Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea June, 2020, Newsletter (# 132)
- As I said last month, “One extraordinary month follows
another. Brilliant weather, day after day. The sunniest May on record and probably the warmest and driest. Again, I have sat in the garden for more hours in May, than in some years in the past, and there enjoyed the bird song”. The bluebells and the apple blossom have now gone and, judging from the Park and the Common, we are on the verge of an official drought. Last month I had a picture of May blossom, this time my tree of the month is this magnificent young oak on Wandsworth Common.
- As, shall we say, a “mature councillor” on a local government pension, index proofed against inflation and keeping myself semi-isolated against the worst elements of this awful pandemic, it can be difficult to remember that many, many families and individuals are having a truly horrendous time. One couple of friends were unable to go to their son’s funeral, and another friend in her early seventies is dipping into and out of the Covid 19 infection with painful and harrowing regularity.
- However, the stark reality is that the pandemic is having by far the greatest impact on those, who can least afford it, both physically and financially. This separate life experience in our society between those of us, who are comfortably off, and those less fortunate explains to some degree the heartless arrogance of such policy decisions as the 1989 Poll Tax, the 2012 Bedroom Tax (still, disgracefully, in place), and Theresa May’s “hostile environment” for immigrants, May’s name for our treatment of low paid workers upon whom the economy relies and who are, so often, immigrants.
- For anyone, struggling with keeping themselves
WNWN at work
well and doing the shopping, can I recommend this link to Wandsworth Care Alliance, where there are details of organisations, who can help: https: //wandsworthcarealliance.org.uk/coronavirus/wandsworth-organisations-that/ These charitable organisations are using volunteers to do the shopping or deliver food for those in lockdown. Here are a few organisations operating in Latchmere: WOW (Women of Wandsworth), Providence House, KERA (Kambala Estate Residents Association), WNWN (Waste Not Want Not – Latchmere and Queenstown). The picture shows happy volunteers Georgia, Philip, Hadas and Kafui displaying a selection of food at Queenstown’s Yvonne Carr Community Centre.
- If you want to help but perhaps can’t for medical/physical reasons of your own then one option is to give at – https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wastenotwantnot
- I do try in this newsletter not to be too overtly political, though my political leanings are obvious enough. When I lean over backwards, or so it seems to me, to be fair to the Tories, some of my colleagues think that I am too kind. But I do believe that the last fortnight of May, 2020, breaks all records of Tory arrogance, stupidity, callousness and obstinacy. John Major won a comfortable majority in April, 1992, but almost exactly 5 months later his Government was effectively destroyed by the economic disaster of so-called Black Wednesday. Boris Johnson has equally had 5 months since his election triumph in December, 2019, and now his government is in serious danger of being even more of a wreck thanks – not really to Covid 19 but rather to this government’s incredibly shambolic, hypocritical and chaotic response.
- With Major, we faced the prospect of four and half years of lame government run by a decent man, who was at the very least trying to be a Prime Minister. This time, however, we face four and a half years with a charlatan in charge, a man who, it turns out, only wanted to be PM but had no idea of what to do when he got to Downing Street. What is more he has thrown out of his party almost every Tory politician of integrity and stature. Just imagine being “forced” to tweet or in some other way support Dominic Cummings, as in late May many Cabinet members did. Compare this shambles with the firm way Nicola Sturgeon, in Scotland, and Keir Starmer, in the Labour Party, have managed rather lesser indiscretions from their respective party officers.
- Perhaps, even worse, this country, once respected for a myriad of reasons, is in danger of becoming the laughing stock of Western Europe. I would not be surprised if many economic sectors, which rely on Britain’s generally good name, industries such as insurance, banking, entertainments, Universities and colleges take an unexpected hit from our loss of prestige: it’s a blow to what many economists and commentators describe as the UK’s “soft power”.
- On May 19th I had the second virtual Planning Applications Committee. It can be viewed at: https://richmond.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/486684. 432 people watched from home online.
- It was dominated, in the public mind, by
two applications: one a pencil slim tower in the centre of Wandsworth and the other an Astro-turf pitch application on Tooting Common. The tower, between Mapleton Crescent and Garratt Lane is planned to be 20 storeys high and contain 27 flats. It is squeezed between the Wandle River and Garratt Lane on an incredibly small site. As pictured here, the tower looks quite elegant, at least in concept, but I was not persuaded and voted against it. In the long term, I believe the environmental implications of putting so many people in so many tower blocks in central Wandsworth will prove to be a mistake. I, and one other councillor voted against it but 8 others supported it.
- The application to lay an Astro-turf pitch in Tooting Common, where now there is a “gravel” pitch and to re-arrange the nearby changing rooms and boxing club generated massive public interest, mostly in opposition as expressed in a petition signed by 6,000 people. In many ways this proposal is not very different from the new Astro-turf pitch in Falcon Park, but it was complicated by the popularity and significance of the Boxing Club, which was frequented not only by the current MP, Rosena Allin-Khan, but also by her predecessor and now Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Personally, I agreed with the majority Committee view that the Astro-turf pitches would be an improvement and that the Boxing Clubs requirements will be safeguarded. I trust that was a correct judgement but it certainly was not very popular on the night!
- On a personal level, I miss, along with many others I am sure, the occasional pint. I have cooked more than at any time in my life: not just the frying standard “bloke’s” stuff like eggs and bacon, steaks and sausages, but also poaching and baking; creating vegetarian curries and interesting starters. I must confess, though this is dangerous territory, that I almost enjoy it! What does surprise me is how stressful cooking can be!
- Finally, the “claparamas” have become quite the social highlight of the week in my road. The highlight has been the 8.10 concert given by two sisters and their talented mother. This week, in June, we are promised a Finale Concert with further contributions from neighbouring children. We could be starting a youth orchestra all of our own!
- STOP PRESS. Then on 25th May George Floyd, an unarmed man of Afro-American heritage was killed by a Minneapolis policeman. BLACK LIVES MATTER. Of course, other lives matter too but it is the black population, which suffers most from the racial prejudice that poisons all our lives. Ensure that BLACK LIVES MATTER in everything that we do and then all other lives will be better too.
My Programme for June
- Once again in an official sense June will be a quiet month. There will be a virtual Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee on 9th June and a Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 24th And I am sure that other business will arise but when and what, I will have to wait and see!
Do you know the last time elections were postponed?
was the question I asked last month. As many of you guessed I was referring to the five-week postponement of the 2002 General Election from 3rd May until 7th June
because of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Over 6 million cows and sheep were slaughtered (and incinerated in mounds on the roadside) that year in a successful but highly contentious response to the disease. As I said then the fact that, 20 years later, it has been almost entirely forgotten is perhaps a good omen for this year’s human outbreak of a viral disease!
This picture appeared in a May edition of the Guardian. One road in Latchmere ward is named after her. Does anyone know who she was and where the road is?
Keep safe! and finally play this tremendous video made by the people of Battersea
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 