Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea November 2021, Newsletter (# 149)
- September was hectic; October was both quieter and yet more challenging! During years in politics, I have been “interviewed” at more than 40 selection meetings prior to standing for election. This kind of competition is not unique to politics; but it always means competing with close colleagues and friends. That is stressful and the track record shows I have a mixed record at it! For most of the rest of the month I went coughing and spluttering into voluntary self-isolation – and that is boring.
- Saturday, 9th October, was a tough day. I had two selection meetings; one successful and the other not. The first was in the new 2 member ward of Falconbrook, where my colleagues Kate Stock and Simon Hogg were triumphant. Congratulations to them and all the best for the real election next May. The second selection meeting that day was in the new Battersea Park ward, where I was successful along with my new colleagues Juliana Anaan and Maurice McLeod. I look forward to working, and hopefully winning, with them next May.
- Wandsworth’s Council Meeting was held on the 13th Sadly and inevitably, Covid 19 has put everything, including Council Meetings, into the shade. The pandemic, not to mention the climate crisis, has eclipsed the relatively minor issues of running the Council. However, it does remain important that we have a lively political forum, in which to debate how we run our society, when hopefully we can put Covid behind us. Meanwhile the Council Meeting was rather second tier!
- On 14th October, I went to my cousin’s funeral
in Braintree, Essex. He and I were never very close, but immediately post-war, because he lived in Southend-on-Sea, my parents would send me off for a couple of weeks in the summer holidays from Tottenham to live with him, and my aunt and uncle. Penny and I made the 150 mile round journey (and stayed the night) to mark a family passing. It was good to see old family members again after so long. The “butter wouldn’t melt” picture is of David and me. David is the older of the two of us and the picture dates, I guess, from August, 1948. - After the funeral on the next day, 15th October, Pen and I drove the short distance to Colchester, where amongst other things I got a penalty notice for driving into a bus-lane I frankly didn’t see – oh, well, the price of urban living! Why go to Colchester? To visit an old colleague and friend, Guy Wilson, who was elected as a Wandsworth councillor in 1968. The three of us were part of the 1971-78 Labour Council. We had a conversational ramble through the successes and disasters of that Council – and my word there were some great successes and one very large disaster, the implementation, or not, of the 1971 Housing Finance Act!
The picture is of the three of us, Guy on the left, then Penny, and me, along with Margaret Morgan and Martin Linton, celebrating our 1971 victory at a recent 50 year celebration!
- On reflection, the funeral, especially the wake, was a super-spreader event. I haven’t heard of any consequential Covid 19, but I have had a nasty cough ever since and so on 16th October I put myself in self-isolation, despite a negative test – and self-isolation is very boring!
- Self-isolation meant that I did not attend the October Planning Applications Committee, except in Zoom-mode. Although there was nothing very exciting on the agenda, I was impressed by the high quality of councillor involvement and contribution. It was mundane. It was ordinary. It was not going to save the world from environmental disaster; but it was part of the bread-and-butter of local government and it was very well done with thought and care.
- On a quite different matter, one old friend of mine, who makes her living from graphic design, tells me that she likes my newsletters but hates the cross-page justification I have used in the first 3 paragraphs of this newsletter. She thinks it looks much better simply left-justified as in the last 5 paragraphs. Tell me, what is your view? What is the readers’ opinion?
My Programme for November
- On the 4th November, I was going to be at the Civic Awards ceremony at the Town Hall with my colleague Juliana Annan – but I am afraid self-isolation continues to rule that out.
- On the 7th November, Battersea Labour Party is having a Jazz Night at Clapham’s Bread and Roses That is usually an enjoyable occasion and I hope to be there!
- Some of you may remember that Penny was elected for a four-year term as President of the International Association for Eighteenth–Century Studies and we had plans for attending multiple international conferences. Of course, Covid has put a stop to all that. But now Denmark has taken the plunge and so from 10th-14th November we hope to be in Copenhagen – our first trip (holiday, well working holiday for her) in two years. No doubt many of you have not had a break either, so you will know how exciting that feels!
- The November Planning Applications Committee is on 23rd There will probably be a contentious planning application to convert the Clapham Common Bowling Green to a Pitch and Putt course, amongst other items – watch this space!
- Battersea Park Rotary Club invited me give a talk about my 50 years as a councillor and, no doubt, about what has or has not changed during that time. I get lunch in return on 25th I look forward to that but must think just a bit about what really has changed?
Did you Know?
Last month I asked, “Which ward will be abolished next May and, take with it, the proud record of being the only ward in Wandsworth never, ever to have been anything other than represented by Labour councillors?”
That was so easy/boring/inconsequential (delete to taste) that none of you bothered to tell me that it is, of course, Latchmere, the only ward permanently represented by Labour!
And for this month’s puzzler:
I thought I knew my local horse troughs but last month I noticed this one, for the first time, despite passing it a 1,000 times. It is a slight cheat as it is very marginally outside Battersea’s boundaries. Do you know it? And can you point me to a similar trough that is very definitely in Battersea?
If it helps, Yes – they are pub seats in the background.
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 