Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea September 2021, Newsletter (# 147)
- I realise that, more than once, I have started my newsletter with the less-than-startling comment that the previous month had been quiet but, in this case, August really was a quiet month – as you perhaps would expect. But I did have a meeting on Friday, the thirteenth (not that I am superstitious), with the current developers, Balance Out Living, of the site on the corner of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads – the one surrounded by a blue hoarding, which forces pedestrians onto the road. I say the “current” developers, as the previous ones disappeared at some point after getting planning permission. Don’t ask me whether they were Covid-burnt or market-roasted but, one way or another, they have gone.
- The new developers plan to build a “community living” space. Interestingly it will be the third planning application for such a development in Wandsworth, that I can recall over the last few years. Work on the other two, one near Earlsfield Station and the other in Chatfield Road, just off York Road, is quite advanced. The concept is to build blocks of living spaces, supported by a host of communal activities, such as workspaces, film and TV rooms, kitchens, and a cafe/restaurant. The end result would be like the best student apartment blocks but in a more luxurious style than that usually associated with students. The age range of the projected residents is wider than you might imagine (based on a couple of similar developments built in West London 10 years ago) though, of course, this kind of block is not very suitable for either families or the elderly.
- A consultation leaflet was distributed to the immediate neighbourhood in the last week of August describing the proposed development.
Here is a CGI (Computer Generated Image) of the original and this one is not very different. It is going as high as 13 storeys, which, in my opinion, is still far too high for this site; but, as the previous permission is still valid, there is nothing we can do about that. There is though the hope of work starting on the site soon and a promise that the school’s sports hall will be built as soon as permission is granted, which could be in October or November. So it is broadly good news for the school, its pupils and the residents of Dagnall Street, who have had to put up with a building site for far too many months, even if the development is still in my view too high and too large for this site.
- On the 19th August, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) Only three of the applications were for sites in Battersea and two were of only very, very local interest, but the picture shows the third, a new 8 storey building, on Battersea Bridge Road, opposite the Union pub.
It includes 24 residential units, of which 9 are, so-called, affordable units, above some offices and most interestingly a community/church hall on the ground floor. The development is part of a controversial re-generation of the Surrey Lane estate. By the way, on this occasion only 54 members of the public watched the PAC online but, interestingly, another 80 viewers tuned in later to the podcast, no doubt to catch up on what happened to applications of relevance to them. Interestingly enough, one of the local Tory councillors, and the Battersea Society, objected to the height of the building and thought it out-of-character. Is this an indicator of the “Tory worm turning” against Battersea’s incessant upward development?
- Unfortunately the Committee was held on the same evening as the Battersea Society’s summer party at St. Mary’s church. I was sad to miss that party, as it is one of the nicest social events of the summer. My regret was compounded by the rain which forced Battersea Labour Party to abandon its Battersea Park picnic on 21st August and re-locate it in the pub, the Magic Garden – pleasant enough but not the same as a picnic, nor as Covid secure!
- On one of my ward walkabouts, I came across the 3 security men guarding the Battersea Methodist Chapel. At some time in August, some protestors occupied the chapel building with the intention, they claimed, to take it and turn it into a community resource. They had thought that they were occupying a “council property” and were quick enough to repent and leave when they discovered it was still a church property. Good for them BUT isn’t it worrying that they clearly did not think that council ownership was, in any sense, good for the community? The trust between publicly elected bodies and the public, so strong when I was a kid in the immediate post-war years, is today dangerously torn asunder.
- I also came across this development site, which is
the start of the Council’s building work on the new Northcote Library, right across the road from the current one. (For those who know it well, it is the site of the old Chatham Hall, scene in the past of jumble sales, political meetings, tenants associations and more recently of a day nursery). The old, much liked but totally inaccessible library building (you try it with a wheel-chair!) is likely to be replaced in 2023/24 by shop-fronts and housing in a style no doubt appropriate for Northcote Road.
- On 30th/31st August Penny and I visited family in Winchester……very pleasant, lousy weather, nothing special.
My Programme for September
- September (and maybe October) will be occupied with the very intense, nervous process of selecting candidates for the council election in May 2022. The process is the first step towards the Council Election and is in some ways the biggest hurdle to overcome. If you get selected in a “safe Labour” ward, then you are halfway to being elected as a councillor in May. The same is, of course, also true for Tory candidates in “safe Tory” wards. But the problem is that, after the ward boundary changes and redistribution, no one quite knows which wards are safe. So, if your local councillors are a bit snappy and nervous, then forgive them – they are probably having a trying time in selection meetings!
- In terms of regular, scheduled meetings I have the Conservation Advisory Committee on 2nd September, the Crematorium Board on 7th and the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 16th.
- Meanwhile, on the 12th September, we are going to the wedding party of an old college friend, who got married a year ago and has planned about three other Covid postponed parties. Tony (yes, another Tony) has given up waiting on an official end to Covid and has decided to go with the flow. The party is in the lovely little Northamptonshire town of Aynho.
- The following week is the week of the Labour Party Conference, which of course is followed immediately afterwards by the Tory Conference – something tells me that there are going to be some hard battles during that fortnight!
Did you Know?
Last month I asked, “Which Olympians from this year’s Tokyo Olympiad either live in Battersea or were said on TV to have had family watching the event on TV in Battersea?” Quite clearly none of you were interested in that question as not one of you even attempted an answer. All I can say, is that one athlete, a member of the equestrian team and a silver medallist, name of Tom McEwen, was said by the TV commentator to have parents watching at home in Battersea.
And for this month can you tell me 
where I was in Latchmere ward when I took this picture of more than 100 solar panels?
PS. In the summer I gave an hour’s zoom talk to the Battersea Society, called Battersea, 1801-2021, the history of this London suburb. It went quite well – I am told, so I just wondered whether any readers would be interested in hearing a repeat. Let me know at tonybelton99@gmail.com and I will timetable a repeat zoom session.
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 
The new co-living proposal (item 2 & 3) will be actually 18 storeys high (not 13), which is 4 more than the previously approved scheme. This is correct that the principle of a tower on the site has already been agreed with the previous application.
But this scheme is very controversial as it will scrap all affordable provision approved in the previous application for a different kind of usage. In addition, the design is actually a bland version of the previous scheme, with all balconies removed.
More information here: https://cjag.org/2021/11/15/a-18-storey-tower-for-co-living-proposed-on-battersea-park-road-2nd-revision-to-scrap-all-affordable-units-and-5-years-delay/