Wandsworth Council has submitted a planning application to build 81 homes on a community green space that appears on the Council’s own Policies Map as protected open space (a designation it confirmed just 18 months before lodging the application).
The Green at Arabella Drive on the Lennox Estate in Roehampton is listed as Item 80 in the schedule of “Other Large Protected Open Spaces” under the Wandsworth Local Plan adopted on 19 July 2023. The site does not appear on the Council’s Proposals Map, which identifies land allocated for housing development.
Yet documents obtained by Putney.news reveal that within weeks of adopting the Local Plan, Council officers had already submitted pre-application proposals for “up to 90 new residential dwellings” on what the transport assessment explicitly describes as “open space in the northern part of the estate.”
The policy contradiction
Policy LP53 of the 2023 Local Plan states unambiguously: “Any development which results in a reduction of green or blue infrastructure assets including protected open space… will not be supported.”
The Council now finds itself in the position of being both the applicant seeking to build on protected open space and the planning authority whose own policy says such development “will not be supported.”
Planning application 2025/4170, submitted in late 2025, proposes 81 homes in buildings up to seven storeys on the 1.17-acre site that has served as the estate’s principal green space since the 1970s.
A revealing timeline
The sequence of events raises questions about whether the development was planned before the Local Plan was finalised:
13 June 2023: First community engagement event on estate regeneration
19 July 2023: Local Plan adopted (The Green confirmed as Item 80 protected open space on Policies Map)
August 2023: Pre-Application Transport Assessment submitted proposing 90 dwellings on “open space in the northern part of the estate”
September 2023: Transport Addendum confirms proposals, references pre-application meeting with Council highways team on 5 September
The August 2023 consultation report produced by Tibbalds Planning noted “strong support for retention of the green open space” among residents and warned that “any proposals to change or remove this will need to be very carefully considered.”
One month later, the transport documents revealed the proposal targeted that very space.
Bypassing the examination process
The Local Plan examination (conducted by independent Planning Inspectors in November 2022) is the formal process where proposed housing sites are scrutinised and the public can raise objections. Sites allocated for housing appear on the Proposals Map.
The Green does not appear on the Proposals Map. Had the Council intended to build housing there, the proper process would have been to allocate the site in the draft Local Plan, subject it to independent examination, and allow the Inspector to weigh the evidence (including the significant 1992 precedent).
Instead, the Council kept The Green’s protected status through the examination, then began developing housing proposals for the site immediately after adoption.
A 35-year protection history
The Green has been formally protected since at least 1994, when it was listed in the Wandsworth Unitary Development Plan. In 2016, it appeared as Item 113 in the “Other Larger Protected Open Spaces” schedule of the Development Management Policies Document. The 2023 Local Plan renumbered it as Item 80 but maintained the protection.
The site’s protection was hard-won. Between 1989 and 1994, residents successfully fought off six separate development proposals from private developer Silven Properties, culminating in a landmark 1992 decision (APP/H5960/A/90/173070) in which a Planning Inspector dismissed an appeal for 55 flats.
The Inspector found that The Green was “of value to this locality for a variety of informal recreational uses” and that housing need could not automatically override open space protection where there was “a demonstrable local deficiency” and “community reliance” on the space.
The current proposal for 81 homes is significantly larger than the 55-unit scheme rejected in 1992.
Council’s claims
Consultation materials for the Lennox Estate regeneration emphasise that the scheme will provide “new and improved open and green spaces” and promise “no loss of community or education facilities.” The November 2024 consultation boards state the development will include a “central green” and “pocket park.”
However, the 1992 Inspector specifically rejected the argument that retaining 40% of The Green as open space was acceptable compensation for building on the remainder.
Comment period closes today
The public comment period for planning application 2025/4170 officially closes today, Monday 19 January 2026. The Council refused requests to extend the consultation period, despite the application running to over 1,000 pages and the comment window falling over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
The Council’s planning committee will need to reconcile its own Policy LP53 (which states development on protected open space “will not be supported”) with its role as applicant.
The scheme has already drawn criticism from the Council’s own heritage advisory committee, which unanimously recommended refusal, citing violations of planning policy. Residents have also raised concerns about unexploded Second World War ordnance on the site and restricted emergency access to the estate.
