Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere October Newsletter (# 77)

September highlights

1. At the start of the month, I went for a week to a little fishing village in Croatia. There is nothing to do there, except swim and eat fish. I don’t do sun bathing but I do like fish. I also did more swimming than ever before in my life – some attempt to make up for an otherwise sedentary life-style. I also read Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-first Century”. OK, it’s not everyone’s idea of holiday reading and it clearly makes me a nerd. But actually I enjoyed it as well as finding it stimulating. It clearly put me ahead of the curve as later in the month John McDonnell, Labour’s new Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that he was setting up an economics workshop starring half a dozen international economists, including Piketty. By the way, if you are not a nerd but want to read a left-winger’s view on wealth and poverty in the modern world, then I recommend it.
2. On my last day in Croatia, Jeremy Corbyn was announced as Labour’s newly elected Leader. I am not giving away any party secrets by saying that not all of my colleagues were delighted. Indeed I rather think that I was the only Wandsworth councillor to vote for him – I even got described by one colleague, in a good humoured aside, as “an old leftie”. As it happens, no one who knew me in the 80’s fighting Militant in Wandsworth would ever describe me as such – indeed, they would have rolled around with laughter.
3. But if I am not a “leftie”, I do think I probably owe it to Latchmere constituents to explain just why I voted for someone, who at the moment most people think cannot possibly return Labour to power, perhaps not even return the party to a role of significance. So here goes: I supported Tony Blair from the off and originally I supported his war on Iraq; But I was disillusioned by the “weapons of mass destruction saga” and believe that Labour is very damaged until that war is repudiated: I am frustrated by Labour’s failure to tackle the Tory spin about austerity: I am concerned that Labour is not opposing strenuously enough the cuts, which the Government is making across the board: I didn’t think that the other leadership candidates had any better ideas about how to tackle the cuts programme. Given the public cynicism about politicians I rather like Corbyn’s image of “Straight talking: Honest politics” – the thing is, I am not a cynic. That very briefly is why I voted for Jeremy. And why I believe he will be good for Labour’s approach to politics, even if he doesn’t look like a winner – did his opponents look any more likely to be winners?
4. Sadiq Khan was also, of course, elected as Labour’s candidate to be London’s Mayor. You may recall that I said Sadiq had been a fellow councillor of mine in Wandsworth for 12 years, indeed he was my deputy as Labour Leader in Wandsworth. I actually voted for Tessa Jowell on the basis of her track record of achievement over the years (the Olympics), and as a woman candidate I thought she was better placed to beat Zac Goldsmith. However, congratulations to Sadiq – I am sure that he will make a great Mayor – he will certainly be an assiduous campaigner.
5. On 5^th September my fellow Labour councillors, Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and I, went on a Latchmere ward Walk-about, making notes of fly-tipping, graffiti and pot holes, noting waste land and traffic hazards and reporting our concerns to the Town Hall. We intend making this a regular event. On this occasion we took particular note of this flamboyant graffiti in the Falcon Park/Latchmere Road pathway. We thought it rather Banksey but were not too keen on its rather cynical view about politics!
6. The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) was held on the 16th September, and again there really was nothing of any great significance on the agenda. Although with Homebase nearly empty and work starting on the 28 storey block in Lombard Road, we will soon begin to see the impact of recent PAC decisions
7. I was booked into the Labour Party Conference from 26^th September to 30^th, but had a disastrous time! Nothing to do with the Conference but I booked into 2 separate hotels and one after the other they cancelled out on me because they had done the old trick of over-booking. So I ended up spending only two days at the Conference. The weather in Brighton was, of course, fantastic. Everyone, well everyone I met, was in a good mood and the leadership speeches (McDonnell’s as well as Corbyn’s) at least had the merit of being refreshingly new.
8. The Princes Head’s, Falcon Road (pictured right), failed to have its licence renewed in June, much to the delight of some residents I could name. That must be some kind of statement of just how badly it was run – pretty rare for pubs to fail to get their licences renewed. The question now is what will happen to the site. There is planning permission for a block of flats, but when will work start? How long will it be left as it is now?
9. In September, councillors were expecting to make the decision on whether Battersea Park would be used for another 5 years of E-Racing. However, the Council has had so many public responses that it has decided to take another few weeks considering exactly what to recommend councillors to decide. I still await to discover what all the consultation amounts to. Does the delay mean, for example, that the Council is surprised by the weight of opposition to the idea? Or not? Surely a decision is going to have to be made in October. (PS It has just been announced that the decision will be taken on 24^th November).
10. On 24^th September, I was invited to talk to Battersea Park Rotary Club about Battersea’s history. They have their lunch upstairs at the Albert Pub, opposite the Park entrance. Here is a picture of club President and Latchmere resident, Senia Dedic, and I at the lunch. (Because of the occasion I had postponed my history walk into October – see my October programme below.)
11. On one sunny Saturday, I went to the unveiling in Vardens Road of a blue plaque to Hilda Hewlett. In 1909, Hilda was the 10^th Briton and the first woman to be
    

    Pauline Vahey, Chair of BritishWomen Pilots’ Assoc, Gail Hewlett, Hilda’s granddaughter-in-law, Cllr Nardelli

    granted a pilot’s licence. She is commemorated along with other Battersea notables in the mural in Dagnall Street. Perhaps even more unusual then, and even now, was that she was an engineer, interested in building aircraft and indeed she had her own factory in Vardens Road where some 500 World War 1 aircraft were built. In this picture Pauline Vahey, Chair of the BritishWomen Pilots’ Association, the Mayor (Cllr Nardelli) and Gail Hewlett, Hilda’s great granddaughter-in-law are sharing a joke.

12.  Many of you are very interested in the future of Falcon Park and the proposed astro-turf pitch “planned” for the Park. The latest position is that the Council is considering the results of the consultation, but is unlikely to put in a planning application until early 2016. It was never, by the way, the Council’s intention as some people seem to believe that this pitch would be in any sense temporary – the Council doesn’t do that kind of thing temporarily for £1+ million.

My Programme for October 

1. On October 6^th, I will be attending the Covent Garden Market Authority’s AGM. The centre point of the occasion will be a presentation of their massive plans for redeveloping Covent Garden Market. We know the outlines, of course, but there are still many incomplete details about what will be one of the largest developments in London, perhaps only second to the Power Station developments.
2. The next day I will be at the Katherine Low Settlement’s AGM. KLS is one of Battersea’s largest and most active community centres and I look forward to being there.
3. And on the 8^th I will be touring Battersea Arts Centre to see progress on the “recovery” from the March fire.
4. On the week-end of 10^th/11^th October I will be joining a group of councillors on a trip to the First World War battlefields at Ypres in Belgium – and just to re-assure the cynics, councillors will be paying for the trip out of their own pockets – there is absolutely and quite rightly no public money being spent on the trip!
5. The Council Meeting is to be held on 14^th October. I do hope that we have a decent debate but on recent performances I am afraid that is unlikely!
6. On the 15^th, I have the Planning Applications Committee and the day after that the Education Committee.
7. At 3 pm on Sunday 18^th October, I am doing my “history walk” from the Latchmere pub to the Battersea Arts Centre. It takes about 2 hours and is pretty well guaranteed to show you a new side of Battersea, even if you have lived here for years and years. All-comers are welcome and so if you are interested please let me know by email – though I should make it clear I charge £10 as a fee, which goes towards my election expenses!

Did you know?

No one answered last month’s question: “how many places and names can you think of in Battersea named after Lady Di’s family, the Spencers, Lord of the Manor of Battersea. I wonder whether I will get a better response this time by asking which local (and I mean local and not Chelsea or Fulham) soccer team won the FA Cup and when?

Meanwhile back to last month’s question: what place names are associated with the Spencer family. Well, the story of the intertwined Spencer and St. John families is so massively complex that I can’t possibly write it all here – books have been written about them. But here are just some of the many, many connections between the families and Battersea! Spencer Park (both the park and the road) and Spencer Road – until 20 years ago there was also a Spencer Park secondary school; and just maybe the Spencer Arms; Althorp Road, named after the Spencers’ Northamptonshire country home; Marcilly Road named after the second wife of Viscount Bolingbroke, Beauchamp Road, named after Margaret Beauchamp a family ancestor; Bolingbroke Grove, and the Academy, Bolingbroke Walk, the Bolingbroke Pub (both the new and the old), St. John’s Road, St. John’s Hill, Sir Walter St. John’s Sinjun school. There are many more!