Councillor Tony Belton’s January, 2017, Newslettter (# 92)
- The most important December event
for many Latchmere and Queenstown residents was the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) decision on 14th December to approve the 14-storey development at 3 Culvert Road. I was very sorry not to be there (see my operation below) but my objections were voiced by my fellow Latchmere councillor, Simon Hogg, who went to the PAC specifically to argue the case against the development, although as a non-member of PAC he could not vote. - I know that Simon, who is the Leader of the Labour councillors, wants to fight the Borough Election in May, 2018, on, amongst other things, the issue of over-development in north Battersea. It is a view that I have held for quite a few years now. Not of course that one can be against all developments everywhere and I am not. But I have seen little evidence that all the expensive, tower block developments along the Nine Elms and Battersea river-fronts have been built to the benefit of the average Londoner – rich foreigners and top-end businessmen perhaps but not too many for ordinary Joes and Joannas.
- If I had been there I’d like to think that the vote might have been 4:4 and in effect decided on the Tory Chair’s casting vote, but alas the application would still have been approved. Now let’s see what Mayor Sadiq Khan makes of the application. I know Sadiq well – he was on PAC with me when he was my deputy in Wandsworth in the early 2000s. Then he would have voted against the application. Now, however, I am concerned that his overall responsibility for ensuring the development of lots of homes in London means that he might not give local objections quite the weight that he would have done 12 years ago.
- One issue that many residents raised with me was the issue of whether the provision of new sports facilities for the Harris Academy (as offered by the developer) could seriously be considered to be a “community” benefit. Some argued that kind of provision should be made by the tax or ratepayer and not considered to be a bargaining chip in the process of planning approvals. I completely agree with the sentiments behind that view. Unfortunately, however, that is no longer the way local government works. We are discouraged more and more from paying for services (and the corollary of raising Council tax) and encouraged more and more to “trade” for them. In Orwellian speak, we bargain with developers over how much “public” benefit they are prepared to provide in return for the Council agreeing to larger and more profitable developments.
- In everyday language, this would be described as selling planning permissions but of course such language is not acceptable. Advocates of this approach claim instead that we are negotiating benefits, which the public might find some kind of compensation for adversely affecting their environment. The scandalous outcome, in this case, is that the actual physical benefit of a new sports hall and associated facilities will go down as an asset in Harris Academy’s books and not as a Council asset!
- Still it was an argument that seemed to convince one of my Labour colleagues, who to my complete surprise and astonishment voted for the application. I intend to discuss this with her further.
- On Monday, 5th December, I represented the Labour councillors at St. Mary Park’s Let’s Talk Meeting at St John Bosco school. I think I have said this before but the Council really needs to re-think these sessions. Designed to keep the public more involved and concerned about local developments, the reality is that they are attended by the “same” group of highly committed local residents, who are all invariably well known to the councillors. The meetings do not impact the lives of 99.9% of the population. It is an example of seeming well meant but pointless consultation.
- On the 7th I was due in Chelsea and Westminster
for a new knee, so to “celebrate” my partner took me away for the week-end (3rd-4th) to the Goodwood Hotel. Delightful it was too; the food was excellent; they have a great indoor pool (jacuzzi and sauna of course) and on the Saturday night we went to Chichester Festival Theatre to see E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View”, starring Felicity Kendall – not brilliant I am afraid; and on the Sunday, we had a beautiful walk round Goodwood Park (see picture), brilliant. - Then came the 7th. Well, I don’t want to go on about my knee replacement. It is after all an operation that plenty of other people have had. To be fair the surgeon did say
12/12/16, Ow!
beforehand that I would find it very painful for two weeks. He was right except that it was at least three weeks. Now four weeks later, it feels something like normal. What do you reckon on this picture of my left leg, a week into recovery? Oh, by the way, I have been told not to show this – self-indulgent one friend says – but here goes! At least it helps the memory!
- The trouble with pain is that it is almost indescribable, unless perhaps one uses poetry, but I am not sure that I am up to that. Indeed, pain is of such an immediate, transient nature, that it is almost impossible to remember. Do you have a clear image of your worst toothache? All I can say is that at its worst I decided to give my knee pain 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I have never before, ever, gone above 6.
My Programme for January
- On 10th January, I have a meeting of Wandsworth’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee, followed on 17th by the Planning Applications Committee.
- On the 23rd January, I have a meeting of the Heliport Consultative Committee. Every “large” airport in the country has to have such a committee as a consultative body between the airport and the local authority and the local communities. Battersea Heliport is the only heliport in the country so large that it falls within this rule. It is though only a consultative committee and it does not have executive powers. So we can advise on the impact of chopper noise on local residents but we cant ban particularly noisy aircraft. One limited bit of good news is, however, that we have been assured that the next generation of helicopters will be 30% quieter than today’s craft.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you, who is standing on the traditional soap box addressing the crowd? And where and when? Congratulations to those two or three people who guessed correctly that the man on the soap box was Harold Wilson, speaking at a public meeting on the way to the October, 1964, General Election. As for where, well; close observation shows the street name as Wakehurst Road, and the meeting to be on the corner of Wakehurst and Northcote Roads. And so, for this month’s mystery question, I am going to turn to you. I have been so pre-occupied with my operation and recovering from a new knee that I haven’t got round to working out a question. So, let me turn the tables on you, my readers, and ask you to pose a Battersea related question that I cannot answer and which I will pose to everyone else, next month.
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 