Wandsworth Council has said Transport for London’s plan for Wandsworth town centre does not go far enough, just as the consultation on the proposals enters its final days.
In a budget paper approved by the council’s Cabinet at its meeting on 12 October, the authority said TfL’s proposal “does not deliver the level of improvement that the Council considers to be necessary”. The consultation closes on Friday 6 November, and a second drop-in event is being held today, Tuesday 27 October, from 3pm to 7pm at Brathway Hall on Brathway Road in Southfields.
The plan covers the High Street, East Hill and the town centre’s one-way system. It would add three new pedestrian crossings: two on the High Street, one between Garratt Lane and Fairfield Street and one halfway between Putney Bridge Road and Wandsworth Plain, and a third across Fairfield Street at Armoury Way.
Waiting areas at bus stops outside the King’s Arms and the Town Hall would be widened, and the bus lane would be extended to Buckhold Road. Some roadside bays near stops and in bus lanes would be removed, changed or moved, and a loading bay on the High Street would be removed, with loading moving to Wandsworth Plain.
TfL says the proposals aim to make buses more reliable and walking and cycling safer and easier around the one-way system. The authority expects buses on route 170 southbound and routes 37 and 337 westbound to run two to four minutes faster in the morning peak, and most car, van and motorbike journeys through the town centre to be around two to five minutes quicker in the morning peak. Northbound traffic from Battersea Rise towards Wandsworth Bridge would take two to three minutes longer in the morning, and new bus lanes on Swandon Way would stop south-westbound traffic turning right into the BP station.
A smaller scheme than the one scrapped last year
The current plan is considerably smaller than the scheme to remove the town centre’s one-way system altogether, which TfL scrapped last year, citing high construction costs and longer journey times. That decision left the council pushing for an alternative, and the new proposals are the result.
The council’s budget paper takes £18 million out of the money set aside for the Wandsworth Town Centre Transformation Scheme. The council’s programme still lists £6.3 million for the scheme, of which £1.3 million is committed this year and £5 million sits in a pool for future years. The paper says revised lower-cost proposals are being drawn up, though it does not set out what they contain, and the council will continue to make the case that investment “will be dependent on the scheme meeting the Council’s ambitions”.
Helen Cansick, TfL’s head of healthy streets investment, said the plan would make the town centre easier and safer for people on foot, on bikes and on buses. “We look forward to hearing from residents,” she said.
Station lifts on track for summer 2027
Separately, work at Wandsworth Town station is progressing, with lifts and a second entrance on schedule to finish in summer 2027. The £20 million project, run by Network Rail, will put lifts on all four platforms and add a second entrance with a ticket hall at Odyssey Way on the north side of the station.
Piling for the lift shafts is nearly finished, foundations are due to finish in November and the shafts themselves go in during February 2027. Stairs to Platform 4 are closed until the work finishes, with a two-minute walk to a temporary footbridge, but the station stays open throughout.
The council first announced the project in June 2022 and work started in February this year. Some 3.75 million people used the station between April 2024 and March 2025, making it the 15th busiest on the South Western Railway network. Cllr Nick Austin, Cabinet Member for Transport, said it is “great to see real progress being made at our rail stations”.
Residents can see the survey, maps and proposals at haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/wandsworth-improvements, where the survey takes no more than 10 minutes. The consultation runs until Friday 6 November, and no decision on the proposals has been taken yet.
Elsewhere in the capital, the Elizabeth line faces 10 days of disruption over Christmas, while 29 overnight closures are scheduled on the M25 this week.
