Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea January 2023, Newsletter (# 163)
- Got to admit that after the quiet Xmas’s of the Covid years, this
December was more than usually festive, with many having their first big Xmas festivities since 2019. But I am sure that you don’t want to hear about my soccer club dinner; or my old college mates’ lunch-time drink; or my several neighbourhood Xmas drinks; or even the Labour Group Xmas dinner, which after our election victory was the largest for at least 40 years! However, NYE was worth a mention – mainly because of the great food and company we enjoyed, but also because there was a spectacular and comfortable view of the fireworks. Can you guess from the picture where, in Battersea, this party was?
- I had the Finance Committee on the 1st December, but that was largely procedural and, whilst important, not newsworthy. As indeed was the Planning Applications Committee on the 15th, although some might be sorry that we gave permission for a building conversion in Old York Road, which might spell the end for the Ducati dealership even if it does substantially improve the shop frontage in the road. I also had the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board in Sutton Town Hall on the morning of 6th December, when we had, sensationally and for the first time in my memory, a vote – unfortunately I have forgotten about what!
- There was a very pleasant and friendly Northcote ward Labour Party Social on the 3rd, which would not normally be worth a mention other than it marked the first time Battersea Labour Party tried and succeeded to organise itself on the “new” ward boundaries – well for the first time as far as I was concerned.
- I went to the Ethelburga Residents Association’s (ERA) Annual General Meeting on the 7th and was encouraged to see that the Association is flourishing, under the dynamic leadership given to it by the Chair and the Secretary.
- The Battersea Society’s Xmas social, on the 8th, was enlivened by a
dynamic performance from the Battersea Power Station’s community choir, guided by an inspirational leader, shown here, with the choir in St. Mary’s Church. Both this occasion, and the ERA meeting the day before, illustrated, as though it needed to be demonstrated – the power of good leadership!
- On the 10th, I played chess for Surrey against Kent and, for the second month running, rather annoyingly I lost with the white pieces against a Sicilian Defence – that’s pretty basic stuff but the only compensation was that my opponent was graded 200 points above me in the national classification system. I was much better when I, some years ago now, played at school!
- Battersea’s MP, Marsha de Cordova, hosted her Xmas social for party members in the House of Commons on 12th. The get-together was as great
as usual but getting into the Commons through “the security” is nowadays pretty much as tedious as catching a plane! Though Westminster Great Hall, pictured here, and the only genuinely ancient part of the Palace of Westminster is always worth a visit. It was originally built in 1097-99 and remodelled to some degree 300 years later but it was NOT destroyed in the great fire of 1834, which destroyed most of the rest of the Palace.
That was the night of the snow. It is so rare nowadays in London to get such snowfall and the magnificent silence that accompanies it. The sound of silence woke me up at just gone 3 am on the 13th December and I could not resist the light – So, I recorded the moment in this picture.
- On the 14th December we had a Council Meeting. They are rather like hen’s teeth these days. I can remember years when we had 10 or 12 Council Meetings a year and real decisions were posed and real votes taken. But now the decisions are taken elsewhere and there are only four Council Meetings a year; and each one lasts for a maximum of two and a half hours, when a guillotine closes debate. Time was that we continued until the business was finished! What is more, we have to allow new councillors to make their maiden speeches – and there are so many new councillors that it is going to be more than a year before anyone else gets a look-in. Still, I must say that our (Labour) maiden speeches were really excellent and, although some of theirs (Tories) were not bad, ours were universally better – or that was what we unanimously agreed.
- A couple of days later on 16th December, I met Councillor Aiden Mundy, who is my equivalent on Merton Council. We had a very specific purpose to the discussion, namely to agree an approach to considering an upcoming planning application. The application will be from the All-England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and is for a major, multi-£million extension of the Wimbledon tennis campus. It is of no direct significance to Battersea itself, except that, as part of the Borough, it is worth noting that this is probably the most significant application that we, in Wandsworth, and Merton will face in the next four years. We are NOT trying to ensure that the two Boroughs necessarily make the same decision, either to approve or refuse the application, but we DO intend to hear the same story, the same facts, the same advice, the same public response, and to act as professionally as we can.
- Finally, after a very, very quiet
Xmas day spent on our own and doing some gardening – I really enjoy winter gardening – pruning the roses, the apple tree, and the forsythia; breaking back the fuchsia and digging out the odd weeds. On Boxing Day, we went to Winchester for a brief stay with family. None of which I might have mentioned except that, on our walk the next morning, we came across this wild (?) pony in the Hampshire woods. Isn’t she a definition of adorable? Or am I getting sentimental in my mature years?
My programme for January
- I have the Battersea Society’s annual Twelfth Night dinner on 6th.
- I am going to see the Nutcracker ballet in Southend-on-Sea on the 8th.
- I have the Battersea Labour Party EC on the 10th and a Labour Group on the 12th.
- A briefing on plans for Richmond Park’s Roehampton Gate on 13th..
- The Planning Applications Committee is on January 19th.
- The Finance Committee on the 25th.
- The Wandsworth Conservation Area Committee on the 31st.
Did you Know?
Last month, I asked whether 
you knew what this briefly famous Battersea landmark was, and the names of the two blocks of flats which nowadays have taken its place? Not many of you replied, but those who did uniformly and correctly said that it was Albert Palace, a very large but short-lived Exhibition Centre, open only from 1885-88. It was a kind of pastiche of the great 1851 Exhibition’s Crystal Palace. The two blocks of flats, now on the site, are appropriately enough Albert Palace Mansions and Prince of Wales Mansions.
And this month?
Peter Sellers, then a key part of the Goon Show, once made up a verse
and a song where he sang the praises of a suburb as the “portal to Worthing and Littlehampton” and thus immortalised one part of the Borough. Do you know which suburb and what actual phrase he used? In this picture from the last Goon Show, Sellers is in the centre. Surely everyone knows, also, who were his two colleagues?
Errata: Last month enthusiastic readers noted a couple of errors. Thanks to all for correcting me. The most significant was a comment that whilst X agreed with my assessment of the film, Living, she wished to nit-pick (her word) about Kasuo Ishiguro’s nationality? She went on to say, “Although he was born in Japan, he is a British writer – having been here since he was five and has had British citizenship for some 40 years”. I stand corrected!
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 