Wandsworth Council has signed a £359,690 contract to demolish Block A of the Alton Estate. The contract, awarded to Alpine Demolition last week, commits public money to creating a hole in the ground. What fills it depends on funding the council doesn’t have, a legal challenge it hasn’t resolved, and an election it may not win.
This is the latest milestone in what the council calls a landmark regeneration. The ballot in October 2025 produced 82% support (from those who voted). Only 34% of eligible residents voted yes. Nearly 60% did not vote at all.
Since then, the planning committee approved Block A in March: with an acknowledged £12.6m funding deficit, a right-to-light legal claim the council’s own external lawyer confirmed must be resolved before the scheme can proceed, and a dedicated youth space 219 square metres smaller than the one it replaces. The council’s press release made no mention of any of these.
Now comes the demolition contract.
What the money will do
Alpine Demolition will tear down the former Co-op building on Danebury Avenue, which has stood empty for years and which the council itself described as a “long-standing eyesore.” That part is straightforward.
The problems start with what is supposed to come next: a nine-storey block delivering 55 council homes alongside a new library, GP surgery, youth centre and community hall. The council does not have confirmed funding to build it. The wider £100m regeneration plan carries a £77m external funding gap that was revealed in council papers six weeks after the ballot, having not been presented to residents during the vote.
The right-to-light claim, brought by a leaseholder at Hersham Close, remains live. The committee approved the application anyway. The council’s own legal adviser told members at the planning meeting that this issue must be satisfied before the scheme can move forward. It has not been.
And on 7 May, Wandsworth goes to the polls. The last time political control of the council changed, in 2022 ending 44 years of Conservative rule, the previous Alton regeneration plan was scrapped entirely. The scheme the demolition contract now serves was written by the current administration. There is no guarantee it survives a change of leadership.
Twenty years of this
The Alton Estate has been promised renewal since at least 2006. Three regeneration schemes have collapsed before this one. The Co-op building being demolished this month has been an empty shell for years, and a depressing entry point into the estate for longer; its dereliction is itself a product of planning uncertainty.
What residents have seen delivered under the current plan: new playgrounds getting close to completion, a refurbished (but not renovated – it doesn’t have disabled access for example) community hall – Focus Hall, which reopened last month – and new fencing around a listed temple that remains inaccessible to the public. The demolition contract is the biggest commitment made so far. It is a commitment to remove something. The commitment to build something remains unresolved.
The contract documents are restricted. The public cannot see the tender, the competing bids, or how the £359,690 figure was reached.
Residents with concerns about the demolition or displacement can contact the council’s lead officer, Bernard Brennan, at Bernard.Brennan@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk, or Cllr Matthew Tiller (Labour), the Roehampton ward councillor, at cllr.m.tiller@wandsworth.gov.uk.
