August 2, 2020  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August, 2020, Newsletter (# 134)

  1. For 100 or so of my readers, this will be your first sight of this monthly newsletter. You can see from the heading that this is the 134th edition of my monthly newsletter, which means that I have been writing it for just over 11 years. Every month, I send the newsletter to just over 3,300 recipients and according to “the system” I get approximately 1,000 opens. I hope that you find it an interesting read. You can also see past editions on this blog site.
  2. I add to the readership every month, by meeting as many new residents as possible, whilst delivering a letter of welcome from your three local Labour councillors, Kate Stock, Simon Hogg and me. Because of lockdown I have had a backlog to “catch up”, in June and July, hence the extra 100 or so new readers all in this one month. By delivering these letters I also keep up-to-date with what is going on locally. This month, for example, I delivered to one address in Shepard House, on the Winstanley Estate and, as I pressed against the letterbox, the door swung open to reveal an empty cob-webbed flat. The “new Council tenant” had failed to turn up. Wandsworth Council has now re-let the flat and so my visit, happily, has resulted in a family being re-housed.
  3. Last month, I wrote about Kambala Cares and Waste Not Want Not (WNWN), volunteer organisations who deliver cooked meals and food packs to “shielded” residents, such as theelderly and the sick. Both groups are run by lively, dynamic, impressive community activists, namely Donna Barham and Hadas Hagos (the picture is of Hadas, in party mood, at the Yvonne Carr Centre). They have faced the challenge of the crisis by cooking and delivering 100s of meals each and every week. So, I was pleased to be able to write a grant application to the Council for Kambala Cares and to introduce WNWN to Battersea United Charities (BUC). And now, I am even more pleased to report that the Council has granted Kambala Cares £7,000 and that BUC granted £2,000 to WNWN.
  4. On the 8th July I joined my fellow councillors, Simon and Kate, on a visit to the Falcon Park play area. We were invited there by local resident, Doris and a friend, to review the state of the play facilities, especially those designed for toddlers. I am confident that we will be submitting a bid for a small area improvement grant. In similar style at the railway end of Petergate, there is a small area of common ground, which until recently had been a simple, uninteresting piece of open grassland – great for dogs and not necessarily much else. Now it is a one woman’s attempt to “prettify” her part of Battersea, see picture, and I am going to try and get the Council to fund a couple of hundred to put in a decent railing and a gate – if my constituent will let me!
  5. In mid-July the Council started an ambitious programme to help local hospitality businesses counter the impact of Covid 19. The most obvious sign of this has been the pedestrianisation of Old York and Northcote Roads, and now Bedford Hill and maybe before long Battersea High Street. I have had constituents writing to me telling me just how much they have enjoyed the atmosphere this has developed in Old York Road and I am sure the feeling is true elsewhere. The picture shows the impact in part of Northcote Road.
  6. You may remember that last month I featured a street concert given on the last day of the “clapathons” by 11 talented young women musicians. Well, on the 12th July the violinist, the cellist, and their mother gave a three-women street concert. Forty to fifty neighbours turned out to hear them play in a fund raiser for the South London Youth Orchestra. I will put one of the numbers in this month’s entry on my website at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/.
  7. On the 15th July we had the Council’s Annual Meeting in virtual mode – very unsatisfactory. If it was meant to be political, then it wasn’t. How can you have the vibrancy of a political meeting in virtual mode? If it was meant to be ceremonial, then it wasn’t. What is the point of a virtual ceremony without an audience? Too much more of this and local government will truly become what it has threatened to become for some years: local administration, not local government.
  8. Last month I mentioned acting the part of “the wise old man” (couldn’t possibly be me, surely?) in Julia Donaldson’s children’s stories. If you want to see the series, you can on Wandsworth Council’s website and searching for A Squash and a Squeeze, or you can look-up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgx8wkDEAd4. I hope you enjoy it just half as much as we, councillors, enjoyed making it! There is a series of six made-for-children films!
  9. On the 22nd July I, and perhaps 20 others, had a webinar (trendy word for an online seminar or public meeting) with the public relations consultants acting for the Arding & Hobbs/Debenham’s site, in the heart of Clapham Junction. Many residents are no doubt concerned about what is going to happen to the grand old department store: and this was our first chance to see a first draft of the developer’s plans. It turns out that the plans are restrained, even modest and some might say “conservative”. The architects are clearly keen to keep and improve the old Arding & Hobbs building, most of its fabric and many of its features. There will be a roof-top addition, which would stay subservient to the cupola and the whole building would be re-engineered to the highest “green” standards. The end result is undoubtedly an improvement on the present much altered and abused frontage.
  10. But the real problem is that the development of digital, electronic technologies has completely changed the market for traditional shopping and offices, which raises the question of whether there is still a market for up-graded retail units and a small core of relatively up-market office units. Unfortunately, a problem with the webinar format was that there was no time or space to allow for any vigorous cross-questionning of the proposals or for discussion about the project’s viability – not at all satisfactory! (As it happens, on 29th July, my attention was drawn to the Clapham Junction Action Group’s analysis of the Arding & Hobbs development. Run by my friend Cyril Richert, I must say that his overview is a much more thorough job than my analysis and anyone who wants to take a really well-informed view of the site should look at Cyril’s CJAG website).
  11. On July 23rd I had my fourth virtual Planning Applications Committee (PAC). It was not a particularly demanding agenda, with a few domestic extensions and some minor amendments to larger developments. It is possible that this was merely a quiet summer planning committee, but it could be that it is an indication of a post-Covid economic recession.
  12. But this relative pause in the flow of applications gives me time to reflect on a couple of longer-term trends affecting planning and development, which concern me. First is the Government’s announcement that it intends to remove what it sees as the shackles, which planning control puts on businesses and economic vibrancy. The chosen vehicle for this greater “freedom” is the use of Permitted Development Rights.
  13. Permitted Development Rights is short-hand for allowing owners and/or developers to extend already agreed developments. So, to take an example, if a change in the rules meant an owner of a four-storey block of flats could build a fifth storey without asking the planning authority’s permission, then that would be called an extension of permitted development rights. Those who argue against planning controls argue that it is unnecessary bureaucracy to have to get planning permission for such developments when the overall principle has already been accepted. But the trouble is in the detail. So, if one extra storey is accepted without question, why not two or ten or twenty extra storeys? In my experience, those who want to limit the powers of local government to control development often win the argument, in principle, even though in practice local residents nearly always wish the planning authority had more control over developers. In my view, the planning process allows all interested parties to negotiate. Without that process, local residents will find that their interests are harmed without consultation or the opportunity to express reasoned protest.
  14. A second long-term trend is for Government to limit local authority control of classes of development: the most obvious examples being the restriction of local authority powers over changes of use, say from a greengrocer or a newsagent to a betting or sex shop. It used to be that local authorities could restrict or stop the opening of such shops, or protect the diversity of their main streets by preventing the growth of supermarkets in their area. But large vested interests in the retail industry lobbied governments, and persuaded national government that local government was “restraining” trade. Our powers were limited and now betting shops dominate the high streets of the UK’s most deprived areas and supermarkets have driven family grocers, fishmongers, greengrocers, etc., out of business. This trend is particularly noticeable away from the biggest cities, where country towns and villages have been almost totally hollowed out.

My Programme for August

  1. I was meant to be in Berlin in the first week of August, supporting Penelope, who was due to be at a German historical conference – but now, in these Covid-blighted days, listening to the Test Series between England and Pakistan might be the highlight of the week!
  2. Except, as attentive readers will recall, I recently lost a tooth (Upper Left 3 apparently) but now I am having to have two implants – a painful and expensive holiday!
  3. On 20th August, there will be another virtual Planning Applications Committee (PAC).
  4. August will be a quiet month.

Last month I asked whether anyone knew where in Latchmere

this weeping willow stands?

                I was a little disappointed to get only one correct response.

And, my respondent having informed me that the two willows were in Latchmere Recreation Ground, Burns Road, told me that if you look up into the tree, that it is not in good health – sad, if true.

This month I am simply going to announce two very late items of:-

STOP PRESS

  1. Vauxhall Bridge is to be almost totally closed to traffic from 10.00 pm on Sunday, 2nd August, until the end of November. It has been discovered that the internal ironwork is deteriorating dangerously and remedial work will start immediately.

All northbound traffic including general traffic, private vehicles, buses, coaches, taxi and private hire will be directed via Nine Elms Lane, Chelsea Bridge and Grosvenor Road.  A bus lane will be created on Vauxhall Bridge throughout the work to allow southbound buses to operate.  All other general traffic (including private vehicles, coaches, taxi and private hire) travelling southbound will be diverted via Millbank, Lambeth Bridge and Albert Embankment.

Cyclists and pedestrians will be able to cross the bridge in both directions.

SO, AVOID VAUXHALL BRIDGE FOR THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS AT LEAST BUT WHAT OF THE LIKELY IMPACT ON BOTH CHELSEA & BATTERSEA BRIDGES.

  1. The latest list of peerages has just been announced including Wandsworth’s ex-Leader, Edward Lister. He was Leader of the Council and I, Opposition Leader, for the best part of 20 years. I will say a little more on this matter next month.

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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