Putney Place Tower Blocks REFUSED by Wandsworth Council

Tonight Wandsworth Council’s Planning Committee were unanimous in voting "NO" to the planning application for the Putney Place Tower Blocks. This means that the planning application will be REFUSED by the Council, unless the Mayor of London directs otherwise. Wandsworth Council will now forward a draft decision on the application (indicating REFUSAL) to the Mayor of London who has fourteen days to consider the application. Given that the Mayor of London has already indicated that he thinks that the proposal does not comply with the London Plan, we think he is likely to say that the Council's refusal can proceed.

A large audience of concerned residents assembled to listen to the Planning Committee’s deliberation over the application. Several Councillors spoke against the application, confirming that they also had serious concerns about a number of aspects of the proposal, including:
- the excessive height, bulk and scale of the towers;
- the adverse impacts that they would have upon existing residences;
- the added pressure upon public transport;
- the significant loss of office floorspace in a Town Centre location.

Memorable comments made by some of the Councillors included: “the proposal represents gross overdevelopment”, “the towers would stick out like a sore thumb”, “the towers represent the architect’s self gratification” and, perhaps most pertinently, “the developers need to go back to the drawing board”.

The Planning Committee has endorsed the view of the Borough’s Planner who had recommended that they refuse the planning application. The Borough Planner wrote a very full and comprehensive report on the application which makes interesting reading. Here is a link to it:

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/moderngov/Published/C00000304/M00002780/AI00010855/$PaperNo08955.doc.pdf

While we may be edging closer to our first victory, the fight against these tower blocks and other similar development proposals along the Upper Richmond Road is far from over.

If the Mayor endorses Wandsworth Council's refusal of the application, the developers have a right to appeal - we will have to wait and see if they exercise it. They may also come back with either a revised or a new scheme. There are also the proposals for the redevelopment of both the Capsticks building and Tileman House (both on the Upper Richmond Road) that we’ll also need to keep an eye on.

So, for those of you who have them, don’t dispose of your “SAVE PUTNEY FROM THE TOWER BLOCKS” posters just yet…..as the fight against the tower blocks must go on!!!!