Battersea Untangled Meeting with Wandsworth Borough Council: Meeting Overview
Purpose of Meeting: To introduce Battersea Untangled and present preliminary comments regarding the Battersea Design & Tech Quarter.
Items Discussed:
General Intro
Battersea Untangled was formed by local residents to engage with the Council on issues related to local development. As such Battersea Untangled strives to present the views of the community, its needs to and will work with all parties to ensure that community benefits and improvements are at the core of any new development.
Battersea Untangled Comments on BDTQ
Discussion covered Battersea Studio 3 current planning application and the Battersea Design & Tech Quarter (BDTQ) a Wandsworth Council initiative to reconsider development within 3 zones: 1-Havelock Terrace, 2-Ingate Place and 3-Silverthorne Road.
Regarding Battersea Studio 3:
Concerns that this development is moving forward as a standalone development without larger concern for the context and future sculpting of the BDTQ.
The draft local plan in which Battersea Studio 3 is located has had little public input.
The long-term plan for Battersea Studios includes the demolition of the existing Battersea Studios Building 1 (BS1) and the construction of 3 additional buildings.
The mini campus will be privately owned and will offer little community improvement.
Regarding the BDTQ:
We would like to see more in-depth attempts at community engagement on the BDTQ and more collaborative efforts made to bring all stakeholders to the table. (i.e. landowners, community, developers, and Council)
Zones 1 & 2 of the BDTQ may have the potential of providing community improvements in; connectivity to the Northern Line Extension/Power Station, new public open space and links to currently underutilised areas.
The proposed vision for Zone 3 (Silverthorned Rd) may be problematic for the local community. The proposed development along Silverthorne Road is quite dense, does not fully consider the current concrete batching plants or provide a strategy for the bus depot, and lacks a coherent vision of how to create good open spaces for the public.
There are missed opportunities that should be integrated into the plan. Community engagement and stakeholder engagement has the potential to alleviate some of these concerns.
Further engagement between the Council and Network Rail, the major landowner in the Silverthorne Rd site, would be beneficial.
Preliminary suggestions for improvements to the BDTQ were discussed.
Council Response
The Council thanked the group for their thoughts and considerations and offered the following:
Community engagement
The Council acknowledged that this is an important issue and will look to create a platform to ensure the community’s voice can be heard.
The Council hopes to further engage with Battersea Untangled as the group forms and grows to represent a wider community voice.
BDTQ
Presently, the Draft Local Plan is the best format to provide feedback to the issues listed.
The Council has made efforts to engage with Network Rail but have thus far been unsuccessful in getting their buy-in. They are open to Battersea Untangled further brokering these meetings and getting more people around the table.
The Council could see expanding the aspirations of the BDTQ to include some of the issues highlighted, but would aim for that to operate on a longer-term basis as they do not want to obscure and overdensify the draft Local Plan.
Next Steps
Collectively define an engagement plan and platform for Battersea Untangled as a community, to integrate into the BDTQ.