Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea January 2022, Newsletter (# 151)
- Happy New Year. I hope that you had
a great Xmas though I wouldn’t mind betting that it was one of the quietest that you have ever had. Mine certainly was! Penny and I watched old film favourites like Some like it Hot and had some nice walks in the park and on the common: this is Wandsworth Common after the inevitable and remorseless rain. - On 2nd December I went up to town for the first time since forever, to have a Xmas get-together with my old soccer mates. We played in the 60s and 70s. I was what we then called an inside right. I relied on pace, over 10 yards, stamina and a good reading of the game. I can only recall two goals I ever scored from outside the goal area, and, believe it or not, one of those was a header! There were about 15 of us – a party of septuagenerians and octogenerians – really wild.
- I had a meeting of the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board on 7th December at Sutton Town Hall. You will not be surprised to hear that in this Covid year the income from cremations is higher than had been estimated. However, the extra income has enabled the Board to invest in two air purifiers for the two ovens – perhaps an extreme version of just how clouds can have silver linings. The Crem will be one of the first in the UK to be so equipped – though, of course, they are standard in Sweden; a further example of how Scandinavian eco-standards are so much higher than ours.
- You may recall from last month’s newsletter that Labour
won the Bedford by-election by just one vote. Consequently, it was no surprise that the Wandsworth Labour Party was in turbulent mood. What, however, was surprising is the speed and decisive nature of the councillors’ response. We, Labour councillors, quickly concluded that it was too much to expect one person to be both the Leader of Labour members on the Greater London Assembly and the Leader of Labour councillors on Wandsworth Council. And, so on 12th December, we elected Simon Hogg as Leader of Wandsworth’s Labour councillors. - I had two major regrets in December, and they were missing the party/celebrations of Robert Musgrave’s retirement from Providence House and Donna Barham’s from the Kambala Residents Association. Robert has been the inspiration and lynchpin of Providence House, surely the largest and most successful youth club in Battersea; whilst Donna (second from left in this Kambala party) has created the Residents Association and the Kambala Cares catering group. Unfortunately, both events took place in mid-December, just as the latest phase of Covid struck, and by then I had decided to be super-cautious.
I did, however, venture out very cautiously to play chess for Surrey County against Essex – it may sound grand but it was at a fairly low grade. My grade is much lower than when I was at school but then I was in practice, which I am not now. So I was pretty pleased when I recovered from a poor opening (a pawn down) to offer my opponent a draw, which he accepted. However, when later reviewing the game, I realised that I had manoeuvred myself into a winning position – how really annoying! Especially as Surrey lost by one point and it could have been a draw!- The full Council Meeting was held on 15th I made a speech about the Council cutting its funding of the Battersea Arts Centre by £60,000. It was the first speech I’d made in Council since the Borough Election 3.5 years ago! That sounds as though I have not been doing my job as a councillor, but that has been pretty well inevitable given the reduction in the number and length of Council Meetings and the restrictions brought in because of Covid. There really is a democratic deficit opening up in local government!
- On 16th December I was at the December Planning
Applications Committee. It was strange being at a meeting, with the participants separated from each other by plastic barriers – rather like the way we are all separated from the bus driver. (Why won’t the Government allow us to run these meetings online? We have the technology and the public health case is made by all, including the Government). The agenda was also strange. It marked the inexorable march of giant blocks from Vauxhall into Battersea – this time a 21 storey block in Yelverton Road, more or less where the Chopper pub used to be 10 years ago. I seem to be the only councillor consistently voting against tower blocks at a time when I know many (most?) of the public dislike them. The picture is of the Vauxhall (east end) of the Wandsworth Road, by the Nine Elms Sainsbury’s.
- I spent some of today (31/12/21) reviewing the last year
and some of the stories I have covered in this newsletter this year. They included Trump’s assault on American democracy; the notorious Sky Pool pictured here and visible from Nine Elms Lane (if you look closely you can just make out a swimmer a quarter across from the right); me being stuck in a lift in Sporle Court; the new homes built in the Winstanley Regeneration; and the XR protests about it; Zoom meetings; and growing concerns about the climate crisis; and of course COVID. Quite a year. - I have written an appreciation (see https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/) of Brian Barnes (20/8/44-28/11/21), the painter, for the Battersea Society magazine Battersea Matters. One reader said that I was generous and that “Tony and Brian didn’t always see eye to eye (putting it mildly!)” We certainly did not see eye to eye, nor were his political achievements anything other than minimal. But he certainly did create some great street art with much community engagement.
My Programme for January
- Given omicron, it is probably rash to predict any future appointments, beyond a couple of days, but I think I can guarantee that the January Planning Applications Committee will be on 25th.
- It is also pretty safe to say that we councillors will be gearing up for the Council’s election on 5th May – now a mere four months and a few days away.
- 22nd January is the publication day for Penny’s great book on The Georgians (or very roughly eighteenth-century Britain, including Ireland, Scotland and Wales and not just England). It is being published by Yale University Press and it certainly looks impressive.
Did you Know?
Last month I asked, whether any of you knew what was on the site of Foxton’s, next to the Battersea Arts Centre, in the 1940s. A few of you knew that it was the magnificently impressive Shakespeare Theatre. This picture is from approximately 1920.
And this month?
When I was first elected in May 1971, what do you think was the first thing we did immediately on taking control of Wandsworth Council to defy the then Education Secretary, “Margaret Thatcher Milk-Snatcher”?
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 