| 1. Latest on the hacking of my computer that I reported on last month. You may have seen that it got into the Wandsworth Guardian – embarrassing. The account was a little exaggerated – since when do you believe everything you read in the press! The only danger was to me and not to anyone whose email address I happened to have. Except that the hacker could email you, so if you get an email, apparently from Microsoft, delete and do NOT reply!
2. Last month I mentioned the f act that I was going to Hastings for my birthday celebration. I had a splendid time, which I’d like to share with you. My friend is a film-maker, whose dad was an architect. His dad died in 2014 but had had a lot to do with the design of my friend’s Hastings house. It is very high tech, with 64 voltaic cells on the large south facing roof – nothing about the house is anything less than 21st century, almost sci-fi.
3. We also had a great pub meal in old Hastings, which I do love, and went for a decent country walk in the Sussex countryside on the Sunday – all together a great week-end.
4. A week later I went to St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, to hear a concert of Latin American music, given by the Venezuelan pianist, Clara Rodriguez. The programme included a rap poem called Florentino and the Devil, translated from the original Spanish and performed by an old college, Tim Ades. The church was very splendid and we had a good meal afterwards!
5. I had the Education and Children’s Services Committee on 12th April, when we discussed yet again the Ofsted Report! I persuaded the Committee to accept a couple of amendments to the so-called improvement plan, one getting the council to accept that the computer system was the major risk factor in getting this service right and the second was also acknowledging that getting the right person to head up the task of commissioning children’s services was almost as, if not as, important as the computer system. Rather shockingly the Tories had failed to take account of either point!
6. The Ofsted Report was also one of the two main debates at the Special Council Meeting on 27th April. The other debate was about the merger of Wandsworth’s and Richmond-upon-Thames’s staff. This is going to be a massive change in the Council’s operation and will affect all of us in some way or another.
7. There will be a reduction in staffing of about 400; there is bound to be some chaos coming; all residents will be encouraged, or even forced to communicate online; there will also be many more cuts. This reduction of 400 staff is the main element of a £10 million saving, but thanks (!) to the Government’s crazy austerity programme there will be another £50 million of cuts coming over the next couple of years.
8. On the 28th April I was the Labour representative on something called the Children’s Department Special Improvement Board. This is the organisation tasked with bringing the education services up-to-standard. Fascinating, but my reading of the occasion is that in effect locally elected councillors have lost control of the education department to the Government’s appointed “independent” Chairman (sic). Fortunately he seemed to know what he was talking about.
9. The April Planning Applications  Committee (PAC) meeting was on 21st but had no application of real interest to Latchmere residents. But I would like to go back to a Falcon Road application in February, which I did mention in my March newsletter. That was what I called the Tesco application, on the frontage between Patience and Afghan Roads. Here are the pictures again. One of you protested vigorously to me that I should not accept this application about it but oppose it strenuously as being too large and out of character in Falcon Road. Can I just check it out, with you all, before it comes to Committee? Do the majority of you think it is too much? Or do most think that it is in line with the way Falcon Road is becoming? It is after all just about the same height as Hertford Court just down the road.
10. On the morning of the 21st I went to Battersea Arts Centre for an update on the refurbishment of the old Town Hall. The Grand Hall is very much in the hands of the builders but the rest of the building is also undergoing modernisation and re-shaping. The Arts Centre folk are clearly very confident that after the fire disaster of March, 2015, the old Town Hall will emerge Phoenix-like into a bright, new future. Let’s hope that confidence is justified – I think it probably is. (As you may know, in Greek myth, the phoenix is a long-lived bird that is regenerated or reborn, arising from the ashes of its predecessor).
11. I thought I should also mention Lord Dubs, or Alf Dubs as we knew him when he was our MP (1979-87). Alf, a personal friend, is a kinder transport child. That is, he was the 6 year old son of a Jewish father in Czechoslovakia when Hitler invaded in 1938. He was one of several hundred “trained” out, arriving at Fenchurch Street, in a strange country speaking a strange language, with just a small suitcase and a tag tied round his neck. Naturally he feels strongly about the innocent children of political tensions and speaks movingly of the warm welcome Britain gave to the European immigrants of the late 30’s.
12. Unsurprisingly, Alf has moved the motion in the House of Lords to provide shelter, and a home, to 3,000 unaccompanied, probably orphaned, children from Syria. As you probably know, the Government has refused to accept it. Our MP, Jane Ellison, did not support it and as a member of the Tory Government she is in a difficult position. But Jane, I don’t mention you much in this newsletter for obvious reasons, but reading this, as I know you probably will, I call on you to put as much pressure as you can onto the Government to change its mind on this most humanitarian of issues. These are isolated children, trapped in a war not of their making. Surely this, one of the richest countries in the world, can manage to give them a home.
13. I mentioned last month that I and another Battersea Society member were going to spend all day Sunday April 24th driving round Battersea photographing notable buildings and sites, with the hope of getting them listed or safeguarded. I hoped that it would be fun and it was. Although I do not have any results to report just yet, I did think it was worth showing this picture and asking how many of you can place this site? It’s not a mile from the Latchmere pub and it’s not in the Park!
14. Finally, this is my last chance to ask you to respond to the Council’s consultation on the possible introduction of a 20 m.p.h. speed limit in all but the major roads. If like me, you think that 20 mph is plenty fast enough to travel down our residential roads, like Este or Candahar, Holgate or Dagnall roads, then do go to this site, https://wandsworthlivingstreets.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/leaflet-final-17-2-2016-crc.pdf, and let your views be heard.
My Programme for May
1. On Thursday, 5th, we have, of course, the Mayoral Election, Khan vs. Goldsmith. Has this been the nastiest, most unpleasant election campaign any of us can recall? If I said that I thought it was largely the Tories fault, with them using so-called Islamophobia as an electoral weapon, then some of you would say I was being biased. Nonetheless, I do think Zak Goldsmith, who seems a harmless enough Tory, is being made a fool of by a rather sordid campaign team led by Lynton Crosby, its mastermind.
2. On the 18th May, we have the Council’s Annual Meeting, when the new Wandsworth Mayor will be appointed. The Deputy Mayor in the coming year will be my fellow Latchmere councillor Wendy Speck, who I look forward to seeing proudly wearing her mayoral chain.
3. In the afternoon of the 19th I will be attending the second of the Education Improvement Boards, followed in the evening by the Planning Applications Committee. As of today, May looks like being a quiet month.
4. I am going to the Hay Festival over the last week-end of the month. I have never been before and hope to be able to report back on an enjoyable experience.
Did you know? Last month I asked where you can now find the York Road horse trough, with the charming legend – Be Merciful to your Animals. Either it was too difficult, or no one thought it very interesting as for the first time I go no responses! But the answer is: the trough was refurbished and erected for the horses at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, by The Drinking Fountain Association in September 2012.
So sticking to the same theme can you tell me where this horse trough is? And because that is also easy, do you know where else you can find horse/cattle troughs in Battersea. |
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 
On the Falcon Road application you might be interested by the comment of the Clapham Junction Action Group:
https://cjag.org/2016/02/24/proposal-for-15-27-falcon-road/