Riverside Quarter plans out for consultation

Plans for the next phase of the Riverside Quarter development between Wandsworth Park and the river Wandle have been submitted to the council. You can download the consultation letter here.

The plans are for:

• A further eight buildings ranging in height from 2 to 21 storeys comprising 275 flats of which 89 would be affordable;
• 3,508sq.m. of commercial floor space to include shops, financial and professional services, a restaurant, food and drinking uses, office, storage and distribution, health and leisure uses.
• Basement car parking for 165 vehicles with vehicle access onto Enterprise Way
• Provision of landscaping and ecological enhancements, including new surfacing to Enterprise Way and Wandle riverside area

Comments should be submitted in writing by 15 October 2009, quoting the reference 2009/3017.

I am obviously concerned about the 21-storey block the developers want to build: that's twice as tall as any of the riverside blocks already built on this development. Putney Wharf Tower - the tallest building in Putney is just 18 storeys. The developers will again have to be reined-in on this one.

I also think the council and developers alike have to come up with serious answers about the additional traffic this plan will create given the congestion that has been caused by the Riverside Quarter already. And this in central Wandsworth which is already notorious for its traffic gridlock.

Given the poor quality of some of the affordable housing on the site - tacked on at the least marketable corner of the site next to the railway - I want guarantees that the affordable housing here will be properly integrated: in an ideal world it should be absolutely impossible to know which properties are private and which are affordable. And a large number of the affordable homes should be rented accommodation, rather than shared ownership.

But we also have to recognise the need for the Riverside Quarter to be completed and the improvements to this corner of the constituency it has brought. I support greater access to the mouth of the Wandle.

So do continue pressing our case against overdevelopment: the rejection of a 21-storey tower on the Riverside Quarter will greatly strengthen our hand when it comes to getting the Planning Inspector to turn back the 42-storey twin towers proposed on the next door Ram Brewery site later this year.