Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, January 2025, Newsletter (# 187)

1. I had the quarterly meeting of the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board on 3^rd December – pretty routine stuff.

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2. On 11^th December, we had the last Council Meeting of the year. It was not a glorious occasion; indeed, it was quite the opposite. Years ago, before Committees were opened to the public (1971), the Council Meeting served the real purpose of informing the press and the public of Council decisions and the policy arguments behind them. But since the committees have been opened to the public and more particularly since the Leader and Cabinet structure was introduced, the decisions have all been made and announced well before the Council Meeting. As a result, all that is left for Council Meetings is the politics – the worst side of politics, the show and the point-scoring, not the debate nor the complexities. All councillors need to reflect on how that Council Meeting looked to anyone actually watching. The question remains, “Whither Council Meetings?”

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3. December’s meeting of the Planning Applications Committee was on the 12 It was a dramatic evening, posing many of the issues facing both the Labour Government and the Labour Council. There were a dozen significant applications, mostly in Putney, but at the centre of the evening was a debate about 3 applications to build nearly 100 “council houses” (flats, of course) in and on the Ashburton Estate, Putney.

• • The three ward councillors, 2 Tory and 1 Labour, gave presentations against the schemes. They acknowledged that we need to build more affordable homes; they all agreed that the plans were for good, well-designed flats; but they all agreed that they just did not want them in the Ashburton Estate.
  • This stance was particularly difficult for Labour’s Councillor Ambache, who found himself in the awkward position where his constituency interests were in conflict with his wider, societal beliefs. It was a difficult argument to sustain but he did it well.
  • At one level, the opposition could be seen as simple nimbyism; but at another level, it reflected an understandable concern that one of the pleasantest estates in the Borough should not be ruined.
  • There was a full public gallery, prepared to heckle and harry the Committee members. But in general, the public was respectful and considered in opposition. After a serious debate – and perhaps unsurprisingly – the plans for the new flats were approved by 6 Labour votes against four Tory ones.

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4. Much of the rest of the month was standard stuff, Christmas Carols, eating and drinking too much – you know Xmas. However, on the 23^rd I went to Battersea’s Cats & Dogs Home to pick up my Xmas present to Penny. And here are the kittens, Sammy and Sally. They are delightful and haven’t yet started ruining the furniture.

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5. To mark the end of the year, I wish to note a few bits of really, really good news for Battersea. The first is about one of the nastiest places in Battersea:Falcon Road tunnel under the mainline rail tracks at Clapham Junction. I have occasionally got the bus just to avoid walking along that bit of Falcon Road. But now, we have a Labour Council which has invested in a competition to get rid of this eyesore and health hazard. By the end of 2025, we could have something as attractive as this picture, used by the competition winners, GPAD, POoR Collective, whose plans included involving young people, residents and community groups.

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6. Do you ever have need to walk along Howie Street or Elcho Street (pictured) or even Parkgate Road? If you do, then you will know what it is like walking along a narrow road in competition with the 49 bus and reasonably heavy traffic but without any decent pavement. I have been trying to get something done about this problem since my ward included the area in 2022, so imagine my delight when just before Xmas I got a letter from the Council, saying “that they plan to start works early in the new year on the 6^th January … with the intention to complete by the summer.” I know for many people living in the area this will be a great relief. What with the derelict site in Elcho Street, and the threat of developments in Ransome’s Dock and at Glassmills, the area often feels like Battersea in the blitz rather than in 2025, so it will mean something if there are at least some pavements to walk on!

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7. You will all have noticed that York Road has recently been fully re-opened after years constructing the Tideway Tunnel, the picture shows the scale of a section of the tunnel lining – see the man in high viz trousers. The impact on traffic has been enormous and must have cost all road users many more millions than the stated billions that the Tunnel cost to construct. But the Tunnel, built as a giant overflow to ease the pressure on London’s nineteenth-century sewage system. is now functioning and in December it was announced that on just one day recently it “captured nearly 850,000 tonnes of sewage,” which otherwise would have been discharged into the Thames. The work is not quite completed, but soon we will have taken a major step on the way to cleaning up our River Thames.

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8. What do you know about the Wimbledon Foundation and its contribution to Battersea? Not much, is my guess, so I thought that you might be interested to know that this organisation, essentially funded by the Wimbledon Tennis fortnight, awarded £711,000 in grants and donations to 73 organisations within Wandsworth over the last year alone such as:-

• • five projects in the Borough supporting the mental health and wellbeing of some of the most in-need communities in Wandsworth.
  • core funding to charities helping to combat homelessness locally. More than 22,000 people experiencing homelessness in Merton and Wandsworth have been supported by this fund since its launch in 2019.
  • supporting Wandsworth’s Borough of Culture year when it starts in April.

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9. Congratulations to the residents of Kelmscott Road, off the Northcote Road just south of Wakehurst! They win my personal prize for the most dazzling, inclusive Xmas display of the year – it has clearly involved the whole street and must have taken quite some time and effort to set up. I guess that you have until the 5^th January to jump on a 319 or G1 and take a butchers.

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10. And then on the 31^st, we went to the National Gallery to see the Van Gogh It was brilliant, comprehensive and very crowded – really rather too many people there to make ideal viewing, but it was packed with many of the old favourites such as the sunflowers, the chair, the bedroom and the portraits, though probably the majority of the paintings were of the French countryside, like this famous one.

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11. After seeing the Exhibition, we went for a walk around the West End to see the lights and the normal hustle and bustle of town. It was extremely lively and very busy. A notable feature, for the most part, is just how traffic-free the area is now. The Big Smoke, as London used to be known, has certainly become a cleaner place with air notably fresher than some small towns I have been to recently – with one result being this new kind of seasonally decorated rickshaw rank.

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My January Programme

1. I am invited to the Ethelburga Tower AGM & Festive celebrations on the 9^th.
2. The January meeting of the Planning Applications Committee is on the 14^th.
3. The Battersea Park Safer Neighbourhood Committee meets on the 21^st January and, apparently, I have nothing else – a quiet month.

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Did you know?

Last month I simply asked, “Born in Cheltenham, became a Bachelor of Medicine at St. George’s Hospital, met his wife in Caius House, Battersea, where he did missionary work in the worst of Battersea slums, has a plaque in Battersea Square. He died, a peculiarly British heroic death 10,000 miles from home and he looked like this. Who was he?”

I got the following reply, so comprehensive that it’s worth quoting fully, from Chris:             “This will be Dr. Edward Wilson (1872-1912) who trained at St George’s (at the Lanesborough) and from 1896 lodged at Caius House, a settlement in Battersea associated with his Cambridge college and where he became a “settler”. In addition to his continuing part 2 studies he did mission work with local children. He contracted tuberculosis… but at least he met his wife to be. The plaque is at 42 Vicarage Crescent. This was the Vicarage, but the settlement is in Holman Street.

Whilst recovering Wilson worked on his other talents developing his drawing and eventually watercolourist as well as his skills as an observational naturalist and ornithologist. He eventually recovered sufficiently to qualify in his part 2 exams and in 1900 was offered the post of Junior Surgeon and Vertebrate Zoologist for the forthcoming British National Antarctic Expedition – Scott’s first.

The expedition was a great success, not least due to Wilson’s magnificent visual record. On his return, he enjoyed a further 5 years working on 2 zoological surveys and an epidemic commission but time was increasingly taken up by planning for Scott’s 2nd (fatal) expedition. Wilson was in charge of all science and medicine. He was among the 5 who made the final push to the pole which they reached on 17 January 1912”.

Congratulations to Chris and the half a dozen of you who got this one right.

And this month?

Has anyone other than me, ever seen the 1964 British film The Guns of Batasi? It was a typically quality British film, starring great actors of the period such as Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough and Flora Robson, about the violent demise of Empire in Kenya. I saw the film at the time and recall an impression that the title’s Batasi was a play on Battersea. But now I have found the evidence. Can anyone name the book, and play, which inspired the film?

PS. If you need to get rid of a loved Xmas tree, the Council will collect it from your front garden, or normal bin spot on your normal bin collection date in the week commencing 6^th January.

PPS. Last, but by no means least, congratulations to Sadiq Khan for his knighthood announced in the New Year’s Honours. For all the mentions of his father’s occupation and his Mayoral record, it is seldom noted that he was also a Wandsworth councillor from 1990-2006 and indeed was Deputy Leader and, as I recall, Labour’s speaker on planning for some years. Well done, Sir Sadiq!