Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea September, 2018, Newsletter (# 111)

1. Last month I wrote about building control regulations and their implementation in England and Wales, since Mrs. Thatcher’s so-called reforms (I suspect the rules may be a bit different in Scotland). I don’t think that I have had such a heart-felt response on any other subject. Clearly, many residents find the whole process of neighbour-building works both stressful and sometimes expensive
   

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2. I had building works next-door to me last year and, although I have absolutely no complaints about the standard of works, my garden was unusable in 2017. Thank goodness that last summer was not a scorcher like 2018. Equally, I’ve had friends, who have complained particularly about the 24-hour 7-day a week pumping one often gets with basement extensions. It does seem to me that, as a country, we need to re-consider legislation about both the regulation of standards and nuisance control during construction.
   

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3. Unsurprisingly August has been very quiet in Council terms, so I thought I might indulge myself in a bit of politics – for a change. But first, I did have a couple of visits one from a British student and another from a foreign journalist. It’s a minor pleasure of the job of being a Councillor that people do ring me, from time to time, and ask for interviews about how local government works in this country. The trouble is that, like most people, the more I know the more I realise that I don’t know!
   

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4. To politics and the issue of the EU, about which a number of people have asked me to come clean on my views, and I must stress they are my personal views! Of course, one answer is to say that Brexit or the EU is not an issue for a local councillor and, of course, in one sense that is right. Yet I am not surprised that some of you want to know what the person you voted for only a few months ago, thinks on this massive issue. (If you are not interested on more about Brexit, then skip to paragraph 10).
   

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5. First, I voted in the Referendum to Remain and if we have the chance again, I will do so again. A couple of years ago, I certainly had some pleasure, in discussions with friends, being the Devil’s Advocate and one or two maybe thought I was going to vote Leave. I regret it, if I persuaded anyone to switch their vote, but I rather doubt that I did. However, despite voting “remain” I thought then and still do that the “Remainers” have to face some issues. For example, the EU does not appear to be very democratic – despite the Euro-elections. Perhaps it is impossible to make an organisation with 500+million people feel democratic but either more effort has to be made or the EU should operate through national governments. The present European Parliament does not have much credibility and, I suspect, is not sustainable in its present form.
   

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6. In addition, it does appear as though the Euro currency is and has been a terrible mistake, which somehow the Eurozone has to reform or end as soon as possible. In hindsight, it seems ludicrous to have tied Greece and Southern Italy to the same exchange rate as Bavaria and Brussels; Andalucia and Portugal to the same economic conditions as Berlin and Paris. Clearly, what has worked for Germany has been massively destructive for Greece. Some reforms to the EU are essential and its current settlement should be no more cast in stone than any constitutional arrangement anywhere.
   

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7. But it’s not the Remain argument that exercises me most but rather the Brexit case. I have many objections to the Brexiters’ arguments. For a start it means taking a terrible risk with all our lives and livelihoods on the basis of the assurances that we have had so far, which in essence amount to no more than a promise “That it will be alright on the night”. Especially given that almost every expert believes we will be worse off after Brexit than before. (I know that Michael Gove suggested that we should ignore experts, but in most fields, from brain surgery to plumbing, flying to engineering, I prefer to have experts on my side rather than against).
   

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8. There are, of course, the nostalgic Brexiters, the Imperial Brexiters, the Little England as well as Great Britain Brexiters, invariably from the right of the political spectrum. But what about the left-wing Brexiters, the inheriters of the Tony Benn legacy; those who see the EU as a capitalist plot? I would ask them to give us the answer to three particular questions:-
   • How do you tackle the ecological issues facing the world without supra-national organisations?
   • What possible democratic power do you see standing up to global capitalism and perhaps particularly Californian-based global capitalism? Surely not the UK on its own; just possibly the EU can.
   • In a world dominated by international business, how can workers’ rights and pay levels be protected unless, ultimately, on at least a continental basis?
     

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9. Clearly, there are a thousand problems involved in stopping Brexit but if Brexit is a disaster and bad for Britain then the Labour Party will pay a heavy price, if it hasn’t had the courage to take a stand on the issue. Enough said, but I suspect we will be coming back to this issue before too long.
   

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10. On 3^rd August, we went to see Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest”. You will have noticed that in the last few months, I have been to all the Oscar Wilde plays. In his brilliantly witty way Wilde certainly has a very particular take on gender politics at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But I am afraid that I was disappointed with this production of his most famous play. The text is witty enough without being coated in extra layers of somewhat dubious gender and race politics.
    

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11. I was also asked, along with fellow Councillor Kate Stock, to be part of a panel of judges in a competition being run by the Battersea Summer Project at Providence House Youth Club. The Project does a great job, which is much appreciated by many kids (and no doubt parents) providing sports, hobbies and occupations for the young people of Battersea, but I think this particular competition needs a bit of re-thinking if it is to become a regular event.
    

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12. On 18^th-19^th August we spent the week-end with Douglas Jay’s widow, Mary, in her beautiful cottage in Oxfordshire. Douglas was Battersea North’s MP from 1946-83. He married Mary, many years his junior, in 1972. We had a delightful dinner with family and old friends exchanging stories about “old Battersea characters”. Unfortunately, but inevitably, Mary is having to move into a more convenient, smaller, urban house. So, this was a kind of nostalgic goodbye to Causeway Cottage, seen here on the right.
    

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13. The next Planning Applications Committee takes place on 22^nd August and this time there really is nothing of great significance in Battersea – though I am very conscious that even the most minor application is really, really important to someone or some family. One item worth a mention is an application for the modernisation and re-opening (hopefully) of the Queen’s Arms, seen here on the corner of Robertson and St. Philip’s Streets, just off the Queenstown Road.
    

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14. But I will miss the Committee as on 22^nd August I will be carrying the bags for my partner at a Conference in Bordeaux, from where we are going directly to Croatia for a couple of weeks. I have briefed my colleagues on my views on the committee, but inevitably at this time of the year some of us will be missing the evening.

My Programme for September

1. There will be the Community Services Committee on 18^th September and the Planning Applications Committee on 19^th.
2. In recognition of the major traffic and pollution problems facing all the world’s major cities and London in particular, there is going to be a Car-free Day organised through-out the capital on Saturday, 22^nd. I cannot imagine that it will result in a wide observance across the whole city but we shall see!
3. The last week of September will be dominated by the Labour Party Conference (and Brexit). Somehow, I cannot imagine that we will reach the end of September without very fundamental shifts beginning to take place in the political landscape!

Do you know?

Last month I asked “How many of you know the modern names of these three Battersea pubs: “The Cornet of Horse“, “The Prodigal’s Return” (I said “Son” so thanks to eagle-eyed Chris for that correction) and “The Eagle“? The answer is The Four Thieves in Lavender Gardens, The Draft House on the corner of Battersea Bridge and Westbridge Roads and The Magic Garden, Battersea Park Road, respectively. As a brief aside can I ask whether anyone knows the connection between Lavender Gardens, Henty Close on the Ethelburga Estate and the Cornet of Horse?

And as for this month let me ask: I took a photograph of this structure in Webbs Road, at the junction with Honeywell Road. It, is the pole, standing on the pavement and which is slightly higher than the house. Do you know what it is? What it is called? And just how many poles like this can WE find in Battersea?