South London families fear the “heart” of their beloved estate will be lost forever if plans to bulldoze a community centre and build on green space are brought forward.
Residents of Toland Square in Roehampton are worried they won’t enjoy living on the estate anymore if the centre is “carved up”.
The estate is earmarked for new homes under Wandsworth Council’s 1,000 homes programme which was started by the old Conservative administration and included a mix of tenures.
Labour switched all the homes to council rent after taking over in May.
The council revealed it might bulldoze residents’ garages and the community centre for new homes, and build on green space around the playground.
The community centre would be rebuilt but residents said they don’t want the centre of the estate to change, to have less space with more people or wait for building works to finish for facilities to return.
A petition against the plans has been signed by 242 people and says: “Having the community hall rebuilt means the playground area will be out of use for a very long period of time and the children will have nowhere to play.
Toland Square at present has only a small amount of green space for both children and adults to enjoy. The plans to build a block of flats in the centre of the square means there would only be a very small amount of green space left, not enough for people to use. Anyone using this small green space would be closely overlooked by blocks of flats, with no space for children to run around and adults to feel comfortable in. At present there is space for both children and adults to use.