Clapham skyscrapers a step nearer (From Your Local Guardian)

Clapham skyscrapers a step nearer

6:40pm Tuesday 30th September 2008 in

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Twin skyscrapers, taller than the London Eye, could be built above Clapham Junction Station if ambitious plans submitted to Wandsworth Council are approved.

At 143 metres the towers will contain 39 storeys of residential units which will create 556 new homes, but no affordable housing - a move heavily criticised by the local MP and community groups.

Schemes of this size usually must have 25 per cent of affordable housing, but developers, Metro Shopping Fund (MSF), said it will invest money on the redevelopment of Clapham Junction Station.

An MSF spokesman said: “The financial contribution will exceed the contribution that would be made towards affordable housing, and will provide significant benefits locally. The value of this contribution is currently subject to discussions with the railway authorities.”

Three floors of commercial and residential outlets would be built around the station, which would have new entrances and better access.

A new two-level pedestrianised shopping street would offer shops, cafes and bars and one of the towers would offer a one-acre roof top garden with restaurant and art house style cinema, providing “an exciting opportunity to transform Clapham Junction station and kick start the regeneration of the area”.

The spokesman added: “Ultimately, it is they [Battersea residents] who will benefit from the new facilities, which we hope will create a vibrant and sophisticated new heart for the area.”

The Battersea Society, a group which looks at conserving Battersea, said investment was needed but that Wandsworth council needed to set out a “coherent vision” for the area.

“Without an overall plan we fear the proposed new shops may damage, rather than benefit, the existing shopping centres in St Johns Road and Northcote Road,” it said.

The group also criticised the absence of affordable housing. “What many people will latch onto is the height of the proposed towers . . . and the developers have not proposed to make any contribution to meeting the need for affordable housing,” it added.

That sentiment was echoed by Battersea MP Martin Linton, who said any deal to improve access the station should be separate to the housing issue.

He said: “Unless there is an explicit deal otherwise, affordable housing is nothing to do with Network Rail [which runs the station], but a decision between Wandsworth Council, developers and the Mayor.”

He added the council’s planning committee now had to decide whether buildings in Wandsworth should remain on a “human scale”.

He said: “We have lots of 20 storey buildings in the borough but I don’t think we need anything higher than that.

“Do we really want Wandsworth to be like Vauxhall and the City? I prefer the human scale and I think the majority of local people do too.”

The application will be heard by the planning committee early next year, by which time other issues such as funding and transport access around the site will become clearer.

For updates on the development as we get them visit yourlocalguardian.co.uk.