July 12, 2018  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea July, 2018, Newsletter (# 109)

 

  1. First a couple of outstanding matters that I know will concern some of you. I have heard nothing further about the 14-storey development so many of us dread, at the corner of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads. As far as I know the building works still await the resolution of contractual matters.
  2. Secondly, I still haven’t heard of a definite resolution to the “flooding lift” problems that affect Clark Lawrence, Shaw and particularly Sendall Courts – hopefully they are all working satisfactorily now, but please let me know if they are not.
  3. The first June in the four-year cycle of any Council (this one being 2018-2022) is always an unusual time. We have had apparently endless induction meetings and annual meetings, and to cap it all we have new technology to cope with as the Council has supplied us all with new laptops. That may sound good to you all, but the main motivation is the Council’s desire to eliminate paper and get us all to work online, hence saving the Council money, particularly on postage. OK, even great, I can hear many of you say. However, in my case at least, this change does not complement my present way of working but merely duplicates and complicates it all. I can hear you say, even now, something about old dogs and new tricks!
  4. On Saturday, 2nd June, I visited the Share Centre’s Garden in the grounds of Springfield Hospital. The Centre, Share Community Gardenbased in Altenburg Gardens Battersea, is devoted to providing, in the words of its website “training and employment support for disabled people”. Gardening is of acknowledged therapeutic benefit and the Centre put on a good show much enjoyed by, from the left, Councillor Fleur Anderson, me, my partner Penny and Share Centre Director, Annie McDowell, pictured here.
  5. On 3rd June, we went to the National Waterloo Bridge, 1900Gallery to see the Monet & Architecture Exhibition. For art lovers I fully recommend a visit and for those, not so far interested, then this would be a great start. Monet’s painting of Waterloo Bridge and the South Bank as they appeared from the Savoy Hotel in 1900 gives just some idea of what industrial smog in London was like 120 years ago.
  6. The next day, 4th June, I was at Christ Church, at the junction of Cabul and Battersea Park Roads, to hear a presentation of the War Comes Home 3Battersea Society’s “War Comes Home” oral history by Carol Rahn. The Church Hall was packed with well over 100 people in the audience. The presentation was the culmination of work done by Carol, Jenny Sheridan and Sue Demont. Their research was based on interviews with residents, who had memories of life in Battersea during and immediately after war-time bombing. By definition most of those were over 80 years old and some of them were there on the 4th. It was a brilliant presentation and if anyone wants a copy of Demont’s associated booklet The Bombing of Battersea, then let me know. The picture shows Carol Rahn telling the story.
  7. On the 5th June, I visited Deliveroo’s Battersea kitchens. Hidden in industrial Battersea between all the rail-tracks, they were a fascinating example of new technology applied to an ancient trade – the restaurant business. The way it works is that there are half a dozen efficient, modern kitchens in one factory, serviced by one delivery network and one chain of suppliers but with, of course, different chefs and different cuisines. Like many people concerned about working conditions in the so-called “Gig Economy”, I asked questions about Deliveroo’s employment practises. Whilst I was not totally re-assured, it was good to hear that they now have a £10 million insurance scheme to provide some assistance in the event of their deliverers not being available for work or suffering industrial injuries – including from traffic accidents. Deliveroo demonstrated to me that it is beginning to respond to proper political pressures.
  8. One of the compensations for working at the IMG_2531Town Hall is that it is so very near the National Opera Studio, near the Southside shopping centre, Wandsworth. The Studio puts on lunch-time concerts at the conclusion of every academic year. This year’s concert was on 6th June. The stars are, of course, the students who come from all over the world to be trained in Wandsworth. Here are Bechara Moufarrej and Emyr Wyn Jones singing a duet from Bizet. They and all the others at the concert were fabulous and, as you can see, the concert is in a very “intimate” setting. It is well worth a visit to any music lover and especially for those who like to spot a future operatic star.
  9. On Friday 8th June, we went to Wilton’s Music Hall, Whitechapel. If you have not been and, like going to the theatre, this really is an unusual “must”. The only old fashioned nineteenth-century music hall left standing in London, it is an event in itself, but we went there to see Sancho, a monologue by Paterson Joseph. Sancho, Charles IgnatiusPaterson, a black British actor, wrote this work about Charles Ignatius Sancho. He was born in about 1729 in Columbia and died in 1780 in London. It was not known whether he was, at first, a slave but by the time of his death he had been painted by his friend, the famous artist Gainsborough and he counted famous actors and artists amongst his best friends. He was the first black man, that we know of, to vote in a British General Election. He voted for Charles James Fox, a famous abolitionist (of slavery) in a Westminster election. The play was witty, subtle and clever. It was acted in a one-man tour de force by Paterson, himself.
  10. And so, on 12th June to, of all things, the North East Surrey Crematorium Board. Way back before the merger of the old Battersea and Wandsworth Borough Councils into the modern Wandsworth Council, Battersea bought 120 odd acres of land in rural Morden. They recognised that there would be a shortage of land for burials and decided to buy some relatively cheap, out-of-town land. The Board, which has members from Wandsworth, Merton and Sutton Councils, meets at the Crematorium or, more usually, Sutton Council offices. It was a fascinating morning including a tour of the ovens and explanations of what happens to non-human body parts, such as artificial knees, heart pacemakers, etc., but perhaps not for the faintest of hearts!
  11. The following day, 13th June, I met people from Battersea Power Station. The main purpose was to get an update on current developments and to lobby for a re-instatement of the 250 affordable units that were cut from the development plans earlier this year – no movement yet. But as a by-product of the visit I happened to see one of the Peregrine Falcons that have nested in the Power Station for 18 years and have fledged 32 juveniles. In 2013 the Peregrines were encouraged from their nesting site on the Power Station to a tower crane in order that restoration works could commence.Peregrine Falcon juv Their most successful breeding seasons have been on the purpose-built tower. This year they have again been successful, fledging one juvenile, known on site as ‘ Solo’. A male, he is currently learning his trade from the adults. Black Redstarts are also again on site so two rare species grace the Power Station, a unique occurrence in London for both species and even more so with regeneration taking place. The picture of Solo is taken by the site ornithologist David Morrison, an outside expert and occasional consultant.
  12. On the 15th June, we went to the Vaudeville Theatre to see Oscar Wilde’s play The Ideal Husband. Witty and acerbic as ever, I discover that Wilde was far more of a feminist than I had previously realised, although given his sad story as a much-abused homosexual perhaps I should use a different word than feminist. But, in any event, this was great fun beautifully acted by, amongst others, Edward Fox (the Jackal in the Day of the Jackal) and Susan Hampshire.
  13. On Sunday, 17th June, as part of the IMG_2548Wandsworth Heritage Festival, I led a small group on my history walk from the Latchmere pub to Battersea Arts Centre, via the Park, the Latchmere and the Shaftesbury Estates. We passed this foundation stone, deeply hidden and unannounced in Grayshott Road. Does anyone know it? If not then keep an eye open for it if you are ever walking along Grayshott.
  14. The Community Services Committee was held on 21st June. Two items were of particular interest to some parts of Battersea; one was the declaration of Public Space Protection Orders with regards to the Falcon Road area and the Patmore and Carey Gardens estates. These orders give more powers to the Council and the police to control the public drinking of alcohol. The second was an item proposing that there should be NO change to the controlled parking zone in Little India. I know that the second decision is unpopular with some residents but it was based on a public consultation carried out by the Council, and the majority answered with a “no change” verdict.
  15. June’s Planning Applications Committee was on 26th. The largest and most interesting application concerned a large site in Tooting High Street, but there was also one small application for two 3-bed houses on the highly contentious garden site of the old Prince of Wales pub, on the corner of Battersea Bridge Road and Surrey Lane. The Prince of Wales pub is, I am afraid, lost for good.
  16. On the 28th June there was a Finance and Corporate Resources Committee. I am not a member of this committee and don’t usually report on it. But this meeting forecast that next year the Council is going to have to find savings of £12 million and the year after of another £22 million. The Government’s suicidal attacks on local government seem endless and endlessly self-defeating. Amongst many other costs bed-blocking in our hospitals is bound to rise as social care in the community, especially for the elderly, gets hammered!
  17. On the 29th June I attended two events, the first at the Arts Centre and then at the Friends’ Meeting House in Wandsworth High Street. The first was to mark the retirement of Phil Jew, Director of the Wandsworth’s Citizens Advice Bureau. Phil has been the Director for the last very tough five years at the Bureau. In these years of so-called austerity (I think it has been of unnecessary dogma imposed by the Tory party – but that’s another story), the Bureau has been dealing with large cuts to their funding base and increasing demands as Tory cuts bite.
  18. The second was the Annual Meeting of the IMG_2561Wandsworth Historical Society, where we heard a fascinating presentation about Edward Foster, a Wandsworth resident, who won a VC (Victoria Cross) in April, 1917, for his bravery in capturing a German machine gun emplacement during the First World War. This incident took place near the small French village of Villers-Plouich, where it is commemorated in a town square, called Place de Wandsworth! Ted Foster himself became quite a famous veteran. Standing at well over 6 feet he was known as the “Gentle Giant”.
  19. In early June commuters and passers-by were surprisedIMG_2536 and delighted by the visit of Shallowford Farm to Falcon Road. Farm animals, sheep, chicken, ducks, and tractors appeared in the Providence House car park. The chicken and ducks revisited on 30th June at the Falcon Festival, which this year was bigger and better than ever. The farm is on the eastern edge of Dartmoor and is a joint venture with Providence House. It will be well known to many Battersea residents as Providence House youth club runs many regular residential outings to the farm. The picture is of our M.P., Marsha de Cordova, on board one of the tractors.
  20. On the evening of 30th June, we took our niece and her husband to the Royal Opera House to see Puccini’s La Bohème. It was meant to be grand opera and grand it certainly was but it was also highly political, positioning the harsh conditions faced by the poor bohemian students against the opulence of bourgeois Paris. It was a suitable end to a month which began with a visit to Wandsworth’s Opera Studio and finished at Covent Garden.
  21. Finally, this may all sound like fun social events but, like every other month, I also had half a dozen other meetings about ward and party business, which were all necessary but hardly of great public interest – so I don’t report on them!

 

My Programme for July

July looks like a quiet month with only the Council Meeting on 11th July and the Planning Applications Committee on the 19th. JayCourt1I will have to come back from Devon for that as I have a week booked up in Devon in mid-July. And at present that is that for July.

Do you know?

You may remember that I asked last month whether I should stop this feature as I thought it might be getting a bit stale! But, by popular request, here it is back again!

Park South is the name of this privately-owned tower block on Battersea Park Road. But before it was sold by the Council it was known as what exactly? And who or what was that in memory of and why?

 

About Tony Belton

Labour Councillor for Latchmere Ward 1972-2022, now Battersea Park Ward, London Borough of Wandsworth Ever hopeful Spurs supporter; Lane visit to the Lane, 1948 Olympics. Why don't they simply call the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Lane? Once understood IT but no longer

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