Archive | July 2026
July 1, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, July 2026, Newsletter (# 205) 

  1. First, on behalf of Councillor Vicky Ashante and myself, let me re-iterate what I said briefly last month: Thank you to everyone who voted for us and placed your trust in us to serve as your councillors for Battersea Park ward. We are truly grateful for your votes and support. It is an honour and a privilege to represent you and the whole Battersea Park community. We look forward to working with, and for, you and all residents.
  2. But first, as I reported then, most of my May was spent in Brazil. First stop Rio de Janeiro. The first surprise was that even though Rio is in the tropics it was colder than England, when we arrived and stayed that way for the whole three weeks – colder but not cold.
  3. Rio itself is a great big chaotic city – much of it poor and unkempt and truth to tell not very pleasant, but it is in a spectacular location in a magnificent Bay. Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are nearby; and the famous Sugarloaf mountain, is just one of many mountains surrounding the city. However, the only completely clear day of the 10 we spent near Rio was the day we took off to return to London. Most of the time it was more like this day when we went to see the enormous statue of Christ, The Redeemer, looming through the mist.
  1. Given my experience as a councillor, I found it impossible to ignore Rio’s thousands of potholes – in the pavements as well as in the roads, as well as the double, triple and pavement parking, the litter, and the graffiti. But it has to be said that much of the classy graffiti – like this picture – is more like street art. In the centre, Rio has some of the grandeur that any capital city has – except of course it is not the capital city. But it also has its favelas; the slum shanty towns, which are so (in)famous, that they are the focus of tourist tours – not for us. Rio also has comfortable middle-class suburbs such as Copacabana and Ipanema with their huge beaches and their glamour – great for beach volleyball and bikinis but don’t take your kids there – the Atlantic rollers are great for confident 20-year-olds and surfers but not for many others.
  1. We then spent four days on an island called Ilha Grande. It is about 70 miles south of Rio and possibly one quarter the size of the Isle of Wight? The isand is completely car free and hence very relaxed, and very friendly. There is a guitar and a singer in every bar: and beaches on the leeward side of the island – and flowers and colour. The only means of transport around the island is by sea – or on foot. It is very much a Latin American resort – we met Argentinians, Chileans, Venezuelans, people from all over the continent – we loved it.
  1. I wanted to go to the Iguazu Falls which are about 1,000 miles from Rio – my carbon footprint took a battering in May. The falls themselves are larger than Niagara or Victoria and truly spectacular as I hope you can see from the photograph. Away from the Atlantic coast it was our first really sunny day, and with the spray from the Falls there were rainbows wherever one looked. The Falls mark the border of Brazil, with Argentina and Paraguay – we visited all three. The border crossing to Ciudad del Este, now the duty-free, second city of Paraguay was, as they say, ‘something else,’ heaving with tourist shops, tourists, traffic, noise and chaos.
  2. Then back to Rio and on to Belo Horizonte (BH) and Pen’s history conference.BH barely existed 50 years ago and now it’s a city of several 100,000. One of the main impressions one gets from BH is that Brazil really is a sleeping giant of the future: the size and the emptiness of the country leave so much room for growth it is really quite daunting – but goodness knows what the ecological impact of continuing, explosive growth will be. Whilst in BH, Pen and I had the mis-fortune to be street-robbed. We didn’t lose much – just 2 pairs of cheap sunglasses – but the impact of being assaulted on the public highway is a bit of a shocker – compensation: we got a lift back to the hotel in a Brazilian police car: fast, safe, and comfortable – saved almost as much not having to take a taxi as we lost with the sunglasses.
  1. BH itself is a modern, busy, growing city without any great attractions but from there we visited Ouro Preto – translates as Black Gold. This 18th century town, the centre of the 18th century Brazilian gold rush, is a truly spectacular historic site and well deserves its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The town is built on precipitous hillsides and to this day boasts of many 18th century mansions and 18th century Baroque churches – and, like all gold rush towns – an opera house. It is many miles from even BH but nonetheless a haven for tourists and photographers alike – a really spectacular discovery.
  1. Then back to Britain and straight off to Paris for another academic conference. Paris for four days was as spectacular as ever: we visited the reconstructed Notre Dame, toured the Left Bank and discovered the Canal Saint Martin – very pretty, very impressionist – and Paris has its street art, too. Four days in Paris can never be bad.
  1. Oh, and how did the conferences go? Penny lectured in Rio, BH and Paris, and chaired sessions in BH and Paris, so she had to work for her trip – and the associated academic hospitality was, as always, convivial. But now back to work.
  1. And now back to work. Local events have been rather overtaken by the national picture, where we look to be having our seventh Prime Minister since the Brexit Referendum. I rather think that this unparalleled instability in our politics is related to the Referendum result and Brexit. The country has become ungovernable – not in the everyday sense of the word – a trip to somewhere like Brazil gives one a sense of proportion about how stable, secure and well ordered the UK is compared to many places in the world. No, ungovernable in the sense that our hopes and ambitions are just not compatible with Brexit. I rather fear that until we reverse that self-destructive vote, every government and every prime minister is doomed to fail. So for my money Andy Burnham’s priority is clear – get back in soonest – how he squares that with his Brexit-leaning constituency I do NOT know but unless he does, then he will be trapped just like his 6 predecessors.
  1. How is the new Tory administration doing in Wandsworth? Frankly it is too early to say. Their first visible action will be the much-touted week-end closure of Northcote Road, starting on July 11. That I suspect will be popular but not as much as it was 4 years ago – I suspect. Since then, the pedestrianisation of Abyssinia Road and moves in the market-place may have changed the dynamics – we will wait and see.
  1. The Wandsworth Tories have certainly stopped, Labour’s ambitious house building programme, in that they appear to have stopped plans to build 100 new homes on the Ashburton Estate, and probably, by implication, Labour’s other putative plans for development. That is unsurprisingly very popular in the specific areas affected but is very short-sighted in the sense of the almost total belief that London needs more – not less – socially affordable housing.
  1. The Tories have made some other petty cuts, such as cutting our Access For All scheme. During this heatwave that has resulted in a number of families being turned away from our swimming pools – typical Tory meanness. This is all in pursuit of the savings they claim to have to make to cover the Great Tory Debt Lie. Quite clearly their news management team has focussed on £137 million as the debt Labour Council has left them with. It is a fabrication, actually it is a lie. Wandsworth had no significant debt at all on 1 April this year. Indeed, Wandsworth had the lowest debt level of any London Borough – it didn’t have any debts. What it did have was a reduction in future government funding, which required action from any incoming Council of whatever persuasion, in order to avoid a large debt.
  1. The other notable action the Tories have taken is to review the internal workings of the Council – what committees we should have? Exactly what roles should they perform? How does the Council work? On this score, I think that some of the criticism is unfair and misplaced. Anyone, who thinks that the Council’s operations are perfect, is surely blind. That the Tories are reviewing the process is surely good and people of all persuasions should join in the debate where and when possible.
  2. On Saturday 20 June I went to, and spoke at, the 41st birthday celebration of the the Battersea Peace Pagoda in the Park. . It was a remarkable multi-faith celebration of the Pagoda’s part in the peace movement, ending with a traditional Indian dance display. (For those who do not know, its origins are in a Japanese Buddhist movement – ‘inspired’ by Japan’s status as the only nation to have suffered from nuclear bombs.) It was more of a campaign event than a simple celebration with moving speeches from many faiths. I got up and spoke for all those millions of us humanists, or no faithers, who believe in peace.
  1. On 25 June I had the Planning Applications Committee – the first one I had not chaired for 4 years, which was a bit of a wrench – but somehow the Committee overcame that hurdle and managed the business effectively – not that there was any of outstanding significance, except to the applicants and their neighbours.
  2. Stop Press. Today, I got an update from Cllr Bellara, Kensington & Chelsea, which I am sure will interest many, many of you. It said:

Albert Bridge is over 150 years old so it takes a bit of time to repair it as it’s not a usual bridge. It’s likely the only type of its bridge of its kind so it needs specialist engineers.
– The works to repair the bridge is continuing apace. It’s right to point out that you may not have seen anyone, although this phase of the repairs is taking place underneath the bridge and for the majority it so far up to 5 metres underground.
– The suspension holding up the bridge is being replaced and has to be cast especially by a foundry. These are all in the old toll booths. The bridge has a temporary fix and the rest of the bridge iron cast suspension elements will be replaced. These next stage of the works is to prop up the bridge, much like changing a car tyre, to remove the old suspensions and to replace with the new ones. The first part of these works will start on Monday, 29 June.
– After that which will take some months, the bridge will be refurbished such as the road and the lights. That is when you will see the most activity. We’re expecting this part to start before Christmas. Signs saying how the works are progressing will go up on the bridge shortly.
– The bridge is being repaired as a priority. I’m pleased the council made a quick decision when the initial part broke in February to repair as quickly possible.

I now know that if you Google “rbkc Albert Bridge”. Then you get to Ken & Chelsea’s latest update. I recommend it.

My July Programme

My July programme is impossible to define as the Tory administration of the Council has not yet defined the format or the timetable of the coming year and have not yet produced a Council diary. However, July is bound to have at least one Council Meeting and the Planning Applications Committee.

Did you know?

Last month, I asked, when “has there been, in Wandsworth’s history, an even closer result, than this year’s? Do you know when that was and what the result was?”

The answer was 1986, when the Tories won 31 seats to Labour’s 30, like this year a majority of 1, but then they were only 3,000 votes behind n the popular vote as opposed to this year’s 7,000+. Then the Tory elected Mayor used his casting vote consistently and frequently to get through contentious policies. Let’s see if that happens this time. 

And this month?

 The capital of Brazil is, of course, Brasilia, and was, before 1960, first Salvador and then Rio itself. Most capital cities have just emerged because they were the largest and most important cities in their respective countries – cities such as London, Paris and Rome. How many other “created” capitals like Brasilia can you name? I got to 5 in a couple of minutes.