The proposal includes 5 tower blocks up to 16 storeys high, which would make them significantly taller than anything else in Old Malden. These heights are incompatible with tall buildings policies of all three Boroughs.

Under the London Plan (Policy D9 B3) “Tall buildings should only be developed in locations that are identified as suitable in Development Plans”

In the Kingston Core Strategy 2012(Policy CS 8) the Council did not identify the gas holder site as suitable for tall buildings. As Kingston updates its Development Plan, it has produced a Draft Tall Buildings Strategy which also fails to identify any of the surrounding area as suitable, and states that tall buildings should be located in urban centres. This is based on several criteria: low Public Transport Accessibility, the prevailing character of the area and lack of tall buildings, lack of local economic activity, Metropolitan Open Land and biodiversity.

The London Plan (Policy D9 C3) also goes into detail about the appropriate visual impact of tall buildings in terms of the design, form, proportions and their relationship to the surrounding area.

Paragraph 3.9.3 states tall buildings should be “appropriate for their location and do not lead to unacceptable impacts on the local area.”

It should be noted that Sutton also has a Tall Building Study that reached similar conclusions to Kingston. This was then incorporated in to its Local Plan (Policy 28: Character and Design). Merton’s tall building policy (D12.6) can be found within its Local Plan here.

It should come as no surprise that all three Boroughs that meet at the gas holder site are aligned, and consider this to be an area unsuitable for tall buildings under their policies.

Kingston’s Site Assessment 2019 calculated the site suitable for 78 to 166 homes based on Suburban character and PTAL of 0.

If you are objecting to the height of the proposed buildings, we would recommend stating what height you might find acceptable.