Controversial plans for 110-home Battersea tower recommended for refusal

Plans for a 28-storey mixed-use tower at the southern end of Battersea bridge have been recommended for refusal by Wandsworth council’s planning officers ahead of a committee meeting next week.

The planning application for the controversial Glassmill scheme at 1 Battersea Bridge Road, designed by Farrells for developer Rockwell, is due to be decided by councillors on 24 April.

The tower has provoked a storm of protest from local campaign groups due to its scale and height, amassing more than 1,500 objections and nearly 5,000 signatures on a petition to scrap the plans.

The recommendation for refusal comes despite the scheme, which was originally proposed as 39 storeys, being cut down by five storeys in June last year and a further five storeys last December.

The two redesigns have seen the number of homes reduced by 60 and the percentage of affordable homes increased from 35% to 50%. 

The scheme would now provide a total of 110 new homes, down from 160 proposed in June and 170 in the original application, along with 7,000 sq ft of office space and a 2,000 sq ft restaurant.

The amendments have failed to convince Wandsworth’s planning officers, who described the tower in a 127-page report published earlier this week as presenting an “incongruous and transformative change” to an area of Battersea which is predominately low-rise.

The scheme, which neighbours the grade II-listed Battersea bridge and the head office of Foster & Partners, would be the sole high rise building in an area where buildings top out at an average of six storeys.

Officers concluded the building’s “excessive and dominant” height would “significantly harm the spatial character” of its prominent riverside location, which is not in a designated area for tall buildings under Wandsworth’s 2023 local plan.

The report added that a requirement in the National Planning Policy Framework that development which is not well designed should be refused has been “engaged firmly by officers in this instance”.

The plans have been opposed by a roll call of local and heritage groups including Historic England, which described the proposed tower as a “visually intrusive and incongruous addition to the townscape with wide reaching harmful impacts on the historic environment”.

Other groups which have submitted objections include the Environment Agency, Wandsworth council’s conservation and heritage advisory committee, the Battersea Society, the Chelsea Society, the Wandsworth Society and the Putney Society.

Wandsworth council’s own leader, Simon Hogg, has also made clear his own opposition in a series of social media posts including a post on X last June in which he said “a structure of this magnitude on this site would inflict more harm than good on the local area and its residents”.

The council had been due to make a decision on the scheme last month before the application was pulled from the March committee’s agenda.

A petition against the plans started by local campaigner Rob McGibbon has reportedly been signed by celebrities including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Felicity Kendal and Anthea Turner.

Rockwell managing director Nicholas Mee said: “An underused brownfield site could deliver 110 urgently needed new homes — with half reserved as genuinely affordable, social rent options. These could accommodate around 190 people in a borough where over 11,000 residents are still waiting for a place to live. The proposal exceeds Wandsworth’s own targets for affordable housing. Turning it down delays real solutions in favour of inaction.”

Pointing to the government’s emphasis on the need for new housing in Rachel Reeves’ spring statement, he added: ”The committee now faces a clear choice – to be builders or blockers. It’s time to make the right decision and deliver affordable housing for Wandsworth.”

The project team for 1 Battersea Bridge Road includes DP9 on planning, Montagu Evans on townscape and heritage, Exterior Architecture as landscape architect, Velocity on transport, GIA on daylight, Ashton Fire as fire consultant and EOC as structural and civil engineer.