Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August, 2017, Newsletter (# 98)
- I said last month that I was off to Sardinia for a
week on 24th June, with the grandchildren. We had a great time in a “resort”, which, whilst not exactly my style, was good for the kids with four (!) adult and kids’ pools and plenty of good mainly, but not exclusively, Italian food. The first few days were, however, soporifically hot. Global warming really is making much of the Mediterranean almost impossible for summer holidays – except for lobsters of course. Here is the clan, minus me the photographer.
- I got back on the evening of 1st July, hoping to get to the Falcon Festival, but was too late. The Festival started in 2016 and will now hopefully be an annual event. I am told it went really well and that the Battersea Labour Party stall, with a guest appearance from our MP, Marsha de Cordova, was a great success – I am sure that our stall will be a regular feature of the Festival in the future.
- On 4th July, I had a meeting of Wandsworth Council’s Heritage Selection Panel. 456 heritage assets were reviewed, by the Battersea Society and the other Wandsworth ame
nity societies (Balham, Putney, etc.). The meeting ran for more than three hours and nominations for the various categories were put forward for final approval. The categories include:-
- post boxes, e.g. VR (Victoria Regina post boxes in Battersea Square)
- boundary markers
- blue enamel street signs
- ghost signs, like this Peterkin Custard ad on St. John’s Hill (Do you know it?)
- “street furniture” such as granite setts, York paving stones, the electricity sub-stations and sewer sink pipes, etc.
- English Heritage blue plaques.
The full revised list will be submitted to the Council’s Heritage committee in September.
A private company has mapped all these assets on to a “geographic database” and in future we have the exciting prospect of being able to research all these assets on-line, placing them in our neighbourhood and seeing images of them as well.
- On 5th I was rung up by Poppy Naylor, a politics
student at Graveney School. She asked me if she could “shadow me” for a month or so and learn something about politics at both a local and practical level. Over time, I have had university students studying, say, journalism, who have worked with me writing news stories as part of their course, but I have never had a school student looking for some work experience in politics, prior to deciding whether to study the subject at university. It struck me as an interesting project and so now meet Poppy, for a month at least part of the team! And here is her contribution!
“I approached Councillor Tony Belton in the Summer of my first A Level year as I wanted to find out more about politics at a local level. Our politics course at Graveney School focuses on government and parties at a national level. I felt I knew a little about councils and how they worked. By the time I attended my first council meeting, I knew I understood absolutely nothing. I was very grateful that Tony had given me the opportunity to start to figure things out.
So far, I have attended a Labour group meeting and a council meeting in Wandsworth Town Hall. The meeting rooms are very grand and the council meeting itself seemed to run along the lines of the debates I have seen in the House of Commons. It was encouraging to see how united everyone was in the light of the Grenfell Tower fire about implementing the correct safety measures in Wandsworth. There was a real grass roots and local feel to these meetings. Councillors talked about how the Grenfell fire had touched the lives of some constituents who lost family that night.
It has been an interesting experience so far to see how decisions are made locally that can affect our everyday lives. There is still a lot that I wonder about.”
- A couple of councillors have for some time now
organised annual week-end trips to battlefields to commemorate the part that Wandsworth military men have played in either World War I or II. This year the trip was to Villers Plouich, near Douai, over the week-end 7th June to 9th June. The village was totally obliterated 100 years ago in 1917, but was liberated by troops from Wandsworth, and particularly Battersea. This was such a major event in the history of the village that there is a square called “Place de Wandsworth”! But my favourite story of the area was of this man, who only 10 years ago discovered this World War l tank buried in a bomb crater – after a dozen years of looking! It was one of the first ever used.
- We had a Council Meeting on 12th July. The main debate was about the truly awful Grenfell Tower disaster and its implications for us here in Wandsworth. I wrote about this last month and about our concerns, but the Council Meeting was an opportunity, a month later, to discuss and review the steps that Wandsworth has taken to ensure the safety of our residents. Clearly, we were all shocked by Kensington & Chelsea’s abject failure. We can only hope that we have taken all necessary steps to avoid such a disaster in Wandsworth.
- The sheltered housing residents of D
oris Emmerton Court, Wynter Street SW11, had a BBQ on 14th July. They invited me and I was delighted to attend, even if I did get there a little late. Doris Emmerton Court is a purpose-built sheltered housing block of 66 flats for older people aged 55+ who choose to live independently in the community with access to support offered by the sheltered housing officer.
A couple of hours later, Poppy and I were at the Battersea Society Summer Garden Party in the grounds of St. Mary’s Church on the river-front. It is one of the most spectacular spots for such an occasion, that one could imagine. No one that J M Turner painted river scenes here, but about 200 years ago when the view was just a little different!
- I won a pair of tickets to the men’s
final at Wimbledon on 16th July! (N.B. I won the right to buy them! This was not a freebie) I took Marsha with me – see the dreaded selfie! As for the game itself, Federer was, of course, immaculate even if Cilic was over-awed and injured. Perhaps the second match, in which Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis defeat Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen, was the more entertaining spectacle.
- On 20th July, I had the Planning Applications Committee, which on this occasion was very important for the future of Battersea. The first application, relating to a site opposite the Dogs’ Home, was to demolish Palmerston Court, and the Pavilion and Flanagan’s pubs and to replace them with 4 buildings up to 16 stories high, comprising 162 residential units, a replacement pub, retail and some open space. No doubt the 162 units will be useful but only 25% of them will be “affordable”, that is far too expensive for, say, the majority of first-time buyers! What is more, we all know that demolishing a vibrant community pub like Flanagan’s is rather more important than just replacing bricks and mortar. The replacement pub, in perhaps 5 years’ time, is extremely unlikely to have the same roots in the community as Flanagan’s. This application was opposed by the Battersea Society and the Labour councillors but was passed by the Conservative majority! No doubt the fact that the development will bring £6+ million into the Council’s coffers also had some influence on the decision!
- The second major application referred to the Candle Factory site. This time we are talking about a 25-storey block, containing 136 flats and a gym. 21% of these units will be “affordable” and the contribution to the Council’s coffers will be £4.9 million. The result of the discussion was much as the Flanagan’s debate; opposed by the Labour councillors and supported by the Tories, though interestingly enough one of the Conservative councillors representing the area spoke against the application!
- And on 21st July I was off on hols, again. I am making up
Ramsay McDonald’s home, Lossiemouth
for a couple of years without a big break by having a few short breaks this year, including 10 days in Scotland, one of my very favourite destinations. One place I had never been to before was the small fishing village of Lossiemouth, just north of Aberdeen, where I came across this house. It was, and is, the birthplace of Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924 and 1929-1931, and, famously and contentiously, the Prime Minister of the 1931-35 National Government. I wonder whether any other British Prime Minister came from such a humble background.
- Last month I did say that I would say something about the news from the Finance Committee of 29th June, re Tours Passage and Falcon Park. Unfortunately, there is not a lot that I can say other than that the Committee decided to allocate £174,450 to the Tours Passage (between Maysoule Road and the railway) scheme and £115,000 to the Falcon (Banana) Park scheme. One of my constituents can take much of the credit for the Tours Passage allocation, as she has lobbied for it for years, and I like to think that I had something to do with the Falcon Park scheme. However, despite the precise nature of the budgets, I am told that the schemes are not yet worked through in any detail and that we must wait until the autumn for that.
- Suffice to say that with the Council still intent on putting in an artificial playing surface in Falcon Park, I argued that money should be spent on improving the use and landscaping of the northern area of the Park, where the Latchmere Road cut is situated. The allocation for Tours Passage is simply at present for “environmental improvements”.
- By the way other allocations in Battersea included £165,000 for the Wandsworth Common, Chivalry Road play space scheme; £74,000 for the Wandsworth Common, St Mark’s play space; £220,000 for the Fred Wells Gardens refurbishment scheme; and £334,000 for a Battersea Arts Centre scheme.
My Programme for August
August really is our recess (or holiday season) and my only commitment is to the Planning Applications Committee on the 23rd – after two years of elections and, of course, the Referendum a complete month off is very welcome. But in September, we will be straight into the build up to and the campaigning for the May 3rd, 2018, Council election. We have high hopes of making considerable gains and clawing back the advantage the Tories have had over us for nearly forty years.
Opinion Piece
Given my comments last month about our MP’s (Marsha de Cordova) stance on the Brexit/Remain issue, I think I should draw your attention to what she said in her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 17th July. You can read, or view it in full, on various websites but I thought I should highlight the following extract:-
“As you can see, Mr. Deputy Speaker, in Battersea we are outward-looking and internationalist. It is that outward-looking spirit that I will endeavour to bring to Parliament. With the decision to leave the European Union, we face serious challenges ahead of us. It was a decision that my constituents care deeply about and voted overwhelmingly against. I will be standing up 
for them, drawing on that outward-looking Battersea tradition, one that values openness, tolerance, social justice and co-operation”.
Do you know?
The Barbara Hepworth statue, pictured here by the lake in Battersea Park? Well one of the organisers, Ian, of the Doris Emmerton BBQ I mentioned above, challenged me, and you, to name the location of its rather larger identical twin. Does anyone know?
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 