A Picture (actually 2 here) is worth a thousand words, so here is a good illustration of what happens currently in the area with new developments.

In reality they’ve removed 8 mature trees, most of them 20-40 years old, to replace them by… nothing.

The nice big green tree shown on the developer’s image is just a fantasy of the drawing that has no substance in real life.  In any case, they cannot plant a 20 year old tree, so any picture that they show is only a extrapolation of what it would be 20 or 30 years later… except that of course 30 years later, the clean white building won’t be so clean and so white anymore…

So based on that experience, you can draw yourself the conclusion for this image used by the Council to illustrate the future developments:

Although the Council claims that Wandsworth is one of the greenest London borough, it has some of the most polluted spots in London. Clapham Junction is even designated as an Air Quality Focus Area due to the high levels of pollutants on the main road [Wandsworth draft local plan 2020].

“Pledges are only a commitment for those who believe in them” liked to repeat a former French president. We already got a good example in 2010 where the Libdems abandoned their pledge to scrap tuition fees in order to get a seat at the government table. Now, shall we believe the Tory Council in Wandsworth pledging to become the greenest inner London borough by 2030?

According to this table, still more effort are needed to fill the gap between political speeches and reality.