Say council plans for new housing are excessive

(L-R) Peter, Greg d’Ollone and Paul Doorly at the Ashburton Estate

April 27, 2023

Residents of the Ashburton Estate say they fear the area will turn into a ‘prison’ if plans to build more homes at the site get the go-ahead. People living in the Putney development claim residents already struggle with problems like mould, that have not been sorted, and are objecting to Wandsworth Council’s proposals in a bid to ‘save’ their community.

The estate is earmarked for new homes under the council’s 1,000 homes programme, which includes buildings at Innes Gardens, Cortis Road and Hayward Gardens. Potential development sites on the estate include garages, storage areas, cycle stores, car parking spaces and a playground which residents want to keep as they are.

The scheme was started by the former Conservative administration with a mix of tenures, but Labour switched all 1,000 planned homes to council rent after taking over in May last year.

Residents told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) they understand new homes are needed but believe the earmarked sites are not suitable for such development – particularly due to strained local infrastructure, with a major school nearby, and the sites being intensively used.

Peter, who did not wish to give his surname, feels “current residents don’t matter” to the council. He said the proposals would bring about the “degradation of [residents’] quality of life, until you’ve got a wall of flats, you’ve got enclosed areas, you’re living in your next-door neighbour’s pocket”.

The 43-year-old said, “They’re spending huge amounts of money putting people on the estate, funny enough in a way that’s going to put more infrastructure pressure on things like drainage, and also it’s going to block more wind flow through the estate because you’re putting big blocks in it and less daylight on the lower flats. They’re doing all of that and there’s been persistent problems on a basic level that… should have been dealt with years ago.”

The LDRS visited a home on the estate with damp and mould which the tenant, who wished to remain anonymous, said lasts for up to five months every year when it gets cold.

Mould in a flat on the Ashburton Estate

Peter raised concerns homes will be “jammed… in where they could, not where they should” and said, “There hasn’t been traffic surveys, there hasn’t been any genuine consultation with the community, there’s hasn’t been any improvement of infrastructure.”

He added the “burden on the Ashburton Estate with regards to the Wandsworth 1,000 homes programme… is excessive”.

When the estate was built in the 1950s, Peter continued, it was viewed as “how people should live in affordable, government-supplied housing, and so the question that I’ve got is what’s happened in the last 60 years that means that people today need less green space, mental health and a sense of community?”

He said a diagram of a potential development site for crews, also seen by the LDRS, showed a five-storey block but the same diagram for residents omitted this information.

Residents slammed the council’s communication about the proposals, including the timing of a drop-in engagement session before Christmas and a short period for initial feedback until 9 January. They said most residents did not know about the proposals, or related community engagement websites until locals went door-to-door informing them.

Peter feels residents have been treated with “contempt” and said a phone number on the community engagement websites was not in service.

Resident Paul Doorly, 57, told the LDRS, “There has to be trust and there has to be a sense that you are being given information and you’re being listened to. We’re not being given information and we’re not being listened to, so we’re already in opposition.”

He said, “The building work and all of this stage, it puts an enormous stress [on] the community so you do get people who are thinking of moving out who don’t want years of this.”

Mr Doorly added, “Once the community’s gone the community’s gone, so our argument really is about saving your community. It’s not about resisting development. It’s not a NIMBY argument.”

Blocks on the estate are arranged around green spaces in ‘U’ shapes, leaving them open to their surroundings. Maria, who did not wish to give her surname, said this gives it “breathing space” but if new blocks are built at the entrances in clusters enclosing everything “they will be much more like a… prison compound” and change the character of the area – with a “very detrimental impact on these communities”.

She said, “This design… with these little pockets of openness here, there and everywhere is… one of the reasons why this has not become a sink estate.”

(L-R) Maria and Peter at the Ashburton Estate

Silvia, who did not wish to give her surname, raised concerns existing flats will lose sunlight and later added the estate would be like a “prison”. She said residents are also “having major issues with mould”.

Silvia said parking spaces are already “constantly packed” and the roads are lined with cars. “People are complaining that they already have difficulty parking and we are thinking how far we are from Putney train station, Putney Tube station,” she said, raising concerns about a loss of parking spaces if new homes are built.

She added, “You cannot just come here [and] the only excuse they use is that housing is needed, [at the] expense of existing residents, when we have listed so many valid points and we haven’t been listened to.”

Greg d’Ollone, 43, described the proposals as “terrible”, adding: “This is the only thing that we’ve got left that’s free here… the space.”

A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said, “We value our residents’ input into our proposals for the Ashburton Estate and are listening carefully to their concerns. The engagement activity that has taken place so far was only an initial conversation with residents to make them aware that plans were being prepared.

“We will be undertaking a comprehensive consultation process in due course and conduct all the necessary surveys with relation to light, traffic, parking and other amenities. In relation to existing issues on the estate, including damp and mould, we are working to address these when they are reported to us.”

Labour councillor Aydin Dikerdem, cabinet member for housing, said: “I know how passionate residents on the Ashburton are about their estate, and we really want to encourage them to work with us on these proposals. While we are seeking to deliver much-needed new council homes, we are conscious that these would be close to people’s existing homes and that the proposals we bring forward must be sensitive to residents’ concerns and ensure that the sense of community felt here remains.

“We are aiming to deliver new council homes across the borough to tackle the council’s waiting lists. These homes will be prioritised for local people and will give families a strong foundation in the communities they have grown up in. In the projects we have delivered so far, and those still in development, we have been successful in building good relationships with neighbours and contributing to the existing communities.”

Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter