London’s only licensed heliport has objected to a developer’s plans to build a giant 35-storey tower next door.
Wandsworth Council is considering developer Heliport London Ltd’s proposals to build the tower in Battersea, overlooking the River Thames, with up to 143 flats.
London Heliport’s owners have sent a letter to the council briefly outlining their opposition to the scheme, over safety concerns, ahead of submitting a more detailed objection.
The heliport provides the capital with commercial and fire and rescue services, meaning it offers a rapid response to incidents involving helicopters in London and supports other emergency services – including the London Ambulance Service, Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, RNLI and Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
An objection letter from William Curtis, Managing Director of London Heliport, also known as Battersea Heliport, said: “Such a development proposal, so close to an operational heliport in the middle of a capital city, presents unique, immediate, and obvious considerations in relation to a host of technical and other issues, including but not limited to air safety and foreign object debris risk which, in the interests of flight safety and the safety of those on the ground or in buildings around the heliport, must be carefully assessed before the planning authority can determine the application.
“As the Battersea Heliport operators, we will need time to take technical, planning and legal advice on the application. Please take this letter as a formal holding objection to the application by Battersea Heliport, pending a more detailed objection to follow. As a consultee we would expect the council not to determine the application until it has received our further detailed objection.”
The plans have so far received 53 objections on the council’s website, with residents raising concerns about the tower’s proposed height, risks it could pose to the heliport’s operations and traffic levels. Five letters have been sent in support of the application.
The tower would be the tallest building in Battersea, replacing an empty five-story office building, known as Heliport House, and two industrial garages on Lombard Road. It would have workspace, a residents’ gym and play area on its lower floors.
The council approved plans to add a 15-storey tower on top of Heliport House in 2014, with no affordable homes, but this was never built. The latest scheme proposes a much bigger tower containing 51 affordable homes, out of 143 homes overall.
Planning documents said the scheme would be ‘unlikely to cause unacceptable cumulative impacts visually, functionally or environmentally’ and that it would be an ‘appropriate tall building’. They argued the development would ‘deliver numerous and weighty public benefits… which would be unfeasible in a smaller scheme’.
The documents added: “The principle of residential use on this brownfield site is strongly supported for a variety of reasons set out in both the Local and the London Plan. The site is allocated for residential development and would deliver an iconic design through the building’s richly articulated form, its slenderness and elegance, which would enhance the local townscape, cause no heritage harm and aid with wayfinding and legibility from a wide range of views.”
The council will decide on the plans in due course. The agent of the application has been contacted for comment.
