November 1, 2018  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea Newsletter, November, 2018 (#113)

  1. On 2nd October, I went to an Exhibition in the Brewer’s pub, opposite the Town Hall, of plans for the redevelopment of the Ferrier Street industrial site just by Wandsworth Town station. It interested me, because I played a large part in its development in the 1970s. Prior to then it had been a rundown area of terraced properties until the Labour Council of the time organised a vote of residents as to whether they wanted their housing “compulsorily purchased” by the Council or not. By a substantial majority, the residents, largely private sector tenants, voted for compulsory purchase. The end result was that they got re-housed by the Council and the Council became the owners of what became an industrial estate. Sold off in the early 2000s, the area looks likely to revert to mixed industrial and housing usage. For me, the startling thing is that I have lived through the complete life-cycle of a block of property from the first plans to demolition and redevelopment and now to the next set of plans, to be followed now by another demolition and re-development!
  2. As I said last month, on 5th October I went to Reykjavik, Iceland, to accompany my partner who was lecturing to an Icelandic historic society on “Meetings and Greetings in the Eighteenth Century”. We then spent a few days driving round the island. Many will know about the fish, the Northern Lights, hot geysers (the picture is of the active Strokkur Geyser), and volcanoes, and almost everyone will remember Iceland beating England in the 2016 European Championship. But, how many know that in the 2008 financial crash, the Icelandic stock market lost 95% of its value, the currency was devalued by 25%, and virtually every private business in Iceland went bankrupt. Ten years later, there is not much sign of any of that! So, how did such a small country manage to pull itself round?
  3. It isn’t physically very small but it has a population of only 320,000 – rather less than Wandsworth. After the crash, Icelanders had an important national debate and since then they seem to have pulled together in an impressive way – quite unlike Brexit-torn Britain. Having suffered from over-fishing and facing financial disaster, Icelanders seem to have decided as a national policy to concentrate on tourism! Of course, it’s not exactly Sun, Sea and Sand tourism, Costa Brava style, but rather rugged and wild, dramatic and exciting tourism with volcanoes, lava fields, dozens of waterfalls, geothermal pools, whale watching, bird and seal spotting, pony trekking, and mountaineering.
  4. When I got back, my first Council engagement was with a Wandsworth Youth Parliament seminar. During the course of the evening about 15 or 16 secondary school pupils from all of the Borough’s secondary schools both quizzed and challenged about 15 or 16 councillors from both the Tory and Labour Parties on such matters as policing, health and social services, education and housing. It was an entertaining and educative session.
  5. The next day, 17th October, I was off, rather unenthusiastically, to the Wandsworth Council Meeting. Council meetings have long ago had their whole heart and purpose ripped out of them. Nowadays they are so short – about one and a half hours after the obligatory prayers, questions and announcements – and so infrequent – about four or five a year – that they are no longer where council policy is decided. That is done on social media, or in secret, closed meetings. The Council meetings, themselves, are good for councillors to exercise their oratorical talents, but that’s about it. On this occasion, there were about ten maiden speeches, that is a councillor’s first speech in Council. Most of them were very good, BUT why would anyone go to the Council Chamber to listen to them unless they were relatives or part of the councillor club? These meetings really do need a re-think!
  6. The next night, 18th October, was the Planning Applications Committee, but there was not much of general interest to Battersea on the agenda, unless you live on Battersea Reach, where the development company,St. George’s, are in dispute with residents over car parking. I hope that things can be sorted amicably, but alas I have my doubts.
  7. On the morning of Saturday, 20th October bty2018, I was wheeled out as the token man at the unveiling of a plaque to Caroline Ganley. I was delighted to be there, at 5 Thirsk Road, where Caroline lived for most of her life. See below (in Did you know?) for far more about Mrs. Ganley’s achievements. The picture shows some of Caroline’s grand-children and other relatives as well as the “unveiling party”.
  8. In the afternoon, my partner and I went on the European March. I have been on marches since the early Aldermaston days, marches to ban the bomb, to end the Vietnam war, to stop the abolition of the ILEA, against Apartheid, against Nursery Vouchers, even against the Pope’s visit to Britain (odd one that, but so be it) and most particularly against the Iraq War. Regardless of what the police and the BBC say, in my view, this was the biggest. The Iraq War protest was eventually upgraded, I seem to recall, to 1.3 million people – I think this one was even bigger. One interesting feature of the march was that there were virtually no organisational banners – no Trade Unions, no constituency Labour parties, no religious groups, just masses of people. (Despite that one crazy UKIP friend of mine actually believes that the European Parliament paid us all to turn up!)
  9. For me, the staggering feature of the political month, has been Labour’s almost total silence on Brexit. The Tories are, of course, in a complete funk, and yet somehow they retain their very small lead in the opinion polls. How can that be? All I can think, is that the lack of clarity on Labour’s part is making it very difficult for the public to decide, who to support. Do they support the Tories, who are making such a shambles of the whole thing? Impossible! Or do they support Labour, which has not yet summoned up the courage to give a lead – apparently not!
  10. It is still possible, I guess, to think that Corbyn and McDonnell are playing an absolute blinder, leaving the Tories out there to dry and not yet exposing the Labour Party’s own divisions. But, it is clear that whilst Party members are over-whelmingly “Remainers”, a sack full of MPs represent constituencies, that voted to leave – as some might say, horns of a dilemma! But how much longer can Corbyn sit on this particular fence? Surely, he has to plump before 29th March and if he doesn’t then, in my judgement, he will suffer for it.
  11. And talking of Brexit, on 26th October, my fellow councillor, Kate Stock and I, visited the Battersea Flower Centre to campaign for the London Living Wage (LLW). There we met John Schofield, who runs the Centre, and was proud to assure us that his dozen staff all earn, at least, the LLW. He was most interesting, however, when talking about how Brexit was already affecting him. He pointed out that the Netherlands was very important to his industry and that the devaluation of the pound relative to the Euro was already causing flower traders severe problems.
  12. On 28th October, we went to the Bread and Roses pub in Clapham Manor Street to hear Battersea Labour Party’s (BLP’s) own jazz band, Junction Jazz, not that they exactly brand themselves BLP’s band, but many of them live in Battersea and they do support BLP. They really are getting very good and have expanded their repertoire; I don’t know the correct jargon but, on this occasion, there was quite a lot of Miles Davis-style orchestration, which I did not recognise from previous performances. In the past they have had Rosena Allin-Khan, Tooting’s MP, as a guest singer. On this occasion, Martin Linton, Battersea MP 1997-2010, was a guest on the trumpet – and very good he was too.
  13. On 30th October, I joined the Housing Department staff, my Latchmere colleague, Councillor Kate Stock and Tory, Councillor Rodhri Morgan, Deputy-Chair of the Housing Committee, on a tour of the Latchmere and Wilditch Estates. It was pretty cold, and we made a few notes about litter, etc., but we saw no evidence of major problems.
  14. On the 31st I spent lunch-time at the National Opera Studio in Wandsworth, listening to songs performed by this year’s students – not quite as good as last year’s, I thought, but still an amazing free concert in the heart of the Borough.

My Programme for November

  1. On 1st November, I have my monthly meeting with MP, Marsha de Cordova, and the other six Battersea Labour councillors. I know that the agenda will include the future of the 19 bus and the drug rehabilitation centre on the Doddington Estate.
  2. The following day, we are going to Battersea Arts Centre to see a play about Chekhov’s First Play, a tragi-comedy (I am guessing) about the art of writing! It will be the first time that we have seen a performance at the Grand Hall, as it used to be called, since it burnt down – should be interesting.
  3. The Jewish Board of Deputies have invited councillors to a Jewish London: A Seminar for Councillors on 4th November. I assume that the Board of Deputies has become concerned about the growth of Anti-Semitism in Britain. In my experience, this is a first of its kind; several Wandsworth councillors will be in attendance.
  4. On the 5th November, no doubt with fireworks exploding all round us, I have a meeting of the Conservation Area Committee.
  5. A day later, I will play my first match as a member of the Battersea Chess Club (BCC) against Hammersmith Chess Club. What a club, BCC is! The oldest chess club in London, it numbers amongst its members a nine-year old rated as one of the top two players in his age group in the world. I used to play for my school team, many moons ago. This will be my first game since then!
  6. On the 7th I am having lunch with Leonie Cooper, Wandsworth and Merton’s Greater London Assembly Member or GLAM, as she jokingly likes to boast.
  7. On the evening of 10th November, I and other Labour councillors will be going to the Providence House annual fund-raising dinner.
  8. The day after, I will be at St. Mary’s to mark the centenary of Armistice Day, 1918.
  9. On the 13th November, Wandsworth’s Civic Awards will, as ever, be an occasion when the Borough notes and applauds the voluntary contributions made by many of our fellow residents.
  10. On 17th November, the London Summit takes place at the Guildhall. All London councillors are invited and the conference will be addressed by Ministers and the Mayor.
  11. November’s Planning Applications Committee will be on the 21st.
  12. On 22nd November, I am due to go to Waltham Forest to see that Council’s ideas on how to reduce car usage and to keep pedestrians away from the motor car.

Do you know?

Last month, I asked what any of you knew about Caroline Ganley, pictured here. I am afraid that the only responses I got were from those I might call the “usual suspects”, including my friend Jeanne Rathbone, whose research is the basis of the following.

A very brief summary of the long life of Caroline Ganley would note that she lived from 1871-1966 and continuously from 1910 until her death at 5 Thirsk Road, where a plaque was unveiled on 20th October..

Ganley was elected to Battersea Borough Council in 1919, one of the first female councillors in the country. She was a stalwart of the Labour Party and of the Co-operative Movement, becoming in 1942 the first woman President of the London Cooperative Society.

In 1920, she was also appointed as one of the first female Justices of the Peace.

In 1945, Mrs Ganley was elected to Parliament as the MP for Battersea South, where she stayed until 1951. Most unusually for former MPs she returned as a Councillor to Battersea Borough Council in 1953, where she served until the Council was abolished in 1965.

One tribute to her at her death was that “Her mind was very acute and her ability to draw together the threads of the most rambling discussion was legendary. She was a great pioneer – the most outstanding woman the co-op has produced at a time when few women took part in public life.”

And my question this month is: Just what are these posts? What do they de-note? And how many of them do you know?

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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