Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea November, 2017, Newsletter (# 101)

1. On 9^th October, I was due to be on the platform at Shaftesbury ward’s version of the Council’s Let’s Talk meeting, but, unfortunately, I got substituted. This was a pity, because it turned out to be a bit of a bunfight between outraged voters and Tory councillors, Cook and Senior. Neither are known for pulling their punches or retreating from a fracas and with, an angry audience, the evening must have had its highs and lows. One thing is for certain the evening embarrassed ex-Tory now Independent Councillor Jim (James) Cousins. Jim, a senior member of the Wandsworth Tory Cabinet for many years, now writes an interesting blog at jamescousins.com, which includes coverage of that evening. Many of us are waiting with bated breath to see if he is going to challenge the Tories at next May’s Council elections, meanwhile his blog makes a well-informed commentary on some aspects of Wandsworth Tories.
   

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2. The 11^th October, Council Meeting, was as unexciting as I predicted it would be. Nowadays, we councillors don’t even get answers to the questions we ask in Council (a bit like Prime Minister’s Question Time but without the answers! Can you imagine PMQs without the answers!). This is important for me, and on this occasion for some of you, as this month I asked about an issue bothering many residents of the Latchmere Estate and what’s more I promised them an answer. BUT I am afraid I don’t yet have an answer and can only apologise to those of you still worried about this neighbourhood issue – hopefully I will have one soon.
   

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3. I have been concerned about some of the back-land developments that have recently been given planning permission. One particular development that has concerned me is one in Cabul Road, which I visited on the 13^th October. First, it strikes me as being very close to the rear of the houses in Rowena Crescent (from which this photograph was taken) and secondly because the developers have chosen to use their own building regulations inspector rather than the Council’s. The freedom to do this was granted by David Cameron’s Government in one of the crazier anti-regulation moves made in recent times. It leaves the poor neighbours with no recourse to an independent arbiter. I await developments with interest.
   

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4. On the 14^th October, I and maybe 150 others attended the launch of Sally Warren’s bid to win the Thamesfield by-election on November 9. Sally makes a very impressive candidate, very local, friendly, extremely articulate and committed. Labour won Thamesfield way back in 1971 so clearly winning next month, for the first time since then, has to be a long shot. But the Tories are currently in such disarray, that anything is possible.
   

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5. On the 15^th, I attended an “awayday” think session on how we, Labour candidates, are going to tackle next May’s election. We held it on a glorious autumn day, in the bucolic surroundings of Manresa College – part of the Roehampton University campus. The mood was buoyant but we must avoid complacency. I have been on the verge of two other Borough elections we were “certain to win” only weeks before the event – on one occasion General Galtieri launched the Falklands War and overnight turned Mrs. Thatcher’s fortunes from being the most unpopular PM in modern history into Saviour of the Nation!
   

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6. The October meeting of the Planning Applications Committee was on the 18^th. There was one application, which I know is a cause of concern to residents of the Battersea Fields Estate and that was the extended permission, for three years, to Harris Academy to use their playground for a car boot sale. It is now 18 years since the school first got temporary permission and during that time there have been plenty of objections, as well as a lot of support for the “market”. It is often tricky when developments are given “temporary” permission as too often they then seem to go on for ever.
   

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7. On the 20^th I went to County Hall to see Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. I don’t mean the modern City Hall, near London Bridge, but the old County Hall standing on the Thames alongside the Eye and boldly facing Parliament. The play, staged in the old debating chamber, was splendidly done and I recommend it to everyone – though it is not a cheap evening – it was almost worth it just for being in the chamber. You can see my review of the play on my blog site at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/.
   

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8. On the 23^rd I went to see Iannucci’s Death of Stalin, a film which I was looking forward very much to seeing. What a great subject! A film about a man, who my working-class London family (and many others) revered, in war-time, as Uncle Joe, much more, to their minds, the saviour of embattled Britain than the Johnny Come-Lately Yanks. Yet Stalin later turned out to be a tyrant and an ogre. The film had also had rave reviews and plaudits from many friends – but I found it vaguely disappointing. Somehow treating the death of this giant historical figure, both responsible for millions of innocent deaths and saviour of the Soviet Union, as the centre of a farce was massively inappropriate. Did one care whatever happened to the ghastly Beria, or the cowardly Malenkov or the scheming Khrushchev or any of the other villains of the piece? Well, I didn’t. It is billed as a “dark comedy”, but I guess I found the subject a little too dark to be very comical.
   

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9. On the 30^th I had a meeting with planners and designers about the so-called Winstanley Re-generation scheme. The scheme is, at last, beginning to get under-way. It is aimed at maintaining the number, but vastly improving the quality (and looks), of social housing available in Battersea, but it is also providing private sector housing for sale and rent – very much in line with the London Plan and the city’s population growth. However, one thing I wish to put on record, is that the largest tower blocks, which, dominate the models and drawings, have NOTHING to do with Winstanley regeneration. They are instead related either to the Council’s plans for major developments in York Road or to the plans for Crossrail 2. Crossrail 2 and the potential new interchange at Clapham Junction does not yet have any funding or Government approval, and even if does get approved it will not happen until at least 2030. And all the developments in York Road are already happening now regardless of Winstanley regeneration.
   

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10. Late in the month, I made a point of going to look at Tooting Common’s

    grand “Chestnut Avenue”, which you may remember I highlighted last month when it was due to come under the council chop. On the left you can see the mature chestnuts, before the axeman came, and on the right the new lime saplings. From maturity to fragile immaturity almost overnight! Whether you think it an environmental disaster or good husbandry, it certainly makes the point that landscape design and planning is a multi-generational project and not something to be resolved in one electoral cycle.

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11. On the 31^st October, I took Year 6 pupils of Falconbrook School on a 75-minute tour of the Winstanley area. Obviously most of them live on the estate and know it very much better than I do – but they don’t know it in an adult or geographer’s way. I hope that they found following the course of the Falcon Brook, the naming history of the estate and William Mitchell’s concrete sculptures interesting. I certainly enjoyed it and, if keeping 30 odd 11 year-olds’ attention for 75 minutes is a measure, then it went well.

My Programme for November

1. On 1^st November, my partner Penny is hosting a book launch in the Speaker’s House, Westminster. The book is about Arthur Onslow, the Great eighteenth-century Speaker of the House of Commons so Penny and the author wrote to Speaker Bercow to ask for use of “his” House to launch the book. The House, in the corner of the Palace of Westminster, next to the Big Ben tower and facing over the river, should make an impressive venue.
2. The next day, I am going to CAW (Citizens Advice Wandsworth) Annual General Meeting at Battersea Library.
3. On the 6^th I have a meeting of Wandsworth Conservation Advisory Committee.
4. I hope to go to WOW (Women of Wandsworth)’s Annual General Meeting in City Hall on 8^th November.
5. On the 9^th we have the exciting and surprisingly tight Thamesfield by-election.
6. The Second Providence House Fund Raising Dinner is on the 11^th November and the Council’s Civic Awards dinner is on the 14^th. And, of course, on the 12^th there will be Remembrance Day services across the Borough.
7. I have the Community Services Committee on 15^th November and the Planning Applications Committee on 22^nd.
8. On Saturday, 18^th November, there is something called the London Councils Summit held in the City of London’s Guildhall. All councillors from across London are invited to attend and the Summit is usually addressed by the Mayor and a Government Minister. It should be an interesting day.
9. Marsha de Cordova, Battersea’s MP, and I are hosting a Reception for new members of the Battersea Labour Party in the House of Commons on 23^rd.
10. The Battersea Police Ball, the Borough’s largest and brassiest charity big bash, takes place in Battersea Park on the 25^th.

Do you know?

Last month: not many of you appeared to be very interested in why this boat moored at Vicarage Crescent is called Ringvaart III. According to Wikipedia, Ringvaart is a 38 mile circular canal, built 1839-1845, as part of Holland’s land drainage system. It is also a commercial, industrial and recreational canal, part of the very extensive Dutch commercial waterway. This houseboat, being extensively renovated by Joel and Rosie, must have started its life hauling freight around Holland until some enterprising sailor decided to take this river/canal boat across the North Sea and into the Thames.

As for my question this month: it relates to the Kambala Estate, the red-brick, 2 and 3 storey estate on the west-side of Falcon Road. The street names on the estate are Fawcett Close, Coppock Close, Hicks Close, McDermott Close, Wolftencroft Close (note 2 ‘f’s and no s), as well as Ingrave, Wye, York, Mantua and Kambala. Forget the last 5, Who or what were Fawcett, Coppock, Hicks, McDermott and Wolftencroft? Can you answer just one or all five?