Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August, 2018, Newsletter (# 110)

1. To start with a serious point on building control. Once upon a time Building control regulations and their application were overseen by the state, or an arm of the state, in this case local authorities, with the result that most of us could live in peace and accept that any building works happening in our area were shall we say “kosher”. But in the last few months I have had a worrying increase of cases, where constituents have complained of damage consequential on neighbours’ building “improvements”. One constituent complained that not one room in his house was unaffected by the extensive works next door – walls were cracked, windows and doors open and close less easily than they did before, foundations damaged, etc. And in the last month another constituent has reported being seriously worried about the standard of workmanship in a neighbour’s back extension.
   

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2. It was Mrs Thatcher, in her dogmatic “escape” from the “Nanny State“, who removed the need for “independent”, state, building controls, when she allowed architects and contractors to employ their own building inspectors. It was in future to be self-regulation – the kind of system that we have seen fail in the City and everywhere else that the Tory party has rebelled against so-called “red tape”. Of course, the system did not collapse immediately after Thatcher introduced her so-called reform. But, with time, the temptation to cut costs has become too great for some.
   

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3. So, my current case, in a Victorian street, not a million miles from the Latchmere pub, concerns “Authorised inspectors” from a “building control” company, who have withdrawn from the job, mainly I think because they did not have the clout to impose decent standards on the builders. They were only “authorised inspectors” in the sense that they were being paid to do the job and the company is a somewhat grandiosely entitled small company founded in 2006. I am sure that it probably does a good job and has good professional standards. It does not, however, have the enforcement powers that the local authority has. Hopefully Wandsworth Council will now step in and enforce decent standards, but not until after my constituents and their families have gone through agonies and quite possibly considerable expenditure.
   

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4. We are, collectively, paying a dreadful price for the anti-red tape ideological revolution that the Tories are unleashing on us. Most people will know of the destruction of the Probation Service, the chaos of the Benefit System, the mayhem in the education service, not to mention of course the Health Service, but my point is that it is rampant in even the most unconsidered corners – building regulations!
   

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5. The Council’s Building Control unit does occasionally have great successes. Here, for example, is a pub, which used to be called the Artichoke, on St. John’s Hill. It was almost completely demolished, without planning permission, when the Town Hall got working with its enforcement powers. I don’t know when it is due to be re-opened but it doesn’t now look too long into the future. The moral is: if you see some cowboy developments, complain to your local councillors. S/he can’t solve everything but there are still some building standards to be enforced.
   

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6. Enough of sermonising! July was, of course, spectacular for the heatwave and fortunately we did not have a heavy load of Council business, other than the “usual” business meetings, of which the Council Meeting on 11^th July was outstanding. It was a big occasion for quite a few members as they were making maiden speeches. All of them were very good but I think my favourite was from the new Queenstown councillor, Maurice McLeod. I had never heard him speak before but he brought a distinctive and powerful voice to the debate, making the important point about lack of diversity amongst councillors.
   

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7. Two days later we went off for 10 days in Devon and Cornwall, with the kids, and then off to Shallowford Farm. The farm, pictured here, provided the farm animals you may have seen in Falcon Road, this summer and works with Providence House Youth Club. By which I mean, that up to 18 youngsters at a time visit the farm on Dartmoor and have a great time learning about a rural life, a million miles from Battersea; about feeding the animals, mucking out their sheds, etc. Providence House and Shallowford Farm do a great job, expanding the horizons of many Battersea kids. If you want to know more then consult: www.shallowfordfarm.co.uk.
   

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8. From Dartmoor, we went on to visit one cousin in Newquay and another in Polzeath. The weather was sensational – so sensational that I actually swam in British waters four times in 8 days. Quite something.
   

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9. I did, however, come back for the day on 19^th July to attend the Planning Applications Committee. There were a couple of interesting applications affecting Battersea. One was in Gowrie Road, off Lavender Hill, which was an application to demolish the whole house, except for the façade of the house and build inside it a completely new house twice the size of the current one. The street scene will be unchanged and so there are few grounds to refuse the application, but inherently with such major works, there must be potential for cracked walls and complex party wall agreements – see earlier paragraphs.
   

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10. The second was an application for further development at the Royal College of Art campus, at the corner of Parkgate and Battersea Bridge Roads. This was an improvement on an already agreed development. It is a major educational establishment of London-wide importance but might turn out to be hugely controversial for some residents!
    

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11. The largest application related, however, to Springfield Hospital. It was for 829 properties, a new park, and a school, but it included the closure of the nine-hole golf course. It turned out to be fairly uncontroversial but opening up the grounds of the old Springfield Hospital for new housing and a new park could/should transform this part of the Borough.
    

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12. Residents of Clark Lawrence, Shaw and particularly Sendall Courts will be pleased to know that the Council has, at last, come up with a solution to the perennial flooding problems that hit the lifts during and after storms. Indeed, my last note from the Housing Department said, “The drainage works at Sendall Court are nearing completion so we will shortly be testing them to reassure ourselves that they will be effective before undertaking the same works at Clarke Lawrence Court and Shaw Court.”

My Programme for August

1. August is a quiet month, in terms of formal Council meetings, with only the Planning Applications Committee on the 22^nd.
2. We will be staying with Mary Jay, of whom more below, on 18^th August
3. My partner is “performing” at a History Conference in Bordeaux on 25^th and I will be accompanying her there and from there to Croatia for a week.

Do you know?

Last month I asked what Park South was known as before being sold by the Council to private owners. I was surprised that I only got one correct answer: and that was from a resident of the Kambala Estate who said, “What is now Park South was Jay Court named　after Douglas Jay the former Labour MP for Battersea. My partner and I had our first council flat there on the 18th floor, until the Tory council decanted the block under the pretence there was asbestos (there wasn’t, our flat had been inspected and found clear beforehand) and that the block would be refurbished for council tenants. Of course, once empty, it was made into luxury accommodation with a Jacuzzi built on the roof and a concierge on the now closed in ground floor. We saw a local news item on TV about our two-bedroom flat on the 18th floor being sold privately for £140,000 I believe it was back in 1984/85.”

Douglas Jay (1907-96) was a very important, but sadly almost forgotten, figure in Battersea history. During the war, he worked as a financial advisor to the Churchill Coalition Government and stood as MP for Battersea in 1946. He retired in 1979, having been President of the Board of Trade in the Harold Wilson Government. He was famous for opposing the Motorway Box planned for London – there was a plan for Ringways 1, 2 and 3 with inter-connecting roads. Ringway 3 eventually became the M25, fortunately 1 and 2 didn’t get built. If they had been there would not have been much left of Battersea as we know it now.

Douglas also opposed what later became the EU, though I don’t think I would claim him as a forerunner of Brexit – it was then a very different political environment! It is his much younger second wife, with whom we are dining on 18^th August.

And this month’s question?

A simple one. How many of you know the modern names of these three Battersea pubs: “The Cornet of Horse”, “The Prodigal Son” and “The Eagle”?