Letter to Wandsworth Council Planning Committee
We wish to object to proposal 2024/0389 for Eastwood South Estate (Toland Square) SW15.
There are a wide range of reasons to reject this proposal, all of them material planning considerations. The most significant are:
Loss of light and overshadowing
The proposed S2 building is three storeys high and would take up most of Toland Square’s actual square. It would have an immediate and significant impact on the amount of light reaching the surrounding buildings. It would also overshadow those on the lower floors of Andrew House.
Loss of privacy
The proposed S1 and S2 buildings would put new homes much closer to and in a direct visual line of sight with current homes. There would be an immediate and significant loss of privacy in almost every home on Toland Square. There would also be a loss of privacy for children playing on the proposed new playground between Cline House and Reed House, with those houses in very close proximity and overshadowing the playground, as well as the replacement playground backing directly onto S2 and residents’ front doors and windows.
Visual amenity
Toland Square was designed with a square in the heart of it. Most of the homes in Toland Square overlook this square and its trees. It forms the central focal point of the estate and it is something that everyone deeply values as part of their environment. The visual amenity would not just be impacted but also completely removed if the proposed S2 building is built. The green space would cease to exist in any meaningful way, reduced to a strip of land alongside a road and beside a three-story building.
Likewise, S3 would entirely change the visual amenity between Cline House and Reed House, building on most of the land between them, and completely removing a grass feature residents value so greatly.
The entire character of Toland Square and almost all the shared spaces that contribute to resident’s overall enjoyment of the square would be completely changed for the worse as a result of these proposals.
Adequacy of parking/loading/turning
Toland Square is already a busy area with narrow roads, limited parking, and tight turning circles for vehicles. The proposal will not be able to make any additional space and at the same time would add an additional 21 homes, increasing the number of vehicles using the square.
The proposed S1 building would result in the removal of 33 existing garages, all of which are used and for which there is a significant waiting list. So at the same time that more vehicles will be introduced, current space for vehicles will be lost.
Highway safety
Toland Square’s entry and exit by car leads directly onto the A306 (Roehampton Lane), a busy road at all times of day. The addition of a significant number of new cars, with inadequate parking, loading and turning (see above) is likely to cause traffic problems that spill out into the main road, reducing highway safety in the area. Bordering Toland Square to the north is Queen Mary’s Hospital. Any slowdown caused by traffic or blocking of the road caused by traffic overspill from Toland Square would have an adverse impact on access to the hospital.
Traffic generation
The proposed addition of 21 homes will bring significant additional traffic to the square, and impact not just Toland Square but traffic on the main A306 road and the Sacred Heart School that borders Toland Square to the south.
Loss of trees
The proposal indicates that a majority of the mature trees in Toland Square will be felled to make way for the new buildings and their construction. This will result in a significant loss of character and ecological health, not to mention the release of huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
The proposal to replace some of these mature trees with immature trees that will take decades to grow to the same size of our current trees is inadequate. It will also take decades for the same kind of carbon absorption to be present in the canopy of any new plantings. The council needs to take its net zero and climate change commitments more seriously.
Layout and density of buildings
Toland Square was carefully laid out by the original designers, providing density of housing without a sense of overcrowding. The proposed three buildings would significantly disrupt that balance. It would no longer be possible to see across the estate, and the sense of space would be entirely lost by placing buildings in the way of all the open lines of sight. There simply isn’t the room to introduce new buildings that would fit with the original design and character of the square; the proposals seek to squeeze as many homes into a defined space without considering the impact of the larger estate.
Landscaping
The proposals would remove most of the existing landscaping in the square and replace it with inadequate fringes, creating narrow, shaded corridors between buildings rather than the current open design. As just one example, the much loved beds of daffodils between Cline House and Reed House would be entirely lost: the plants would struggle to grow in what would become a shaded spot with greatly reduced drainage due to the proposed new community centre.
In conclusion
These proposals are poorly thought through and would have a significant and permanent detrimental impact on the square and the surrounding area. The plans have been opposed repeatedly and in some detail by residents. This is reflected in the fact that there have been over 1,000 signatures in opposition to these plans despite there being only approximately 125 homes in the square.
We have given serious consideration to the council’s and our local councillors’ pleas for more homes in Wandsworth, but firmly believe that the short-term gain in the addition of 21 homes does not in any way justify the permanent damage that will be done to Toland Square by adding three buildings to an already densely populated space.
Please reject this proposal and application.