Controversial housing plans by Wandsworth Council have become a flashpoint in this week’s West Putney by-election, with all three main parties focussing efforts on the Ashburton Estate.
Residents of Hayward Gardens, Innes Gardens and Whitnell Way have reported multiple visits from all three parties’ candidates, as well as their general election candidates, as Labour battles to keep hold of a crucial council seat and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seek to persuade residents to vote for them instead.
The situation is also reflected in the campaign literature, with the Liberal Democrats headlining their leaflets “Labour Isn’t Listening” and the Conservatives telling voters to “Send Labour a message” by voting for a different party.
The Labour Party meanwhile doesn’t mention the plans in its leaflets, focussing instead on things Wandsworth Council has done, like new food waste collections and two new libraries. (Go to the bottom of this page to view scanned copies of the parties’ leaflets).
Housing shortage
At the heart of the issue are no less than four planned developments on the Ashburton Estate in West Putney which form part of Wandsworth Council’s 1,000 Homes programme. The council has paused other budgets and taken out a £450m loan to build new council-owned buildings that it says are desperately needed to combat a growing wait list for housing.
While some new buildings in Wandsworth have been welcomed, however, plans for the Ashburton Estate, as well as nearby Toland and Aubyn Squares, have faced fierce local opposition and hundreds of residents have written to the council to object.
According to the Liberal Democrats, there have been 469 objection comments and just 2 in favour of the plans. Some objection comments also comprise petitions signed by multiple people, so the actual number of people objecting may be much higher.
Among the objections, residents say the plans will take away their only green space, make an already bad parking situation worse, cut down hundreds of mature trees and damage the local community by changing the layout of the estates and by adding too many people into already densely packed areas.
Opposition has also extended to public services with Executive Principal of the Ark Putney Academy, Alison Downey, arguing [pdf] that the proposed new buildings in Hayward Gardens would have a “detrimental impact on our school environment and the well-being of our students.”
Angry exchanges
The strength of feeling is such that some residents of Innes Gardens have printed out stickers that read “No Labour leaflets or canvassers” and stuck them on their front doors.
How fed up with the Labour Party and Wandsworth council are Ashburton residents? They’ve created their own stickers to tell them to buzz off. #WestPutney #voteLibDem pic.twitter.com/xUc7qWT6uM
— Putney Liberal Democrats (@PutneyLibDems) April 14, 2024
According to locals, the level of anger and frustration stems from the fact that the plans have been through three consultation periods, with residents invited to attend and give their views, but on each occasion the council has made little or no changes to their plans in response to extensive feedback, giving the impression that the council is determined to push through the plans regardless.
One resident of Innes Gardens told Putney.news that there were angry exchanges last week between residents and Labour party activists when they visited in an effort to bolster their vote ahead of Thursday’s election.
All the proposed buildings would be built on land the council already owns with local councillors acknowledging that this is because it will keep costs down, but residents point out that in many cases that land is either their only piece of green space, or it is their estate’s parking lot or storage area.
Irony
The 1,000 Homes programme is the centerpiece of the Council’s plan for the Borough and comes after the Labour Party took control of the council for the first time in over 40 years in 2022 vowing to fix a shortage in council-run homes.
Ironically, many of the proposals that the Labour-run council is now pushing were first proposed by the Conservatives when in power, and were actively opposed by Labour.
Labour argues that it has changed those plans to make them 100 per cent council-owned as opposed to part council-owned and part sold on the open market. With the current by-election in West Putney, the Conservatives now find themselves in the position of opposing plans that in some cases they originally proposed.
Gallery of political leaflets for West Putney by-election. Click on each to see a higher-resolution version.
