My Country: a work in progress
We went to see this “play” at the National Theaatre on, ironically, St. Patrick’s Day. I say ironically, because we saw a play about the lack of clarity about what it means to be British on a day associated with the very established and internationally recognized identity of one of our constituent “parts”, the Irish.
I am sure that I could find some definition of “a play”, which My Country did not fulfill. In some sense, there were no personal relationships portrayed; there was no action; there was no plot; there was no drama. Yet, in another way, what could be more dramatic than the possible internal collapse of a great country? How could that story not be a plot? Who could say that Brexit and the state of the UK does not constitute action? And whatever happens in these most unpredictable times, the aftermath of Referendum Day will continue to have a massive impact on the relationships of nearly 70 million people.
The play is an anthology of quotes from Britons about the build up to and the fall-out from Referendum Day, 23 June 2016. Quotes from the great and the good, bad and the ugly (Cameron, May, Corbyn, Johnson, Gove and many more starred) and quotes from the people, the people from London-Derry, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the North-East, Leicester, Gloucester, Salisbury and Merthyr are masterfully crafted by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy into a passionate cry for something, but what? Sanity, cohesion, belief, faith, rationality?
I have seen it said of this work that it demonstrates mean, unpleasant, nations(s) retreating into a pessimistic dystopia. I don’t think that’s right. Its rather about a people flailing around blind and lost, without common purpose or direction. That at least was my impression. There was no commonality in almost anything debated, and a lot was at least mentioned. On the other hand there was plenty of wit, humour and nostalgia, but overall there was no sense of purpose or unity; in that sense the play was extremely depressing.
Is it possible that in a lifetime, as it happens almost exactly my lifetime, the UK could go from a nation that will forever be remembered for its finest hour to one totally lost in a world, rapidly gravitating towards continental entities built around smaller regional units? Or is it that Duffy had a peculiar ability to extract from the evidence a story that corroborated her feelings and attitudes, whilst another author could equally assemble a positive, clear picture of where we are going and how, say a picture of close relations with the EU, even the restoration of our role in the EU, and a renewal of a United Kingdom?
This was a confusing evening, stimulating a myriad of thoughts and emotions, not a restful, comforting one. I highly recommend it – if you wish to be provoked. The last show at the National Theatre is tomorrow, 22nd March, but then it goes on tour throughout the UK, returning to Stratford in the east end. For details see: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/my-country-uk-tour
A Labour Party “Remain” Strategy for Wandsworth, 2018
It is clear that on the major issue of the day, the Labour Party’s position is, at least for now, an irrelevance. The country is set on a very difficult Brexit journey, which Jeremy Corbyn is not going to challenge in any serious manner. Regardless of his qualities or otherwise, he appears to take the view that There Is No Alternative; we are back to our old friend from the 80s, TINA!
If Mrs. May were to make the mistake of calling a General Election there could be no real external opposition to her except from out and out remainers in her own party. UKIP would not be the threat to Labour but the LibDems would be – almost regardless of the qualities or otherwise of their leader.
The 48% of us, who voted Remain would not be represented by anyone else. Is there, therefore, any serious argument against the Labour Party taking a strong and passionate “Pro-EU” position?
In a sense, whether it delivers an overall Labour majority in a General Election or not, it is the only path away from annihilation back to electoral respectability. My old friend, Mayor Khan, is sharp enough to see that for him in London it is advantageous to be as pro-European as he can be.
Likewise every Labour campaign in the 2018 London Borough Elections should be fought on a Pro-EU platform. Not only is London a “Remain” city, but it is also home to enough voting EU nationals in most boroughs to justify local platforms with a large element of “foreign policy”.
This tactic might be very uncomfortable for some, few Labour Brexiteers, but no more difficult than the current position is for the much larger Pro-EU majority.
I call on Wandsworth Labour to make an essentially Pro-EU platform the corner-stone of our local campaign for 2018, and I hope many other London Labour Parties follow suit. It would also, of course and crucially, have the benefit of putting the Brexit supporting Conservative party in the position of fighting an election in a Borough, with a 70+% majority Remain population. Who knows? But it is easy to imagine that in 12 months time it could be the Tories rather than Labour facing a major political dilemma.
Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere March, 2017, Newsletter (# 94)
- I open with an apology! I did not, last month, mention
Battersea Labour Party’s great Jazz night on 22nd January at the Clapham pub, The Bread and Roses. We were entertained by Junction Jazz with our star guest vocalist Rosena Allin-Khan, who of course is also now Tooting’s M.P. as well as being my fellow Bedford ward councillor. Here is Rosena accompanied by Nikki Marsh on the clarinet.
- On the 1st February, there was a special Council Meeting with just one item on the agenda, and that was a technical, financial paper setting the background of next month’s Council budget, when a 3.99% increase in Council Tax will be announced. I took the opportunity to denounce the state of local government taxation and finances – whatever your attitude to taxation, too much, too little, to be avoided, as inevitable as death, as the old saying goes, the fact is that Council Tax is grossly unfair in that the poor, on average, pay considerably more in proportion to their income than do the rich. For that reason, Council Tax is known as a regressive tax.
- Whilst on the subject of tax, the new business rates table was produced in February. It is a massive table, which I couldn’t possibly reproduce here but it does illustrate the vagaries of the system, which have resulted in a lot of recent press coverage. For example, 123 businesses in Latchmere ward have had reductions in their business rates, in some cases of over £5,000 per year. On the other hand 87 businesses have had increases, with 9 having had increases of over £10,000 and in one case an increase of over £36,000! Frankly I see no rhyme nor reason for these variations! So if your local shopkeeper has a good old moan at you – listen sympathetically and tell him/her to write to the M.P. and complain!
- On the 2nd February, I stood in for Simon Hogg,
Labour Leader, at the Fairfield Let’s Talk meeting in St. Anne’s church hall, pictured here. I’m not sure that I would have mentioned it except for the many public complaints about over-development on the Homebase site near Wandsworth Town station. I don’t know how many of you are aware of the scale of the high-rise developments approved in York Road in the last year, but I can guarantee that the area will see massive changes in the next few years – see, for example, paragraphs 11 & 12 below.
- On the 9th I attended a Kambala Estate “wine and cheese” party. The weather was atrocious, cold and wet, which may have cut turn-out, but for those few who did turn up it was a pleasant evening.
- The next morning was Maurice Johnson’s funeral at Christchurch, Battersea Park Road. I have already posted an obituary of Maurice, my fellow Latchmere councillor from 1990-2010 at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/obituary-maurice-johnson/ and
so I won’t repeat that but suffice to say that there was a very large congregation to see Maurice off, both from his family and the community but also from councillors of both political hues. At the funeral, I joined members of his family in saying a few words about his time as a councillor and his civic commitment. Here is his cortege making his last journey through Latchmere.
- On the 15th I was invited to Caius House to attend a meeting of Penge House residents and the Wandsworth Council team responsible for its modernisation. Although I did not go, I understand that there was a similar meeting for Inkster House residents the following week. They both worked well and appeared to be much appreciated.
- On Thursday, 16th February, I had the Community Services Committee, which considered a host of papers, but the one that caught my eye was the decision to bring the re-surfacing of Petergate up the Council’s work programme and to ensure that it is in next year’s, i.e. April-March, programme. That is a cause to congratulate local campaigner, Jane, for her tireless lobbying for Petergate – proof that persistence occasionally has its victories!
- The 20th February Housing Committee was entirely devoted to the next stage of the York Road/Winstanley estate regeneration. Yet again this covered procedural matters, but the Council is now getting within a few weeks of signing a contract to proceed with this massive project. With luck and a following wind, work will start on Penge and Inkster Houses around the turn of the year, proceeding later in 2018 with Pennethorne House. The project was first announced in early 2012, after the August, 2011, Clapham Junction riots, and now five years later we are within a year of physical improvements beginning to happen – Phew! It’s a long process, but inevitable, I guess, when the total project is as large as
this one is and when there has been a lot of consultation and discussion.
- The next day, 21st February, Battersea Labour Party had as its guest speaker Lord Alf Dubs. Alf, who was Battersea’s MP from 1979-87, was presented with our informal award as Parliamentarian of the Year, 2016, for his work for child refugees and his tireless campaigning for their cause. For those of you who might not know, Alf was himself a child refugee (part of the Kindertransport) from Hitler’s Germany in 1938. Here he is telling us about his struggle to persuade the Government to let in 3,000 child refugees – for interest the much poorer UK of 1938 took in 10,000 child refugees from Central and Eastern Europe.
- This month’s Planning Applications Committee meeting was on 23rd February. There were two
applications that were of particular interest in North Battersea, though both were amendments of previously approved applications. The first was the plan for an 8-storey block of flats on the old Savoy Theatre, or Shell garage site on York Road. As I have said before, but it is worth repeating, this was where this magnificent cinema stood prior to being destroyed by a V2 in 1944. The change in this application is the omission of the garage.
- The second application was to increase the size of the very large 800-unit development on the gasholder site, next to the Dogs’ Home, to over 900 dwellings. Interestingly this increase of 116 units is largely achieved by more efficient use of space, in particular reducing the height of the individual storeys in the 26 storey blocks so as to squeeze in two extra floors – we were assured that the ceilings will still be high enough!
- Earlier in the month I went to see La La Land – what was all the fuss about? I thought the first half was a bit boring and the second OK, but certainly it doesn’t deserve an Oscar in my book; at least they got that right at the awards ceremony! Give me a Fred and Ginger musical any day, or Gene Kelly, or Chicago or one of my favourites amongst musicals, the little-known City of Angels.
- On 24th February I went to see a 1962 play, namely Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It was at the Harold Pinter Theatre and the leads were Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill. It was brilliant and they were brilliant. Get to it if you can but if that’s not possible get the 1966 film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a searing portrait of a dysfunctional but weirdly loving, loveless marriage. It’s a tough watch but it is a classic amongst films.
- On 26th February, I took myself off to the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) to see an exhibition called Revolution. No, not the one 100 years ago, in St. Petersburg but the one 50 years back in Carnaby Street, London. Quite a thought for me that the Sixties Revolution of my university and immediately post-university days is exactly halfway back to the Russian Revolution! But, I didn’t find the rehash of great music, record covers, revolutionary chic (full of Mao, Fidel, Che images), etc., particularly inspiring – perhaps it’s all still too real to be in a museum – for me anyway.
- However, what I would say is, if you don’t know them, or seldom go there, “Do go to Exhibition Road and visit the V&A, or the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum.” There are amazing things there, and the 345 bus goes from the Junction almost to their front-doors. If you are not at home with museums, then just go in to the V&A (it’s free entry) and enter the first room on the right and spend 30 minutes, looking at the artefacts, sculptures and altar pieces from the ancient world. It’s got to be worth 30 minutes of anyone’s time.
- On the 28th February, I went to Honeywell School
to attend a meeting of locals, from the Northcote Road area, protesting about the Council’s plans to redevelop the Northcote Road Library. The Council was consulting on a proposal to demolish and rebuild the library and Chatham Hall both to modernise them and to get rid of asbestos in the library building; with associated shops and 17 flats, which are designed to pay for the work. To say that the proposals were not popular with the 30 or so people, who turned up, would be an under-statement!
- On 8th March, there is a full Council Meeting, when we will be debating Wandsworth’s budget. I have already said that the increase will be 3.99% – we already know that – but this is where we debate the rights and wrongs of that. Once upon a time the actual increase was kept secret until the last moment but those days are long gone.
- The day after, 9th March, I have a meeting of the Met Police Safer Neighbourhood Team at the George Shearing Centre, Este Road.
- On 14th March, I will be at Wandsworth’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee.
- And on the 19th March, I am going with a couple of friends to a last sentimental visit to the real White Hart Lane. For those, who don’t know it, I have been a Spurs supporter for years and years, despite representing a North Battersea ward, which is only a stone’s throw from Stamford Bridge. My excuse is that, when I was 6-8 years old, I lived quarter of a mile from the Lane. My first ever game, that I can recall, was in the 1948 Olympics (how many people have been to both the 1948 and the 2012 London Olympics?). The game, I must have seen according to Google, was the quarter-final, when Sweden the gold medallists that year beat Austria 3-0.
- I have the Planning Applications Committee on the 23rd.
Do you know?
Last month, one of my readers, Ian asked,
“Our canine friend here, in his original form, caused a cataclysmic event in the past. Firstly, who is the fellow,
where is he situated? Also, what was that cataclysmic event?”
The answer was, of course, the Little Brown Dog, whose death by vivisection caused the 1907 Brown Dog Riots with over 1,000 demonstrators in Trafalgar Square. This statue, which I am afraid, Ian, I don’t like stands in Battersea Park, whilst the much better original shown right was the centre-piece of Latchmere’s Recreation Ground until stolen and smelted down by the “Anti-Doggers” during the night of 10th December, 1907.
A number of people got that right but what about the next question, which is not exactly a puzzle but a genuine request for information. My fellow councillor, Simon Hogg, came across this fascinating picture of a bridge built during the war and linking Battersea Park to the end of Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. It was apparently built as a back up to Chelsea and Albert Bridges in case either of them were put out of action by German bombing raids.
Simon says that in 1948 it was taken down and shipped to Uganda, then of course, part of the British Empire. The questions that arise include: Do you remember this bridge? Did you ever cross it? Do you know where in Uganda it ended up? Do you know anything about it? Were there other back-up bridges elsewhere in London?
Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere February, 2017, Newsletter (# 93)
- You will remember that in December, the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) decided to approve
the 14-storey development at 3 Culvert Road, pictured right. Many local residents objected and I expressed their views in a letter I wrote to London’s Mayor Khan on 11th January asking him to call in the application (a process where he takes the decision upon himself and can over-ride the PAC decision). So far, I have had no response to the letter, which I have included in full at the end of this email. If you have not yet done so, then writing to the Mayor at mayor@london.gov.uk stating how much you agree with local objectors and with me, might just be the straw on the camel’s back!
- On Monday, 16th January, I went to the Passenger Transport Liaison Committee, which can, I confess, be amazingly, detailed and boring but not this time! Take note anyone who uses the railway system! Masses of changes are planned for August, 2017, and so if you are a regular train commuter and you plan to go on holiday then I advise you to go in August, because August is going to be planned chaos – and everyone knows how chaotic that could be!
- The biggest disruptions will be from 5th-29th August with the closure of Earlsfield station at peak hours and the total closure of Queenstown Road Rail services through Clapham Junction will be reduced by 25% from 33 trains per peak hour to 25. The plan is to have
British Rail Class 707
the new, longer British Rail 707 rolling stock on all Windsor lines and to pretty well double capacity by 2018, with much of Waterloo also being modernised in 2018. Here is one of the British Rail Class 707 trains on trial at Clapham Junction.
- The overall Network Rail £800 million plan is to change the rail network so that 10-carriage trains can run on all lines in and out of Waterloo by January, 2018, hence resolving some of the massive capacity problems that we have on all commuter trains. However, to do this, platforms 1-9 at Waterloo have to be extended, something which cannot be done given the geography of the platforms without major engineering work, including opening platforms 20-24 for regular use. Using those high number platforms means that the main flow of trains will be concentrated on the high number tracks and will be too heavy to allow any to stop at Queenstown Road or at Earlsfield in peak hours.
- This is all explained in a clip that you can see at https://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/plan-your-journey/planned-improvements/wswupgrade/?dm_i=36D9,DUFD,4HO7T7,1EDMW,1
- Meanwhile we also learnt that tunnelling is to start in March, ending in September, on the Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Park The estimated 680,000 tons of spoil will be transported by river barge to somewhere in the estuary. It would apparently take 40,000 lorries to transport the spoil.
- London Underground also announced that the night-time tube service first operated in August, 2016, has already been used by 2.6 million travellers. London Underground are confident that it has stimulated the “night-time” economy but it is not yet clear exactly what the impact has been as far as “other” users are concerned (such as cleaners, caretaking staff, etc.) but there will be passenger surveys in the near future.
- This month’s Planning Applications Committee meeting was on 17th There were a number of applications that were of particular interest in North Battersea. The first was the plan to restore Battersea Park to its condition prior to Formula E Racing; the second about a Care Home development at York Court, 313 Battersea Park Road, on the Doddington Estate; and the third a group of applications to build council housing on the Gideon Road estate.
- The application to restore all areas of the Park was very detailed, but local residents, who have followed this whole process very closely, assured me that the restoration, whilst not perhaps being perfect, is acceptable.
- The Care Home development is fairly large by the standards of these things, providing 78 care beds and 30 assisted living suites. It also would raise the height of the building by two storeys. I voted against this development as over-large and over-dense, but it was approved.
- There were also three applications for the development of council housing on the Gideon Road estate in Shaftesbury. The applications were for 18, 4 and 8 homes respectively and the intention is to use them for decanting from the York Gardens estate. I, and my fellow Labour councillors, supported the applications as welcome additions to the Council’s socially rented housing stock, although we certainly had some criticism from current residents. It is hard to please everyone.
- On 26th January, I looked in briefly at York Gardens Library, to see the presentation given to some 50-odd interested residents of Inkster and Penge Houses about their re-furbishment. The response was very positive and certainly the plans look pretty good to me. I am told that the intention is to take on board a couple of suggestions made by residents and then to get the work started in late 2017 or early 2018, finishing about 18 months after that.
- I went to the Battersea Fields Residents Association on 30th January, having been specifically invited to talk about the Culvert Road development. Although not as dramatically affected by the proposed development as residents of Culvert or Battersea Park Roads, the residents were as concerned as most locals about the traffic, parking and congestion problems that may follow, unless carefully monitored.
- It was interesting to see last week’s Wandsworth Guardian report about Harris Academy’s improved performance – but then worrying a few days later to hear a BBC TV news report that the “improvement” was mainly a statistical consequence of excluding the worst performing pupils from the school and from the exams. This has been a concern expressed to me by a number of people, including at least a couple of you, who are ex-teachers from the school.
- I was not very keen on the school’s change from being a local authority school to, in effect, a private school run by the Harris Academy chain on behalf of the local authority. If the good results are “genuine” and maintained for a few years, then I will have to accept that the Academy has done a good job for the school-children of Battersea, but if this is simply a result of “failing” the lowest achieving children, then this will stand as yet another indictment against this Government’s education policies.
- Many of you expressed concern about my knee replacement and I am pleased to say that it is improving, but is not yet perfect. I can get around without a stick or crutches easily enough but I must say a crutch is a great way to stop the traffic – and to get a seat on the bus!
My Programme for February
- On 1st February, there is a full Council Meeting, when we will be discussing elements of Wandsworth’s budget. Given the scale of Government’s cuts to our rate support grant, it will not be a very comfortable occasion, to say the least.
- The day after, 2nd February, I will be standing in again for the Labour Leader at a Let’s Talk Meeting in St. Anne’s Church, on St. Anne’s Hill.
- On 9th February, I will be going to an informal party with the Kambala Estate residents.
- At 10.30 on 10th February, I will be at Maurice Johnson’s funeral at Christchurch on Battersea Park Road. I am sure that many of you will remember Maurice, here pictured with his daughter, Laura and being invested as an Honorary Alderman by Mayor Thom. Maurice was a Latchmere councillor from 1990-2010, and a well-known personality across the Borough. You can see an obituary I wrote about Maurice at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/
- I have a Community Services Committee (Community Services is almost anything that is not housing or education, from parks to libraries, swimming baths to refuse collection, parks to sewers) on the 16th February and the Planning Applications Committee on the 23rd.
- On the 22nd, there will be a Finance and Corporate Resources Committee, when it is my guess that the Council will announce next year’s Council Tax, which I suspect will be an increase of just under 2%.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you to pose a Battersea- related question that I cannot answer and which I will pose to everyone else, next month. To be honest that didn’t ring a bell with many of you and not one asked anything that I didn’t know. Ian, however, asked, “Our canine friend here, in his original form, caused a cataclysmic event in the past. Firstly, who is the fellow, where is he situated? Also, what was that cataclysmic event?”
I will answer that next month, but meanwhile how many of you know? Send me your answers.
Appendix 1 See the item on Culvert Road development. My letter to the Mayor read:-
“I am writing to you to ask that you call in, and reject, Wandsworth Planning Application, 2016/4188, relating to 3 Culvert Road, SW11 4ND.
“I am a councillor for the relevant Latchmere ward and also a member of the Borough’s Planning Applications Committee, which considered this proposal on 14th December. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there as I was in hospital recovering from an operation. However, I would ask you to take note of the points already made by my constituent Mr. Paul Forster, which I will not repeat but fully support, and the following comments of mine. This letter is, by the way, endorsed by my fellow ward councillors, Simon Hogg and Wendy Speck.
“First of all, I fully acknowledge the pressures on you, as Mayor, and each and every one of the London Boroughs to provide more and more housing units across the capital. I know from working with you, as fellow Wandsworth councillors, that this a very important objective of yours, indeed it is an almost over-whelming priority for both you and for London. However, this is such a small site (0.132 hectares or about 15% of a football pitch) that even at the height and density proposed the total number of units is only 39. Given that the Council’s target over the 2015-30 timescale is to add 25,860 units and that 33,538 new homes are already in the pipeline, it would seem a pity to break planning guidelines and offend local residents for such a minor addition.
“As recently as March 2016 Wandsworth produced its Site Specific Allocations Document listing many potential housing sites in the Borough. This site was not included and was not considered to be a contributor to the housing targets, because it was then part of the Battersea Technology College school site. The site is indeed so far from critical to reaching the Council’s housing targets that it has never even been included in the plans.
“The change factor has been the change in the school status from being a state school to being part of the Harris Academy chain, at which point motivations changed and squeezing as much capital value as possible out of the site became the prime motivator. Hence a site, which had perhaps only a limited value as a schoolkeeper’s house became worth a great deal more as the site for the development of high quality residential units.
“Immediate neighbours who had been living next to a small, under-used, over-grown site might have expected a future development on the scale of, say, Merryfield Court (as referenced in Mr. Forster’s letter). But instead they have found themselves faced with the prospect of a dominating 14 storey block. Unsurprisingly of 217 comments from neighbours and interested parties, 205 have objected and several petitions have been collected against the proposal. The Mayor will know, as indeed will planners, just how significant it is to get that many objections from an area dominated by social and private tenants as opposed to owner occupiers. The proposal is massively unpopular in the immediate neighbourhood.
“Secondly, the proportion of affordable housing is possibly even more important to you than the raw number of housing units. At barely 20%, with only 8 of 39 units, being affordable, this hardly scratches the surface of acceptability. Worse they are all intermediate units and not rental units, so that the expected income of aspirants to even a one-bed flat is £46,000 p.a. with the remaining units affordable to applicants with gross incomes up to the GLA limit of £90,000 p.a. This surely exposes the myth of these units being affordable for the average Londoner or Wandsworth resident.
“Thirdly, the “benefits justification” for granting this permission is totally inadequate. The largest element of the justification appears to be the provision of sports facilities to Harris Academy. This, of course, is good news for the pupils of the Academy (and goes someway to explaining the very small number of residents supporting the proposal) but in terms of capital value the development benefits a private school, even one which educates state funded pupils. The benefit does not accrue in any way to the public as a capital asset.
“So Wandsworth’s own Conservation Advisory Committee said on 14th November 2016, when considering the impact of the planned development on the Latchmere Estate and Battersea Park Conservation Areas, “there is insufficient justification for a building of this height, which will cause harm to the setting (of these two conservation areas)”. The Committee went on to say that “public benefit has been identified BUT if the building proposed is the wrong fit for the site then these public benefits should be seen as irrelevant in terms of justification”.
“Fourth, the 22 storey Castlemaine block appears to be adopted by Wandsworth planners as the benchmark for the area and hence justifying the 14 storeys proposed for 3 Culvert Road. As a local councillor, I know that the popular view in the area would very much be that Castlemaine was an aberration of the 1960’s tower block craze. It has blighted, rather than enhanced, the area and definitely should not be used as a benchmark of anything other than what modern developments should try and avoid.
“Finally, I would briefly re-iterate Mr. Forster’s primary points: –
- Wandsworth Council policy setting the site in an area where tall buildings of five stories or higher are inappropriate
- re the impact on the residents of 2-32 Culvert Road, of Merryfield Court and of Battersea Park Road
- density levels between two and three times greater than the London plan, i.e. 765 hrph (habitable rooms per hectare) as opposed to 200-450.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Belton, Wandsworth Labour councillor and Planning speaker
I hope that you give my letter and Mr. Forster’s objections due consideration.
OBITUARY – MAURICE JOHNSON
WANDSWORTH COUNCILLOR AND HONORARY ALDERMAN
By Penny Corfield and Tony Belton
The death has just been announced of Councillor Maurice Johnson, aged 84. It comes as a surprise because he seemed to be one of those indestructible forces of life. During his twenty years as a Labour Councillor in Latchmere (1990-2010), he was assiduous in his attendance and passionate in his commitment to opposing injustice and discrimination. He talked with a famously rapid-fire delivery, so that sometimes it could be hard to follow all the details of his speeches. But no one could miss his serious intent.
After his retirement as a Councillor in 2010 and in tribute to his long service on Wandsworth Council, Maurice was elected an honorary Alderman. In that capacity, he continued to attend many Council ceremonial events; and to maintain contacts with his friends from across the political spectrum.
Maurice lived on Latchmere’s Kambala Estate, where he and his large family are well known. They remain a warm and close-knit group. They had experienced sadness from family bereavements, which Maurice bore with dignity. He was a very kind-hearted person, good at sympathising with others when they were facing problems. Penny Corfield remembers his words of consolation to her when she was deeply upset by her brother’s death. Maurice not only knew what to say at the time; but also, in the years that followed, always remembered to ask after her brother’s children. That detail showed his quiet caring side, which ran alongside his outer image of boisterous energy.
Tony Belton remembers canvassing with Maurice in Winstanley Road. “It was almost like a royal procession; we hardly walked a yard before another passer-by, young or old, man or woman, stopped to exchange pleasantries with Maurice. Almost anywhere I canvassed the punters knew who my fellow candidate was.
“Maurice also had a popular appeal that worked well with many an audience. I remember on one occasion in the 90’s when the Tories were making typically nasty cuts to services. I had opposed them with typical forensic brilliance, but the packed public gallery did not respond or applaud, but then Maurice pleaded desperately to the Tories better natures. He pleaded and begged; the public gallery cheered him to the rafters. It didn’t change their votes of course, but there was no doubt about who the moral victor was that day.
Lastly, it should be noted that Maurice was very proud of his Guyanese background. He served in the tradition of John Archer, Battersea’s first black Mayor and pioneer of BAME participation in civic life. His dignity in public life makes him a memorable figure for his family, his constituents, all his fellow Councillors, and Battersea Labour Party. RIP.
Here Maurice, with his daughter Laura, is being invested as an Honorary Alderman, by Mayor Stuart Thom, 2015.
Councillor Tony Belton’s January, 2017, Newslettter (# 92)
- The most important December event for many Latchmere and Queenstown residents was the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) decision on 14th December to approve the 14-storey development at 3 Culvert Road. I was very sorry not to be there (see my operation below) but my objections were voiced by my fellow Latchmere councillor, Simon Hogg, who went to the PAC specifically to argue the case against the development, although as a non-member of PAC he could not vote.
- I know that Simon, who is the Leader of the Labour councillors, wants to fight the Borough Election in May, 2018, on, amongst other things, the issue of over-development in north Battersea. It is a view that I have held for quite a few years now. Not of course that one can be against all developments everywhere and I am not. But I have seen little evidence that all the expensive, tower block developments along the Nine Elms and Battersea river-fronts have been built to the benefit of the average Londoner – rich foreigners and top-end businessmen perhaps but not too many for ordinary Joes and Joannas.
- If I had been there I’d like to think that the vote might have been 4:4 and in effect decided on the Tory Chair’s casting vote, but alas the application would still have been approved. Now let’s see what Mayor Sadiq Khan makes of the application. I know Sadiq well – he was on PAC with me when he was my deputy in Wandsworth in the early 2000s. Then he would have voted against the application. Now, however, I am concerned that his overall responsibility for ensuring the development of lots of homes in London means that he might not give local objections quite the weight that he would have done 12 years ago.
- One issue that many residents raised with me was the issue of whether the provision of new sports facilities for the Harris Academy (as offered by the developer) could seriously be considered to be a “community” benefit. Some argued that kind of provision should be made by the tax or ratepayer and not considered to be a bargaining chip in the process of planning approvals. I completely agree with the sentiments behind that view. Unfortunately, however, that is no longer the way local government works. We are discouraged more and more from paying for services (and the corollary of raising Council tax) and encouraged more and more to “trade” for them. In Orwellian speak, we bargain with developers over how much “public” benefit they are prepared to provide in return for the Council agreeing to larger and more profitable developments.
- In everyday language, this would be described as selling planning permissions but of course such language is not acceptable. Advocates of this approach claim instead that we are negotiating benefits, which the public might find some kind of compensation for adversely affecting their environment. The scandalous outcome, in this case, is that the actual physical benefit of a new sports hall and associated facilities will go down as an asset in Harris Academy’s books and not as a Council asset!
- Still it was an argument that seemed to convince one of my Labour colleagues, who to my complete surprise and astonishment voted for the application. I intend to discuss this with her further.
- On Monday, 5th December, I represented the Labour councillors at St. Mary Park’s Let’s Talk Meeting at St John Bosco school. I think I have said this before but the Council really needs to re-think these sessions. Designed to keep the public more involved and concerned about local developments, the reality is that they are attended by the “same” group of highly committed local residents, who are all invariably well known to the councillors. The meetings do not impact the lives of 99.9% of the population. It is an example of seeming well meant but pointless consultation.
- On the 7th I was due in Chelsea and Westminster
for a new knee, so to “celebrate” my partner took me away for the week-end (3rd-4th) to the Goodwood Hotel. Delightful it was too; the food was excellent; they have a great indoor pool (jacuzzi and sauna of course) and on the Saturday night we went to Chichester Festival Theatre to see E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View”, starring Felicity Kendall – not brilliant I am afraid; and on the Sunday, we had a beautiful walk round Goodwood Park (see picture), brilliant. - Then came the 7th. Well, I don’t want to go on about my knee replacement. It is after all an operation that plenty of other people have had. To be fair the surgeon did say
12/12/16, Ow!
beforehand that I would find it very painful for two weeks. He was right except that it was at least three weeks. Now four weeks later, it feels something like normal. What do you reckon on this picture of my left leg, a week into recovery? Oh, by the way, I have been told not to show this – self-indulgent one friend says – but here goes! At least it helps the memory!
- The trouble with pain is that it is almost indescribable, unless perhaps one uses poetry, but I am not sure that I am up to that. Indeed, pain is of such an immediate, transient nature, that it is almost impossible to remember. Do you have a clear image of your worst toothache? All I can say is that at its worst I decided to give my knee pain 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I have never before, ever, gone above 6.
My Programme for January
- On 10th January, I have a meeting of Wandsworth’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee, followed on 17th by the Planning Applications Committee.
- On the 23rd January, I have a meeting of the Heliport Consultative Committee. Every “large” airport in the country has to have such a committee as a consultative body between the airport and the local authority and the local communities. Battersea Heliport is the only heliport in the country so large that it falls within this rule. It is though only a consultative committee and it does not have executive powers. So we can advise on the impact of chopper noise on local residents but we cant ban particularly noisy aircraft. One limited bit of good news is, however, that we have been assured that the next generation of helicopters will be 30% quieter than today’s craft.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you, who is standing on the traditional soap box addressing the crowd? And where and when? Congratulations to those two or three people who guessed correctly that the man on the soap box was Harold Wilson, speaking at a public meeting on the way to the October, 1964, General Election. As for where, well; close observation shows the street name as Wakehurst Road, and the meeting to be on the corner of Wakehurst and Northcote Roads. And so, for this month’s mystery question, I am going to turn to you. I have been so pre-occupied with my operation and recovering from a new knee that I haven’t got round to working out a question. So, let me turn the tables on you, my readers, and ask you to pose a Battersea related question that I cannot answer and which I will pose to everyone else, next month.
Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea December, 2016, Newsletter (#91)
1. On 1st November, I went to the Battersea Society’s organised debate at York Gardens Library on Affordable Housing. The speakers were 
Lord Bob Kerslake of the Peabody Trust and Councillor Paul Ellis, Wandsworth’s Tory Cabinet Member. It was well attended, but frankly I was a little disappointed. Lord Kerslake told us just how awful the housing situation is for those without their own, secure roof over their heads (he added statistical detail but we all know the “truth”) and both he and Councillor Ellis talked about what Peabody and the Council were doing to resolve the “crisis”. However, as one of the audience said, their contributions are woeful, relative to the scale of the problem. Something much bigger than their worthy but small schemes is needed now!
2. Then on 2nd November, I was off to Wembley to see
my team, Spurs, give an embarrassingly lame performance (0-1) against Germany’s Bayern Leverkusen. You may well ask – Spurs and you get elected in Battersea! My explanation is that I was a kid in Tottenham and that loyalty never dies! But I must say, I don’t really like Wembley, at least for watching soccer. It is so enormous that the players are specks of colour on a green handkerchief in the distance; it’s nothing like as atmospheric as White Hart Lane. I do so much hope that the new Lane is more like the old one than it is to Wembley.
3. Last month, I said I was going to have tea with William Mitchell, the sculptor 
who did the concrete sculptures on the Winstanley estate and on Badric Court. I did so in his Marylebone flat on 4th November. He was eloquent about how he wanted to create artworks, which relate to the estate, and interestingly, where and how he did the work, which was mainly on site, using the materials that
the construction guys were using at the time. I think his murals do work and interestingly they are and always have been remarkably free of graffiti. The pictures show him, looking sprightly at the age of 90 and another of his sculptures, which adorns that I had forgotten also adorn Totteridge House, Yelverton Road. Oh, and his wife made a great cup of tea.
4. On 8th November I was at the Share Community Annual Awards in the Town Hall. What an amazing organisation Share Community is! It works with and trains people with disabilities, some quite severe and others less so. But almost all their “clients” have serious problems coping with everyday activities.
I admire the staff’s dedication and perhaps most of all their loving patience. I know that I would probably lose my rag with some of the clients some or most of the time. I guess that it helps that the atmosphere in the “share community” is so warm and positive. Here are Wandsworth’s Mayor Richard Field, and Share Chief Executive, Annie McDowell, appreciating one of the musical numbers performed.
5. And on 9th November, I was at the Council’s so-called Let’s Talk meeting at Bolingbroke School. These meetings were an interesting innovation in the 1990s and were designed to give Jo & Joanna Public a chance to meet and discuss with their local elected representatives. I was at the first one in 2001, in Roehampton. But now the meetings seem to have atrophied. At this one there were more councillors and officers than members of the public and all of the public who were there were “the usual suspects”, who the councillors all knew quite well. There needs to be a “re-think”!
6. The Queenstown ward by-election did take 
place on 10th November and I spent much of my time driving, usually elderly or infirm people, to the polling stations. But the significant thing is that “our man”, Aydin Dikerdem, won by 574 votes, in what, for Queenstown, was a landslide. The last time a Labour candidate had a majority this big in that ward was 1974! Well done Aydin. Here is Aydin, with his agent Battersea resident Amy Merrigan.
7. I was at the Remembrance Day Service in
Battersea Park on Remembrance Day itself. As is usually the case, by some strange quirk of the weather gods, the day was beautiful and bright. It was a good experience and led me into a peaceful moment of contemplation, not least about the futility and waste of the once so-called Great War. Fellow Councillor Simon Hogg is to be seen in the middle left deep in conversation with the military.
8. The fund-raising dinner in Providence House, on the Falcon Road, on 12th November was a fun event, which made over £4,000 for the club. “Providence” is by far Latchmere’s largest youth club and deserves to be suppo
rted. Here is a picture of the Providence House farm on Dartmoor, where many of the club members get an opportunity to stay and “muck in” around the farm.
9. I took my grand-children to London Zoo on Sunday 13th. Here we are plus three giraffes, courtesy of a tourist, like us. I am on the left then there’s Pen, Scarlett, Melissa, Jaimie and Jez.
10. I had an uneventful Conservation Area Advisory 
Committee on 14th November and 2 days later the Planning Applications Committee, which was dominated by discussion of the plan to install an artificial grass pitch in the southern part of Falcon Park. Wandsworth Council planners claimed that the new pitch would only take up 22% of the park, but that really is a case of proving anything with figures as at least another 18% of the park will become such fringe areas as to be almost unusable, resulting in about 40% of the whole, effectively being lost. I, of course, voted against this proposal but I am afraid that it went through by 5 Tory councillors’ votes to 3 Labour votes. In this illustration the pitch is olive green and the “usable” area of the park is in light green and it clearly shows the difficulty of fitting a rectangular quart into a banana shaped park.
11. Did you notice that from November 18th the 319 Bus started a Night Service. On its route between Streatham Hill and Sloane Square station it runs right through the heart of North Battersea and also stops at Tooting Bec tube station. Running every 30 minutes it will be a boon to all night-owls.
12. One worrying prediction about the future is the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (AST)’s assessment of what is going to happen to school staffing and budgets by 2020, which is after all only just over 3 years away. Across the country school budgets are going to be cut by an average of £401 per pupil per primary school budget and yet locally Falconbrook is taking a £752 hit, Christ Church £840, Highview £810 and Westbridge a jaw-dropping £960 cut. It really does look as though this Government is looking after schools in the leafy parts of the country and making us, in the inner cities, pay. The total cut for Battersea schools is just over a whopping £4 million a year.
My Programme for December
1. On 1st December, I have a meeting of Wandsworth’s Labour councillors. We have them every couple of months, which I don’t think is often enough, but it is our chance to get together and discuss how we are going to tackle the long-term Tory dominance of the Borough. As someone, who has not been able to solve that one for 40 years, I am of course the expert. But with Brexit to the east and Trump to the west, I don’t think that Labour positioning itself as simply a more caring, moderate version of Toryism is going to appeal any more, even if it ever did.
2. On Monday, 5th December, I am standing in for Simon as the Labour Rep on the St. Mary Park “Let’s Talk” session at St. John Bosco College in St. Mary Park ward. It will be interesting to see just what the new school is like.
3. Then on Wednesday, 6th December, we will have a full Council Meeting. I would no doubt be in mental anguish if, I were there having to listen to the nonsense emanating from Tory mouths (we, Labour councillors, are of course all geniuses), but actually I’ll be in physical anguish getting used to my new metal left knee, fitted that morning. And to be truthful I rather suspect that is my December but if things go really well then…….?
4. I will be back in the Town Hall for the 
Planning Applications Committee on the 14th December. The application for the corner site of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads is likely to be the major item of discussion. If you haven’t yet recorded your views, for or against, then now is the time to do so at https://planning1.wandsworth.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx and look for application 2016/4188.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you, “Who was Hilda Hewlett, commemorated by a plaque on a Battersea house and one time resident of Park Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive? Was she the first woman:
a) Licensed pilot in the UK?
b) To run 100 yards in 13 seconds?
c) To star opposite Lambeth born star Charlie Chaplin?”
A couple of you got it right straight-away but not many knew. She was, of course, the first licensed female pilot in the UK. If I remember rightly it was in 1910 and she was actually only the 10th licensed UK pilot at all. She went on to start her own Battersea aircraft factory, with many of her planes playing an important part in the First World War. Later, she retired to a peaceful life in New Zealand.
And so for this month’s mystery question!
On 28th November, I received this remarkable picture from my friend Christine Eccles.
It shows an historic event in Battersea, which certainly was unknown to me. There is a road sign to give a clue as to where it is and the clothing gives a pretty good indication of the period, but can anyone suggest anything more specific about the date and who is standing on the traditional soap box addressing the crowd?
Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea* November, 2016, Newsletter (#90)
My Programme for November
Do you know? Last month I asked you, whether you knew the connection between Christ Church School, at the end of Este Road, and the nearby Shillington Old School Building? And can you name one of its early pupils? The answers are – the local parish started Christ Church school in about 1864. But the parish couldn’t maintain the school in competition with the new state school, the London Board School of Este Road. In 1883 that school moved into the Shillington Street site, now flats, and the Batten Street site reverted to being Christ Church – and that was the connection. As for the pupil, it was the later famous John Burns. This month let me ask you, “Who was Hilda Hewlett, commemorated by a plaque on a Battersea house and one time resident of Park Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive? Was she the first woman: a) Licensed pilot in the UK? b) To run 100 yards in 13 seconds? c) To star opposite Lambeth born star Charlie Chaplin?” |
Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere October, 2016, Newsletter (# 89)
- Very sadly, my colleague, Councillor Sally-Ann Ephson died on 31st August (born 11th November 1966). I last saw Sally-Ann a month earlier in St. George’s Hospital; she was clearly in considerable pain. She suffered from sickle cell disease and was an important member of the Sickle Cell Society, serving on its management board.
- Sally-Ann was born in Hackney but soon moved to Battersea, where she lived for many years, actually on the Latchmere estate, until moving to Broadwater Road in Tooting. Three years ago she was chosen as one of the Labour candidates for Queenstown ward in the 2014 Borough Election. When she won she became the first Labour Queenstown councillor since 1990.
- Sally-Ann fought hard against considerable difficulties but
always expressed great concern for her constituents, retained her sense of humour and supported her colleagues. Her death is a sad loss. Sally-Ann’s funeral took place on 29th September and her wake was held at York Gardens Library. - Unfortunately my cousin’s funeral was held on the same day and I was unable to be there, but a friend took this picture of the magnificent hearse – not technically the greatest picture you have ever seen but not a common sight on the streets of Battersea, these days.
- As you may remember from my last newsletter, on 23rd
August I went off for a holiday to Florence and then the Croatian coast. We went by train to Florence – beautiful, had a Conference in Florence – sweltering, and then on to the Croatian coast – brilliant. - I had the Planning Applications Committee on 15th. There were a couple of applications of real interest to parts of Latchmere. First there was an application for 15-27 Falcon Road, the block between Patience and Afghan Roads, for a three to five storey block consisting of shops, offices and 25 flats.
There was local opposition to the height and size of the block, but the application was agreed by a majority of the Committee – I voted against. - The second was for a basement in Atherton Street. It was not in itself a big application but it was for a basement conversion and raises questions about the level of planning controls that local authorities have over basements. The answer is, I am afraid not much. I presented the local residents’ objections to the application but it was passed overwhelmingly.
- Other interesting applications were for the re-
Heliport House
construction of The Alchemist – the pub on St. John’s Hill, opposite the Health Centre, “illegally” demolished five years ago. And, as usual, there were applications for yet further large developments in Nine Elms. There was also an application for a very modern, “alternative” design 15 storey block next to the Heliport and pictured here. It looks interesting or mad, depending upon your tastes, but one thing is for sure: I certainly don’t vote against all new development, but I think this one is totally inappropriate: the skyline and nature of Battersea is changing fast, and is under pressure to change future.
- On the 15th I attended the Police’s Latchmere Safer Neighbourhood Team, in the George Shearing Centre, in Este Road. After the long summer break there was not a lot to discuss, but to note the departure of our police PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) Shirley Aitken, who will be much missed by many. She is now off, I am afraid, to pastures new. Good luck to her.
- That week-end I visited someone, who has a quince tree in the garden. Have you ever come across a quince tree and quince fruit? I must confess that I hadn’t previously done so. I brought back 3lbs worth and tried my hand at making quince jelly. Not sure about how successful it is going to be – I am not sure that it has set properly – but it’s a first for me!
- On the 19th September I went to the Wandsworth Conservation Advisory Committee. I have had reservations about this committee in the past. It seemed to spend all its time worrying about rather nice houses in rather nice parts of the Borough without worrying too much about places, where the majority of us actually live. However, at this meeting the Committee came out strongly and unanimously against the current proposal for a 14-storey block at Culvert Road, which is to be considered at a future (November, I suspect) Planning Applications Committee – see picture. If you have views on this application then let me know and/or post them on the Council’s website at https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/WAM/showCaseFile.do?appType=planning&appNumber=2016/4188 – don’t mind the apparent closure date for consultations; the Council is legally bound to note all observations right up to the moment of decision.
- The next day I went to the Community Services Committee. This deals with almost everything that is not housing, social services or education, that is everything you see when you walk out of the front door – pavements, street surfaces, trees, litter, parks, street lights, drains, air pollution, noise, etc., etc. Two interesting items were the decision to increase the number of parking spaces and associated chargers devoted to electric cars, and to introduce 50% charging for motor bike parking.
- But on this occasion, the major issue that exercised the
Chestnut Avenue
Committee was the future of an avenue of chestnut trees on Tooting Common! OK, so I know most of you have never been there but take a look at this picture of the avenue: they are splendid, aren’t they?
- The trouble is that many of the trees are diseased and rotting: and the problem is, do you replace a set of mature trees in one clean sweep and have a new avenue, saplings all the same age maturing together, or replace them piecemeal? We decided to take the radical option and replace them all at one swoop!
- And “What about the Labour Party Conference? I hear you say, and quite rightly too. I could hardly be your local Labour representative and ignore what is happening in the Labour Party nationally. First of all, let me say that in the end I decided not to go.
- However, I voted for Jeremy Corbyn, but not because I think he is, or looks like being, a great leader. Unfortunately, I did not think that the alternatives in 2015, or Owen Smith this year, had done better. In my view, Corbyn is more “right” in his opposition to Tory cuts than the other candidates (proved by the speed with which the new Chancellor is ditching Osborne’s policies at the Tory Party Conference). Corbyn is also untainted with any connection to the Iraq War. I confess that at the time I supported the Iraq War but it turns out to have been the most disastrous, and most deadly, foreign policy mistake made by the UK since 1945. (In addition, I think that this year’s attempted coup against Corbyn was desperately badly bungled and has not helped him or the party).
- Incidentally, as a councillor, I have been given early warning of the major works taking place over the next couple of years at Waterloo station. The aim is to lengthen platforms 1-4 so that they can take the new, longer trains, but in the meantime the Channel Tunnel platforms (I suppose platforms 23-27?) will be used with much changing of points and signals and, no doubt, much chaos. Commuting isn’t likely to get easier just yet!
My Programme for October
- Unfortunately, following Councillor Ephson’s death, we will be having a by-election in Queenstown ward. It looks like being on 10th or 17th November so no doubt I will be spending much of my time working on that by-election.
- On 5th October, there is the Katherine Low Settlement’s Annual Meeting, but, as it clashes with other meetings, I am not sure that I will get there.
- There is a Covent Garden Market Reception at lunchtime on 6th October, when we will learn more about the next stages of redevelopment down Nine Elms Lane. And in the evening, I have a meeting of the Labour councilors.
- There is Wandsworth’s Council Meeting on 12th October. On the 19th I have the Planning Applications Committee and on the 20th the Heliport Consultative Committee.
Do you know?
Winstanley Estate
Last month I asked you, Who was the sculptor of the concrete murals on the Winstanley estate? The answer is William Mitchell, who also sculpted an installation on nearby Badric Court. Mitchell was born in 1925 and is a sculptor, artist and designer. He trained in London and is
Shillington Old School
known for works at Clifton Cathedral and several London County Council developments: some of the works are listed. He now lives in Cumbria. Having drawn this to the attention of the Town Hall, I think Mitchell may figure in the next “Winstanley News”.
This month, can I ask who knows the connection between , at the end of Este Road, and the nearby Shillington Old School Building, a beacon of light – pictured here? And it isn’t simply that they are neighbours – oh and can you name one famous ex-pupil of Christ Church?
Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea, September, 2016, Newsletter (# 88)
| 1. OK, so I know it’s still August but I am off tomorrow and won’t be back until well into September and so here is a very short September Newsletter.
2. I wasn’t really complaining last month, just commenting, that I had received a criticism of the July newsletter, but I would like to thank you for the many very positive responses I got in reply to that criticism. In fact, as a number of you remarked on the scale of Wandsworth Council’s operations, it has given me lots of ideas for my future “Did you know” sections! 3. So what did happen in August? Well, I started, as promised, on August 2nd by reviewing, with members of the Battersea Society, their suggested list of buildings of local historic and/or architectural significance. It was a magnificently eclectic list, ranging from stink pipes (built over Victorian sewers to allow the smell to escape – yes, there are a couple that I know of in Battersea) to Victorian post boxes, from splendid nineteenth-century houses to long sets of granite paving stones. We even decided to ask for the listing of four Winstanley murals – see “Did you know?” below. 4. I had my Council surgery  St. Mary’s RC school, Queenstown in Battersea Reference Library on Saturday, 6th August, and then on 10th August I visited the new St. Mary’s R. C. Primary School in Lockington Road. The site is called Battersea Exchange as a reference to the connection between Battersea Park and Queenstown Road railway stations. It is developing fast, and will contain several hundred flats, as well as the school which will open for some classes this September. It should be noted that a few years ago, the school would have been built by the Council, using taxpayer money, but this school is built as a by-product of private development. Is that a good thing? Saves us all money but possibly only at the cost of allowing bigger, more profitable developments?  Pedalos on way home 5. On the 7th I, and my partner, decided to go to Weymouth for a day trip from Clapham Junction. It was a great day, very sunny and warm, and a reminder of just how good it is to have CJ on our door-step and, therefore, every south coast resort within a couple of hours from home.  Wandle, Charlie Reed, Turf Project 6. On the 12th I was persuaded to go to an exhibition on the River Wandle: A constant Amid Change Exhibition. It was organised by the Turf Centre, Croydon, which is a non-profit artist-run community project. Actually if you know as much about the River Wandle and its long industrial history as I do, then you would find it disappointing, but as East Croydon is only 10 minutes from CJ it was no great hardship. (The first Council I ever served on (1971-74) started the Wandle Walk alongside the river. It seemed a bit of a joke back then but now it really is a pedestrian and bicycle highway). It was a small exhibition of the paintings by local school teacher Charlie Reed and in themselves they were nice enough. This was my favourite. 7. I had the Planning Applications Committee on 15th. It really was a nothing event with only 7 really minor applications, but the hot news, that has a big impact on  Hope Street Sports Latchmere, is that the Hope Street Sports Centre has been saved for at least a couple more years. This happy reprieve is, perhaps, a completely unexpected result of the Brexit vote, because, instead of proceeding with a private development of luxury properties, just off Shuttleworth Road, the company concerned is selling its stake in the site to Wandsworth Council for council housing. The site will be used to re-house tenants and leaseholders from the Winstanley, during the regeneration. 8. I think that Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and I can reasonably claim some credit for this outcome as ward councillors. We have kept constant pressure on the Wandsworth administration for a full one:one replacement of social housing being redeveloped on the estate and for the Hope Street Centre to be kept until an adequate replacement is provided as part of the Winstanley regeneration. This new site frees up space for the Council both to provide social housing and keep the Centre open. 9. Another piece of good news is that as well as starting night services on the Northern and Central lines of the underground as from 19th August, Transport for London (TFL) announced an improvement of evening and week-end services for the 344, a bus route, which many of you use. The improvement is an increase in regularity with it becoming a one in 10 minute as opposed to 12-minute service; sounds really small but it is an 18% increase! 10. On the 18th we had the by-election in Tooting ward. Labour’s candidate, Paul White, a close friend, won with a majority of 823, which represents a swing to Labour of over 8%. The turn-out of 20% was, of course, very low as it always was likely to be for an August by-election, but nevertheless it was a welcome victory. 11. On 19th August, we are going to stay with Mary Jay, Douglas Jay’s widow, in Oxfordshire. Most readers will not know either Douglas or Mary, but Douglas was Battersea’s M.P. from 1946-1973 and a member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet, 1964-67. Douglas was a doughty politician – he campaigned against the inner London motorway box and won (the Box would have obliterated much of modern Battersea, creating a Spaghetti Junction centred on the Latchmere) and against Britain’s entry into what was then the Common Market (and lost). I wonder what he would have said about the Referendum result. I know he would have been very dismissive about the Referendum so-called “debate”. 12. And on Monday, 23rd, I am off for my three-week holiday to Florence and then the Croatian coast. My Programme for September 1. I am at the Planning Applications Committee on the 14th September. 2. And the Met Police’s Special Neighbourhood Team (SNT) meeting at the George Shearing centre on the15th, although I must admit that recently I have missed the SNT rather more than I would have liked. 3. I have the Wandsworth Conservation Area Committee on the 19th September. And on 20th, the Community Services Committee. 4. Then on Saturday 24th September I have the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. I am not at all sure that I will be going to it, even though it can be great fun. This year though it will be much enlivened, for good or for ill, by the announcement of the result of our big Leadership Election between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith. What price a peaceful week after that? Do you know? Last month I asked which 150th anniversary was being celebrated this year at the Este Road Fire Station. It was in fact the 150th anniversary of the Metropolitan Fire Service. And the Este Road building was said to be a “cut-price” miniature of the Victoria Embankment’s London Fire Brigade Headquarters. Do you see the resemblance? Winstanley Estate I said in paragraph 3 above that we asked for the listing of four murals on the Winstanley estate. Here is one of them in Thomas Baines Road. Had you ever really stopped and looked at it? And can you tell me anything about them, such as the name of the sculptor? |
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 