Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April, 2019, Newsletter (# 118)

1. March, What a month – for anyone really interested in politics, then drama of the highest order, even when, as often, the procedural details were really boring. And for anyone not interested then just boring. But more of that later! Meanwhile my month started off very low key. As I said last month, I was due to play chess for Surrey on 1^st March. I went all the way across town to play at Wanstead, where I registered my first win for the county! But only because my opponent didn’t turn up! What was worse Surrey got hammered, although I won my point!
   

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2. My first Council event of note was a visit on March 5^th to the Tideway Tunnel works next to the York Gardens Library. In one sense I was disappointed as I had expected to dive down underground and go for a walk along a 12-metre high sewage tunnel with my guides; but we didn’t do anything as exciting as that. So, you can imagine how jealous I was to see that the Mayor and Mayoress did get down into the tunnel, as shown in next picture!
   

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3. Nonetheless it was fascinating. I must admit that I hadn’t quite realised what the future role of this 12-mile tunnel is going to be. I had thought that it was going to be a new major sewer simply taking flood waters to London’s major sewerage processing centre at Becton Treatment Station, Barking. But the plan is to use the tunnel as a massive holding lock. When London is hit by storms and heavy rain, the flood of water, clean and/or soiled, becomes too great for Becton to handle. The tunnel will hold this water and release it, as capacity at Becton allows – a massive underwater dam and overflow tank. The principal benefit of the project is that it will eliminate most of the (on average) bi-annual floods of sewerage water into the Thames, which currently result in the death of some 2 million fish, and no doubt some cormorants and other wild life dependent upon the health of the river and its fish.
   

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4. The Tideway Tunnel company is also involved with the local community in other ways. For example, the Tunnel employs 247 Wandsworth Borough residents on the project and two apprentices. The staff are also helping Falconbrook School with educational projects and indeed the mural around the site, pictured here, was done by Falconbrook pupils.
   

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5. I think that the Council Meeting on 6^th March should have been about Brexit and the possibility of a People’s Vote. It would have been highly topical as Britain was, after all, timetabled to leave the EU on 29^th March. But Labour’s motion to Council bundled up the People’s Vote with other important issues, such as the Government’s cuts in police funding and the roll-out of universal credit: the result, I am afraid, was a muddled debate without focus or much purpose.
   

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6. Now I know that at least one reader thinks that I should stop bleating on about Brexit, but it is important to lots of Wandsworth residents, many thousands of whom are from the European 27 countries and are very concerned about their position here. Moreover 23,997 people from Battersea have signed the petition calling for a People’s Vote. The comparable figures for Putney and Tooting are 19,938 and 22,350 respectively, so no apologies!
   

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7. So, on 23^rd March I was on the People’s Vote one million strong march. Here I am with some friends in Trafalgar Square and a critical representation of the PM. Some of you will have been there too. After all, simple arithmetic suggests that there must have been about 2,000 Battersea residents there.
   

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8. Then by 29^th March, we had had all the “indicative votes” and Brexit did not happen! Now, I know that many are highly critical of our politicians and the mess that they appear to have made of the whole thing, but let me put another point of view. They have demonstrated what we all know: both the country and its elected representatives are divided as near to down the middle as makes no difference. And what the MPs are likely to achieve, in my view, is a choice between the best Brexit that can be offered or continuing as a full member. A good outcome from this Parliamentary maze would be to present us this choice in a confirmatory referendum. Let’s see if I am right.
   

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9. On the 9^th March, Penny and I went to Earlsfield’s Tara Arts Theatre to see The Importance of Being Earnest. I can see you thinking that it must have been a conventional rendering of this great Oscar Wilde play. But you would be wrong. You can see from the picture that this is not a conventional theatre – nor was the play’s production. The entire drama and all the parts were acted by two young women (here they are eating cucumber sandwiches) – so unlike any conventional production. And it was brilliant.
   

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10. On the 21^st March I attended the Battersea Society AGM (Annual General Meeting) at St. Mary’s church. The meeting had all the normal AGM business but the guest speaker was my partner, Professor Penny Corfield, who spoke on Duelling. Her talk was highly entertaining and much enjoyed by all. If you want to know more, she has written a blog, which is at https://www.penelopejcorfield.com/monthly-blogs/
    

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11. Battersea is an appropriate venue for such a presentation for it was right here, in 1829, in what is now Battersea Park and was then river marshes that the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, conqueror of Napoleon, fought a duel with the Earl of Winchelsea. It was one of the last of its kind fought in the UK, the last being between two Frenchmen in 1852. It would have been fun to have said that the duel was over a woman or gambling debts, but NO it was about politics! At least we don’t act so rashly now.
    

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12. At the 27^th March Planning Applications Committee we had 23 planning applications, none of which were of spectacular consequence. Only two related to Latchmere. One was an application for two houses behind the listed buildings next to the mosque in Falcon Road and the other to remove an unneighbourly fence between houses in Brynmaer Road. One other application was also nearby. It was for the demolition of the William Hill bookie’s at the base of Park South and for its replacement by a ground floor commercial unit with nine new flats above. Some of you may recall that thirty or forty years ago, it was one of the largest public conveniences in Britain!
    

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13. On 28^th March, I joined the newly formed Friends of Christchurch Gardens group in an initial meeting with Enable, the so-called charity group that now operates Wandsworth’s Parks and Commons. The Gardens are in need of some neighbourly care and it is great to see that local residents are getting together to do just that. If any reader wants to get involved, then I will happily put you in touch with the “Friends”.
    

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14. Finally, on the last day of the month one Wandsworth Tooting school featured in the press (e.g. the front page of The Observer) because members of staff are prepared to take a £7,000 salary cut in order to save the jobs of others, who faced being dismissed because of Government funding cuts. The education cuts in North Battersea are extensive. They include: Harris Academy £1.6 million or £769 per pupil (pp); Chesterton £343,966 or pp £519; Falconbrook £292,702 or pp £412; Sacred Heart £205,575 or pp £286; John Archer Primary/Highview £199,311 or pp £170; Christchurch £75,439 or pp £250.
    

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15. How these cuts will affect individual schools depends on the decisions of individual heads and governors. However, after 10 years of austerity, it cannot be but that the education of the next generation must suffer to a degree.

My Programme for April

1. On 1^st-3^rd April, I am off on a round trip to Essex and York visiting relatives celebrating their 79^th and 100^th birthdays. I don’t suppose that there will be much dancing or knees-ups; but it will be good to catch up with family members.
2. On 16^th April I am going to fulfil one of many schoolboy dreams. I guess that I will never score a hat-trick at Wembley but I will be visiting the main rail signalling centre for all Waterloo lines. I don’t suppose that it is still like the old films with massive levers pulling the old semaphore signals up and down but it should nevertheless be fun – and interesting!
3. The Planning Applications Committee is on 25^th April.

Do you know?

Last month, I asked whether anyone knew anything about Joan Bartlett or Doris Emmerton. I got informative and interesting answers.

So, thanks to Michele, who tells me that Dame Joan Bartlett (1911–2002) was a founder of Servite Secular Institute. As Joan Bartlett, she opened a residential home for the elderly homeless, having been inspired by hearing the late Violet Markham speak at Caxton Hall about the plight of many elderly people who had been bombed out during the Blitz. The Servite Order lent her £8,000, and with this and other contributions she purchased a property for the home in The Boltons, London, which was later registered as a Housing Association, which became known first as Servite Housing and now as Viridian.

And thanks to Kathleen, who wrote to say that Doris Emmerton was the Head of Joseph Tritton Primary School in the 1970s, just about when Doris Emmerton Court was being built and just before the school was closed, demolished and replaced by housing.

I also asked what are Battersea’s two connections with J M Turner, the great artist? Well, first thank you for pointing out that in an early version I had mis-typed Mallord as Mallard – I claim it was the spellchecker! And yes, he lived on the Chelsea bank of the river and often crossed to paint river views from St. Mary’s church and that there is a chair there known as Turner’s Chair.

And as one of you pointed out to me, the actor Timothy Spall, who played Turner so brilliantly in Mike Leigh’s 2014 film, Mr. Turner, is a Battersea boy.

You might also, if you had long memories, have said that I used this one of Turner’s watercolours in a 2017 edition of my newsletter!

Samantha Heath, RIP

On the night of 28th/29th March Samantha Heath tragically lost her fight against cancer.

Many of you will not have met Samantha, who was a Latchmere councillor between 1994-2002. She was also a Greater London Assembly member between 2000 and 2008. Here she is with fellow candidate Maurice Johnson and me on an election leaflet from early 1998.

All, who were lucky enough to have met her, will know of Samantha’s infectious enthusiasm. As a fellow councillor, I can also vouch for the passion and learning that she brought to her role as a councillor. She was always engaged and engaging, always elegant, always dynamic.

As well as her elected posts, Samantha was a leading light in SERA, which was in effect the Labour Party’s environmental study group. She played a major part in making us all aware of the problems we have with air pollution and especially with diesel pollution. Her legacy will be the advance of environmental protection for London. She would have been delighted to know that ULEZ (the Ultra Low Emission Zone) was being introduced on April 8th. Samantha, RIP.