Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April, 2020, Newsletter (# 130)
- What a month March 2020 turned out to be! I had “standard” councillor-type meetings on 2nd, 4th, 5th and 10th and then decided to postpone one on the 11th and then nothing, zilch, zero, stop and now the Council’s website says “Due to the current situation with COVID-19, we are urgently reviewing the need for formal Council and Committee meetings at the current time”. But let’s start from the beginning.
- On 2nd March I had a meeting with some local residents, who live near Battersea Park Road. They had legitimate concerns about neighbouring developments and extensions, which in their view were having a harmful impact on their lives and properties. We had a useful if not conclusive discussion, which I later raised with planning officers. Who knows what will happen in the new circumstances, but I will continue to pursue the matter.
- The Council Meeting on the 4th March unanimously agreed the Council Tax for the coming year. The Tory majority did not want to make too much of an issue of it because it did involve an increase. And as Labour councillors did not wish to broadcast the scale of the increase forced on the Council by outside factors, not least by the Mayor of London, the evening passed fairly uncontentiously. The really big news is, or might have been, what happens to local government taxation next year, given that the Government seems to be driving local authorities into a cul-de-sac of bankruptcy EXCEPT that now it is clear that, after the Covid 19 emergency, all predictions about future tax levels are obsolete.
- The following day I had a meeting of the Healthy Streets Forum. This body is devoted to making sure that the streets of Wandsworth are, as clean and environmentally healthy, as they can possibly be. It is a very worthy cause, supported by very committed community activists; but I hope that they do not take it amiss if I say that they need to avoid talking down to councillors and officers, who understand, and in many cases share, their goals and objectives!
- Then on 10th March, I had a fascinating meeting with Wandsworth’s new Assistant Director of Planning. I wanted to get her thoughts on what infrastructure developments would have been important to the Council after 2022. I had quite an impressive check-list and was going to do some work on it. But now infrastructure development will have to be completely re-thought in the coming, new post-Covid 19 world.
- But then on 11th March, I decided to self-isolate!
Not because I have the dreaded symptoms but because, according to all the experts, I am in one of the vulnerable groups. Indeed, I am “mature” enough to have almost a “direct connection” with the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic. In fact, my grandfather, Ernest Belton, died of the flu in November, 1918. My grandmother was then seven months pregnant with Rose. She had three other children, Nen aged 7, Ernest aged 6, and my father Stanley just 4. Rose was born in January, 1919. The picture is of my grandparents and their eldest, Aunt Nen. My grandmother used to tell me about just how tough life was, as a lone parent, bringing up four children with no welfare state and no income. It’s quite a long story. If you are interested then you can read about it at – https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/todays-pandemic-and-the-1918-spanish-flu-epidemic/
- Then the pandemic, at which point everything has changed. The Council has largely closed down but is, at the same time, trying to maintain essential services. Voluntary organisations and faith groups are trying to provide food parcels and back-up services. The community has rallied around with a “clapathon” at 8 pm on the 26th in honour and support of our care workers. Many of us have found new ways of working from home, using new technology to have virtual meetings and collaborative working. Many more have found new ways of entertaining each other, using technology to have virtual dinner parties, yoga sessions, dancing parties and chess competitions. As far as I can see, almost everyone is re-communicating with long-lost relatives and old friends. Probably, just a few are getting around to writing the first great twenty-first century novel, play, symphony, thesis.
- I did break my own self-imposed isolation on 14th March to play chess for Surrey vs Middlesex. Lost again, I am afraid but he was much higher ranked than me and I felt my old skills were coming back a bit.
My Programme for April is Covid 19 shaped!
- The Council’s plan is to have a “virtual”, probably Microsoft Teams based Planning Applications Committee in early April. The emergency legislation, passed through the Commons on the last day, allowed for that but as yet there is no plan to enable the public to observe, nor plans for any of the other regular committees to take place other than the Licensing Committee. The interesting question is what happens to democracy in a Covid 19 shutdown?
- The Labour Party is going to announce its new Leader on 4th April. You may have heard rumours that this announcement might be delayed. I desperately hope not. It is important, not only for the Labour Party but also, for the Government to have a functioning and authoritive Opposition.
- Finally, we have an exciting future to
help shape and map out. We all have criticisms of the world as it was in 2019. I would want it to be fairer and more equal. We have to make it more environmentally friendly. This is our chance to help re-shape our society. It will be exciting!
I don’t suppose that the future will be quite as utopian as C. Alcuin’s City on a Hill, but it’s a thought! © C. Alcuin
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 