Archive | August 2024
August 22, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea September 2024, Newsletter (# 183)

  1. This newsletter is a bit early but I will be away at the end of August – so apologies. August was a busy month. First, the riots: thank goodness this has not been a problem in Wandsworth, unlike in August 2011, when as old hands will remember, a shop got burnt out in Clapham Junction(CJ). Then there was looting and criminal damage, with many shops in CJ ransacked. The damage then was not as bad as in other riots in Croydon and Tottenham, but CJ ran them a close third.

Every commentator has his/her own theory of the causes of the 2024 version. They range from anti-immigration sentiment to racism, from poverty to the closure of youth clubs/facilities, and from fundamentalist right-wingers to religious bigotry. One can argue the case for any of these being the main factor, or the housing crisis, or the cost of living. The press, though, seems to agree that the disturbances were fundamentally about race; I am not so sure, although clearly some of the rioters were racist.

Looking at the photographs of the riots and studying the rioters’ faces leaves me largely unsatisfied with these answers. Very few of the rioters look poor; not many look as though their problem is the lack of a youth club. Although most are white males, there were a few black faces present and there was certainly no lack of women in the crowds.

Generally, the faces did not look like the nation’s deprived. But they were alienated, massively so, from the society, in which they live. Two men, Picture2you may recall, were charged with wrecking a public library – an apparently pointless act of nihilism – not apparently about race or deprivation, but simply the mindless vandalism of the deeply alienated, or if you like, the disengaged. Those men did not think that they had any investment in society.

I suspect that the missing ingredient in the lives of these rioters is any sense of purpose. They probably have decently paid jobs, as indeed many of the court hearings demonstrate, but no control in those jobs – being neither management nor trade unionists. They have views about how their society operates but no say in how their society is organised – they certainly do not think having a vote every five years means anything much. The rioters appear not to care about the impact on society, but they do not even see that their behaviour has seriously damaging consequences on their own families. Mrs. Thatcher once notoriously said that “there is no such thing as society, only families”. These disturbances were about neither family nor society.

I am inclined to believe that the main causes of the riots may be the deep inequality in our society, not just about money but about power and influence. And the monetisation of nearly all aspects of modern life – if you have not come across “monetisation”, the best way I can describe it is the triumph of those (largely Thatcherites) who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing That’s my pontificating for the month!

  1. However, would you agree with me that the Government has played a blinder through this, oh so unexpected, crisis? My contacts, who think that Keir Starmer is deadly boring and unexciting, might start changing their minds as he appears to be handling the complexities of government supremely competently. He appears to be as in command of the situation as could have been expected and infinitely more re-assuring than any of our recent Tory PMs would have been.
  2. Did you see that Wandsworth Council has invited architects, designers, and artists to submit innovative proposals to rejuvenate the Falcon Road railway bridge? This essential route runs through the heart of Clapham Junction. TransformingPicture1 the Bridge would revitalise the town centre. The bridge might even turn into a vibrant, artistic space. The Council is looking for design teams to re-imagine this 100-metre-long tunnel, improving the experience for the whole local community including pedestrians, cyclists, and people living and working in the neighbourhood. I don’t walk through there because of health concerns – I always get a bus, even if for only the one stop. Let’s hope that we get a great response. We all want and need a renovated and healthy town centre!
  3. I must confess that I spent much of the first half of August recovering from my cracked rib by bingeing on the Olympic Games. My memory of the London Olympics in 2022 is that London ran the most spectacular show of modern times, with a record level of popular public involvement. But, one must admit that it is difficult to beat Paris for style, architecture, and glamour. Both Paris and London have set high standards that are going to be difficult to exceed.
  4. The Planning Applications Committee on 21st August considered two cases of great interest to Battersea residents. The first was a request for full planning permission approval for the flower stall outside the main entrance to Clapham Junction station. You may not have known but previously the stall has only had five-year permissions. The Committee was recommended to continue that 5-year permission BUT Committee members decided to reduce the permit to three years.

The second was a decision to enforce a “planning refusal” on a basement flat in Queenstown Road, on the grounds that the flat was vulnerable to flooding. Interestingly, the enforcement order only happened because the applicant decided to apply for permission, and therefore the Council had to come to a view about its acceptability.. The terraces on both sides of Queenstown Road are similarly designed with similar style conversions; and they are not the only basement flats in North Battersea. An interesting can of worms, perhaps?

My September Programme

  1. We are having a longer holiday in Croatia than usual and so I may just be back for a meeting of the Environment Committee on 17th September.
  2. The September Planning Applications Committee is on 19th.
  3. And (as of now) that’s it, but I am sure other things will turn up.

Did you know?

Last month I asked “How many of the competitors in the Paris Olympics are resident in Battersea?

Well, I have an answer, but is it the complete answer? Can anyone add to my list which is:

  • Georgia Bell, who excitingly and, to many,Picture3 surprisingly won a dramatic bronze medal in the women’s 1500 metres track event. Pictured by the Independent (NB, the press has incorrectly described her as being a Clapham resident, but she actually lives in the heart of Battersea!)
  • Tom Ford, something of a rowing great. He was one of the Eight, who won gold in the Olympic rowing blue riband event – the eights final. He also won a bronze in Tokyo, 4 golds in European Championships and 2 world championships. His sister, Emily, also won a bronze in Paris in the women’s eight.
  • Laura Roper is statistically the greatest hockey Olympian ever produced in Great Britain. Although the GB hockey team was unsuccessful by their own high standards Laura had already in Tokyo become the first British hockey player to win medals at three different Games. Laura had won bronze at London 2012, she then famously helped the team secure a historic gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Laura then made it three medals from three Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 as she played a crucial role in leading the team to a bronze medal.

And this month?

Can you name a celebrity of a different kind, who is best known for his great knowledge of extra-terrestrial matters, delivered with a boyishly winning charm, and who lives right in the heart of Battersea?

August 1, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August 2024, Newsletter (# 182)

  1. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive; but to be young wasPicture1 very heaven!” wrote Wordsworth as he recalled hearing the news of the storming of the Bastille in 1789. Not sure that I could claim exactly the same thoughts on July 5th, as I took in the full glory of Labour’s 174 majority win in the 2024 General Election. I can after all hardly claim to be young anymore – but nonetheless the news brought Wordsworth’s words to mind.
  1. There wasn’t for me exactly one “Portillo moment” as cabinet member after cabinet member fell before the onslaught of an angry public. The voters showed that they did not want the Tories anymore – even if they were not quite as enthusiastic for Labour as I might have wished. Nonetheless, bliss it was!
  1. Moreover, haven’t the first few days of the Labour government already made such a difference? It feels and sounds as though the adults are back in charge of events – as even some of my Tory friends ruefully acknowledge – for the first time since the 2016 Referendum and the emergence of joker Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister.
  2. July 2024 will obviously feature in Keir Starmer’s futurePicture2 biographies if not in this version but, in hindsight, it may be even more significant than it already appears to be. On July 1st Starmer was the Opposition Leader of a medium-sized power in the Western alliance but within days of Starmer’s election victory, the French President Macron committed what appears to be political suicide and President Joe Biden has written himself out of the script. Suddenly Keir Starmer is one of the senior leaders in the Western world and the leader of one of the most stable countries in that alliance. What a month!
  3. Meanwhile, back in Wandsworth, the Planning Applications Committee was held on 18th There were three particularly significant applications – all of which were approved. The first was for 12 new council houses – way over in Roehampton. However, the other two were in Battersea. One was for a Tesco store to replace the gymnasium on the Falcon Road, though there are legal issues around that application which makes its implementation far from certain. The other is for a major development of residential units in two blocks – one of twenty storeysPicture3 and the other of seven storeys in Gwynne Road, North Battersea, near Lombard Road. It is planned that 35% of the residential units will be affordable and the other 65% will be available at market prices – a split which is in line with the current Greater London Authority’s London Plan. It is not, however, as ambitious as Wandsworth Council’s more radical ambition of achieving a 50:50 split, between affordable and market housing. Our ambitious, proposed plan amendment has not yet been approved by the Secretary of State, who may think that we are in danger of discouraging developers. The graphic shows the design line of development from the large, new block on the riverside down to the 14-storey block on the right.
  4. July has seen a number of encouraging developments in Wandsworth Council services. I have not been closely involved with all these initiatives, but I am sure everyone will be interested in, for example, how we are trying to make many facilities accessible (i.e. free) for children on free school meals. But we are also doubling the number of mega-skips available; encouraging developers to fund local improvements; introducing free breakfast schemes for many more schoolchildren; and initiating a mega-regeneration programme on the Alton Estate in Roehampton.
  5. Two events dominated the middle week of July, both slightly taking the gloss off Labour’s optimistic and confident control of the Council. The first was the discovery that on the night of July 4th, the Council got the Putney result in the General Election wrong by a few thousand votes. It was a bureaucratic error, nothing to do with the political control of the Council and fortunately, it appears as though it has made no substantial difference to any candidate – no deposit was lost, no wrong result – but it was not good for the Council’s reputation – to put it mildly.
  6. The other event was the resignation of Wandsworth’s (and Richmond’s) Chief Executive, Mike Jackson. We are told that this was for personal reasons – and I am sure that it was – but it certainly was not in the plan when he was appointed almost exactly on Day One of the Labour Council. Best wishes to him and his family. But for a Council, that has been used to long-serving senior leadership, this third major change at the top of the organisation represents an interesting corporate challenge.
  1. Meanwhile, on 14th July back in the “real world”, England lost 2:1 to Spain in the Euro- final. As always, the commentators said that we had man for man the better players whilst everyone, me included, could clearly see that Spain was the better team. Therefore, QED they must have the better manager. So, let’s blame poor old Gareth Southgate. But, I think Southgate has played a blinder ever since he was appointed as England’s manager. Hence, my guess is that our players are not actually better man for man than the Spanish team. Perhaps, because all the commentators are ex-Premier footballers, they hate to criticise players and turn instead against Gareth.
  1. Also, on the 14th I went to the Northcote Road festival, which was mainly distinguished by food and drink stalls, where, as expected, I bumped into neighbours and a few old friends – even if this year it was notable for the lack of Tories on show – were they licking their wounds?
  1. On 19th July immediately after the PAC (well at 8 the next day) Penny and I set off for a much anticipated 10-day break in Ireland. We spent the first six days in Killarney and the last few days in Maynooth, near Dublin. I had always wanted to return to Kerry having had good experiences of the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry in the 1960s!
  2. We started with a tour of the Ring of Kerry (the beautiful coast road around Ireland’s extreme south-west peninsula) but unfortunately,Picture4 the weather was very Irish and we only really became acquainted with the inside of an Irish cloud. Then two days later I stupidly managed to fall over, whilst cycling around Killarney National Park. I ended up with a cracked rib – ever had one? Don’t bother if you haven’t. They are very painful and can only be left to mend at their own pace – not fun – and so I spent the rest of our time in Ireland in a hotel bed, getting up on a couple of occasions for nice choral evenings in Irish pubs. This picture of us at Ross Castle in Killarney National Park, does remind me that the sun came out just a little before I injured myself!
  3. We finished off in Maynooth, a small Irish University town 30 miles west of Dublin, where Penny was participatng in one of her eighteenth century studies conferences. I usually enjoy those occasions – plenty of socialising and entertaining discussions, but I am afraid that on this occasion, cracked rib an’ all, I was a bit of a weakling and largely stayed in bed! Happily, Penny reports that her Conference went well – she certainly came back to the hotel in merry mood on the last evening.

 My August Programme

  1. The August Planning Applications Committee is on 21st
  2. But apart from that August is entirely free – bar a couple of planning meetings with officers and fellow councillors – until 22nd, when Penny and I will be off for what has become our traditional holiday in Croatia.

Did you know?

Last month, having listed all Battersea’s MPs, since 1900, I asked if you could list streets, parks, houses, named after any of them. Well, that certainly taught me a lesson – not one person bothered to reply – such is the interest in our MPs. (Though to be fair JP and a couple of others noticed a bad error I made about Alf Dubs’ dates!) But just in case some of you are interested in the answers, here is my list:-

  1. Burns Road, named after John Burns of course,
  2. Stephen Sanders Court in Salcott Road,
  3. Ganley Court, after Caroline Ganley, and
  4. Jay Court, after Douglas Jay, now anonymously Park Court South.

And this month?

This is a genuine question, in the sense that I do not know the answer, but would like to know it – and you may be interested as well. How many of the competitors in the Paris Olympics are resident in Battersea, if any?