Archive | March 2026
March 31, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, April 2026, Newsletter (# 202) 

  1. I went to the North East Surrey Crematorium Board on 10th January. I hear you all say, “What on earth is he doing there ….?” Good Question. Well way back In 1889, when Battersea’s population was nearly twice as large as it is now the Battersea Burial Board bought the 127 acres of farm land in Merton – between Raynes Park and Worcester Park stations – and created the New Battersea Cemetery. It is indeed the home of John Archer’s grave. At 127 acres it is about 60% the size of Battersea Park, probably making it nowadays the second largest track of land in Wandsworth’s ownership.

    So, when in 1959, a group of north east Surrey councils decided to club together to build a crematorium, this was the obvious site. The Board is now run by Wandsworth, in conjunction with Merton and Sutton Councils. It is a curious business – where the board’s finances improve as the death rate rises, as it did during Covid, and business perks up, but worsens as business falls when we all get healthier and live longer!

  1. The Planning Applications Committee was on the 13th The most significant application was not actually a Wandsworth one, but from Lambeth. It was for a hotel and hundreds of flats, and associated shops, etc., at Vauxhall. It included one tower 230 metres high – 755 feet – about 30 metres, or 100 feet, higher than the current highest tower in Vauxhall. The site borders Wandsworth, hence we were asked for our comments. We agreed unanimously that we objected to the sheer scale of the proposals and their impact on local Wandsworth residents. However, I doubt that our objections will do much to prevent the growth of Vauxhall as our own mini-Manhattan.
  1. On 15th March, Penny and I went to the Old Bailey for a reception in the Grand Hall, see the picture of the main dome, and then the staging of Justice! Trial & Error 2026 in Court 1. This annual dramatic show is staged and performed by the staff of the Old Bailey. The actors, directors, writers, etc., included retired and practising judges, KCs, law students, and backroom staff at the Old Bailey.

    This year the review took the form of a dozen one-act scenes about famous, and critical cases spread over the last 500 years. It started with the sixteenth/seventeenth century trial and eventual execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, and concluded with two famous twentieth-century cases, namely Derek Bentley’s conviction and execution and the Ruth Ellis trial. Interestingly, the theme of these playlets, written and performed by lawyers working at Britain’s most famous criminal court, explored some notorious cases, when the legal system and contemporary public opinion failed the defendants. As aresult some innocents, at least as seen through 21st Century eyes, were imprisoned and executed. An entertaining and thought-provoking show.

  1. We decided to go to Goodwood for a couple of days of swimming and walking in rural Sussex, on 16th-18th They were those wonderful sunny, warm days we had in mid-March. Goodwood was indeed Glorious Goodwood, as this picture of the House and daffodils demonstrates. The swimming was good and the Jacuzi marvellous; the daffodils were dancing in a Wordsworthian cloud; it was a perfect English spring break.
  1. On the 19th March I had the pleasure of opening Battersea’s Harris Academy gymnasium – see picture. Many of you will have noticed and hated the boarded up site at the junction of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads. It followed the Academy’s sale of the schoolkeeper’s house to a property developer and the Council’s grant of planning approval for a tower block in the late 1990s. One of the so-called benefits of the planning approval was the provision of a gym for the school.

    For years nothing happened on either site and at one time the gym site on Dagnall Road resembled a World War 11 bomb site. But now at last, following a change of ownership, a new developer has built the gym at pace and hopes to start work on the main site at the end of the year. I know that very few local residents will like the new high-rise flats on Battersea Park Road but, with the gym, they will be an improvement on the boarded up sites we have known for a quarter of a century. And the gym itself is an excellent facility, which will keep the Academy pupils fit!

    By the way, the developer, Adi Hodzic is an interesting character. He is Bosnian by birth and fought for the Bosnians in the 1990’s post-Yugoslavian wars, coming here as a penniless immigrant. He is now a successful developer, and, unlike his predecessors, he fills me with confidence that the development will be completed when he says it will be.

  1. On Saturday 21st March, Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture Year came to an official close with a grand finale at Battersea Power Station (BPS). The occasion was marked by a broad programme of events, inside the power station itself, but the main show was on the Power Station Stage outside the northern entrance to the Power Station, overlooking the river.

    It was hosted by Romeo – pictured here – of the So Solid Crew, the group that started life on the Winstanley Estate. The finale was spectacular, and a memorable conclusion to Wandsworth’s year as the London Borough of Culture.

  1. On 25th March, I introduced Vicky Asante and Daria Hass, my fellow Labour candidates at next month’s Borough Election, to George and Hannah working at Carney’s Community, in Petworth Street. Carney’s is a busy, thriving youth club, boasting a full-sized boxing ring, a recording studio, a bicycle repair and maintenance shop, a small snooker table, table-tennis table and the other facilities needed by a successful club. Hannah reckoned that membership is somewhere round 70% male and 30% female – but nonetheless George reckons the best boxer they have is one of the girls. Here are, l to r, George, Daria and Vicky discussing the work of the youth club.

    George has excellent relations with both the Council’s Youth Offending Team and the Magistrates Courts, both of which refer to him kids in trouble or on the verge of getting into trouble. His open, community-based approach and his methods are an important ingredient in the education of many youngsters. If you would like to volunteer your skills and make a serious volunteer contribution to Carney’s Community, I know that George would be delighted to hear from you.

  1. On the next day we went to the opening of a great new play-space at Russell Court on the Doddington Estate. Have you ever seen a child’s-size trampoline set into the ground? I hadn’t either, but it was perhaps only the most striking of the several new safety-conscious play apparatuses installed. I am sure, by the way, that this see-saw was not intended for my two fellow Battersea Park ward Labour candidates for the May election, Vicky and Daria, but it does make for a cheerful picture.
  1. Penny and I went to see a play, called The Holy Rosenbergs by Ryan Craig at the Chocolate Factory Theatre near London Bridge on 27th It is about a north London Jewish family, who have lived their lives without ever facing the harshest reality of their own internal tensions. The occasion for this explosion of passions and cruelties, in this apparently secure family unit, is the imminent funeral of the eldest son who had recently died as a member of the IDF (the Israeli Defence Force), fighting in Gaza.

    It exposes the conflicts between the father, so proud of his dead son, and the leftie sister, who adored him as a child but now works for a UN peace-keeping mission, let alone the younger brother, struggling to live up to his sibling’s image, and Mum, who as always wants to keep the family together and avoid family arguments. It is a searingly difficult and yet stimulating play, which remarkably is also at times very funny. I recommend it, and it is on until 2nd May.

  1. On 28th March Labour candidates for the May 7th Borough Election launched our manifesto in Hildreth Street, Balham. The Manifesto’s cover boasts of Cleaner Streets, Safer Neighbourhoods, a Fairer Wandsworth all on the lowest level of Council Tax in the country. The launch was led by Labour Leader, Councillor Simon Hogg, pictured here in a crowded, market street. It was a fun opening to the six-week campaign.
  1. I was in Parkgate Road on 30th January and stopped off for a cuppa, and to investigate Parker’s new sitting out area – otherwise known as Radstock Street, which I was told only opened a couple of days previously. For those of us who were wondering whether we would ever see the end of roadworks and big building projects in this small corner of Battersea, it was a welcome sight and will become a focal point for local residents, for staff and pupils of the best art and design school in the world, for couturiers from Vivienne Westwood, for architects from Fosters and for the techies from international comms giant Hutchison (UK) Ltd – a formidable centre of experts, which must make this small corner of Battersea one of UK’s biggest export hubs.
  2. Finally, some of you will know that I have, for a long-time, been writing a history of Wandsworth Council from its creation in 1965 to 2022. Well on Friday 27th, I signed a contract with the publisher, Austin Macauley, for the publication of my book in the late autumn of this year. It is titled The Wandsworth Crucible: Contesting State Welfare and Thatcherite Privatisation, and, as I hope is implicit from the title, it’s not just about Wandsworth’s parochial importance but also its significance as both a model and a guinea pig for national events. Further details to follow.

My April Programme 

  1. The Council is in what is called purdah because of the upcoming May 7th Borough General Election. Essentially that means the Council, as a political operation, closes down – of course normal Council services continue as usual. Most councillors will be out canvassing, something which probably fills you with some dread. But please be kind to us. We all, in every party, get accused of only talking to you, the public when we want your vote – not really true even if it seems like it – but don’t turn us away when we do.
  2. On April 4th I am going to the Mayor’s Boat Race party on the Putney Embankment. I am desperate for an Oxford victory; we haven’t had one in years!
  3. I am chairing the Planning Applications Committee on 15th April – the one Council-style meeting that takes place during purdah, since there is a statutory time limit of 56 days, in which Councils must respond to planning applications.

Did you know?

Last month, I asked, “Why was Voltaire Court so named? And what adjective about optimism do we have in the English language as a result of his writings?”

Francois-Marie Arouet was imprisoned in the Bastille, where he adopted the name “Voltaire” a word he associated with youth and radical thinking. He “fled” to London, 1726-28, to escape his harassment by ‘l’ancien regime,’ and for a period he lived near Wandsworth Town, close to the French Huguenot community.

He admired Britain for its enlightenment figures and its freedoms of speech and thought. Indeed, he wrote about it in a book titled, Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733).

But by far his most famous book is a short satirical novel called Candide, about Candide’s absurdist adventures where Dr. Pangloss is forever glossing over the most impossible disasters with the immortal phrase “everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Hence the English word ‘panglossian’ for the most incredible optimism. If you see, or have, the Penguin English translation I recommend it. It is quite short and very readable.

And this month?

Did you know that a Battersea-based athlete won a silver medal at the recent Parisian Para-Olympic Games. Do you know who that might be and what is the connection to Battersea?

PS For back-dated numbers, web-search ‘Tony Belton’ to access my blog: to sign on for future copies email tonybelton99@gmail.com.

 

March 2, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, March 2026, Newsletter (# 201) 

  1. Penny and I were off to the Arts Centre on 5th February to hear the third Alf Dubs Lecture. The Trust had done a very good job in getting Professor Philippe Sands KC (King’s Counsel) along to give his views on the development of an International Rules Based system, particularly when the American President is so clearly threatening the very concept. The picture shows the professor speaking on the night with the Chair Baroness Amos in the background – to a packed grand hall – well done, organisers.

Professor Sands clearly demonstrated his expertise in international law (and a wry sense of humour) but perhaps the length of his lecture was a little challenging for a non-academic audience. The most optimistic feature of his lecture was, however, that the long-term power of the rules-based system will out-last and defeat the power-based system that Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping clearly favour. Let’s all hope he’s right.

  1. The following day we went to the Friday late evening show at the National Gallery to see the Neo-Impressionists Exhibition. I am not clear about the difference between Impressionism and Neo-Iimpressionist – I always thought that Georges Seurat (1859-91) was an impressionist. But Wikipedia states that in his short (31 years) life, he managed to be involved in “Pointillism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Divisionism, and Modern Art”. (It does rather seem that the art world has a classification problem!). But either way it was spectacular.

Probably the best-known ‘Seurat’ at the Expo was this painting of the Can-can. Look closely at the line, and you will see that the second in-line appears to have a male torso and very feminine legs – not sure realistic accuracy concerned him that much! But it was far from all Seurat. There were many other artists, notably we thought one Maximilian Luce, and unusually some by female artists including Anna Boch, painted here by Theo van Rysselberghe. And we finished the evening off with a nice, simple dinner in Chinatown.

  1. I went to Richmond-upon-Thames Council building on 10th February to interview candidates for the role of Director of Place – not sure I like the name as I would prefer Planning and Growth. (Richmond Council is, of course, Wandsworth’s close partner in a joint staffing arrangement.) But my point in raising this is to show York House – not to be confused with what was once Battersea’s York Palace – the spectacular home of Richmond Council. It is a Grade 2 listed building dating from the seventeenth century and stands on the north bank of the Thames, in a small park, almost opposite Ham House on the south bank.
  2. On the 11th February I had the Transport Committee, where we Labour councillors have done a great deal of work to improve facilities for bus travellers, cyclists and pedestrians. Most unfortunately some of that work has coincided with a couple of fatalities on either side of Battersea Bridge – resulting in the necessity for immediate improvement works; as well as the failure of some of our nineteenth-century sewerage pipes during one of the wettest of winters; and now the ‘temporary’ closure of Albert Bridge. It has seemed to be one darned set of temporary traffic lights after another for drivers, bus passengers – everyone. Hopefully the February opening of the first of the two cycle lanes in Queenstown Road, pictured here, – and spring weather will be the start of better conditions on the roads. As for Albert Bridge itself – we do not yet know how long it will be before it is re-opened to traffic. Kensington & Chelsea, whose responsibility it is, has said it could take a year – I will keep you informed as and when.
  3. The next day, the 12th I had the Environment Committee. Labour councillors are proud of our achievements on this front. As reported to the committee they include;-
    • Achieving A List status amongst London Boroughs for ecological work for the 3rd year in a row
    • Further reductions in organisational carbon emissions, with a 6.6% reduction in carbon emissions from the previous year
    • Securing £4.7 million from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to drive decarbonisation of Council buildings
    • Installation of over 1600 EV charge-points in the borough – more than any other borough
    • Installation of 346 bike-hangars in the borough = again more than any other borough
    • Continued air‑quality improvement across the borough coupled with improved air quality monitoring equipment
    • Delivery of 1500 Warm Home Packs to low-income residents to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy bills
    • The creation of a new and ambitious Biodiversity Action Plan
    • Delivery of the Cleaner Borough Plan, which has seen recycling rate increase to 29.27%, £1.3 million in waste disposal savings and expansion of food waste collection to 101,000 households
    • Successful engagement with residents on climate action with two Wandsworth Sustainability Network meetings, the Net Zero Roundtable series and Sustainable September which hosted 100 events across the borough
    • Expansion of the Climate Action Microgrants, providing support for 50 community projects on climate change and sustainability.
  1. On the 18th February, I attended the Finance Committee. The principal debate centred on the Government’s Fair Funding initiatives and its impact on Council Tax and, consequently whether we were in a position to freeze the ‘Council’s element’ of Council Tax for the fourth year running. The Tories are concerned – even worried – that Wandsworth under Labour will get into unmanageable debt and be forced to make substantial savings/cuts unless we take tough action now. Unsurprisingly they are trying to make things difficult for us.                                                                                                                                                        But Wandsworth has the lowest Council Tax in the country; and the Council is well managed and efficient. It also has considerable reserves, over £100 million, and it is the only Council in London without external debt – by the way, don’t get spooked by the word debt. It should be thought of as more like a mortgage than debts to the grocer or the bookie.
  2. I chaired the Planning Applications Committee on the 19th. None of the applications this month were of great interest, especially in Battersea. But there were a couple of enforcement orders that posed questions about whether a person’s home is their castle or not. What would you think if your neighbour put up eight feet high fences round your garden – would you expect the Council to intervene? We did.
  3. On the 20th I took part in the unveiling of a plaque to Shapurji Saklatvala (1874-1936) at 177 Lavender Hill, Battersea’s Labour Party office. Saklatvala was from a wealthy Indian family but came to Britain for health reasons – would you believe, he found India too hot. Saklatavala was an impressive man; he dedicated his life to working to improving the lot of the poor and disadvantaged. Part of his motivation came from the gritty working-class radicalism that he imbibed when he went to work in Manchester as a young man. And part came from his Zoroastrian belief of not just having ‘good thoughts’ but also in turning them into ‘good deeds’. A thoroughly unusual man, who worked hard for Battersea. (The picture is of Malcolm Deboo, who is the President of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, and who spoke of Saklatvala’s religious and spiritual beliefs.)
  4. I have long intended to spend a couple of hours at the National Gallery at the Wright of Derby Exhibition. Joseph Wright (1734-1797) is the only British artist known by his home place just like Leonardo from Vinci, El Greco, and Piero della Francesca. I managed it on Friday 27th The exhibition clearly demonstrated that Wright was a truly great artist, well worth ranking with Constable and Turner. He used tenebrism, the contrast between light and shade, to illustrate the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The paintings were brilliant but sadly very few. There was, of course, dominating the expo the famous painting of An Experiment on a Bird, but I have chosen the more domestic scene of a Young Girl Reading a Letter, with an Old Man – one imagines that the letter is from her lover, of whom the father rather approves, though Pen thinks he is disapproving.
  5. We finished off the month with a visit to the Picadilly Theatre to see The Moulin Rouge. The West End smash hit was the choice of our guests, cousin and husband and young nieces. The show was all glitz, staging, lighting and production – see the picture of the theatre just before curtain rise; the kind of production designed to draw in provincial and international audiences. And using those criteria this show is spectacular, but the central love story did not convince either of us, both because of the story and the acting. The dancing – perhaps more accurately the acrobatics – was breathtaking but both the story and the message were rather dark and unpleasant – but I am not sure most of the audience noticed, swept away as they were by the vibrancy of the music and dancing.
  6. Last month I showed some examples of the fly tipping, which I had reported to the Town Hall during my walkabouts. Here are three new examples from February, the first a bike in Warriner Gardens, then some fly tipping in Cupar Road and finally 2 abandoned bikes in Odger Road. It would be great, if readers reported similar sights to hello@wandsworth.gov.uk Together we might put an end to this scourge.
  7. Also last month I talked about dropping into a jazz session at the Providence Theatre on Clapham Common. I, of course, meant the Omnibus Theatre – bad mistake. Talking of which, I note that London4Europe Rally is holding a meeting there on 10th March at 6.30 designed to re-invigorate their campaign to rejoin the European Union. They are inviting people committed to ending the absurdity of Brexit to an event aimed at planning the next steps to be taken in the journey to reverse that disaster.

My March Programme

  1. I am having dinner with our MP, Marsha de Cordova, in the House of Commons restaurant on 2nd
  2. There is a Council Meeting on 4th This is the final, rubber-stamping, legal decision on the Council Tax – the frozen Council Tax that we all know about now.
  3. I have a meeting of the North East Crematorium Board on the 10th March and I might go to the London4Europe Rally in the evening – depending upon what’s on the Conservation Area Committee agenda that same night.
  4. I am chairing the Planning Applications Committee on 12th
  5. The Planning Inspectorate Review of the Glassmills application will start at the Town Hall on 17th
  6. I have been invited to open the Harris Academy’s new Gymnasium on 19th March and, Penny and I are running the Battersea Society Quiz that evening in the Duke of Cambridge.
  7. Penny and I will be attending the Grand Finale of the London Borough of Culture year on 21st March in the Power Station – but the form of that is an as yet unrevealed secret – so more next month.

 Did you know?

Last month, I asked, “Who was the distinguished architect, who designed Battersea Town Hall (now the Arts Centre) and Battersea Library, as well as the Old Bailey?” OK some of you will know that but can you also name a religious building in South Battersea, that he also designed?

Many of you knew that the architect was Edward William Mountford (1855-1908), but not quite so many knew that the religious building in South Battersea he also designed was the church at the junction of Northcote and Wakehurst Roads.

And this month?

I called on someone living in Voltaire Court on the Doddington a couple of weeks ago and they asked why their block was named after Voltaire – pictured? Do you know why? And what adjective about optimism do we have in the English language as a result of his writings?