My Latchmere April Newsletter (# 36)

March highlights

1.   Last month, I reported that the Council had decided to “spend” £100 million on Latchmere and Roehampton wards, and that the Big Lottery has also allocated a separate £1 million to Latchmere. Since then I have set up a meeting on 29^th March with the Big Lottery “facilitator”, Helen Garforth – officially the “Big Local Representative”, when she will be able to meet many local interest groups, such as resident associations, youth groups, women’s groups, councillors and town hall officers. Helen will tell us what the Lottery Fund is prepared to grant fund and how we go about putting bids together.
2. Meanwhile we await developments on the Council’s plans for its £100 million infrastructure development, though many who live in the Grant Road, Plough Road, York Road and Falcon Road rectangle will by now have seen the Council’s first publicity flyer on the issue.
3. STOP PRESS. An hour and a half before the 29^th March meeting, there was a shooting in Plough Road. One young man was taken to hospital and, it is said, two others were seen “escaping” on a motor bike. This is not the place to talk about the shooting (I am sure the local Guardian and the police will have things to say about it), but it did mean that we had to move the meeting to Thames School. It also rather dramatically reminded us of some of the issues that need to be tackled in Latchmere.
4. The meeting itself was an early launch of what the Big Lottery Fund is trying to do with 150 projects nation-wide, £1million a time, aimed at helping isolated or more deprived communities to re-generate themselves – far too early though to give anything other than superficial comments. We did, however, learn the boundaries of the area concerned. It was Latchmere ward from the Eltringham School site to Culvert Road, and a small part of St. Mary Park, covering Badric Court and the very bottom end of Battersea High Street.
5.   The Planning Applications Committee met twice in March on the 5^th and 15^th. On the 5^th there were very large developments approved; one in the Nine Elms area, amounting to 1800 flats, plus associated retail and office developments. What with the notification of further very large developments on and around the Sainsbury’s store, Vauxhall and Nine Elms stand to be transformed into a mini-Manhattan over the next few years. I must admit to having my fears about this. First, I just can’t see where all the business is going to come from for the scale of retail development that is envisaged – what with us all increasingly shopping online. I am not at all sure that it will work. Secondly I haven’t seen much evidence of these massive developments adding much to the community. In many of the existing estates such as the one on Chelsea Bridge Approach, the number of residences that are empty for many weeks of the year is scandalous – such a lot of them seem to be owned by foreign companies wanting a London pad for the occasional convenience of their visiting senior staff.
6.   The 15^th March Planning Applications Committee had a lot of much smaller developments, though the approval of the Council’s plans to put 139 flats on to the Eltringham School site was of major interest (and concern) to many Latchmere residents, some of whom were at the Committee. Quite a few councillors expressed disappointment that the design was not very distinguished and that at 9 storeys, at the highest, it was just a bit over-sized, but unfortunately only I and one other councillor voted against it. There was also an approval for an extension in Rowditch Lane which has caused some controversy, with me asking some questions of the Town Hall on behalf of neighbours.
7.   As everyone knows the Government is cutting back on many forms of benefit as from 1^st April. Housing and Children’s benefits are perhaps the best known but some of the implications just might surprise you, as I discovered on 13^th March, when I was asked to join the residents of the Dovedale Cottage alms-houses in a meeting they had with their managers – the Pathway Trust – about their rents and management charges. (Dovedale Cottages are at the corner of Battersea Park Road and Latchmere Road and are pictured here).
8. The charging system is complicated but taken in the round the end result is a rent increase of 20%+. Some of this is down to a straight rent increase but other items include the Council withdrawing a financial support programme for pensioners. Despite writing to the Pathway Chief Executive I am rather afraid that I will not be able to prevent the increase and the sufferers will be the 20-30 residents nearly all of whom are pensioners and not very well off.
9.   On a personal note, I went to visit my Aunt Nen in rural Essex on 16^th March. So what? I hear you say, except that she is 101, as bright as a button and is the younger of the two of us in this photograph! Her family bought her a flight in a glider for her 90^th birthday – don’t think she did anything quite so thrilling a couple of years ago (she is actually nearly 102) but she did have a great 100^th birthday party – and of course has the telegram to prove it.
10.   On the 3^rd and 4^th, I went to Dieppe for the week-end. Why Dieppe? Well it isn’t Calais or Boulogne and it is an easy trip from Clapham Junction to Newhaven and then on the ferry. One problem though is that since they have abandoned the old rail ferries, instead of docking by the station, and essentially in the centre of town, you get left a mile out of town and with no services – OK for us but not what you’d fancy burdened with luggage and/or disability. And on the way back, whilst we were watching France vs Ireland on the box, our taxi failed to turn up and we ended up running and, would you believe it, hitching back to the ferry, which we almost leapt on as she sailed!
11. But one thing they do have organised very well is their public swimming pool. Built right on the beach it has spectacular play pools and Jacuzzis and a 50 metre open-air salt-water heated pool. If you ever go, do remember to take your trunks!
12. Here is a picture of our favourite bar in the old town, which has been much bashed about in the Second World War (though we, English, ably assisted by the Dutch, burnt it down in 1694 when we wanted to curb Louis XIV’s ambitions).
13.   At 4 pm on 31^st March I am going to a one man concert given by the Chair of the Battersea Labour Party, Will Martindale. I am really looking forward to that as he plays the piano and the cello; he plays classical and jazz. He is doing it as a charity event for Epilepsy Action at St. Nectarios Church in Wycliffe Road. If anyone wants to come along I would be delighted to introduce you.
14.   There was a by-election in Southfields on 29^th March. There was a pretty dramatic swing to Labour but the end result was a Tory victory with a 340 majority.

My Programme for April

1. You will be surprised about just how early this newsletter is. That is because I am off on Sunday for two weeks and my first real holiday for some years. I will talk about it next month.
2. I have Finance & Corporate Resources Committee on 17^th April.
3. The Planning Applications Committee meets on 18^th April.
4. And of course every councillor will be busy pestering you for your vote in the Mayoral Elections on May 3^rd. I wont use this newsletter as an electioneering tool – I promised not to when I started it. But if anyone wants help with getting a postal vote or a lift to the polling station then let me, or one of my colleagues, know. Actually as I am away it better be them on wspeck@wansdworth.gov.uk or shogg@wandsworth.gov.uk.

What do you think?

At the beginning of this newsletter I said that the Big Lottery was going to spend £1million over 10 years on funding community facilities in Latchmere and a small part of St. Mary Park. That works out at £100,000 each year. We need good ideas for what to do with it. We could for example argue that £10,000 should go on funding York Gardens Library or £5,000 on landscaping near Chesterton House. But what the Big Lottery Trust wants is our ideas. Do send me your thoughts and let’s make sure we make the best possible use of this £1million. I said all that last month but will continue repeating it for a bit until we get some ideas.

What about a Latchmere Olympics in York Gardens? An afternoon of events for toddlers to grandparents?