Plans for 449 new homes to be built in Tooting’s Springfield Village development are expected to be approved at City Hall next week, despite the local council rejecting the scheme.
The project, which represents the final phase of re-developing the land around Springfield Hospital, was refused planning permission by Wandsworth Council in March this year.
The authority had argued that the homes would affect the “openness” of a site classed as ‘Metropolitan Open Land’ and that it would put “unreasonable pressure on public transport and surrounding road networks”.
But a couple of months later, Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe, wrote to the council informing them that he would be reviewing the project himself and will potentially overrule them by allowing it to go ahead.
Now, in an 81-page report prepared by City Hall officers ahead of a public hearing on Tuesday, Mr Pipe has been recommended to approve the scheme, mainly because it would make “a substantial and positive contribution” to local and London-wide housing targets.
The development would comprise 167 one-bedroom homes, 225 two-bedrooms, and 57 three-bedrooms. Of the total, almost half - 220 - would be classed as ‘affordable’, with the remaining 229 made available at market rates.
The properties would be contained within four apartment blocks ranging in height from three to five storeys, along with nine three-storey townhouses.
The report also outlines how the four-year construction programme would provide employment opportunities, and how the homes would enable the creation of 2.7 acres of open space as part of the new Springfield Park.
Responding to the council’s concern about building on Metropolitan Open Land, which is supposed to enjoy the same level of protection from development as the Green Belt, Mr Pipe’s officers said any harm caused would not be “substantial”, and was outweighed by the fact that the homes would “contribute to meeting an identified affordable housing need”.
Addressing the point about increased congestion on local roads, the report found that “the uplift in vehicle trips will have a negligible impact on the surrounding highway network” and that measures could be taken to encourage greater public transport use, such as by increasing the frequency of the 315 bus.
The revamp at Springfield Hospital forms part of South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust’s plans to re-develop and build new mental health facilities in the area.
Two new mental health units at the centre of the scheme are already open, along with the first and largest part of Springfield Park.
Developers Barratt London and STEP - whose plans have been backed by the NHS trust - said that building the 449 new homes would unlock crucial funding for new facilities at Tolworth Hospital, which treats 1.2m patients across Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.
Some 839 new homes have already been approved at Springfield Village, with the latest application therefore proposing to boost the total to 1,288.
The deputy mayor’s public hearing will be held in the chamber at City Hall (Kamal Chunchie Way, London E16 1ZE) on October 8, starting at 1pm. It will also be livestreamed.
