Report outlines serious misgivings over 29-storey Battersea Bridge project

Plans to build a ‘disaster’ 29-storey tower at the bottom of Battersea Bridge have been recommended for refusal, in a major setback to the controversial scheme.

Wandsworth council officers said developer Rockwell’s proposals to replace the six-storey Glassmill office building on Battersea Bridge Road should be rejected.

The council’s planning committee will meet on Thursday to vote on Rockwell’s proposals to build the 29-storey tower with 110 flats on the site – including 54 affordable homes, which would be offered at social rent.

The block would have workspace for small businesses and a community hub for local charities.

Council officers recommended the committee reject the plans in a new report, ahead of the highly-anticipated meeting. They said the scheme goes against policy as the site lies in a mid-rise building zone in the Wandsworth Local Plan for 2023 to 2038, where only a maximum of six storeys, or 18 metres above ground, is considered appropriate.

They added the scheme would only meet 5.6 per cent of the borough’s annual need for homes, when considered in the context of homes already built and in the pipeline, which would be a ‘relatively modest contribution’.

The report ruled: “The proposal, by reason of its excessive height and scale, would represent an unacceptable and incongruous transformative change within the location that would significantly harm the spatial character of the same location.”

Officers’ concerns echo those raised by objectors to the scheme since it first emerged in early 2024. Residents have slammed the scale of the proposed tower and said it would spoil the skyline, cause traffic mayhem and unacceptably tower over surrounding homes – particularly 6 Hester Road, an affordable housing block run by Peabody, which faces the site.

Officers said in their report that they did not consider the new flats would significantly harm the transport network, and that 6 Hester Road would not receive an unacceptable reduction in sunlight.

Rob McGibbon, Editor of The Chelsea Citizen, launched a Change.org petition in June opposing the plans, which has gained more than 4,970 signatures so far.

Mr McGibbon, who lives in Chelsea, said: “I am entirely against this development. It is the wrong project, in the wrong location. There is united opposition across the board with good reasons on every level. It is essentially a toxic tower that would be a catastrophe in every conceivable way.

“The tower is quite simply far too big for this site. It will destroy a precious and irreplaceable historic riverside vista. Granting planning permission will also set a dangerous precedent for other developers to move in and build high-rise blocks to make a buck. This project has disaster written all over it.”

Resident Caroline Gardiner described the development as a ‘slap in the face’ to the community and said it would cause major disruption, before and after construction, increasing congestion levels and putting strain on other nearby bridges. She said redeveloping the existing Glassmill building with a more sensible scheme would be better.

Ms Gardiner said: “Why are we being lumbered with a building that we don’t want, and that’s ruining the lives of the people who are already here?”

Residents also slammed Rockwell’s methods to generate support for the scheme – with many supporting letters following the same template and uploaded in batches.

Rockwell has canvassed in Battersea to collect letters of support, while a third-party website for the development invites people on its homepage to sign a template letter to be uploaded to the council’s website in their name – without detailing the building’s height.

Rockwell previously said that gathering voluntary letters of support through canvassing and advertising is standard industry practice. But residents believe these tactics undermine the planning process.

Nicholas Mee, managing director at Rockwell, 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.

“One Battersea Bridge has the support of more than 1,500 local residents and over 100 local businesses. They understand that building homes means fewer families in temporary accommodation — and a stronger, more resilient local economy.”

The project will be referred to the Greater London Authority (GLA) for consideration after the planning committee vote.

Pictured top: Residents Christina and Caroline Gardiner by the Glassmill building, in Battersea (Picture: LDRS/ Charlotte Lillywhite)