An unpopular planning application to replace a hardware store in Swandon Way with blocks of flats up to 17 storeys high has been withdrawn in the face of opposition from neighbours.

Planning company JLL Ltd submitted an application to demolish the Homebase in Wandsworth Town, replacing it with three buildings and a total of 324 flats with buildings ranging from nine to 17 storeys in height.

Before the application was due to go to committee on March 23, the applicants requested its withdrawal, which the committee allowed.

More than 150 objection comments were lodged, including concerns of overcrowding on the rail network, congestion on the roads and the heights of the buildings.

In a letter to the council, Philip Whyte from the Wandsworth Society, said: "The proposed tower of 17 storeys, 62m in height, will dominate the residential area to the south, looming over the low-rise flats and houses in the Tonsleys, part of which are within the Wandsworth Town Conservation Area.

"The height of the tower is totally inappropriate as well as being in contravention of the approved Local Plan.

"We are most disappointed with the appearance of the individual blocks, which resemble a regimented 1970s office development, both in massing and in choice of materials."

The letter also criticises the "low level" of affordable housing included in the proposals, set at 21 per cent.

The society recommends that the Schoolyard and Riverside West developments play a greater role in setting the scale and height of developments in the area.

As well as the Wandsworth Society, an objection was lodged by the Tonsley Watch group, which has 86 members.

Its letter stated: "This proposal will have a dramatically detrimental impact on the local area, a view held by the majority of our members.

"This particular proposal is objected to [because of] gross over development of the site, reduction in view and natural light for local homes given the nature of the Tonsleys and the steep slope of East Hill, and reduction in privacy to all local homes and the development would overlook and in fact look into homes."

The applicant has been contacted for a comment.