April 4, 2021  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April 2021, Newsletter (# 142)

  1. I was taking my daily exercise across the Common when I saw the very large, slow and apparently lazy wing beat of a heron making for one of the local ponds. And then it disappeared. I searched around the reeds without success. But something caused me to look up and there was my heron, the silent killer of the reeds. Not of course, unknown on the banks of the ponds but always a surprise to me when seen high in the trees. That sighting was a good start to a turbulent month.
  2. On 8 March, I attended an event, organised by my partner, Penny to mark International Women’s Day. Our MP, Marsha de Cordova initiated and hosted the well-attended (virtual) public meeting. Marsha also chaired the five presentations of individual Battersea women’s lives. They were chosen to show a range of pioneering female endeavour in politics and protest; aviation and technology; sports; literature; entertainment. The point, for these women, was either to open new doors – or to push further through doors that were already opened. The five women were Charlotte Despard, Hilda Hewlett, Violet Piercy, Penelope Fitzgerald and Elsa Lanchester. A wide-ranging discussion followed, with notable contributions from an international panel – Judy McKnight, former General Secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) and Prof Beverley Bryan, from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.
  3. Two days later, March 5th, I took our MP, Marsha de Cordova, for a tour of the brand new Mitchell House. I must say Marsha is an excellent companion on such visits. She enthused over the new flats and their fantastic facilities. One particular flat, designed for a tenant with severe disabilities, has a kitchen work-top, which rises or falls at a touch of a switch, depending upon whether the user is in a wheel-chair or not. As the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (what an acronym SSSWE!), she was very keen on the adjustable work-top! The first tenants are moving into Mitchell House in early April so that at last the first council tenants will be moving into the regenerated estate!
  4. On 8 March, I attended an event, organised by my partner, Penny to mark International Women’s Day. Our MP, Marsha de Cordova initiated and hosted the well-attended (virtual) public meeting. Marsha also chaired the five presentations of individual Battersea women’s lives. They were chosen to show a range of pioneering female endeavour in politics and protest; aviation and technology; sports; literature; entertainment. The point, for these women, was either to open new doors – or to push further through doors that were already opened. The five women were Charlotte Despard, Hilda Hewlett, Violet Piercy, Penelope Fitzgerald and Elsa Lanchester. A wide-ranging discussion followed, with notable contributions from an international panel – Judy McKnight, former General Secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) and Prof Beverley Bryan, from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.
  5. On the 9th March, I had a meeting of the Wandsworth Conservation Area Advisory Committee. I would like to say that there was something of massive significance but there was not – bar ONE, which means a lot to me. Do you know the old St. Mark’s Vestry School on Battersea Rise? You have possibly ignored it, because of its ramshackle state. You may even have said, “Why haven’t they knocked it down and widened the road junction?” Well, they nearly did except that the late Gordon Passmore, a venerable, Tory councillor, and I joined in an alliance in about 1995 to save the school from demolition. It is in fact an historic building of some local (and even national) significance. It was one of the very first schools built at the advent of free and compulsory education in 1870. Well, I am now delighted to say that, after all these years, the relatively wealthy Southwark diocese is bringing plans to give it a future. I will broadcast that future as soon as I know it.
  6. In the early afternoon of 10th March, there was a meeting of the Wandsworth Design Panel. The panel consists of architects, planners and developers, whose main purpose is to advise the Council on planning and design issues relating to significant developments in the Borough. The panel does not consider the value or utility of any one development – that is clearly a decision for others to take. It is interesting, however, to see and hear the views of practitioners. In my view, they are rather too concerned with design values and too little with social values – but they are advising us on design, so they are doing their job. For example, they tend to love what some might call iconic buildings that make a statement; whereas others might be more concerned about the fit within the community.
  7. I went directly, almost at the flick of a switch, to a meeting with Grassroots For Europe, which is a Labour-oriented group talking about when and how to encourage and lobby the powers that be to think about rejoining the European Union. Anyone who has read my newsletters will know, that I think, leaving the EU was an unmitigated disaster. We will see as events unfold, whether it has or has not been. Either way, it is clearly a live issue. Brexit has definitely not been done yet!
  8. On 11th March, in the morning, I took part in a group set up to commemorate John Archer, who in 1913 became the first black Mayor of any large local authority in Britain. (interestingly a small town in East Anglia had had a black mayor in the nineteenth century) The general assumption is that the memorial is likely to be a statue in some prominent spot in Battersea. Judging by this picture, to do Archer proud it will need to be a grand statue! The working group included the Leader of Wandsworth Council, Councillor Maurice McLoud and myself.
  9. On 12th March, Sarah Everard was kidnapped, apparently on the A205, a well-lit section of the South Circular Road, and subsequently murdered. Her murder will always, however inaccurately, be associated with Clapham Common. The local outpouring of grief was unprecedented. I went up on to the Common on both the following days, in a somewhat vain gesture of solidarity. The only thing that I can think of to say is that we do have to do something pretty drastic about men. We need to rethink the education and status of boys, relative not only to girls but to the whole of society. Men are, after all, guilty of most violence whether to young or old, child or adult, female or male.
  10. Within a couple of days, the tree was cut down. I have made no bones about my support for the regeneration of the York Road estate, commonly (but wrongly) referred to as the Winstanley. I (and more to the point, most of the tenants) do not consider that the living conditions suffered by many who live in Scholey,  Pennethorne, and Holcroft Houses to be acceptable in 21st century Britain. And when what follows from that belief are difficult decisions, then I certainly accept the consequences. I have taken some criticism for the cutting down of the tree, for not providing a massive increase in social housing and for not arguing for the perfect solution. As it happens, it is Wandsworth Council with its Tory majority control, which makes the decisions in a context where a Tory Government has set the funding rules. I believe that, in that context, I and my fellow Labour councillors in Latchmere – Wendy Speck (now retired), Kate Stock and Simon Hogg – have negotiated and lobbied for a far better outcome than most regeneration schemes across the capital have achieved. And remember, the plan is to have 40 more trees after the scheme is completed than before!
  11. A week later, on 19th March, I went to a lecture on Degas at the National Gallery. In pre-Covid days, I loved going to the exhibitions to see great paintings, by Hockney as much as by Leonardo. However, I am disappointed with the lectures that the National Gallery has put on during Covid, which I have attended virtually. Personally, I am not all that interested in Degas’ personal circumstances. He seems to have had a very comfortable and happy life – none of your mythical tales of starving, love-lorn student in a freezing attic. For my taste, the lecture put too much emphasis on the artist and not enough on the techniques or the brilliance of his art. So, very high marks to the Gallery for the idea of publicly accessible lectures, even at a high price, but the Gallery needs to think further about the delivery of the lectures. Perhaps, they need to take advice from the  BBC or similar experts.
  12. On 24th March I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC). It was, however, one of the most uneventful PAC meetings of recent times. Nevertheless, 80 people joined the virtual public gallery. And, although government permission to hold such meetings in virtual mode runs out at the end of June, there is no doubt that there will be long-term effects on the way that Councils hold their public meetings.
  13. On 30th March, I went for a virtual walk along Bolingbroke Grove, led and described by Sue Demont of the Battersea Society and organised by the Friends of Wandsworth Common. It was well researched, as Sue’s work always is, but one of her comments, I found especially interesting, related to Bolingbroke School. It was of course, for most of its life, Bolingbroke Hospital, and you can possibly tell that where the large windows dominate the west face of the school, there used to be balconies. They were there so that patients, mostly from the then densely packed industrial slums, north of the railway lines, could recuperate in the fresh air and the sunshine. In a strange way that geographic exchange between the harsher realities of North Battersea and the softer environment of Wandsworth Common is echoed by the daily flow of school-kids from one to the other.
  14. And finally, I and my partner have just had our second jabs. It obviously does not mean that one can go mad and go to the pub, a restaurant and the cinema. However, it is a weight off the mind. I fully recommend it to anyone having doubts about vaccination. Forget your doubts. Vaccination works – all the evidence proves it – and what is more, it is a collective good, potentially releasing us all from endlessly repeated lockdowns.

My Programme for April

  1. All normal political activity comes to a halt in April, as the rules forbid meetings, council publicity, etc., etc. in the run-up to the London Mayoral and London Assembly elections on May 6th.
  2. Life will not exactly stop but, what with Covid, it will seem pretty close to it, except that on April 26th, I am due to give a presentation to the Battersea Society on Battersea History, 1800-2020. That will be a new challenge that I am looking forward to.

Did you Know: Last month I asked about the person, whose name adorns the new Duval House?

 

The answer is Emily Duval (1861-1924), who campaigned strongly for women’s rights, as did all her Battersea-based family. She was twice imprisoned for her role in suffragette protests; and in 1919, once women had got the vote, she became a Labour Councillor in Battersea – one of the first women to be elected to such a position. Tragically, Duval’s three suffragette daughters died in the 1918 flu pandemic and never got to vote.

And for this month can you tell me:

Where you would have to go in 1886 to visit Battersea’s Little Hell? And what is there now?

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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