Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea February 2024, Newsletter (# 176)
- I had a very quiet start of the year, with little of note other than a very nice Twelfth Night Party, Penny and I hosted for our close neighbours; plus a nostalgic 70s and 80s themed ‘Labour Party’ party hosted by friends Mark and Sarah with Alf Dubs, guest of honour on 14th January – great catch-up with many old friends.
- The Planning Applications Committee was on the 19th January and continues to reflect the depressed state of the construction industry – there were not many planning applications for significant developments in the Borough – in fact precisely three – all in Battersea. One, I am sure that many people will be delighted to hear about, was an application to revive the old changing rooms on Clapham Common West, next to the zebra crossing, where the one-way system starts. The refurbishment will include café facilities, a sitting area and a public loo. Another was for a development in Alderbrook Road, which the Committee chose to reject; and the third was for yet another four-year extension on the so-called British Genius site in Battersea Park. In approving this application, the Committee expressed a general view that they would look kindly on an application for a permanent building on the site with more environmentally friendly qualities.
- Many of you will have heard about the “plan” to build a 38-41 storey residential bloc on the south-side of the Thames, alongside
Battersea Bridge. The first thing to say about the “plan” is that a scoping submission has indeed been submitted to the Council, but it is NOT a planning application. It is an investigative enquiry. The Council’s current local plan suggests that a suitable height would be 7-12 storeys, so there is a very wide gap between the developer’s thoughts and the Council’s plan. No doubt local residents will have their views, which I suggest you register on the Council’s website when, and if, we receive a real planning application.
- On 25th January, we had the first Alf Dubs Lecture at the Battersea Arts Centre. The idea of starting what is hoped to be an
annual event was first mooted by Anne Reyersbach, a Battersea resident with relatives, who very much like Alf, fled to the UK during the Nazi-led, Eastern and Central European pogroms of the 1930s. Alf himself was, of course, one of the Kinder-transport children, whose plight was recently dramatised in the film One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins as Nicholas Winton. The lecture itself illustrated Alf’s traditional self; amusing, charming, courteous, committed, with the wisdom of age. In his early nineties, Alf, more formally of course Lord Dubs of Battersea, is an inspiration to us all.
- But, if January was a quiet start to the political year, it is not going to be quiet for very long. In early February, Labour councillors will be discussing this year’s Council Tax decision – the final decision will be taken on March 6th. Meanwhile, May’s London Mayoral and Assembly elections are looming over the horizon and not far beyond that is the General Election – I think it will be on the third Thursday of October – just 2 or 3 weeks before the American Presidential election. And over all, there is the dark, dark shadow of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
- Finally and closer to home, we have recently all experienced the horror of a pandemic, which one would have thought taught us all the wisdom of getting our jabs and yet we now see an ancient scourge, called Measles, getting a greater hold on a new generation! I was lucky enough to be a wartime baby when our parents took public health warnings and pandemics seriously and took no notice of dubious doctors and non-scientific Anti-Vaccers. So, get your kids, or grand-kids vaccinated now if you have not yet so done and don’t make them suffer because of your laziness or scepticism.
My programme for February
- On 2nd February, Simon Hogg and Kate Stock hosted a Saturday coffee morning for Falconbrook and neighbouring residents.
- There is a Council Meeting on 7th February. It will probably be rather dull as it has, for technical reasons, been restricted to accounts and funding issues without being about the one big issue – the Council Tax, which will be decided on 6th March.
- The Transport Committee is on 19th February.
- The Planning Applications Committee is on 22nd February.
- On 26th February, I have the Finance & General Purposes Committee.
Did you know?
So in the last two months, I asked, 
about
these two plaques, where they are and what else is named after John Buckmaster. The blue plaque is in the car-park at the Brighton Yard entrance and the green plaque is on the Skylark café in Wandsworth Common – the café is on the wrong side of the tracks to be in Battersea – it is actually in Tooting constituency.
The other Buckmaster naming is, of course, Buckmaster Road, which runs south from Battersea Rise.
Many people knew the answer to this question, including of course Su Demont, who is a Battersea historian. But a special reply came from Liz, who wrote as follows, “My G G Grandfather was John Charles Buckmaster, born around 1822 in Slapton Bucks. His book “a Village Politician” under the pen name John Buckley in the first edition, now also under his own name is an interesting account of reform in the 19th C. Easily available on the internet. JCB was involved in lobbying for the repeal of the corn laws and was a paid agitator. Later he trained as a teacher in science subjects and wrote many textbooks, some of which are still available today e.g. “Buckmaster’s inorganic chemistry” – not actually a page-turner!”
“He lived where Platform 9 of Clapham Junction Station now stands and got involved in, and then led, the movement to save Wandsworth Common. Most of it is in his book. In 2021 it was the 150th anniversary of the Wandsworth Common Act which was celebrated by the Wandsworth Common committee erecting a blue plaque outside the main south side entrance to Clapham Junction and a green plaque outside the Skylark Café”.
And this month?
There was a pub at the end of Lavender Gardens called The Cornet of Horse – a name from the long, last past. It is now part of a very twenty-first century comedy pub-chain called Jongleurs. But do you know what is a Cornet of Horse and how did the pub get that name? And what is the link between the pub and a council block on the Ethelburga Estate?
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 