Council Accused of Running Down Clock on Toland Square Plans
Documents relating to the planning application not published
Residents at a recent emergency meeting with our councillors. Picture: Toni Greaves
February 23, 2024
Residents opposed to the redevelopment plans on Toland Square in Roehampton are accusing Wandsworth Council of running down the clock on its planning application by not publishing details of the proposals.
The application (2024/0389) was registered on 5 February on the council’s planning portal but over two weeks later no documents associated with it have been posted online. Neither have any details been released to residents of the estate.
This has meant that it is not possible for people to review the designs and comment on them.
“It feels like they are purposefully running down the clock on this to push their plans through,” said spokesperson for the Save Toland Square group, Zara Tomkinson. “The day after the plans were filed we asked for a copy and we still haven’t received them.”
Furthermore, the council is treating the application as one which requires only an eight-week registration period. It is argued that this scheme, which includes a new three-story building taking up most of the available green space, and a replacement play structure and recreation centre relocated to between two existing blocks – is a major application and so should require a minimum of 13 weeks processing giving residents more time to make comments. Ms Tomkinson says this issue has been raised with the council, but no reply has been received.
Roehampton’s three councillors - Councillors Graeme Henderson, Matthew Tiller and Jenny Yates - attended an emergency meeting at Toland Square on 10 February in which residents outlined their concerns. The councillors said they would raise the issues highlighted to the person with responsibility for housing in the borough, Labour cabinet member for housing, Aydin Dikerdem. Since then, there has been no communication with residents on the matter according to the Save Toland Square group.
Ms Tomkinson says, “It’s been the same story this entire process. Our views are ignored, the plans are pushed forward, we complain, they promise to listen next time, the plans are pushed forward again, and we’re ignored again.”
Many residents of Toland Square have been strongly opposed to the plans since they were first proposed under the Conservative-run council and have continued to oppose them under the new Labour-run administration.
The centre of Toland Square which is surrounded by homes
They say the proposal would see most of Toland’s Square actual square disappear, while the green space between two buildings, currently covered in daffodils, would be taken up with a replacement community centre, and the garages in the corner of the estate
replaced with a third building.
There are approximately 125 homes in Toland Square; a petition opposing the plans has already received over 900 signatures.
The council has previously defended the decision to proceed with the Toland Square scheme by pointing out that has a programme to build 1,000 council homes to help homeless families in the borough. The new homes will be offered to those wishing to move from over or undercrowded homes on the same estate.
A council said the reason the documents are not yet published is "because the application has not yet been fully submitted so is not yet 'live'.
"When everything has been finalised and the application has been fully submitted and becomes 'live' there will be a statutory period of consultation – but we are not yet at that point."
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |