Ground Broken on Major Earlsfield Redevelopment


193 new flats to be built on brownfield site off Garratt Lane

Councillors and staff of Higgins Homes at the site

Work has started on a major project on Garratt Lane in Earlsfield on council-owned brownfield land.

Last week, the Leader of Wandsworth Council, Councillor Ravi Govindia, and Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Jonathan Cook joined Will Higgins, Declan Higgins and Joe Leedham from Higgins Homes at the site.

The site has now been cleared and was previously occupied by vacant council-owned buildings including the Atheldene Centre, some ageing shop units and a car park. It also includes council-owned land fronting Atheldene Road, Wilna Road and Waverton Road.

Plans for the site will deliver more space for the Brocklebank GP Practice plus a pharmacy on the corner of Swaffield Road and Garratt Lane and 193 new homes. Of this total, 86 of these will be classed as affordable.

Councillor Ravi Govindia, Leader of Wandsworth Council, said, “It is a real pleasure to break ground on another exciting project for Wandsworth. This is another great example of how we believe that developments are about much more than simply bricks and mortar. The new health centre and pharmacy on this site, as well as a significant proportion of affordable housing, will deliver the infrastructure improvements necessary to build communities and neighbourhoods that our residents can be proud of.

“It is especially pleasing to see that the scheme has been phased in a way that enables the existing health centre and pharmacy to continue to operate until the new buildings are ready for occupation, thus creating as little inconvenience to residents as is possible on a scheme of this size”

Artist's impression of new Brocklebank Heath Centre
Artist's impression of new Brocklebank Heath Centre. Picture: Wandsworth Council

Dr Nicola Jones, GP partner at Brocklebank Practice, welcomed the prospect of a new surgery at the site. She said, “This is a very exciting development. The new surgery will give us a much-needed boost to GP capacity with upgraded community health facilities. It will be at the heart of this expanding community offering local people access to health support and advice.

“The existing building has served us well but is now out of date. We’re really looking forward to seeing the doors open to local people at the new surgery.”

This development paves the way for the next phase in the wider plans for this part of the borough. An earlier phase of the scheme saw the replacement of vacant and obsolete council-owned buildings with a new 420 pupil primary school – Floreat Academy – plus a nursery for 50 local children.

Councillor Jonathan Cook, Cabinet Member for Housing, said, “This is a significant project that will deliver 193 new homes and we welcome the progress being made with the ground-breaking, converting this underutilised site with something that will make a real contribution to the community.

Of course, this scheme is part of a wider, ongoing transformation of this part of the borough and work has completed on the site of the former housing department and other council office blocks on Wandsworth High Street.”

Declan Higgins, Partnerships Director, said, “We are pleased to announce development has commenced on this exciting project, delivering much needed housing and health facilities within the borough. The ground breaking is a result of combined efforts throughout Higgins, Wandsworth Council, Octavia, the NHS and the GLA.”

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.

 

February 2, 2022