Thumbs down for Wandsworth Council – and its leader’s sad little emoji

EDITOR’S COMMENT At 29 storeys and a scale that would dominate its part of the south-west London skyline, the proposed Glassmill tower on Battersea Bridge was always going to be controversial. But last week’s decision by Wandsworth Council to reject the development was flat-out wrong. The project must be called in if the government’s ambition to oversee the building of 1.5m new homes isn’t to appear even more pie in the sky than it already does. Rockwell Property and Cerberus’s plans for the development at 1 Battersea Bridge Road received more than 2,000 individual objections and nearly 5,000 signatures on a petition criticising the tower’s scale and height. The developer had cut 10 storeys from the original 39-storey proposals lodged in January 2024 ahead of last week’s planning committee meeting. The number of homes had fallen to 110 from 170, but with a notable leap in the proportion of affordable homes, which jumped from 35% to 50%, all at social rent. Nonetheless, planning officers said the building’s “excessive and dominant” height would “significantly harm the spatial character” of its riverside location. Councillors agreed unanimously. Council leader Simon Hogg then posted about the refusal on X, adding a thumbs-up emoji and using an out-of-date CGI of the original proposals. He turned off the ability for people he doesn’t follow to comment underneath the post. However, reshares from other users called the decision “idiotic”, “abhorrent”, “a disgrace”, “backward” and “embarrassing”. “Wankers win, everyone else loses,” said one. Many called for secretary of state Angela Rayner or London mayor Sadiq Khan to step in. There have been suggestions that a Greater London Authority ruling was always the preferred route for the companies behind the project. Regardless, developers considering a scheme in Wandsworth should remember Hogg’s thumbs-up emoji. That sad little icon suggests just how unserious the council is about seeing ambitious projects such as this improve the lives of its residents, and the pleasure taken in turning down such plans. Its use suggests point-scoring and the worst of Nimby tendencies. Rockwell managing director Nicholas Mee has said the council “has made the wrong call, one that shuts the door on urgently needed homes”. The borough has 11,000 people waiting for homes, he noted, adding: “The Spring Statement made it clear: housebuilding is a national priority and a route to growth. Wandsworth hasn’t just turned its back on the Labour government – it’s turned its back on the people who need help the most.” And while we wait for the next chapter, the 1980s office building on the site has less than 10% of space leased at commercial rates and no financially viable way of being refurbished or redeveloped. If that’s genuinely what Wandsworth’s Nimbys want in their backyard, they might now have got it. Image © Colin Miller