation and on large-scale ‘co-living’ developments; and changes to policies relating to ‘build-to-rent’ developments.

The Planning Committee has submitted responses to drafts of two Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) issued by the Council. The first relates to Planning Obligations, the second to Trees and Development. Our colleagues in the Open Spaces Committee have also submitted comments, and in addition comments on a third draft SPD, on Biodiversity.

The Planning Obligations draft SPD covers ‘s106 agreements’, legal agreements between planning authorities to mitigate the impact of a development on the local community and infrastructure by securing obligations such as financial contributions or the provision of infrastructure like affordable housing, transport, and community facilities. In the current case the draft covers all the policies in the Local Plan, except housing, which will be dealt with separately, once the current review of the Local Plan is completed.

The Trees and Development SPD is intended to provide guidance for developers to assist them in managing and protecting trees during development. It aims to maximise the delivery and protection of trees during the planning process, in order to improve the environment, biodiversity, health and built environment throughout the borough.

Wandsworth Council is currently running three consultations on its planning policies. They take the form of draft “Supplementary Planning Documents” (SPDs) which flesh out in more detail the policies and guidance set out in the Local Plan. The three drafts relate to

·        Planning Obligations

·        Biodiversity, and

·        Trees and Development

Along with our colleagues in the Open Spaces Committee, we are considering the three drafts and will submit our comments by the deadline of 30 September.

Wandsworth’s score in the latest Healthy Streets Scorecard  has fallen from 5.65 to 5.45. It therefore fell from 11^th to 13^th among all London boroughs; and among inner London boroughs, only Lewisham and Kensington and Chelsea have a lower score . Unless significant improvements are made, it is likely to fall further next year.

The Battersea Society strongly opposes the Government’s proposals, which would forbid planning committees from considering any planning application that the Government defines as ‘minor’ or ‘technical in nature’. Most such developments are already determined by officers under local schemes of delegation. But the Government’s proposals will allow for no exceptions. Even where small developments raise important issues relating to listed buildings or parks, or harm to conservation areas (which are not even mentioned in the proposals), decisions will be made in private by officers, rather than in public by elected councillors.

In its response to the consultation on the new London Plan, the Society questions the arbitrary assumptions which have led the Government to set a target of building 880k new homes across London in the next ten years.

The Battersea Society objects to this application which fails to meet the requirements of the site allocation within the Local Plan guidelines or the York Road/Lombard Road SPD.

The Battersea Society objects to this application for the erection of what is effectively a large-scale structure for advertisements. This siting is particularly harmful

The Mayor issued last month a consultation paper setting out key issues for the future of London and how they might be addressed in a new London Plan

In October 2023, Wandsworth Council published some proposed changes to the Local Plan which it had inherited from the previous Conservative Council. The key aim of the changes was to increase the proportion of affordable housing in new developments to 50%.

Wandsworth Council’s Transport Committee  approved at its February meeting a draft Reuse, Recycling & Waste Management Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

Costa’s Barbers on Battersea High Street was the subject of an article in the most recent issue of Battersea Matters. It is now included among thre 78 projects that have been shortlisted for the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) London Awards 2025.

There’s been some controversy about the amounts of student housing being provided in Wandsworth; over the past five years, about a thousand student rooms have been completed, under construction or planned.

The Battersea broadly welcomes the proposed changes to the Local Plan set out in the consultation draft, particularly those that aim to increase the amount of affordable housing. But we have reservations about some aspects of the proposals, especially those relating to housing mix.

A report has been published setting out proposals to regenerate the 299 railway arches that extend all the way from Waterloo to Battersea Power station.

In 2019 Wandsworth Council - then controlled by the Conservative Party - commissioned a study of an industrial and commercial area to the south-west of Nine Elms and the Power Station.

In the Local Plan submitted to the Secretary of State in 2022 and finally approved in 2023, Wandsworth Council committed itself to developing a masterplan for an Enhanced Urban Heart to Clapham Junction.

Overall we welcome this application. Further toilet facilities in this area are desirable, and the design of the proposed extension should blend in tactfully enough with the existing building.