Battersea Bridge Skyscraper Fails to Get Planning Approval
Councillors reject 'grossly unacceptable' 29-storey tower
CGI of the proposals for One Battersea Bridge. Picture: Farrell
April 28, 2025
Controversial plans to build a ‘grossly unacceptable’ 29-storey tower at the bottom of Battersea Bridge have been thrown out. Wandsworth Council rejected developer Rockwell’s scheme on Thursday night (24 April), after ruling it failed to follow policy or meet the needs of the local community.
The council’s Planning Committee unanimously turned down Rockwell’s proposals to replace the six-storey Glassmill office building, on Battersea Bridge Road, with a 29-storey tower containing 110 flats – including 54 flats to be offered at social rent. The plans also included workspace for small businesses, a restaurant and hub for local charities.
Council officers recommended the scheme for refusal ahead of the meeting, after stating the site sat in a mid-rise building zone in the Wandsworth Local Plan for 2023 to 2038, where a maximum of six storeys, or 18 metres above ground, was considered appropriate. They added the scheme would only make a ‘modest contribution’ to the borough’s annual need for homes, when considered in the context of homes already built and in the pipeline.
Councillors agreed the tower would be too big for the constrained site, spoil the skyline and ‘devastate’ neighbours’ lives. They said there was no guarantee the level of affordable housing that had been proposed would actually be built in the tower, as it would be subject to further viability tests if approved.
Conservative councillor Caroline de La Soujeole argued the application made a ‘total mockery of the council’s policies’ and had attracted ‘unprecedented public opposition’. She said: “Residents have also expressed significant concerns over loss of daylight and sunlight on neighbouring properties, as well as overshadowing and privacy concerns.”
Councillor de La Soujeole added, “Given this is a small site with significant and unresolved access constraints, there’s likely to be significant disruption to the local community during building works from construction traffic, and in an area which is already heavily congested and where there have been fatal road accidents in recent years.”
A letter from Labour councillors Jessica Lee and Jamie Colclough, read out by a council officer at the meeting, said: “Our residents think it’s important to send a loud and clear message to developers. Schemes like this that ignore the local character and put profit ahead of improvements to the local area and people’s wellbeing just aren’t welcome here in Battersea.”
It added: “We will always support social housing, but our residents are going to be the ones that live through the impact of this development and its construction. For this to be worth it, the overall good from the application needs to justify the harm and in this case it falls well short.”
Conservative councillor Ravi Govindia also slammed the scheme as ‘grossly unacceptable’.
Rob McGibbon, Editor of The Chelsea Citizen, launched a Change.org petition in June opposing the plans, which gained more than 5,000 signatures and support from celebrities including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Felicity Kendal, Anthea Turner, Harry Hill and Lord Browne of Madingley.
CGI of the lower floors of One Battersea Bridge. Picture: Farrell
Mr McGibbon, who lives in Chelsea near the site, thanked supporters of his campaign after the meeting. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “This planning application had more flaws than floors and I am delighted that the council saw through it. This was a vote for common sense and for people power. I congratulate the committee on their unanimous decision and huge credit must go to the officers at Wandsworth Council who prepared a highly detailed 132-page report that forensically tore this scheme apart.
“The committee meeting was full of damning statements from councillors about Rockwell’s plan and they laid bare all the problems that it would have caused. I hope that the company now scraps the scheme altogether and that they do not appeal. This was the wrong scheme, in the wrong area, and they took on the wrong community.”
The application also drew 2,005 objections on the council’s planning portal and 1,892 letters of support. Objectors had raised concerns over the credibility of the support letters as many followed the same template and were uploaded in batches, although Rockwell previously said gathering voluntary letters of support through canvassing and advertising was standard industry practice.
Rockwell now has six months to decide if it wants to appeal the council’s decision. The application could also be called in by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who could overrule the council’s decision.
Nicholas Mee, Managing Director at Rockwell, told the LDRS, “Wandsworth Council has made the wrong call, one that shuts the door on urgently-needed homes. It’s blocked 110 new properties, half at social rent, far exceeding the borough’s own affordable housing targets. Meanwhile, 11,000 people in Wandsworth are still waiting for a secure place to live. Across London, 80,000 children don’t have a permanent home.
“This scheme still has the potential to change things for the better. More than 1,800 residents and 100 local businesses backed it. They know what this means: fewer families in temporary accommodation. A stronger local economy. A fairer borough.
“The Spring Statement made it clear: housebuilding is a national priority and a route to growth. Wandsworth hasn’t just turned its back on the Labour Government – it’s turned its back on the people who need help the most.”
Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter