Archive by Author | Tony Belton
March 9, 2016  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere March, 2016, Newsletter (# 82)

  

  1. On February 2nd, I was briefed on the plans for, what I called last month, the Tesco block on Falcon Road, though strictly speaFalcon Road CGI2king neither of the two planned retail units are definitely going to be Tescos – that is yet to be decided. The intention is to do a comprehensive re-development, between Khyber and Patience Roads, with retail on the ground floor and four storeys of residential units above. How many of these will be affordable (in the modern jargon definition of affoFalcon Road CGI1rdable) is up for negotiation. These indicative drawings of the development show the intention: it will have an adverse impact on 1-15 Patience Road and maybe on sunlight in 2-8 Patience Road. However, by the standards of some of the giant developments nearby this is unexceptional. OK, I hope you agree.
  2. I went to the SNT Meeting, on 4th February at the George Shearing Centre, in Este Road. SNT is police jargon for the police Special Neighbourhood Team and they have quarterly meetings with a number of local representatives of resident associations and tenant groups, where issues of ”Latchmere interest” are discussed. Unfortunately, because of clashes with other meetings, I often cannot get there. The police told us that there were 8 more crimes in January than there had been in January last year but that there had been a fall of 28 in December compared IMG_1737 (2)with the previous year. The good news is that on the whole the trend across the Borough has, for some years, been downwards.
  3. One minor pleasure of being a councillor for many years is that occasionally someone, usually a student of politics or journalism, wants to come and write an essay based on your experiences. On 10th February, Andri, a  Roehampton student of journalism came along to quiz me on the nature and significance of local politics – so that he could write a paper on the subject. It gives one a chance to indulge in the kind of self-centred ramblings that constituents would never put up with. Fun – and it ended far too soon! I hope that Andri’s essay got a good mark!
  4. On 11th February I had the first of two Education and Children’s Services Committees. Two important items were under discussion, namely the Schools Admissions system and Pupil Place Planning. However, as the transfer between primary and secondary schools seems to have happened quite smoothly this year there was not much to say on the admissions system except “steady as she goes”. Since the Committee met, the potential shortage of secondary school places across the country has been national news. It has been said that the country may have a shortfall of one million places in 5-10 years’ time. And certainly local authorities have protested about the absurdity created by the current Government, whereby local authorities are responsible for providing a sufficient number of school places but are not actually allowed to provide them directly. The academies, it is hoped, will just expand or contract appropriately but without being part of any planning system. The Tory party’s daft reliance on the market could be the cause of much heartache. However, here in Wandsworth we were re-assured that there would be sufficient secondary places even if there might be a tight squeeze in some years. But you may remember that last month I commented that the Chestnut Grove Academy is embarking on the demolition and redevelopment of the school – one Council paper says that there will be 88 extra places and another says there will be none! How we are meant to plan on that basis beggars belief!
  5. There were also a number of cuts, as seems inevitable these days. One was the effective closure of the Alton Activity Centre for youngsters – regrettable as that is, it will have no impact on Latchmere. Perhaps more relevant is the closure of the Accredited Training and Assessment Centre (ATAC), which currently operates out of Battersea Park Road Library, with the loss of half a dozen trainer jobs. But although it is very local to Latchmere I don’t know much about ATAC, which perhaps says something about its significance, or lack of, in the community.
  6. On the 18th there was the Community Services Committee, of which I am not a Eltringham CPZmember, but which I will mention because there were a number of issues of importance to Latchmere, namely the possibility of extending the parking control zones (cpz) in Eltringham/Petergate Road area and Wye Street and installing a zebra crossing in Ingrave Street near to Falconbrook School – wye street cpza mixed bag! The recommendation to extend the parking zone hours in the Eltringham/Petergate area was deferred until June, thanks unfortunately to the intervention, as I understand it, of Tory St. Mary Park councillor Rory O’Broin. The extension of the cpz was agreed in Wye Street and the zebra crossing refused, even though the Committee agreed to “improve” the road signs about the school.
  7. On the 22nd we had the second of the two Education and Children’s Services Committees and this was a far more dramatic occasion. You may not have heard but in December Ofsted gave Wandsworth’s Children’s Services Department a damning report on services for disturbed and vulnerable children and services for young persons, which it said were either inadequate or in need of improvement. It is many years since Wandsworth last had such a stinging rebuke from central government and the Committee discussed how we should recover from this position and make the services as good as they should be. I must make it clear that these services serve a very small minority of Wandsworth’s children, so if you have kids in the school system here in the borough it almost certainly does NOT affect you or your kids. However, if they are in the Council’s care or severely disadvantaged in some way then it is just possible that you (and yours) are affected. If you are concerned that this may affect you, then please get in touch and I will see if I can help.
  8. But in terms of making generic reforms we changed the staffing structure, introduced new management and monitoring procedures and worked out a longer term plan to make sure that the Department improves its practise. You may also have heard that I, in effect, moved a vote of no confidence in the Leader and the Executive member of the Council for Children’s Services. I knew, of course, that this was not going to be accepted by the majority (Tory) party and so in a sense it was “gesture politics”. However since at least one senior officer decided to resign, I think that the politicians in charge at the time should also take the rap – but here in Wandsworth, sadly, they did NOT.
  9. The Planning Applications Committee was on February 24th and what a busy night it was! First up we had the application for Formula E in Battersea Park I can see that this is going to be an annual occasion! This time the event is scheduled for early 2 BPAG From November 24th 2015 to 24th January 2016 004 (800x600)July and, as best I could understand it, it was for more of the Park to be closed to the public for slightly less time. There is no doubt that the event is both immensely popular with many and very unpopular with many others, some of whom are pictured demonstrating outside the Town Hall. My fear is that all the commercial operations that surround Grand Prix racing will slowly but surely take a greater and greater grasp in the Park and that with time the very nature of the Park will change. It is also significant, at least to me, that the date has been put back a couple of weeks into the very heart of summer – what a time to close great swathes of the Park. You will have guessed that I was against and I know many of you will have been for – but that’s the way it goes!
  10. There were many other interesting potential Cringle Dock3developments, but not particularly near to or relevant to Latchmere. One example was the plan to demolish and reconstruct Cringle Dock in Nine Elms Lane. This was imaginative! Can you imagine one of London’s largest refuse transfer stations essentially being rebuilt under a canopy, on which 500 flats are to be built, with the refuse barges appearing out from under rather like a James Bond villain’s underground attack base. Is this really going to happen? Well the completion date is in 2030! Another mega-development was planned for Nine Elms Lane and there were many others and the Committee did not end until about 2 minutes past midnight!
  11. On the 25th my fellow Councillor Simon Hogg and I had another discussion with officers on the Winstanley regeneration programme, though as you know it largely affects the York Road estate and not Winstanley. It is difficult to report anything specific about that other than that work proceeds and that the Council hopes to start work relatively soon on Penge and Inkster Houses.
  12. The Finance and Corporate Services Committee met on 25th Again I am not a member but I thought it worth mentioning that it was decided to increase Council Tax by 3.9%, the maximum allowed by law without triggering a referendum. But to compensate for that increase, the London Mayor’s budget has now been reduced as the costs of the 2012 Olympics are dropping out of his budget, and so we will all see a reduction in our own tax bills.
  13. In this newsletter, I have never ever referred to an internal16225 AGM Tim West 3 Labour Party meeting, largely because I don’t think that they are of public interest but last Thursday, 25th February, our meeting was an exception. We organised radical readings from a number of famous radicals from the past, from Gerard Winstanley to Charlotte Despard, from Labour’s first leader Keir Hardie to Clem Attlee, PM from 1945-51. The readings were inspirational and led by Prunella Scales and Timothy West. Here is Tim in full flow.
  14. Finally I thought I should put in a picture of the Latchmere Recreation Ground. On 23rd October the messy tarmac was ripped up IMG_1737 (2)and the area re-seeded and landscaped. Some of this work had to be done twice because of the wet winter but the Town Hall hopes to open up the Recreation Ground in time for Easter. It will be a welcome extension of green space in Latchmere.

My Programme for March

  1. I have a meeting in Portcullis House (that’s a twentieth century annex to the House of Commons next to old Scotland Yard) on 2nd March, when a cross-party selection of London MPs and councillors will discuss the Government’s cuts to schools’ budgets, and later the same day a SERA think tank. SERA is the Labour Party’s green lobbying organisation and we will discuss our plans for the coming years.
  2. There will be the regular Labour Group meeting: that is Wandsworth’s Labour councillors, on 3rd.
  3. There is an Education and Standards Group on 7th
  4. An old friend of mine, Anita Pollock, who was also the MEP (Member of the European Parliament for Wandsworth, 1989-99), is launching a book on Europe in Westminster – that should be pleasant.
  5. The Council Meeting is on 9th
  6. On 10th March there will be the opening of the Winstanley/York Road estate office in Pennethorne House, followed not long after by the opening of a new Citizens’ Advice Bureau at the main library on Lavender Hill.
  7. I hope to be able to attend a Mayoral hustings with Zak Goldsmith face to face with Sadiq Khan and candidates no doubt from the Greens, Lib/Dems and UKIP.
  8. The Planning Applications Committee is on 23rd

Did you know?

You may remember that in January I went to the 7 P1060345Design Awards Panel and challenged readers to guess, which of the designs received a commendation and why? Well, I must confess that I was a bit surprised because of those who responded most got it right!. And the winner was this very discreet extension (it’s the bit on the top!) to a residential block in Nightingale Lane. It is extremely quiet and under-stated. It adds 5 or 6 flats to the block and just walking by most people don’t even notice it. All the councillors and laymen supported it and all the professionals hated it.

6 20140818_bolingbrokegv_0105The professional architects and designers wanted a building that “made a statement” or “expressed the architect’s personality” – perhaps rather like this glass roof extension, which was another of the entries. All very interesting but I think a little bit more important than that. Doesn’t it raise the question as to whether architects are in the business for their own gratification and not really very interested in whether their creations suit the surrounding environment?

Meanwhile for next month can anyone come up with a direct link between Latchmere and George Bernard Shaw or GBS? GBS was a very famous playwright of the first half of the twentieth century with plays such as Man and Superman, Major Barbara and many, many others. For those of you for whom the first half of the twentieth century is another world, then he will be best known for Pygmalion, the play at the heart of the musical My Fair Lady.

February 4, 2016  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere February, 2016, Newsletter (# 81)

  1. I guess that you could say that January started (as opposed to 2015 ended), for me, with the Battersea Arts Centre, New Year’s Eve Party. Do you have a problem with 31st December? It should be a wild party but it seldom is for me. 1999 was good and I had a great NYE many years ago on a semi-tropical beach, but most turn out to be disappointing. This one was OK but nought special and I think BAC needs to think it through. Is a Rap session, if that is what it was, really quite right for an essentially trad evening? I am not sure that it is.
  2. We had all the neighbours, well about two dozen round for a Twelfth Night Party on the 3rd – OK a 9th night party. That was very nice and well appreciated, but it was the start of a quiet month – council-wise.
  3. My first “political” event was a meeting of the Labour Group of the London Councils Children’s Services Forum – what that means is a meeting of all Labour’s leads on education for all the London Boroughs. There was much internal discussion of, one would have to say, not much interest but there was a great deal of concern about two matters of real public debate. The first was discussion about the Government’s plans for re-allocating money for schools across the country. No one knows all the details but it is clear that the Government’s main intention is to re-distribute money away from the big cities and in particular away from London. The scale of this re-distribution is also not known in detail but Wandsworth schools, including Chesterton, Falconbrook,Christchurch and Sacred Heart, could be facing up to a 10% hit. I will try and keep you up-to-date on that front.
  4. The second really important discussion was about the future of Further Education and FE colleges in London. Again the Government is initiating a review of FE colleges across London. It is hoping to complete the job in  a very short timescale – this summer perhaps – with a view to implement changes as from 2017. Again the Government intend to achieve massive savings and the future, at this stage, looks grim for some London FE colleges – it sometimes seems that this Government is almost Maoist – it seems to be looking for permanent revolution in our public sector services!
  5. On 14th January I did an inspection of Falcon Estate (that is the Council’s Falcon Estate in Fownes and Este Roads and not the privatised Falcon Estate – the one that used to be called the Livingstone Estate) along with some residents and officers. Actually it is in pretty good nick and, although there were individual complaints, the only general thing commented on really was the state of the raised paving in Falcon Road itself. But whilst we were there we made a diversion into so-called Falcon Glade. You may remember the rather shabby little space, which was next to the busy bus-stop at one of the worst spots for air pollution in the whole of London. Well I am not sure that the new open space has done much for the air pollution but it has certainly made waiting at that bus-stop slightly pleasanter than it was just a year ago. The landscape work was done by a combination of the Council and an organisation called Groundwork, under a London-wide initiative called “Pocket Parks”. I have a friend, who works for London Sustainability Exchange, who was measuring pollution right there a year ago. I must ask her whether the improved greenery has made even the slightest difference to the air pollution there.
  6. On January 15th I went to a meeting of the Battersea Park Action Group (BPAG), which is organising opposition to the planning application for the use of the Park for the next five years as a Formula E racetrack. It was a cold Friday evening and in the circumstances they did well to get 50 or so people there. The picture is of BPAG demonstrating outside the Council in December.
  7. Personally I found their main speaker Paul Ekins both very persuasive and impressive. His argument was basically that the annual Formula E event in the Park is merely a first step in the rampant commercialisation of the Park. First Go Ape and Formula E, tomorrow Disneyland!? He has a point. The new planning application appears to ask for the closure of most of the Park for longer than last summer – 3 weeks instead of 3 days and that at the height of summer! The application will go to the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 24th February. I will be happy to report any comments from all, or any, of you, so please send me your views.
  8. The January PAC meeting was on 18th January but there was not one application of anything other than very local interest – back extensions, etc. but three days later, on January 21st  I went to the Design Awards Panel – that was much more interesting. This panel looks at last year’s new developments in the Borough and awards prizes to the best. There is no money involved – it is simply recognition of good design and construction – and encouragement to maintain the best standards. It was a first for me and it was certainly an interesting occasion. The Panel consisted of a handful of councillors, all of whom sit on the Planning Applications Committee, representatives of amenity societies such as the Battersea, Putney and Wandsworth Societies, and various professional and practising architects.
  9. I was told that the standard was not as high as it has been in some recent years but, be that as it may, I was interested in the different views taken by the “professionals” and the “laymen”. Let me give an example. There were 13 entries in the residential extensions category and in the end we awarded a “commendation”, or a merit without being exactly a prize, to one of the examples I show below. Here is my challenge to you. Which one was it? Let me know your views and I’ll tell you the answer we came too and, more seriously, make a comment about how we came to the decision next month.
  10. Over the 22-25th week-end, my partner and I went for a city break to Oporto, home of the Portuguese Port industry. Here is a picture of the Church of Saint Ildefenso, which was yards from where we were staying. The picture is rather gloomy – no sun – I am afraid but the blue and white tiles are very striking in the sunshine and a common feature on Oporto’s many churches.
  11. Meanwhile, during the whole month there was much shenanigans in Wandsworth Council. Everyone knows, don’t we, that Ofsted conducts inspections of schools. What perhaps is not quite so well known is that it also does inspections of local authority education and social services departments. Well in November there was an inspection of Wandsworth’s Education & Children’s Services Department and the draft report has concluded that the department is “less than good”. Wandsworth, of course, does not like getting reviews like that and indeed with over 92% of its schools getting recent inspections concluding that they were good or out-standing, it was also unexpected. One fairly senior officer left the next morning!
  12. Anyway, the upshot was a Council Meeting on 27th January, which discussed emergency, recovery reviews, staff changes, etc. At least two Labour councillors called for the resignation of the Cabinet Member responsible. Like the rest of the Labour councillors, and the two independent councillors, I strongly deplored the Council’s processes. The procedures were inadequate – the very comment that Ofsted made about the department. In other words it was one of the more dramatic Council meetings.
  13. Outside of the politics, let me re-assure everyone that the schools should not be affected at all and there is no record of any child having suffered as a consequence. What I understand to have happened, although I have not seen the report, which does not become public until February 15th, is that some of the procedures have been found wanting – if you like, some of the monitoring systems have proved inadequate.
  14. The other matters discussed at this Council Meeting related to Council Tax and rents. The good news for Council tenants is that rents will be reduced this year by 1%, that is £1 reduction for every £100 of rent – not an enormous amount but better, as they say, than a kick in the teeth. As for Council Tax, although this will not be finalised until March, it rather looks like we will all face an increase of about 4%, which for most Wandsworth residents will mean an increase of approximately, and I mean approximately, £20-£30 a year.
  15. On the 29th I went to see Peter Pan – a pantomine, starring my fellow Labour Councillor Candida Jones, as the evil Captain James Hook. It was organised by Furzedown Community Project and had a cast of hundreds, kids, mums and dads, grans and grandpas. It was great fun and clearly very good for the community. It made me think that it would a good idea for Big Local to organise a similar show in say York Gardens Library – it would be fun.

My Programme for February

  1. On February 2nd, I was briefed on the plans for the Tesco block on Falcon Road. The owners of the whole Falcon Road frontage between Khyber and Patience Roads wish to do a comprehensive re-development, of which more next month.
  2. Two days later on Thursday 4th I will be going to my first police Special Neighbourhood Team for quite some time. Usually it clashes with other commitments but it will be good to get back to it.
  3. There are several briefings and emergency meetings taking place as a result of the Ofsted review I have already mentioned – important, of course, and I hope quietly and effectively productive.
  4. I have the Education and Children’s Services Committee on 11th February. Important items under discussion are Schools Admissions,  a subject that affects all of us at least once in our lives; Pupil Place Planning or do we have enough school places to cope with London’s burgeoning population; school budgets and some individual school matters but not affecting any Latchmere schools.
  5. Then another Education and Children’s Services Committee on 22nd  February, when hopefully we will be winding up the changes introduced after the Ofsted Report!
  6. On the 24th there is the Planning Applications Committee, which will be deciding amongst other things whether to agree to further engineering works in Battersea Park and an extension to Formula E’s permission to run the Grand Prix in the Park. I expect quite an argument!

Did you know?

Last month I asked where is there a memorial to all those Battersea residents, ordinary citizens (men, women and children) – not soldiers, who gave their lives in the second World War? The answer was of course the Christchurch Gardens. In August a Council press release said that it was granted, Grade ll, listed building status by English Heritage, “The memorial consists of sheltered public seating in the contemplative setting of a small neighbourhood green space off Cabul Road where people can quietly pay their respects to civilians from Battersea whose lives were mainly lost in Second World War bombing raids.”

The monument was first unveiled in 1952, next to the ruins of a mid-19th century church which was itself bombed and destroyed during the war.

The replacement church that now stands at this location – Christ Church and St Stephen – was built in 1959. Christchurch Gardens was the original churchyard but converted to a public open space in 1885.

Council leader Ravi Govindia said: “This is a monument to the ordinary men, women and children of Battersea whose lives were lost mainly as a result of air raids.

“There are of course many memorials to the servicemen and women who fought and died in the war but very few exist to commemorate victims of the German bombing campaign which took so many civilian lives, not just in London but in towns and cities across the country.

“It is very touching that this special memorial in Battersea has been recognised in this way.”

This month, however, I am asking you to guess, which of these designs we gave a commendation and why? I know its difficult just on the basis of five photographs but give it a go!


January 6, 2016  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere January, 2016, Newsletter (# 80)

1. On December 9th I had a Council Meeting, when the main debates were about Formula E racing in Battersea Park and what the Council calls “Aspirations”.

The Formula E debate was nowhere near as dramatic as the Committee discussion two weeks earlier. Committee discussion two weeks earlier. This was partly because there was so little public interest. At the Committee there had been a packed public gallery and five deputations – at the Council meeting there was a little procedural chaos – and I made a poor speech. Not that the Council Meeting is totally dependent upon me! But you know how it is. If you don’t perform well it rather takes the gilt off the occasion! But in any event, the Council approved the use of the Park for Formula E racing for another 5 years, Labour voting against.

STOP PRESS We have just had notice of a new planning application (29/12/16), which asks for permission for Formula E to do civil works on the Park’s Carriage Drive starting on 16th June and with re-instatement of the Park as normal by 12th July 2016. We are, therefore, being asked to accept an application for the use of the Park by Formula E for 2 days short of 4 weeks, which is rather more than the few days first promised. Residents have until 19th January to comment on this application to planning@wandsworth.gov.uk.

This will be a highly contentious application and I will be on the Planning Applications Committee when it is decided, so I would appreciate it if you also copy me in on any comments that you may send to the Planning Department.

The Aspirations debate was essentially about the Council’s hopes for the Borough, which meant Tory boasting about all the new developments along Nine Elms Lane and along York Road. Unfortunately the Tory councillors do not appear to recognise that building tower blocks of expensive properties does very little, if anything, to resolve the real need in London in general and Battersea in particular for genuinely affordable housing.

2.   On the 15th we had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC), IMG_1636which had several interesting developments, including one significant one in Latchmere, namely the development of 6 “social rent” houses, on the site of disused garages are in Rowditch Lane. These are what used to be called council houses and should be genuinely affordable!

Other significant applications that were approved were for the demolition and reconstruction of Chestnut Grove Secondary School and for the further development of sites in Nine Elms. The school application is particularly interesting. Such a site and IMG_1628such a development could never have occurred five years ago without the very considerable involvement of councillors. But this application seemed to come out of the blue unbeknown to councillors. This is very strange as Councils have the legal responsibility to balance school places against demand. Yet here comes a new application, adding capacity to the school system but unknown and unplanned by the Council. Surely this is no way to run an education system! The law is, in this case, an ass!

3. I and my fellow councillors, Simon Hogg and Wendy Speck, spent quite a bit of time delivering Christmas cards to all our constituents. We like to think that it was appreciated but a couple of people have complained about it as “a waste of money”, so I need to make it clear that the cards were paid for by the three of us and the delivery was also done by us and several volunteer helpers. There was absolutely NO public money spent on them.

Delivering the cards reminded me of just how many Latchmere homes are almost unreachable by ordinary mortals! I can think of at least 500 properties, which are almost inaccessible. Gated communities are, of course, becoming more and more common but surely something is lost in the community as a whole when you cannot call on a neighbour without knowing the entry code. There are even a couple of the developments where, if you tailgate your way in, then you can’t even get out unless you know the code. Strange!

My Programme for January

1. On January 7th, Thursday, I have my first meeting of the  London Councils’ Childrens Forum, which should be interesting given that the Government seems to be intent on making schools totally independent of any external scrutiny, except of course its own. Just what will we discuss?

2. Then on 11th January there is the Council’s own Schools Forum, and the Education and Standards Group on the 14

3. On the 18th, I have the Planning Applications Committee and on 21st I am one of the judges at the Design Panel, when we will be giving awards to Wandsworth’s best new buildings of the year. I hope that we have some exciting entries!

4. We have a Special Council Meeting on the 27th – it’s special because the diary says that it is special! I think that means we will be deciding the Council Tax and rents for the coming year.

5. On the 29th I will be attending a pantomine, starring my fellow Labour Councillor Candida Jones (Tooting) – that should be fun.

Did you know?    Last month I asked why is there a York Road, clearly heading east and north to London and south and west to Portsmouth – and going nowhere near York? Well quite a few people got that right. Vanessa wrote saying: “Battersea Creek was used as a dock for the Price’s Candle Factory built in the early 19th Century in York Road. Price’s factory was once the largest maker of candles in the world and still supplies candles for many Royal State occasions (from their factories which were relocated outside of London in the late 1990’s). The candle factory replaced a late medieval moated house which was built by the Bishop of Durham in 1474. It was later given to the Archbishop of York. This might be the reason why York Road is named so.”

Thanks Vanessa; that was a more complete answer than others. To add to that: the southern side of the Archbishop’s Palace was recorded during excavations by Pre-Construct Archaeology at the site of Prices Patent Candle Factory, Wandsworth, in 2002. The palace was actually built in 1474. It survived until the late 18th century and included a moat, five rooms, two courtyards and a tower.

Interestingly Robert Holgate (1481/1482 – 1555) became theIMG_1629 Archbishop of York  (1545 – 1554). He had an exciting life, spanning Henry Vlll’s Reformation, starting in Catholic England, converting to the Church of England and marrying at least twice – once to a seven year-old girl. Why do I mention that – because Holgate Avenue is less than 100 yards from the site of the Palace. I don’t know whether the connection is deliberate or accidental but surely it must have been deliberate.

And this month’s question? I have covered this before but a long time ago and one reader has asked me to repeat the question: Where is there a memorial to all those Battersea residents, ordinary citizens (men, women and children) – not soldiers, who gave their lives in the second World War?

Finally Happy New Year to everyone.

December 16, 2015  

Just who are the real cynics?

One great unmentionable about politics is the cynicism and venality of the electorate as opposed to the politician. I have been in the game for so long that I really don’t have anything much to lose by being honest about it but most of my younger colleagues daren’t actually say what they really think.

How many times have I been abused on the doorstep? “All politicians are corrupt, liars and cheats”, “Oh, not you”, they speedily retort when I protest that they are saying I am corrupt, a liar and a cheat.

Yet, they continue, “Politicians don’t give straight answers. They change their minds according to circumstances. They are only in it for their own ends.” The litany is never ending, especially if it is “them, politicians” that are being criticised. Jo and equally Joanna Public back off slightly when actual names are mentioned.

The reality of my experience is that in 44 years of seeing and meeting hundreds of councillors of all parties, the overwhelming impression is of people who want to do “good” and want to make a difference. It is true that I can’t abide the ruinously destructive nature of some Tory policies; and there are, or certainly have been ,Tory councillors I didn’t much like – it was probably mutual. But even the most grotesquely right-wing act, on the whole, out of a sincere belief in the “rightness” of what they are doing.

This observation is actually not so surprising. Just who would want to spend dark winter evenings tramping the streets canvassing, being abused by some and having doors slammed in one’s face, merely to end up as a candidate in a no-hope Council seat – the kind of seat that your party has never won. Or, if you were a bit lucky (though some come to think of it as unlucky!), in a winnable seat when you then become a back-bencher sitting through endless boring evenings, which would drive most ordinary people to distraction.

I haven’t met and known so many MPs but I’m certainly on terms with quite a large number, past and present. And they are the same! I am not sure that I have ever met one who didn’t at least start with the intention of doing the “right thing”.

Again this is not so surprising. Both MPS and councillors expose themselves on a daily basis to abuse, ridicule, and contempt as well occasionally as respect, admiration and just possibly but very rarely genuine affection. You have to be pretty tough to do that and it would be even tougher if you really were a cynic as well. Why would one bother unless driven by a desire to make things better? Not for the money, that’s for sure.

No, the really shocking thing, as a politician, is just how cynical the electorate often appears to be. Not of course that the electorate is one person and consistent. It is rather a hydra-headed monster. It wants brilliant services but not to pay taxes. It is too busy to read campaign material or watch party political broadcasts or heavyweight political programmes but then it complains that the rights and wrongs of the Eurozone, the EU, western foreign policy and economics have not been explained to them. The public wants easy solutions to inherently complex questions but it most particularly doesn’t want to think about the issues on its own account.

And the most damning thing that Jo and Joanna Public say is that “You are all the same!” Particularly when in the same breath Jo accuses politicians of “playing party politics”. Why, they say, don’t you just talk together and agree what is in the best interests of the country, when over a pint they themselves can’t even agree on who is England’s best centre-forward.

Oh, my. The electorate can teach any politician I have ever known an awful lot about cynicism and negativity. I think the problem is that it is us, the politicians, who are the gullible ones naively hoping that at least some of the public will think about and empathise with just some of what we have to say and what we promise.

Do I have a solution to this conundrum? I am not sure that I do but if you believe that the electorate gets the politicians that they deserve and that equally the politician gets the electorate that s/he deserves, then all you can do is to put the case as honestly and as persuasively as one can. And hope to win – in the long run.

 

December 3, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere December Newsletter (# 79)

November highlights

  1. On November 1st, I spoke at a meeting at York Gardens Library about the Borough’s plans for the Lombard Road/York Road area, along with Cyril Richert of the Clapham Junction Action Group, Philip Whyte, of the Wandsworth Society and Andrew Duncan, a resident of Plantation Wharf, in Trade Tower. The first thing to say about it is that thanks ought to go to Cyril for his efforts. The Council claimed to have an exercise in consultation on these plans and claims to have had 30 or so responses. Cyril from his own efforts, pretty much single-handedly, got 90+ people attending this meeting and they were pretty evenly matched between those from the north-side of York Road and those from the south-side.The second thing to say is that the over-whelming majority of the public were clearly against the march of the high rise developments all around the area. We didn’t take a vote but it really wasn’t necessary – it was absolutely clear what the public mood is. If you would like to see a longer description, and video recordings of what we said, then look at Cyril’s (I mean Clapham Junction Action Group’s, of course) very detailed website at http://cjag.org/2015/11/07/public-meeting-york-area-the-videos/#more-5931.
  2. I attended a Wandsworth Council seminar on trees on 3rd November! It was actually very interesting and showed just how much effort is put into maintaining and increasing the number of trees in both London and the Borough. And of course, it is not just because they are beautiful and provide shelter for birds, insects and some mammals but because, with our increasingly polluted air, they are essential to our very existence – thanks to their air cleaning properties. Two matters of interest re trees. First, Sadiq Khan, one of the candidates to be London Mayor next year, plans to get 2 million planted in 2016-20 if he is elected – see paragraph 13 below. Secondly, following requests from one of the residents of Wayford Street (behind Little India), expect some new silver birches to be planted there this December.
  3. On the 4th I had an Education Standards Committee, when we reviewed Somerset Nursery and Garratt Park schools, both of which got a clean bill of health.
  4. On the 5th we had the Wandsworth Civic Awards Ceremony when councillors recognise the contributions of local people to the life of the Borough. On this particular occasion there was no one with particular connections to Latchmere, although some will know Antony Coker Poole who organises the Battersea Police Ball. There is a fuller description of the Awards Ceremony on the Council’s website at http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/article/13090/civic_awards_for_local_heroes.
  5. And on the Saturday 7th I had the Councillors’ surgery at Battersea General Library, when a couple of local residents came along to lobby me against Formula E racing in Battersea Park. I was told off last month by a couple of you for not mentioning this crucial issue and for talking about rugby and trees instead; but as I said to them, this newsletter is about what I do on the Council and doesn’t pretend to be, and indeed could never be, a total record of everything that the Council does. Anyway, I hope I do justice to the issue in para 10 below.
  6. On the 10th, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) Just as a footnote on planning applications, Cabul Road residents will recall the application for a 3-storey development on the corner of the public gardens, where ages back there were public conveniences. You may also know that the developers appealed against the PAC’s decision to refuse permission – well, I think you’ll be pleased to know that the Secretary of State agreed with us and that permission has now been refused by him too.
  7. I went to the Education Committee on the 19th. There were a few mundane items on the agenda but the two that really mattered were a deputation from Balham Nursery and the so-called “Early Years Review”. ‘Early years’ is how the bureaucracy describes care and education for the under 5s and their parents. It is also the most uncontentious and clearly agreed major success of the 1997-2010 Governments, with the growth of nursery education and the introduction and explosive growth of Children’s Centres.Children’s Centres have been spectacularly successful in improving life chances for all, but particularly for kids from the least affluent families. However, the Government’s cuts are attacking all elements of local government services, not least early years services. And on the 19th we were asked to cut the budget by £1.3 million and, effectively, to close Balham Nursery’s Children’s Centre.The Balham Nursery was chosen because, by some criteria, it was the least successful of the Council’s 14 Children’s Centres (one of the criteria being that it was not in one of the 14 most deprived areas!) but the fact of the matter is that it amounts to a cut of nearly 10% in centre provision. How can one support such a cut; but, if you accept the Government’s arguments about austerity how can one oppose it either? Not a comfortable position! I think it’s time for Labour to oppose both the closure and austerity.
  8. I spent the morning of the 11th, Remembrance Day, atIMG_1534 the service in Battersea Park. at the war memorial. In this rather dark photograph the Mayor is returning from laying a wreath at the memorial, with two Chelsea pensioners in the foreground.
  9. On the 21st I was at the London Councils annual conference, which takes place in the splendour of the Guildhall. The conference is a London-wide gathering of councillors, which this year did not start with a rant from Boris Johnson, which rather made a change. It was instead a more serious discussion of the issues facing local government in general and London, in particular. I suppose it is the case that those, who have been crying wolf about the future of local government for some years now, deserve to be ignored a little. But now almost everyone, regardless of political party, academic expert or councillor, seems to be unanimous that our local government system is in serious danger of collapse, with the government imposing cuts of 30%, 40% and even 50% in various areas.
  10. And so on the 24th November to the debate on Formula E. The discussion started with 5 deputations from Battersea Park (BP) Formula E Action Group, the Friends of BP, the Battersea Society, the Prince of Wales Mansions residents and the Warriner Gardens and Alexandra Avenue Residents Association. They were very effective and by the end of the evening very few other than the Tory members of the Committee could have been in any doubt about how unpopular Formula E is with the immediate neighbours of BP. Formula E was, however, accepted by the Committee and it is now very likely to take place in early July, 2016. NB I know that some of my readers supported Formula E and will argue that the Council cannot afford to miss out on the (let’s say) £1million it brings to the Council. Labour, however, opposed the continuation of Formula E racing.
  11. On 25th November, I gave a presentation on the Role of Town Halls in the Community at BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) together with Dr. Michael Short, a Senior Fellow in Planning Shakespeare Theatreat UCL. I didn’t give it advance noticeBattersea Town Hall last month, partly because I had very little notice of the event. It was part of a monthly programme of lectures, BAC is running, about old Battersea Town Hall. It went well and the fairly small room was packed tight. I may repeat this presentation in the new year. I picture here, alongside each other, the old Shakespeare Theatre and the Town Hall much as they looked like on Lavender Hill on either side of Theatre Street for all the first half of the 20thC.
  12. On the 27th November, I went round a number of sites in3IMG_1559 Nine Elms along with the planners and other councillors. The speed of change is staggering and much of it is very impressive – look at this picture. But I remain totally unconvinced that any of this development is going to do much for Battersea’s, or even London’s, housing crisis, or that it is appropriate for the built environment of London. When visiting one marketing suite, the young sales lady I spoke to was very clear that much of their sales strategy was aimed at the Near and Far East.
  13. On Saturday, 28th November, I had the Annual General Meeting of an organisation called SERA. Despite its clumsy name it is the Green Lobby organisation, whose aim is to move Labour policies in a green direction. So we are in favour of re-cycling, energy conservation, are concerned about global warming, etc. I am the Treasurer of it. But my purpose in mentioning it here was that Labour’s Sadiq Khan, once my deputy in Wandsworth, and now 4IMG_1569Labour’s candidate for London Mayor, presented his green agenda for London. Sadiq was on good form. His agenda included: a larger low exhaust emission zone for London, pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, traffic-free weekends in London, 2 million new trees, the phasing out of diesel buses, super-fast electric car charging points and being a pro-business Mayor.
  14. Stop press. I have just heard that the final legal and bureaucratic hurdles have now been signed relating to the redevelopment of the Prince’s Head pub in Falcon Road. Hopefully we will soon see action on this site.

Read More…

November 8, 2015  

Puccini’s La Bohème

I saw Puccini’s La Bohème at the London Coliseum, on 23rd October. This romantic tragedy of Bohemian Paris is well known and the music is, of course, ravishing. It was, also, beautifully and precisely conducted by Xian Zhang.

The production, however, drew a pretty miserable picture of La Belle Époque Paris. The programme notes quote a contemporary as saying, “Bohemia is a sad country. It is bordered on the North by need. On the south by misery. On the east by illusion. And on the west by the infirmary”. You could believe it watching this.Corinne Winters

I suppose that makes it a great production. It certainly convinced me that late nineteenth century Paris was not my dream “Back to the Future” destination. The rich clientele at Café Momus are not appealing and the poor students seemed to me to be a little pathetic rather than tragically romantic.

So why am I even bothering to write this up? One simple reason – the performance of Corinne Winters as Mimi. The English National Opera artists are of course brilliant but the young American, from Frederick, Maryland, outshone everyone. Her power, her range, her musicality out-classed everyone.

Watch out for Corinne Winters, surely a super-star of the future.

November 7, 2015  

Suffragette

Went to see Suffragette (dir. Sarah Gavron, 2015) at the Brixton Ritzy on Friday, 6th November; not sure exactly what my expectations were but I was hugely impressed by this factional (fiction based on fact) story about woman’s struggle for the vote in the years immediately prior to the First World War. From the off (1912), the street scenes in Bethnal Green and in Westminster were very convincing and the pace of the action suggested a director in total control of her material.

Not too sure, as memory tricks me, but I think that I was taught at school that the suffragette movement had indeed succeeded in raising the profile of women’s suffrage as an important political issue but it was really the War that brought them the suffrage in 1918. With women working in the munitions factories, in nursing and catering, in the transport and many other industries, it had become almost irrational not to grant them the vote. It was, I think, a history written from a male, patronising perspective. Men had at last decided to be fair and decent.

This film is an excellent counter to that complacent perspective. It tells of bitter, intimate (husband v wife) and local (neighbour v neighbour), conflict. Surely victory was as much delayed by War, as speeded on by it. The story is told with a light touch. A young mother, Maud Watt, played exquisitely by Carey Mulligan, drifts almost accidentally into being a curious spectator. Then the dynamics of her situation, the attentions of her sleazy supervisor, the peer pressures of her workmates and her neighbours’ push-and-pull her slowly but inevitably into activism – and the loss of her marriage and her son.

The story cleverly weaves Maud into the events that led to Emily Davison’s death under the hooves of Anmer, King George V’s horse in the 1913 Derby. The screenplay by Abi Morgan is sensitive throughout and the whole film has a superb historical feel, even if there are some arguments about the political detail – it is doubtful that Emily Davison intended to die and also unlikely that a Cabinet member’s wife would have behaved as displayed.

There was a personal appeal for me, because it reminded me so much of stories from my paternal grandmother. She was a seamstress from inner north-east London, who walked to work in Oxford Street. She had four children, was widowed in 1918, and was proud of her vote in the 1919 General Election. Her loathing of Winston Churchill, Home Secretary in the Asquith Government; her politics (and just maybe mine) is illuminated by this film.

It is almost redundant to talk of other great performances, notably that by Helen Bonham-Carter’s and a guest appearance by Meryl Streep as Mrs. Pankhurst; or of the gruesome nature of forced feeding. The film also has a lot to say about the nature of opposition. When does “illegal” action become justifiable? Is violence ever justified? How responsible does opposition have to be? Go and see it, if you haven’t done so already.

 

November 3, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere November Newsletter (# 78)

October highlights

  1. October began and ended with the Rugby World Cup or RWCIMG_1520 as it liked to call itself. I decided, last minute, that I had to take in the experience so looked up the web to get a guide to lower cost, accessible tickets and it came up with Argentina vs Tonga on October 4th at Leicester City’s new ground. It was a beautiful autumn day, both sets of fans were great fun (but especially the Argentinians) and the teams gave us an exciting high scoring game, with the Argentinians coming out on top 45-16. It wasn’t really as one-sided as that score suggests until halfway through the second half. But then on 29th October I got a call from ex-Battersea MP Alf Dubs, asking if I wanted to go to the Final at Twickenham, with him. He had two complimentary tickets! New Zealand beat Australia 34:17 in a brilliant game. The second half was very dramatic and NZ were definitely worthy winners. But one has to say that the Ozzies put on a grandstand second half. In the picture, New Zealand’s fly-half, Dan Carter, is in the process of kicking a penalty goal – spot the ball! It’s there on its way!
  2. On October 6th, I attended what I thought was going to be the Covent Garden Market Authority’s AGM. But to be honest, it was a bit of a jolly and not very instructive about the CGMA plans. However, it was my first visit to a completed part of the large, new Riverside development and it introduced me to a rarity – a new Battersea pub, the Nine Elms Tavern, which is on the riverfront. It will be interesting to see whether these massive developments evolve into real communities or not – I fear they won’t, because to me they are not very people-friendly!
  3. The following day, I was at the very different Katherine Low Settlement (KLS) AGM. KLS is one of the most significant community centres in Battersea, with a wide range of community services such as English lessons for non-English speakers, housing and debt advice, campaigning against FGM(female genital mutilation) and other courses and advice sessions. There must have been well over 100 people there and it was just a little bit of a party. It was a busy, lively evening.
  4. On the 8th October I joined many other interested locals touring the burnt IMG_1491out Battersea Town Hall (the Arts Centre, BAC). The main structure of the Town Hall stands, as you can see in this photograph, but much else needs to be rebuilt and replaced. Fortunately the great late nineteenth century organ was at the “repairers” when the fire hit and so that was largely untouched and simply awaits a new home. The plans for the re-building looked good: they are not a simple re-build of the old hall, nor are they simply a plagiarism of the past, but a modern space suitable for its future as an entertainment hall, a modern theatre.
  5. The following week-end of 10th/11th October I went on a trip to the First World War battlefields at Ypres in Belgium, along with many other councillors. As I said last month, councillors paid for the trip out of their own pockets – there was absolutely no public money spent on the trip. On the Saturday we visited several large cemeteries within two or three miles of Ypres city centre, and P1000666very emotional it was too. The picture is of the statue of The Brooding Soldier, at the St. Julien Canadian cemetery. The trees have been trained into the shape of exploding shells and the shrubbery is designed to simulate the appearance of poisonous gas floating through the battlefield – the local battle at St. Julien was the first use of poison gas.
  6. On the Sunday, we went to Waterloo and toured the site of Wellington’s great victory over Napoleon. On the Monday, we toured a V2 rocket site, not far from Calais, which has been converted to a museum about war. This really bad picture of me is only here because of the car – a vintage French car (Citroen Light 15) much used by the French resistance. I owned one a few years ago here in Battersea but mine was bright, pillar box red!IMG_1505
  7. I also went to the Menin Gate on each of the three evenings we were in Ypres. It is a town gate, a bit like Marble Arch, with the names of the many thousands of British (and Empire, as was), soldiers, who lost their lives in the Ypres salient and whose bodies were never found. It is the site of an absolutely remarkable ritual. On July 2nd, 1928, at 8 pm the townsfolk conducted a simple, short memorial service to honour the dead of the First World War. It became a ritual, which has taken place every evening at 8, come rain or shine, since then – apart from the period of German occupation in World War II. On the three days I was there, there must have been about 1,000 people present on every night. They are of all ages and come from all over the world. If you are anywhere near Ypres, I recommend it. It is impossible not to be moved by the Last Post, played every evening by a bugler from the town’s fire brigade.
  8. The Council Meeting on 14th October highlighted two major debates. One was a rather complacent, self-congratulatory motion from the Tory councillors, noting how good they are. The other was about the plight of the refugees trying to get into Europe – debating society stuff, I know, but this second one was a serious discussion about a serious subject.
  9. The Planning Applications Committee of 15th October had theIMG_1507 usual selection of applications right across the Borough but none of them had any great relevance to Latchmere. One large Battersea application was perhaps of interest to all. It was about the area round the entrance to Covent Garden Market and was for mixed retail and 374 residential units in blocks up to 18 storeys high. 310 of the units are “affordable” but we all know what that means – less expensive than the market price but far too expensive for most of us!
  10. On the 18th October, I led 18 people on one of my Battersea History walks. It was as enjoyable as ever and a couple of people came along, thanks to reading about it in my newsletter. So if you are interested drop me an email and I will include you on my next trip.
  11. I attended a seminar on homelessness in Wandsworth on October 19th. Depressingly, the Borough “still” has 1100/1200 families in temporary accommodation. It is forecast to rise to 1300 by the end of the year. The explosion of construction in north Battersea, surely as great as anywhere in the country, is doing nothing for the housing crisis in the Borough. Simply building more will not get us anywhere if we do not tackle issues of distribution and control – we need more social housing for families on low income, not expensive housing for those who simply want them to add to their portfolios.
  12. Went to see La Bohème at the Coliseum on 23rd November. What can one say? Fantastic music, tragic story of impoverished youth in a raffish but slightly unpleasant Paris of La Belle Époque, but the most interesting thing, maybe, was that the players were young, unknown British singers (there were a couple of young Russians as well) led by Corinne Winters. You know how opera stars are often depicted as very large, even fat, ladies with heaving bosoms. Well Corinne Winters is a diminutive, slight figure on stage, but with the most powerful, soaring voice. Watch out for her!

My Programme for November 

  1. On November 1st, I spoke at a meeting at York Gardens Library about the Borough’s plans for the Lombard Road/York Road area, of which more next month.
  2. I am, would you believe, attending a seminar on trees on 3rd November! How many there are in the Borough, about pruning and caring for them (I guess), their diseases and their importance, Tree Protection Orders (TPOs) – Yes they do exist.
  3. On 4th I have an Education Standards Committee, when we will be reviewing Somerset Nursery and Garratt Park schools.
  4. On the 5th we have the Civic Awards Ceremony when councillors recognise the contributions of half a dozen local people who have contributed to the life of the Borough.
  5. And on the Saturday I am doing the Councillors’ surgery at Battersea General Library.
  6. On the 10th, I have the Planning Applications Committee and on the 19th the Education Committee.
  7. On the 11th there will be the annual Remembrance Day service in Battersea Park at the war memorial.
  8. On the 21st the London Councils annual conference takes at the Guildhall. This is a London-wide gathering of councillors, which starts off as a showcase for the Mayor – a half-hour show from Boris – followed by more serious discussions of the issues facing London, from housing to transport, from education to planning.
  9. In the last week of the month, I am due to be visiting Graveney School and St. Anselm’s and finally on 28th I have the annual meeting of SERA, a green lobby in the Labour Party of which I am the Treasurer. It looks like a busy month!

Did you know?

Lots of you were correct in replying that Clapham Rovers won the FA Cup in 1880. Rovers, Jarvis Kenrick, actually scored the first ever FA Cup goal in a 3–0 victory over Upton Park on 11 November 1871, but the club’s greatest achievement was winning the Cup outright in 1880 with a 1–0 win over Oxford University at the Kennington Oval.

On 22nd October, I went to the Battersea Society’s lecture on London’s lost rivers –all those rivers that flowed through to the Thames and which are largely culverted and hidden from view. One, of course, flows through Latchmere and has a road, a school, a couple of estates and a pub named after it. You all, of course, know the name of the river. What is it? Where is its source? Where does it flow through Battersea and where does it debouch into the Thames?

October 18, 2015  

Drone Warfare: Ban it now before it is too late

Recently, we have heard of USAF drone strikes operated from Nevada and in the past we have heard of our “pilots” based in a Lincolnshire airfield conducting warfare in Pakistan . Forget for a minute the rather obscene joke of operating “precision strikes” on Medicin Sans Frontiers hospitals, or as so often on Afghan wedding parties, and the “lads” then going down to Vegas and placing bets on the results; and just stop and think.

Maybe it’s the impact of coming back from a weekend visiting the cemeteries on the Western Front but it seemed an appropriate time to take up the issue.

Does distance from blood and carnage remove all sensibilities? Does it strip us bare of moral scruples?

War by drone largely by-passes war correspondents and war photos. It largely obliterates moral choice. It is all very well when responsible powers, that is “our” side, have the power but what if, and when, rogue states or even ISIS obtain the finances and power to fight by drone? There are prudential as well as moral considerations to cause us concern.

It seems to me that the sooner truly responsible politicians and powers campaign for banning the use of drone technology for offensive purposes, the better for us all. In the meantime we should strenuously oppose their use by “our” military. It is just too easy to argue that other countries use them so we will have to or that it is a safer way for us to exercise our power than by putting boots on the ground.

But no! The world has to negotiate battlefield bans on the use of drone technology just as earlier generations agreed to ban poison gas. That ban may not always work but it is effective more often than not and it does make its users vulnerable to charges of being war criminals.

In reality using drones says, “with our money we can kill your young men (and increasingly women) with impunity. We won’t bother to try persuasion, or winning the argument – that’s far too difficult”.

October 14, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere October Newsletter (# 77)

September highlights5P1000593

  1. At the start of the month, I went for a week to a little fishing village in Croatia. There is nothing to do there, except swim and eat fish. I don’t do sun bathing but I do like fish. I also did more swimming than ever before in my life – some attempt to make up for an otherwise sedentary life-style. I also read Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-first Century”. OK, it’s not everyone’s idea of holiday reading and it clearly makes me a nerd. But actually I enjoyed it as well as finding it stimulating. It clearly put me ahead of the curve as later in the month John McDonnell, Labour’s new Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that he was setting up an economics workshop starring half a dozen international economists, including Piketty. By the way, if you are not a nerd but want to read a left-winger’s view on wealth and poverty in the modern world, then I recommend it.1images4DABVR7C
  2. On my last day in Croatia, Jeremy Corbyn was announced as Labour’s newly elected Leader. I am not giving away any party secrets by saying that not all of my colleagues were delighted. Indeed I rather think that I was the only Wandsworth councillor to vote for him – I even got described by one colleague, in a good humoured aside, as “an old leftie”. As it happens, no one who knew me in the 80’s fighting Militant in Wandsworth would ever describe me as such – indeed, they would have rolled around with laughter.
  3. But if I am not a “leftie”, I do think I probably owe it to Latchmere constituents to explain just why I voted for someone, who at the moment most people think cannot possibly return Labour to power, perhaps not even return the party to a role of significance. So here goes: I supported Tony Blair from the off and originally I supported his war on Iraq; But I was disillusioned by the “weapons of mass destruction saga” and believe that Labour is very damaged until that war is repudiated: I am frustrated by Labour’s failure to tackle the Tory spin about austerity: I am concerned that Labour is not opposing strenuously enough the cuts, which the Government is making across the board: I didn’t think that the other leadership candidates had any better ideas about how to tackle the cuts programme. Given the public cynicism about politicians I rather like Corbyn’s image of “Straight talking: Honest politics” – the thing is, I am not a cynic. That very briefly is why I voted for Jeremy. And why I believe he will be good for Labour’s approach to politics, even if he doesn’t look like a winner – did his opponents look any more likely to be winners?2imagesR2YS1VF8
  4. Sadiq Khan was also, of course, elected as Labour’s candidate to be London’s Mayor. You may recall that I said Sadiq had been a fellow councillor of mine in Wandsworth for 12 years, indeed he was my deputy as Labour Leader in Wandsworth. I actually voted for Tessa Jowell on the basis of her track record of achievement over the years (the Olympics), and as a woman candidate I thought she was better placed to beat Zac Goldsmith. However, congratulations to Sadiq – I am sure that he will make a great Mayor – he will certainly be an assiduous campaigner.
  5. On 5th September my fellow Labour councillors, Simon Hogg, IMG_1466Wendy Speck and I, went on a Latchmere ward Walk-about, making notes of fly-tipping, graffiti and pot holes, noting waste land and traffic hazards and reporting our concerns to the Town Hall. We intend making this a regular event. On this occasion we took particular note of this flamboyant graffiti in the Falcon Park/Latchmere Road pathway. We thought it rather Banksey but were not too keen on its rather cynical view about politics!
  6. The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) was held on the 16th September, and again there really was nothing of any great significance on the agenda. Although with Homebase nearly empty and work starting on the 28 storey block in Lombard Road, we will soon begin to see the impact of recent PAC decisions
  7. I was booked into the Labour Party Conference from 26th September to 30th, but had a disastrous time! Nothing to do with the Conference but I booked into 2 separate hotels and one after the other they cancelled out on me because they had done the old trick of over-booking. So I ended up spending only two days at the Conference. The weather in Brighton was, of course, fantastic. Everyone, well everyone I met, was in a good mood and the leadership speeches (McDonnell’s as well as Corbyn’s) at least had the merit of being refreshingly new.
  8. The Princes Head’s, Falcon Road (pictured right), failed Falcon Head, Falcon Roadto have its licence renewed in June, much to the delight of some residents I could name. That must be some kind of statement of just how badly it was run – pretty rare for pubs to fail to get their licences renewed. The question now is what will happen to the site. There is planning permission for a block of flats, but when will work start? How long will it be left as it is now?
  9. In September, councillors were expecting to make the decision on whether Battersea Park would be used for another 5 years of E-Racing. However, the Council has had so many public responses that it has decided to take another few weeks considering exactly what to recommend councillors to decide. I still await to discover what all the consultation amounts to. Does the delay mean, for example, that the Council is surprised by the weight of opposition to the idea? Or not? Surely a decision is going to have to be made inSenia & I at B Park Rotary, 24_9 October. (PS It has just been announced that the decision will be taken on 24th November).
  10. On 24th September, I was invited to talk to Battersea Park Rotary Club about Battersea’s history. They have their lunch upstairs at the Albert Pub, opposite the Park entrance. Here is a picture of club President and Latchmere resident, Senia Dedic, and I at the lunch. (Because of the occasion I had postponed my history walk into October – see my October programme below.)
  11. On one sunny Saturday, I went to the unveiling in Vardens Road of a blue plaque to Hilda Hewlett. In 1909, Hilda was the 10th Briton and the first woman to be
    Pauline Vahey, Chair of BritishWomen Pilots' Assoc, Gail Hewlett, Hilda's granddaughter-in-law, Cllr Nardelli

    Pauline Vahey, Chair of BritishWomen Pilots’ Assoc, Gail Hewlett, Hilda’s granddaughter-in-law, Cllr Nardelli

    granted a pilot’s licence. She is commemorated along with other Battersea notables in the mural in Dagnall Street. Perhaps even more unusual then, and even now, was that she was an engineer, interested in building aircraft and indeed she had her own factory in Vardens Road where some 500 World War 1 aircraft were built. In this picture Pauline Vahey, Chair of the BritishWomen Pilots’ Association, the Mayor (Cllr Nardelli) and Gail Hewlett, Hilda’s great granddaughter-in-law are sharing a joke.

  12.  Many of you are very interested in the future of Falcon Park and the proposed astro-turf pitch “planned” for the Park. The latest position is that the Council is considering the results of the consultation, but is unlikely to put in a planning application until early 2016. It was never, by the way, the Council’s intention as some people seem to believe that this pitch would be in any sense temporary – the Council doesn’t do that kind of thing temporarily for £1+ million.

My Programme for October 

  1. On October 6th, I will be attending the Covent Garden Market Authority’s AGM. The centre point of the occasion will be a presentation of their massive plans for redeveloping Covent Garden Market. We know the outlines, of course, but there are still many incomplete details about what will be one of the largest developments in London, perhaps only second to the Power Station developments.
  2. The next day I will be at the Katherine Low Settlement’s AGM. KLS is one of Battersea’s largest and most active community centres and I look forward to being there.
  3. And on the 8th I will be touring Battersea Arts Centre to see progress on the “recovery” from the March fire.
  4. On the week-end of 10th/11th October I will be joining a group of councillors on a trip to the First World War battlefields at Ypres in Belgium – and just to re-assure the cynics, councillors will be paying for the trip out of their own pockets – there is absolutely and quite rightly no public money being spent on the trip!
  5. The Council Meeting is to be held on 14th October. I do hope that we have a decent debate but on recent performances I am afraid that is unlikely!
  6. On the 15th, I have the Planning Applications Committee and the day after that the Education Committee.
  7. At 3 pm on Sunday 18th October, I am doing my “history walk” from the Latchmere pub to the Battersea Arts Centre. It takes about 2 hours and is pretty well guaranteed to show you a new side of Battersea, even if you have lived here for years and years. All-comers are welcome and so if you are interested please let me know by email – though I should make it clear I charge £10 as a fee, which goes towards my election expenses!

Did you know?

No one answered last month’s question: “how many places and names can you think of in Battersea named after Lady Di’s family, the Spencers, Lord of the Manor of Battersea. I wonder whether I will get a better response this time by asking which local (and I mean local and not Chelsea or Fulham) soccer team won the FA Cup and when?

Meanwhile back to last month’s question: what place names are associated with the Spencer family. Well, the story of the intertwined Spencer and St. John families is so massively complex that I can’t possibly write it all here – books have been written about them. But here are just some of the many, many connections between the families and Battersea! Spencer Park (both the park and the road) and Spencer Road – until 20 years ago there was also a Spencer Park secondary school; and just maybe the Spencer Arms; Althorp Road, named after the Spencers’ Northamptonshire country home; Marcilly Road named after the second wife of Viscount Bolingbroke, Beauchamp Road, named after Margaret Beauchamp a family ancestor; Bolingbroke Grove, and the Academy, Bolingbroke Walk, the Bolingbroke Pub (both the new and the old), St. John’s Road, St. John’s Hill, Sir Walter St. John’s Sinjun school. There are many more!

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