Archive by Author | Tony Belton
August 31, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere September Newsletter (# 76)

August highlights

  1. The Planning Applications Committee was held on the 12th August, but there really was nothing of any great significance on the agenda and no Latchmere application at all. However, did you see the fantasy proposal for a swimming pool in the sky, which got the following coverage in the Daily Telegraph?1134862[1]

“Glass-bottomed floating ‘sky pool’ to be unveiled in London”

The “world first” pool will be suspended 35 metres above the ground between two buildings near Battersea Power Station. Residents of London’s Embassy Gardens apartment complex will be able to swim between two high-rise blocks of flats via a “floating” glass-bottomed swimming pool 10 storeys above ground. Resembling an ‘aquarium in the sky’, it is said to be the first pool in the world to link two residential buildings.

The transparent and structure-free pool, designed by Arup Associates and developed by the Ballymore Group, will be 90 by 19 feet, encased in eight inch-thick glass, and have a water depth of around four feet. It will offer aerial views of the capital, including the Houses of Parliament. Residents of the planned luxury flats in Wandsworth will also be able to access a rooftop deck at both ends of the pool which will offer sun loungers, a spa, a bar and an orangery, while an additional bridge between the two buildings forms a dry walkway for both residents and visitors.

“The Sky Pool’s transparent structure is the result of significant advancements in technologies over the last decade. The experience of the pool will be truly unique, it will feel like floating through the air in central London,” said Ballymore Group chairman and CEO, Sean Mulryan. The floating pool is expected to be completed by 2018 and will be available for the exclusive use of residents at the 2,000 home complex where flats are priced from £600,000.”

Can this be serious? Is some developer really suggesting such vulgarity from the insanely rich at the same time as there is an acute shortage of housing in the city? If so then they really are asking for riotous responses! I should say that I have seen nothing from the Council to suggest that there really is such an application.

But I also notice that one Chinese billionaire building a hotel in Nine Elms took a $3 billion+ hit on 24th August Black Monday in the Chinese stock exchange so just possibly the bubble is really going to burst!Christchurch2

  1. Did you see that the Citizens of Battersea War Memorial in Christchurch Gardens (that’s the one in Cabul Road) has been named a Grade II listed monument. The memorial (photographed here) consists of sheltered public seating in the contemplative setting of a small neighbourhood green space 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 whichchristchurch4 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.
  2.  I showed a picture of the 19th century church in a recent newsletter and some time back reported that the old brass plaque had been stolen. The plaque has been replaced by the modern inscription shown on the left.
  3. And did you also notice the local story headed “Party’s over: Late night licence breaches spell end for troubled pub: Last orders: The Princes Head in Falcon Road”
  4.  This story told of The Princes Head’s (pictured right) failure to have its licence renewed in June. The pub had announced its intention to fight the order but in August it decided to drop its appeal It will now close. A few years back I represented residents at a Licensing Committee hearing, when the pub was granted the licence but only with conditions, including conditions that the sale of alcohol at the pub should stop at 11pm Monday to Saturday and 10.30pm on a Sunday, regulations  – a condition, which has been regularly ignored by the licence holder.
  5. In evidence till rolls from the bar showed that on occasionFalcon Head, Falcon Road the last drink was served at 3.05am. The landlord claimed that the event was a party for his son who had paid for all drinks before 11pm and he was merely using the till to keep track of the drinks. On another occasion, 155 entries were put through the till after 11pm to the tune of £850 and in a final visit police people drinking well after closing time.
  6. In general, I very much regret the closure of pubs, which is continuing apace across the country but the Prince’s Head has been trying the patience of many of its neighbours for far too long. Let’s hope we get a decent replacement of affordable properties, possibly with some new shopping on the ground floor.
  7. I said last month that I was not going to say anything about the Labour Leadership contest and I am still not going to say who I am voting for because I genuinely have not finally decided – though I am pretty certain of it. However, I do think that Burnham, Cooper and Kendall are not doing themselves any favours by making their views clear about Corbyn in the way that they are. He is expressing views on a range of subjects, and most particularly the Iraq War, which are widely held by many across the country. To reject the man expressing those views so dismissively is not what I would call good politics.
  8. I am, however, going to support Tessa Jowell to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor, despite her main opponent Sadiq Khan having been a fellow councillor of mine in Wandsworth for 12 years. Tessa’s track record of achievement over the years and in particular her role in both winning and delivering the Olympics for London gives her a claim, which I don’t believe any other candidate can equal. Some will claim that Tessa is too old for the job. Well she is about the same age as Hilary Clinton, who is running to be the US President, and much younger than many successful past Prime Ministers of this country. Her age is no problem for me and shouldn’t be for anyone else.
  9. In late August I (and my partner) spent a week on a narrow boat on the Llangollen Canal, on the border between Wales and Shropshire. You may have noticed that it rained rather a lot and we were almost drowned (I joke) by a tremendous thunder storm just as we were making our last mooring – ever tried tying the ropes, and avoiding falling in, in torrential rain? However, despite that, it was great fun including crossing two aqueducts and going through three tunnels. P1000497The canal has two major engineering feats. The ‘pioneering masterpiece of engineering’ by which the early civil engineers crossed the difficult landscape between Chirk and Llangollen has resulted in the 18 kilometre length being awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2009.The aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte were built by the engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop and were among the first to use cast iron troughs to contain the canal. At Chirk Aqueduct the trough is supported by conventional masonry arches and hidden inside the masonry, almost as if the engineers were not confident of their new material. But at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct the trough is exposed and sits atop 120 foot high slender masonry towers. When you cross it by boat there is an exhilarating sheer drop on the non-towpath side! The picture gives just a little idea of what it is like crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – with no guard-rail!
  10. Stop Press (as they used to say, in the old days). Have you seen the notice on Latchmere Recreation Ground promising new improvement works? The Council’s intention is to remove the large are of tarmac and restore it to parkland. I don’t know how long it has been tarmac but it is good get that bit of the recreation ground back!

My Programme for September 

  1. On September 12th, we will find out who the Labour Leader is and who is our candidate for Mayor. No doubt, there will be much discussion about that!
  2. On the 16th, I have the Planning Applications Committee and the day after the Education Committee.
  3. On either Sunday 20th September, 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!
  4. And, of course, there will be the Labour Party Conference, which after the mauling we suffered in the General Election and the announcement of a new Leader will, I am sure, be a fascinating week.

Did you know?

Not many people answered last month’s question: “Who or what is Poyntz of Poyntz Road and why would a Battersea road be called such?” and actually I must confess not many people seem to have been that interested! Bob replied saying, “as a Poyntz Rd resident it’s probably unfair of me to say Spencers, Manor of Battersea etc.”, which I accept as a correct but not very explicit answer. So for those, who want to know more:-

Poyntz was chosen as a Battersea street name as it was the maiden name of Margaret Georgiana Spencer (1737-1814), wife of John, 1st Earl Spencer, and the Spencers were “lords of the manor of Battersea”. They were a fabulously wealthy and fashionable couple, famous for sponsoring the artists of their day. Their eldest child was the notorious Duchess of Devonshire, the “star” of the 2008 film the Duchess, in which she is played by Keira Knightley.

Our Poyntz, Margaret, was the great-great-great-great-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, herself at one point a Battersea resident.

And finally, talking of the Spencers and the Manor of Battersea, just how many places and names can you think of in Battersea, which are in some way related to the Spencer family. I reckon that I can reach at least a dozen without too much thought. How many can you get and please list them for me?

August 27, 2015  

Public accountability vs commercial confidentiality

The case for and against E-Racing in Battersea Park

Amidst all the political events of 2015, the General Election, the impending demise (or is it revival? and actually probably neither) of the Labour Party and the build-up to the London Mayoral elections, one local event stands out for displaying political and even moral issues with extraordinary clarity. That event was the final race of the inaugural season of Formula E racing.

The race took place on 28th June in Battersea Park. The winner, appropriately enough, was local Wandsworth boy Sam Bird. Look him up on Google and, until you refine the search a bit, you get nothing, nada, zilch. This tends to justify those, and there were plenty, who described the race as a trivial event for Dinky toys, with none of the speed, noise and glamour of the real thing – Formula 1.

But the top three racers, crowned in Battersea Park as 2015 World Champions, were Nelson Piquet Jnr., Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi, all of whom have been involved at the very top of motor racing and must be described as top rate drivers. In addition, the location of the season’s races reads like a compendium of some of the top world destinations. They were, in sequence, Beijing, Putrejaya (a suburb of Kuala Lumpur), Punta del Este (a Uruguayan seaside resort), Buenos Aires, Miami, Long Beach, Monaco, Berlin, Moscow and London’s Battersea Park.

To state the obvious motor racing is trying to expand into a new area, perhaps merely just a new commercial opportunity but maybe just possibly the “petrolheads” recognise that they need to present a more ecological image and a more family focused, less “macho” image. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that London Mayor, Boris Johnson, and Wandsworth Tory Council might want to jump on that bandwagon.

Well, maybe, you might say but what has that got to do with using a major public park over a long week-end in high summer, more or less to the exclusion of all other park users? Indeed, it was more than the week-end, with barriers and lorries, minor road works and “offensive” security staff getting in the way of normal park users for much of June.

Local opinion is clearly divided, but, not surprisingly, the nearer you get to the Park the greater the majority against the use of it for such purposes, and the further away the less the opposition. Indeed, there was quite a large number of supporters for the race in some of the major estates a mile or so away from the Park.

However, the most interesting arguments about the race centre on the issue of what people perceive to be appropriate uses for a public park.

There is a substantial core of people, who argue that a publicly provided facility, such as a park, should never be used for private profit, even to the extent of excluding ice cream vendors or park cafés. I imagine that municipally run ice cream vans and cafés might be acceptable to this minority, but this seems to be complicating the argument rather in today’s climate (of privatisation and private provision of services)!

But once the absolute principle is breached then it becomes, as so often, a case of drawing lines. In Battersea Park, for example, there is a privately run café; ice cream vendors do ply their trade; there is a privately run Children’s Zoo; and more contentiously there is a big tent, where beer festivals, art fairs, commercial and charitable entertainments are frequent occurrences. None of this would happen, however, if these events were not fulfilling a need, or responding to a demand.

But there is no doubt that the Formula E-race, and the threat of 5 more years of such racing is more than just a step change from the other examples. Let’s assume, as is clearly the organisers intention, that the disturbance to the Park will not be on the same scale in future years – they have learnt lessons about the barriers and the staffing. Nevertheless, for at least 2 and probably 3 or 4 days in high summer, use of the Park will be severely curtailed. Should it be allowed?

My argument is that it is a matter of degree, a matter of drawing lines. Should we or should we not allow Formula E a 5 year extension in Battersea Park? As a Wandsworth councillor I will be one of 60 making that decision. But there is a problem! I know, or can easily find out, how much the café business pays for the benefit of using the café building. I know the income that the Council gets from the other operations and, more importantly, I can tell my constituents and the public at large what that income is and why I think that justifies use of the Park for those operations.

I don’t know the income from Formula E, or more honestly I am constrained from telling the public because of “commercial confidentiality”. In other words, I am (and 59 other councillors are) saying to the public it is my (our) judgement that use of the Park for 3 or 4 days is (or is not) worth, say, £1 million. Now I don’t mind making that call. I was elected, I believe, to take such decisions. But what is problematic is that the public is not really in a position to judge my (or our) decision because the public is not allowed to know whether we are talking about an income of £1million or £10million. Or to make the same point a different way, whether we are talking about £1million or £10million’s worth fewer cuts in other Council services – that being the reality of local government finance today.

It is a matter of “commercial sensitivity”, because the Council bureaucracy has said it is. Indeed, I have received the following eloquent response from the Town Hall. “The reasoning that we are using and quoting is that disclosure into the public domain would be deemed prejudicial to the commercial interests of both the Council and Formula E. If the Council decides to continue with the event, it is likely that there will be competition to provide a site for Formula E after five years, and at that point (subject to experience of the first five years) the Council may want to bid against other interested parties to continue to host the event, and so the sum agreed would be of interest to commercial competitors. Equally, Formula E would not want their other venue hosts, world-wide, to know details of the financial deal with the Council. It’s therefore our view that there is a greater public interest in maximising the Council’s ability to compete for the right to host the event beyond the current contract (if such is decided)” than [my phrasing] for councillors to be able to justify their decision to the public.

So the argument is posed: is the perceived “commercial sensitivity” of this decision more important or not than the accountability of councillors to their electorate? Should the electorate simply take their elected representatives’ judgement on trust? Or should they have all the information so that, whether or not they agree with the councillors’ judgement, they can at least see the case and the grounds for the decision.

Two recently Tory but now independent councillors, Cllrs Cousins and Grimston, have made their position clear and voted against the use of the Park for E-Racing. But actually is their position any more defensible than any others of us. Without knowing how much money they are prepared to forego for the sake of keeping the Park untouched, how can we/they argue the rights and wrongs of their case?

I suspect that there will always be conflicts between the demands for “commercial confidentiality” and democratic accountability, and once again it will be a matter of drawing lines, or of making judgements. But surely, in the last analysis, democratic accountability has to have priority over “commercial confidentiality”?

August 27, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere August Newsletter (# 75)

July highlights

  1. On the morning of July 2nd I had a meeting of the       Academies & Free School Commission. This curious organisation has immense power over our schools, is totally secretive and completely undemocratic. It is in effect a local agent for the Education Secretary of State. And it is what you get, I suppose, for trying – as the Tories clearly are – to by-pass local education authorities without actually abolishing them. Very odd! By the way, don’t ask me what it does! It is all smoke and mirrors and would take an essay to explain!Thames Christian College
  2.  In the afternoon, I went to the Grand to see a fine performance of Gershwin’s Crazy for You performed by Latchmere’s Thames Christian College. Forgive the crummy picture but here are Oscar and Jasmin, leading in the grand finale!
  3. The Council Meeting, on the 8th July, was a tepid affair, which has long since gone from the memory. Once upon a time, irate constituents would heckle from the public gallery and throw toilet rolls at the councillors but now it is quieter than a vicarage tea party. The Council Meetings need to have life breathed back into them! That was followed two days later by my councillor’s surgery at Battersea Reference Library – no one turned up. Like Council Meetings, surgeries also need to be re-thought. A few years ago constituents actually went to surgeries but nowadays people send me, or Wendy Speck and Simon Hogg (my fellow councillors), emails.
  4. Much more fun was the Triangle (Poyntz, Shellwood, IMG_1261Knowsley Roads) Street Party on the 11th July. I fear that there might have been slightly fewer in attendance than usual, which was a shame because it is always a good evening with visits from the Fire Brigade and, usually, the Mayor. Here a few of the youngsters get to inspect a fire engine.
  5. The Planning Applications Committee was held on July 14th. There were plenty of small development schemes, mostly as usual of loft extensions but three were of major significance, and one in particular to Latchmere.
  6. That was for the demolition of the Homebase site, the one opposite the end of Plough Road currently having a stock clearance sale, and the construction in its place of a mega, largely residential block. It will actually have 6, 7, 9, 11 and 21-storey elements to the development and include 254 residential units, some 10% of which will be so-called “affordable” units.The really interesting part of this development application was that the first two floors are almost totally dedicated to the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), providing 6 dance studios, a 150 seat theatre, etc., etc. (The bit that swung it for me was free instruction for pensioners – I have never mastered the foxtrot – yes the RAD promotes all forms of dance not just ballet). Currently based in Battersea Square, RAD is housed in inadequate premises and yet it attracts 2,000 foreign visitors a year. It is a leading cultural centre and, of course, fosters arts employment. But putting all that aside, the development has substantial daylight and sunlight impacts on the many vociferous and articulate neighbours Indeed there were 1160 objections from local residents. The Tory councillors were very keen to avoid any decision on this application prior to the election, but now they happily passed it. It’s a shame but let’s hope that the good elements of the scheme outweigh the problems.
  7. The second major application related to the building that isMarco Polo House replacing the Marco Polo building on Queenstown Road. The proposal was to add 4 storeys to an already approved (and currently being built) 14 storey development. The extra 4 storeys would add 35 residential units of which a huge (?) 13, i.e. 40%+ would be affordable. Personally I thought the building looked better with the 4 storeys added – just suited the shape and location better for me. But I was in a minority of one, because from one location in the Park the application adversely affected the view of the Power Station. It was rejected – and for those who have already forgotten (or never knew) it, here is the Marco Polo building as was.
  8. The third major application related to Putney High Street and was the site between Lacy and Felsham Roads. It was an OK but not distinguished application for residential and shops, which would be an improvement on what is there now, but by common consent was one storey too high to fit into the largely coherent Putney High Street townscape – hence unanimously rejected. Note that in Putney a development that is one storey too high gets refused but, if it is in Battersea, any size will do!
  9. On Wednesday 15th July, in the morning I visited CringleIMG_1266 Dock and Feathers Wharf. You might know Feathers Wharf because it is the Borough’s municipal tip, rather grandly known as a Civic Amenities Site and hence very important to us all. Between the two of them they deal with more of our rubbish than is produced by the whole of Wales. Rubbish from Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham is processed there as well as Wandsworth. The two sites are run by the Western Riverside Waste Authority or WRWA. The WRWA has a problem in that both sites are on expensive bits of river-front and live alongside expensive new blocks of flats. That is what they wanted to talk to me, and other members of the Planning Committee, about. Their very ambitious plan is to deck over Cringle Dock and build flats over it! I hope this picture of Feathers Wharf and its giant cranes gives some idea of the scale of the task!
  10. In that same afternoon, I was off to Falconbrook School, IMG_1273representing Battersea United Charities, for the school’s Passing Out parade. It was not exactly a parade but a commemorative occasion to mark the last day of term and, indeed, the last day at primary school for Year 6. It was an entertaining occasion. Here are some of Year 6 giving their impressions of school life at Falconbrook.
  11. IMG_1275On 16th July Battersea Society had its summer party at St. Mary’s Church on the riverfront. It was a delightful evening and this picture gives some idea of the riverfront at sunset.
  12. The next day I went to visit friends in South Wales and fromP1000224 there to the Black Mountains Gliding Club. It was a glorious day, and from about 3,000 feet (900 metres), there was a magnificent view from the Bristol Channel to Snowdonia – that was really splendid. Here I am strapped in for take-off. By the way, Andrew, who is strapped in behind me did all the real gliding, although I did take over the controls once we were up there!
  13. On the 22nd July I went to a Crossrail 2 briefing session in York Gardens Library. I am not sure how many people realise it but Crossrail 2 running from Tottenham Hale to Wimbledon via Clapham Junction is planned to be opened, subject to lots of contingencies, by 2030. When/If it comes, it would mean 8 minute journeys from CJ to Tottenham Court Road. To achieve this timetable, work would have to start on a massive CJ interchange station by the end of 2017. It would be located where the bus stand and the Peacock, once Meyrick Arms, pub are. Those of us who were present, including representatives of the Battersea and Wandsworth Societies, councillors from both Labour and Tory parties, York Road estate tenants and the Council’s Planning Department, look like being roped into the Crossrail CJ stakeholders group! That was obviously sensible, since Crossrail will need to consult regularly with local residents. Stop Press. The Falcons Estate (Battersea) Ltd. Committee has this evening (24/7/15) asked me to get them invited, too. (Not to be confused with the Falcon Estate, the Falcons is what some of us will remember used to be called the Livingstone Estate)
  14. I have had quite a few responses about Formula E and Battersea Park. They have been far from unanimous one way or the other, although I must say that those against, perhaps not surprisingly, tend to live nearer the Park and to be more vociferous than those in favour. One thing is clear though and that is, IF the Council agrees to further use of the Park (and I think it probably will), then steps must and will be taken to lessen the disruption to the Park and its users.
  15. The decision will, I think, be taken by the appropriate Committee and Council in September/October. Believe it, or not, I currently have an open-mind on the matter but I will be very opposed to the commercial confidentiality arguments that say we, neither the public nor the councillors, can’t be told the real financial benefits, if any. It is just not acceptable that disruption to a major London facility can happen as result of a secret deal.
  16. I can’t write a Newsletter, as a Labour councillor, without referring to the Labour Leadership contest; an event that does not seem to be enthusing anyone even with 6 weeks to go – but I am not going to bat for any one candidate. However, I will say that I think it unfortunate that Miliband resigned so quickly. I know the guy, and his wife, though not well, and I can imagine that they were both desperate to get back to a personal life; but I think that a better option for the party would have been if he had said something like, “I will step down in, say, September 2017, so that in the next two years we can have a full discussion about the 2015 result and a well-organised leadership election.” Ever since we switched to having fixed terms, just like in the USA, the logic is to move to choosing one’s leader nearer to the coming election – more like the American primary system.

My Programme for August 

On the 12th I have the Planning Applications Committee, but let’s be honest most of the rest of the time I am off, on my hols, having what I hope will be a good time – indeed I am off on 25th July and hence this very early edition of the August newsletter!

Did you know?

Last month I asked “In the generation before 1828 another Prime Minister fought a duel in Wandsworth and, what is more, two other “gentlemen” both of whom also became Prime Minister later on, also did so”. I was impressed by how many could name William Pitt, the younger, who fought a duel on Putney Heath in 1798 against George Tierney, and George Canning and Viscount Castlereagh, who fought another duel in 1809 on Putney Heath, when one was Foreign Secretary and the other Minister for War – and that was at the height of the Napoleonic War and we think modern politics can get a bit rough! But thanks also to one reader, who correctly pointed out that Castlereagh never actually did become PM – Canning did in 1827 – I owe that reader a pint and knowing him, he won’t forget!

I also asked about this lion. Not a single answer but he lives at 12 Macduff Road, off Battersea Park Road, nearly opposite Tesco.

And this month’s question? Who or what is Poyntz of Poyntz Road and why would a Battersea road be called such? Poyntz Road is part of the Triangle, see 4 above and off Latchmere Road.

July 23, 2015  

Getting Thatcher’s children to love the state – or at least trust it!

Alaina said to me, “That’s the difference between you and me. You trust the bureaucracy and I don’t”. I thought nothing of it at the time but it struck a chord. Just why do I so often feel uncomfortable with some of the attitudes of my younger Labour colleagues? And do I really trust governmental bureaucracy? Do I really think that the ‘the man in Whitehall knows best’?

Well, in obvious ways, I do not. For a start I would never think that Whitehall knows better than the Town Hall, and, for a second reason, after many years of experience, whether of cock-ups or stitch-ups, I am not that gullible. But nonetheless there is a clear and distinct difference between my attitude and what I consider to be the cynicism and negativity, at least as regards civic institutions, that many of my younger Labour colleagues feel. Why is there such a difference?

In The Socialist Case in 1937 Douglas Jay, later the Battersea MP, who I got to know quite well in the 1970’s, wrote: ‘in the case of nutrition and health, just as in the case of education, the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves.’ For someone born four years later and who benefited from the most balanced, and rationed, diet ever fed to a generation of Brits, this did not, and does not, seem such a strange dictum.

Moreover, growing up being looked after by the NHS, educated by the 1944 Education Act-framed school system, graduating with the benefit of total state support (no fee charges then) and a local authority maintenance grant, I was, with the rest of my generation, a major beneficiary of the state.

It was a state fired in the cauldron of war, a state with the common purpose of defeating Germany and creating a better world. Fired by the collective will of a nation shaped by the greatest existential threat in its history, the public had a belief in a better future and in the state’s ability to be the agent of that better future.

“Homes fit for Heroes” may have been a First World War slogan, but it was equally strongly felt in 1945, by the heroes of WW2. The Beveridge Report, largely written by civil servants, under the chairmanship of William Beveridge, an academic and a civil servant, sold half a million copies in its first week of publication in 1942. It was a publishing sensation. And still to this day, an overwhelming majority of my generation believes that the Welfare State is the greatest achievement of twentieth-century Britain. Unsurprisingly, we tend to trust state mechanisms and state agents.

A later generation shaped, consciously or not, by the Thatcherite revolution mocked Douglas Jay for saying ‘the man in Whitehall knows best’, which was, as Jay often protested, a quote taken out of context. They also mocked the idea that the state could possibly be as effective as the market; they frequently mocked the idealism of their elders; indeed some clearly despise the objectives to which my generation aspired. One of the most astounding, to me, experiences is listening to the younger Tory councillors, apparently genuinely, asking why we should care about inequality, or even worse, ever-widening inequality. They clearly do not come from the same starting point as I do.

Gordon Gekko – Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas’s brilliant fictional creation for the 1987 film Wall Street – may have been a harder, sharper American version of the type but there is a British version too (and there was also Bernard Mandeville, an eighteenth-century Anglo-Dutch model of Gekko). Their attitudes have also, no doubt, been helped by many classic failures of the state from the 1940s East African groundnut scheme to the modern Mid-Staffs Hospital scandal.

Surely it is time to re-discover some of that war-time optimism and reforming zeal. How otherwise do we tackle the destructive tendencies of the unbridled market-place? How else can we fight off the privatised, divided society that Cameron and Osborne are so keen to promote? The Welfare State we have known in the past will not do for the future but it is only the state that can control and civilise the market and it must do that for the good and the welfare of all its citizens.

July 8, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere July Newsletter (# 74)

June highlightsP1000019

  1. On June 4th Penny and I went for a long weekend to the Dorset coast, with the grandchildren (and their parents). If you don’t know it then let me recommend it to you – Dorset is a really beautiful county. We didn’t do anything in particular but visited Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, the largest swannery in the UK (600 swans), a beautiful garden and spent a day on Weymouth’s great sandy beach. Here is a picture of them at Durdle Door, with from the left Scarlet, Melissa, Penny, Jeremy and Jamie.
  2. On the 9th June there was the Housing and Regeneration Committee, which I am not on this year, but I thought I would mention because the Committee had another long paper about the Winstanley regeneration project. It is very complex and entangled and becomes more confused, not less so every time it is discussed. The new complication is that a planning blight has been put on the area of the Falcon/Grant Road bus-stand, because of the possibility of Crossrail 2 being built. If Crossrail 2 goes ahead there will be a new, large combined tube and railway station – or there might be. This means that nothing can be done at that end of Grant Road until the Government has made up its mind about whether and when Crossrail 2 is built.
  3. The result is that many of the benefits that the Council hoped to gain from high rise developments near to the station will not happen for a decade at least. And so the Council planners have come up with the idea of building higher blocks of flats along the York Road boundary of York Gardens. It is all in a complete state of flux but what has not changed at present is the basic plan for the York Road estate and the closure of Battersea Sports Centre and the consequential installation of an astro-turf pitch in Falcon:Banana Park. I’ll keep you posted on this long-running saga.
  4. I had the Education and Children’s Services Committee on 11th June. I find this a difficult Committee. It is quite clear that the Government has a pretty low opinion of local education authorities and really wants to abolish them, but finds it a bit tricky running all England’s schools from Whitehall (Scotland, Wales and N Ireland are different). But this means that the Education Committee is struggling for a role. However, one interesting thing arose and that was the Borough’s need to find/build a new secondary school by 2019/20. Given the harsh funding environment local government faces, there is little chance of that being a totally state-funded school – Wandsworth will inevitably look for a big sponsor for a new privately funded academy. Where and when remains to be seen.
  5. The Planning Applications Committee was held on June 18th. There was yet another very high block approved in Wandsworth Town Centre, near to the cinema. Unlike many such blocks, this one looked like quite a sensible development. Moreover 63, of the 88 flats to be provided will be, so called, affordable – you still need a salary about twice the national average to be able to afford them. We approved it. There was also a significant development in Cabul Road, Latchmere, backing on to Rowena Crescent. It is an important application but not a huge one and will hardly be noticed outside of those two roads. Local residents will know all about the plans and, if they want to ask about it, then please send me an email and we’ll discuss.
  6. Penny, my partner in the picture above, is organising a conferenceP1000128 in Edinburgh in 2019 and needed to go there to discuss plans. So I joined her from 23rd June to 26th in St. Andrews and the capital. It is the first time I have been to the city for a very long time but, my word, it is a very attractive city. Whilst in St. Andrews we went for a walk around the most famous golf course in the world. You will see it on TV in July hosting the Open. Here is a picture of us on Swilcan Burn Bridge on the 18th hole. I know it is a very cheesy picture but you can’t go there and not get snapped on Swilcan Burn Bridge.
  7. On Sunday 28th June I went to Battersea Park to see the P1000189Formula E race. It was an interesting afternoon, though not particularly for the racing. As others have said, the views of the race were not good – there are just too many trees in the Park to allow a good view of anything more than a couple of hundred yards of race track. The lack of noise didn’t bother me, although it obviously did some of my correspondents. Strange as it seems the fact that over-taking was difficult doesn’t seem to matter that much in motor racing – as far as I can see no one ever over-takes at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
  8. However, it was a nice friendly atmosphere with plenty of families of all shapes and sizes. The price certainly brought it within range of many local residents and so it was not, as some of my correspondents have claimed, an exclusive occasion for big money sport – let’s face it, it was far cheaper than watching big time soccer, rugby or cricket. Again, it also attracted far bigger crowds than the average week-end in Battersea Park.
  9. I also don’t believe that the week-end did any real long-term damage to the Park or the wildlife in the Park. I would guess that the noise and disturbance of the Fireworks display in November is far more disruptive.
  10. On the other hand, the Park was effectively closed to the public, as a free park, for 4 days and considerably limited for just under three weeks. One of the local residents wrote to me saying, “The intrusive ‘gulag’ fencing and concrete was incredibly disruptive” and she then went on to complain, as many others did, about the helicopter noise, which was obviously intrusive. The Council claims that it did, or will over the next five years, bring in money, which the Council desperately needs given this Government’s cuts in local government grant. But the trouble with this argument is that we don’t know how much money is coming in.
  11. In the next few months I will be one of 60 councillors voting on whether we think the Formula E contract will be extended for five years. I don’t see how the majority party can expect me to vote for the extension unless I know what the financial return might be. However, I would be really interested to hear your views and whatever they are I promise to ensure that they are conveyed to my fellow councillors.
  12. On the 30th June I heard left-wing firebrand Owen Jones speaking at a Battersea Labour Party Meeting. I don’t usually talk about party meetings in this newsletter – usually pretty boring and irrelevant, but you may have seen Owen Jones on programmes like Question Time. Anyway I just thought I’d mention that it was a stunning tour de force, articulate, fast-firing, lively speech, followed by a series of questions and answers. I don’t suppose many of you will have a chance to see and hear him but if you do – Go.

My Programme for July

  1. On 2nd July I had a meeting of the Academies & Free School Commission, of which more next month, and on the 14th the Planning Applications Committee.
  2. On July 2nd I also went to the Grand to see a performance of Gershwin’s Crazy for You performed by Latchmere’s Thames Christian College – again more next month.
  3. On the 8th July, we have the Council Meeting and on 11th I will be at the Councillors’ surgery at Battersea Library.
  4. On 16th July Battersea Society will be having its summer party at St. Mary’s Church on the riverfront. On the next day I am going to visit friends in South Wales and, with any luck, will go up in a glider above the Brecon Beacons mountains – I am looking forward to that.

Did you know?

 Last month’s question about the contestants in the Battersea Park duel of 1828 was obviously too easy for some of you. Yes, it was the Duke of Wellington, the hero of this month’s double anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo – the one that kept the French in their place and made UK top dog (sorry if that is not PC for any French readers – just a joke). His adversary was the P1000200Earl of Winchelsea, who was objecting to Wellington removing legal barriers to Roman Catholics in this country.

So if that was too easy, let me try you out on another couple of Wandsworth duels. In the generation before 1828 another Prime Minister fought a duel in Wandsworth and, what is more, two other “gentlemen” both of whom also became Prime Minister later on, also did so. I will be very impressed if anyone can tell me who the three of them were, who the fourth man was, where the duels took place and what were they about.

Finally this lion lives in Battersea, just outside the Latchmere ward boundary. Does anyone know where he lives?

June 14, 2015  

Warfare or Co-operation

The Relationship of elected councillors and salaried local government officers.

Who are Council officers? Are their interests different from those of councillors’? Do the officers work to the same objectives? Are they motivated by the interests of the electorate as interpreted by the majority party or by rules coming from Whitehall and the law courts? What do they think of elected councillors?

The first thing to note is that officers are not simply local equivalents of the national Civil Service. The Civil Service exists principally to carry out the wishes of the crown, as was, and the elected Government, as is. So historically the civil service administers the Crown’s Government and cares little, at least in theory, for MPs, who from their perspective are merely the electoral body from which the Prime Minister and his colleagues are chosen.

Local government officers, on the other hand, are appointed by their respective Councils, at least in principle, to provide ALL elected members equally with advice. Hence the most junior councillor, even if in a minority of one, and, say, the Leader of the Council have equal rights to get advice, whether on procedural or personal matters, and assistance with constituency issues and casework. In that sense, the junior councillor has access to the highest level of senior officer advice available, in a way that MPs can only dream of from Civil Service Departments. In my experience, new councillors often fail to recognise this opportunity and seldom take advantage of the resources that are there for them.

Local Government officers, however, also serve the elected majority administration of whatever political persuasion. Hence whilst advising councillors as to how they might frame any criticism of the majority party policies, the officers must be careful not to over-step the mark into advising against the administration’s policies.

This is a delicate balance to maintain on a tight-rope and is perhaps why councillors often seem to have more difficulty accepting the political neutrality of their officers than do national politicians of the Civil Service. In my own case, as a councillor on a strongly Tory Council, namely Wandsworth, I have encountered several different but in some ways jaundiced views about the officers.

Some opposition (and here I speak of Tory opposition councillors in the 70s as much as of Labour ones later on) councillors have now, and always have had, an instinctive suspicion that the officers carry out the administration’s policies, not just because that is their job, but because they really are Conservative or Labour supporters.

I could give many examples and no doubt that is why there appears to be more of a tendency to cull senior officers after a change in power at a local rather than a national level.

Other councillors simply think that the officers just happen to be doing their job as best they can. Perhaps because of my background as a local government officer, who wanted to be a “public servant”, I instinctively lean to the view that officers want to perform a public service well. Hence, in the broadest sense, I expect officers to want a healthy and well-funded public service and, therefore, to be inherently more inclined to Labour rather than Tory attitudes, or at least those Tory attitudes that want to limit or even abolish local government services. But clearly this is no more the case than believing that all teachers are Labour voters. Maybe they should be but they most clearly are not – the same is true of local government officers.

But if local government officers are more variegated than elected members often assume, they do have one thing in common and that is their background in local government. Hence they are coloured by the extremely rule-based, legally-encompassed nature of their jobs. Ironically, the attitudes and approaches this training engenders often infuriates councillors, Labour and Tory, who are frustrated by the officers’ very (small c) conservative approach. So that many councillors often end up thinking they have more in common with the “hated” enemy across the Chamber than they do with the officers.

Again, this viewpoint may be dramatically shaped by my experience in Wandsworth where leading lights in both major parties have been very radical in their outlook, whether over their opposition to the Motorway Box, or their pursuit of GLC abolition, or their enthusiasm for an expansionist Council, 1964-90, or a contracting one, 1990-2015. But, whichever the political party, the cries of frustration were often aimed at the cautionary approach of the officers, and not the robust opposition of the opposition councillors, who were merely and quite appropriately doing the job of opposing. Labour and Tory councillors can sometimes behave rather like rival football teams, who are only stopped from having a really good argument by the man with the whistle, the referee or officer, who says, “You can’t do that – we don’t have the powers”.

This state of things results in some misunderstandings, which are reflected in some surprising ways. For officers, whose job it is to carry out the majority party policies and deliver the best possible service within that constraint, the tactics of the opposition can look most confusing. After all, if opposition councillors genuinely believe the services would be better if run by them than by the current majority party, then it becomes relatively easy to justify almost any form of legal wrecking tactics, with the only constraint being what the electorate might think.

From officers, unable to imagine themselves in the opposition’s role, such opposition looks stupid at best and unprincipled at worst. But on the other hand opposition councillors need some room for manoeuvre and may even manufacture opposition rather than run the risk of becoming irrelevant lobby fodder. Any officer, who whilst supporting the administration’s policies, points subtly to the weaknesses in the policies without actually leading the opposition by the hand, deserves the support and praise of both the opposition and, actually, the majority party, which needs a vibrant opposition to keep it on its toes.

Is there any conclusion to draw from this meditation? Well I think there is. Forgetting the time-servers of whom there are enough amongst officers, majority and minority party councillors, I think its best always to recognise a complex mix of motivations is at the heart of any argument.

So we’re not talking about open warfare between councillors and officers, nor complete co-operation either. It’s a complex but endlessly fascinating process of opposition, co-operation and something else between.

June 4, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere June Newsletter (# 73)

May highlights

  1. To state the obvious, the May 7th General Election was a great disappointment for me and the Labour Party. I know that Will Martindale would have made an assiduous MP but that was not to be. Clearly the electorate was not convinced by the thought of Ed Miliband as Prime Minister – he obviously had a bad press, though possibly demonstrated in the TV debates that he didn’t really deserve it. Again, the electorate also clearly believes the Tory story about the blame for our current economic difficulties. I think that story is nonsense (clearly Labour didn’t cause the US sub-prime markets to crash), but one can’t deny that the Tories won the publicity argument.
  2. Although I wish things were different, I have to admit that Jane Ellison is an effective MP – so congratulations, Jane. In the longer term Labour appears to have a tough task winning back the Battersea constituency. On a national level, it does rather concern me that so few eligible voters voted for a Tory Government and yet the Tories have a strong hand in Parliament. It can’t be right that only 25% of the electorate voted Tory, but they have more than half our MPs.
  3. The first past the post system has worked very, very well for the Tory party and, ironically, for the SNP. Both the Greens and UKIP had over 1 million and 3 million votes, respectively, and yet have only one MP each. It is a good system for the Tories but is it doing British democracy any favours? I rather think not. My worst fear is that, with Scotland and Wales going as they are and the south east outside of London going the way it is, with Labour strengthening its position in London, even if not in Battersea, that we are becoming a very divided nation, indeed.
  4. One of the delights of campaigning is discovering little IMG_1210gems, such as this inscription at the corner of Broughton and St. Philip Streets, which reads, “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the world and lose his own soul” Gospel according to St. Mark. I must have passed it a thousand times but never noticed it before! Have you noticed it? It is at the corner, just as one turns left coming down Silverthorne Road towards Queenstown Road.
  5. The Annual Council Meeting took place on 13th May. That is the occasion when the new Mayor is elected. This time it was Queenstown ward’s Nicola Nardelli. It is an occasion when the Mayor has as much time as she wishes to take saying whatever she wants to and is, of course, unchallenged. My word what a biased account she gave of the changes in Battersea over the last 40 years. She appeared to have no knowledge of, or at least little sympathy with, that very different Battersea, the Battersea of heavy industry, the Battersea which I talked about in the history walk that I led on 24th May – see picture of the people who came on it with me. If anyone is interested on coming on my next walk, just let me know and I’ll add you to my list.
  6. The Planning Applications Committee met on the 21st May. The two biggest applications were again in Battersea and were both approved. The first was what I think of as a pile of plates awaiting washing up, except that it is for a 28 storey block, which given the size of the first floor is more like 30. It would, not long ago, have been the highest building in Battersea (apart from Battersea Power Station and the giant gasometer next to Battersea Park station), higher even than Sporle Court. But now higher blocks are going up in Nine Elms and Wandsworth Town Centre, all within the Battersea constituency. I opposed this particular application on the grounds it included so little affordable housing. (Affordable housing is a strange description of property designed for people on earnings of £70,000 a year).
  7. The second was a giant development just where the large gasometer was a couple of months back. It included 839 residential units, including affordable housing; approximately 5,700sqm of flexible commercial floorspace including retail, financial and professional services, cafe/restaurant, offices, education, community and leisure uses within buildings ranging from 2 to 26 storeys high; together with landscaped private amenity space and public realm, including publicly accessible routes through the site; an energy centre; basement car parking; basement and ground level cycle parking; refuse storage and servicing and provision for vehicular access. You might be surprised that I supported this application, but actually, if there is anywhere in Battersea that can support 26 storey buildings, then this site, between the railway lines and flush up against the Power Station, is it.
  8. By the way, if you want to see how the gasometer was demolished go on to BBC’s iPlayer and look up a BBC2 programme called the Wrecking Crew. It’s really good TV about a very local subject and can be seen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05x1f6c/demolition-the-wrecking-crew-episode-2. It’s only there until about 20 June, so don’t put off watching it!
  9. Here is the gasometer in all its glory – and the pile of washing up!
  10. Last month I asked you to forgive my cynicism, as I suspected that Tory councillors did not want to agree contentious applications shortly before the General Election. My cynicism promises to be put to the test in the next couple of months with more very large applications coming forward on 2 sites within yards of each other on York Road. These plans already have a mass of negative reaction from local residents but I don’t expect that to cut much ice. Nevertheless, if you object, please put in an objection – local voices can and do make a difference.
  11. On Saturday, 30th May, I was interviewed for Wandsworth Radio’s Sunday morning show. As it happens the show had a technical glitch and I believe that the 15 minute interview will be heard on 7th June. If you want to hear this internet programme then all you need to do is go to http://www.wandsworthradio.com/. Indeed let me recommend that you pay the station a visit anyway and see what it is like.

My Programme for June

  1. On 11th June I have the Education and Children’s Services Committee  and on the 18th the Planning Applications Committee.
  2. On June 18th from 10am – 4pm, Big Local SW11 will be hosting a jobs, training & opportunity day to signpost local provision at Providence House. The aim is to encourage people to come along and explore current job opportunities, meet industry & training professionals, get 1:1 advice, try new skills and enjoy workshops and training sessions.  Workshops available on the day will cover ICT in the workplace, interview skills, CV building, confidence building, recruitment best practice as well as more practical skills-based tasters. Big Local SW11, you will recall, is a resident-led group that has been awarded £1 million from the Big Lottery fund to spend in the SW11 area over the next 10 years.  The website is http://www.biglocalsw11.co.uk/. Along with Big Local SW11 helping us to make it a great day are South Thames College, Wandsworth Workmatch, Providence House, Wandsworth Lifelong Learning, WOW Mums enterprise club, STORM, Generate, Well-kneaded, SPEAR, Generate and others. Please, do come and join us. Big Local SW11 is also looking for mentors so to sign up for workshops please visit www.biglocalsw11.org.uk.
  3. This week-end I am off to Dorset for a couple of days with the grandchildren, aged 1 and 2 (with their parents to do the nappies, etc.). Penny and I are looking forward to that.
  4. I have written a couple of times about the plans for the all-weather astro-turf pitch in Falcon Park. There has been a lot of public disquiet about this possibility, so much indeed that the Town Hall planners have taken the plans back for re-consideration. I doubt whether the idea is dead and buried but public consultation has at least forced a re-consideration. I have been assured now that there will be no planning application before September. Watch this space for further updates.

Did you know?

JayCourt1Only two of you replied to my question last month about the tower block named after Douglas Jay, M.P., and I am afraid that Peter’s answer was wrong. It was not Park Court on the Doddington estate, as my respondent suggested, but rather Park South, sitting on Battersea Park Road – well done, Kathleen. Here it is and here also is a famous incident from 1829, which took place in Battersea Park, Who is thisor rather what used to be called Battersea Fields, before it became the park. It is a duel between a serving British Prime Minister and a political rival. It features in my history walk. Can anyone tell me who the Prime Minister and his opponent were and what were they fighting about? (The clue is in the inset picture).

May 22, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere May Newsletter (# 72)

PS. This blog went out as a newsletter to my constituents on 4th May. To state the obvious, this blog record is now a little dated – but so be it!                                       

April highlights

  1. To state the obvious, the Council and councillors haveIMG_1204 been a little pre-occupied with the May 7th General Election. And you obviously haven’t been paying much attention to my newsletters, if you don’t know who I am, and will be, supporting. So, of course, I would like you all to go and vote for Labour’s Will Martindale but, above all else, do make sure that you do go and vote. It does make a difference and don’t believe the hoary, cynical old message that politicians are all the same – that is lazy thinking. Here I am, unflatteringly, with Will and an old friend of mine Justine Miliband at the Battersea Labour Party office on Lavender Hill.
  2. However, I did manage to tear myself away from the domestic IMG_1196political drama and accompany my partner to Cluj-Napoca University, where my partner was giving a seminar. Haven’t heard of Cluj-Napoca? Well, it is a University town in north-western Romania – and here is a picture of the town centre cathedral. And we then spent a week touring and exploring the Carpathian mountains – below right.
  3. On 18th April, I went to the “Phoenix Fundraiser” in the South Bank’s Festival Hall. It was in aid of the restoration of the fire-wrecked Battersea Arts Centre, or, as I prefer to think of it, Battersea Town Hall. It was a grand occasion and raised a substantial sum for the renovation fund. For me, however, the P1020002 (2)humour from the stand-up comics didn’t quite come off – or perhaps I am just not very appreciative of so-called alternative comedy
  4. Last month I wrote about plans for the all-weather astro-turf pitch in Falcon Park. As I said then, I have had lots of emails and phone calls on this issue, particularly since the Council started some excavations in the Park. I made enquiries and was told that the Council’s Design Service made “topological and other surveys” in Falcon Park and that this had involved drilling. These have been done so that the Council can know about any future construction
    Banana Park

    Banana Park

    issues related to the ground conditions, access to utility services, drainage etc. required, should the Council “be successful with the current planning application”. So building work has not actually started, nor has permission been given, but clearly the parks people expect to get permission for the pitch. This argument is not, however, all over. If you want to object to this possible use of Falcon Park (pictured right) let me know and I will advise on when the application is likely to be heard by the Committee (probably 21st May – see below) and what best to do to make your voice heard.

  5. The Planning Applications Committee met on the 16th April. By far the most important application was for four large blocks on the corner site at Lombard and York Roads. These blocks are designed to be 14, 11 and 2 x 6 storeys but standing on a 3 storey podium, so appearing to be 17,14 and 2 x 9 storeys. The St. Mary Park Tory councillors asked the Committee to defer or reject the application – we rejected it unanimously – but, forgive my cynicism, I suspect that the reality is that Tory councillors did not want to agree such a contentious application two weeks before the General Election. I rather suspect that a slightly revised application will get approved when the Election is just a memory.

My Programme for May

  1. Of course, the month starts with the General Election. I will be running a Committee Room in far off Balham and so I won’t be in Latchmere for the first time for some years, but lots of my friends and colleagues will be. It will be a long and exhausting day, starting as it does for political “activists” at 4 or 5 in the morning and does not end until about 24 hours later on Friday morning.
  2. May is also the start of the “municipal year”, with the Mayor Making on 13th and the Council Annual Meeting, when new Cabinet members and opposition speakers are elected. That probably doesn’t mean much to people outside the details of Council processes, but it is quite important to councillors, who will be deciding who their leaders are and what committee responsibilities we will have in the coming year.
  3. The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 21st. There are likely to be very big applications all along York Road, applications which will completely change the outlook of North Battersea. It will be interesting to see how the Tory dominated PAC votes once the General Election is out of the way. They will not be as worried on 21st May about Jane Ellison’s majority as they clearly were on April 16th.
  4. On 19th May I will be going to a lecture by Tony Travers on how London Government has changed in the 50 years since the current London Boroughs were created in 1965. It was done at the same time as the Greater London Council was created, where I worked for many years. It will be interesting to hear an academic account of events that I have lived through.
  5. As part of Wandsworth Heritage Festival, I will be leading two “History Walks” around and about in Battersea, starting at 11 am on 24th and 31st May. I would welcome anyone, who reads this to join us but I should tell you that I charge £10 and that the money goes to the Battersea Labour Party. The main theme of the walk is housing but there is a lot more – the Duke of Wellington, the start of the Battersea aircraft industry – Yes Battersea aircraft industry!Douglas Jay

Did you know

that before 1983, the Battersea constituency at General Elections was divided into two. Battersea North and Battersea South, with the boundary very roughly being the main railway line? And the longest serving MP in either constituency, during the whole of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was Douglas Jay, MP from 1946-1983? The Battersea Borough Council, as was, built a tower block, which they named Jay Court. When the Council sold the block to private agents it was re-named. Do you know the one I mean – I’ll give you the answer and a photograph next month.

April 16, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere April Newsletter (# 71)

March highlights 

  1. First things first! Please make sure that you and your family are all registered to vote. Register at http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/info/200411/voting/74/register_to_vote. You must register by 20th April in order to vote in this year’s General Election.suffragette being arrested Of course, for some people, all politicians are the same. All lie. None answer the questions or, if they do, then only in vague generalisations. I came across one such woman just the other day. I had written to her as a new resident and got a volley of abuse for my pains. She certainly won’t be voting because, as she said, we are all the same.
  2.  You would not have thought that men, at first, and then women fought and died for the right to vote. (Here is a favourite picture of mine, of violent, heavyweight suffragette being man-handled to jail!) It seemed worth it then but not so much nowadays – it seems. But would we really rather live where change only happened as a result of war or revolution? It is ironic, isn’t it, that the Nigerians are celebrating because, for the first time ever, this March power changed peacefully following a General Election and not as a result of a coup or any other form of violence. And yet here some of us think it’s not worth the candle and that it doesn’t make any difference who wins.
  3. But it does. Not perhaps as dramatically as it does where people don’t have the vote, where it may be a matter of life or death. There is not much chance of torture or death because you voted the wrong way. But it does make a difference, not a dramatic difference perhaps but a difference. Whether you think that Bedroom Tax, or the Mansion Tax, is a good or a bad thing, they will be introduced or abolished depending upon which of the major parties is in power. And what is true of those two headline taxes is also true for a thousand other decisions that will be taken over the next five years – so be sure to make your mark on 7th May.
  4. I am sure that many of you will have seen, and all have heard,Bac on fire about the fire at the Battersea Arts Centre on 13th March. The Grand Hall and the Lower Hall were burnt out but fortunately the front of the building, including the grand staircase and the old Council Chamber were untouched. I am pleased to say that Battersea Labour Party, whose office is just across the road on Lavender Hill, hosted BAC’s staff for the rest of the day and BAC managed to continue most of its programme from the next evening. The building belongs to the Council and is on a long IMG_1182(125 year?) lease to BAC, whose insurance covered buildings and contents. Both the Arts Centre and the Council are adamant that the old Battersea Town Hall will be restored and both the Government and the Council have made supportive donations to the repairs fund.There is going to be grand “Phoenix Fundraiser” at the South Bank on 18th April. Details can be found at http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/stewart-lee-bridget-christie-bac-fundraiser_37499.html. Do come, if you can, and support the BAC rebuilding.
  5. It is ironic that the fire should happen just after the announcement of the merger between the Arts Centre and Wandsworth Museum. The Museum has been a little lost in its temporary home of the old West Hill Library, where it has been ever since Wandsworth Council rather unceremoniously booted it out of its home at the Court House, Garratt Lane. Merging with BAC is an excellent idea and should help BAC make better use of the old Town Hall building and add much needed footfall to the Museum. I wish the merger well.
  6. Last month I wrote about the threatened closure of Battersea Sports Centre and the fight to save it, or at least the facilities it provides. I don’t have much to add this month except to note that one facility the Council has promised to provide is an all-weather astro-turf pitch in Falcon Park. Personally, I thought it was quite a good idea to make better use of the much under-used Falcon Park but one of you wrote to me protesting about the loss of open space. S/he was not protesting about the loss in the planning sense, because of course it will continue to be “open”, but s/he clearly intended to be putting in a word for “nature” and natural open-space. I would think, however, that the Park is large enough to take an astro-turf pitch as well as keeping a substantial amount of natural open-space. We will certainly have to keep an eye on this when the plans do eventually come out. (PS, whilst writing this newsletter I have had several emails on this issue! See also the map below).
  7. I don’t usually do advertising for rival magazines, especially the Council’s Brightside – dreadful party political broadcast for the Tory Party, that it is (Why Eric Pickles hasn’t closed it down I can’t imagine!). But last month’s centre spread had the four finalists in the design competition for the planned new pedestrian and cyclist bridge across from Nine Elms to Pimlico. I must say all four look great and any one would be a welcome addition to the Thames scene.
  8. On the 4th March we had the Council Meeting, where we discussed the Sports Centre and “Wandsworth’s plan to share staff with Richmond”. I am afraid that the Sports Centre debate was rather predictable, with Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and myself opposing the closure and the Tories claiming that we were simply opposing new affordable housing. I am afraid also that the two leaders had little to say of great interest on the “staff share”. This was probably because as of now there is not much known about it. But to listen to them one would never have guessed that what we might have been talking about was the loss of some 1,000 jobs. This is definitely a question of watching this space!
  9. On 16th March we had the Latchmere “Let’s Talk” meeting at York Gardens library. There were only 25 members of the public there and I am again sorry to say that, as a meeting, it never really took off. These Let’s Talk meetings have been run on a regular monthly basis, bar August and December, for about 10 years now, but with 20 wards that means they only happen at most once in every two years in Latchmere. They were an honest attempt 10 years ago to bring the “Council to the people”, but I think the format needs a re-think.
  10. The Planning Applications Committee met onIMG_5880 the 18th. There were a number of substantial applications, affecting North Battersea, and nearly all between “Battersea Village” and Wandsworth Bridge. The largest was the “tower” or pile of washing up dishes(pictured with Labour candidate Will Martindale – sorry about that! And below its site bordered in red, photographed from Totteridge House). Planned at 28 storeys or approximately 300 feet or 90 metres, it will, if approved, provide 135 residential units with the ground and first floor being reserved for shopping and other commercial units. 27 of the units will be, so-called, “affordable”, but whatever that means it almost certainly won’t be affordable to most people you and I know. At 28 storeys, it will drive a coach and horses through?????????????????????????????????? the Council’s so-called tall building policy, which states that anything over 9 storeys, on this site, would be considered tall. So how can it be justified at 300% higher – largely I think because it allows space for another pedestrian and cyclist bridge across the river to Chelsea Harbour and importantly the Imperial Wharf station on the popular Overground Railway and because it is seen as a “signature” building – and if you don’t know what a signature building is, and I don’t really, then look it up in Google Images and you’ll get the idea. Well the Committee deferred the decision because of safety concerns raised by the Heliport operators. However, there was little doubt that the majority on the Committee intend to approve the application and, if they do, then I think one can guarantee that North Battersea will be in for a substantial change.
  11. There was also an application for a 6 storey building, 2 underground and 4 on top for 144 cars and 30/40 drivers in Chatfield Road. The cars are the personal property of the Sultan of Brunei, who according to Google owns 5,000 cars! I got a certain amount of notoriety for expressing horror at this and was quoted in the Wandsworth Guardian, the Metro and on Wandsworth radio to name just a few! You can hear my clip on Wandsworth Radio at this address https://soundcloud.com/wandsworthradio/wandsworth-tonight-250315 and it runs from 2 minutes in for 2 minutes. Amazingly enough several Tory councillors have attacked me for opposing this plan. They just don’t get it!
  12. There were also two other less contentious applications for the north side of York Road and coming shortly is the massive application for the Texas Home store site. That part of Battersea is about to explode, without much concern for the ordinary residents of the area!
  13. On 21st March I was off to St. Mary’s Church, Battersea, to hearIMG_1188 a concert from Emily Kenway, mezzo soprano, and Will Martindale, piano, in aid of Trinity Hospice – Yes the Will Martindale who is standing in the General Election on 7th May. I don’t know how he does it but it is the third charity concert I have heard Will give. How he fits in the practice time and the rehearsals, I don’t know. To be fair Will is good but he was the first to say to me that Emily is in a different class. She has sung at the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne.
  14. On 26th March I visited Wix Primary School in Wix Lane. It is a standard English primary school with one very big difference, it also hosts a French primary school or lycée. The two heads work very well together and so the children mix in the playground and in some of the lessons. There is in effect an English school, a French lycée and a mixed school. French and English are used as the languages of learning but also of playing. It was one of the friendliest and happiest of schools I have visited
  15. Ted Higgins, the first Director of Social Services, I ever knew at Wandsworth, in 1971, was 100 on the 22nd March and on the 23rd he visited the Mayor and shared a glass of champagne with me and a few other “mature” members of the Council.
  16. On a sadder note, veteran Labour stalwart, Lily Harrison, died on 13th March and I went to the funeral on the 30th. Lilian was 90. She came of age during World War II, when she became part of the observer corps sitting atop the White Cliffs of Dover, watching out for invading Luftwaffe bombers. She used to tell me of being on the cliffs one summer’s evening watching as hundreds of ships made their way down the Channel; she didn’t know it then but she was watching the first fleets setting sail on the eve of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Normandy. Lily later met her husband Bert and as a result got involved in Battersea politics. Bert was a councillor from the early 60’s until 1986. Lily did all kinds of community work. I don’t know the full list but she was certainly a Board member of Share Community and of Battersea United Charities, as well as being a “Friend of Bolingbroke Hospital” until it closed in 2008. She ran much of the Battersea Labour Party and was a guiding light in over 50 years of fund raising. She also commanded a great deal of respect from her political opponents as evidenced by the presence of several Tory members at her funeral.

My Programme for April  

  1. The Council more or less closes down, as a political operation – you can still get your parking permits and pay your Council Tax, etc., during what is known as Purdah – the period between calling an election and the election itself. So my only “Council” event is the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 16th. PAC continues as normal because of the statutory requirement to decide planning applications in a specific timescale.
  2. There will, of course, be lots of preparation, canvassing and leafleting in the build up to the General Election, including a hustings meeting at York Gardens Library on 14th April. Do come along and see all the candidates in action – or in the case of the Greens, his spokesperson.
  3. My other (or is it better?) half is lecturing in Cluj-Napoca, a small city in western Romania on 7th April and I will be taking the opportunity of carrying the bags and spending a week in foreign parts. But I won’t be coming back tanned or anything like that. Even if the coast is a summer holiday destination the winters are very cold and right now it is just about the same as here, warming up slightly and pretty wet!

Did you know?

         A friend sent me this picture of an Scan_Pic0010Ordnance Survey map, dated 1961. It’s worth a close look to see something of what Battersea was like then. The most obvious difference between then and now is that Wandsworth Bridge simply ends at a T-Junction with York Road, rather like Albert Bridge Road. But other obvious differences include housing where there is now Banana or Falcon Park, and a traditional road layout, with Victorian terrace houses in the whole Plough/Falcon/York Roads and railway line quarter. Neither the Battersea Fields estate or the Doddington are in this map – again all are Victorian or Edwardian terraces. What do you notice as being different in your area?

When I wrote last month of the word “Tory”, and why it was used to describe the Conservatives I hardly expected the question, “Why are the Conservatives called Tories?” to feature as one of the most popular questions asked of Google after last Thursdays debate – ahead of the trend!

March 26, 2015  

Yarico

Heard of Yarico? It’s a play or is it a musical? Or it’s songs and performances telling a story – a story about slavery; its related to Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon; its an old story but given modern trafficking it is almost certainly a modern story too.

I went to see the London Theatre Workshop’s production a couple of weeks ago at the Eel Brook pub in London’s trendy King’s Road. The pub itself was new to me as was its theatre but well worth a visit and Yarico was a good introduction.

Yarico was an Amerindian from Barbados, who saved the life of an English merchant, named Inkle, ship-wrecked in the 17th century off Barbados. They fell in love with each other, but, as the play had it, he gambled her away on a losing streak. She was enslaved, exploited and abused.

In 1787, George Colman wrote an opera called Inkle and Yarico. The romanticised opera was an enormous success and was performed some 250 times on the London stage before playing in Dublin, Jamaica, New York, Philadelphia, Calcutta, Boston, and Charleston (Thanks to Wikipedia for this data). It appealed to a society, which was just embracing the anti-slavery movement – the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, and slavery itself in 1833, again in the Empire. US slavery was abolished in 1863, but as we now know to our shame slavery, especially female slavery, is still very prevalent to this day.

The 2015 version I saw was graced with a very lively and enthusiastic troupe of actors and a very simple but effective production by John & Jodie Kidd. The actors were all athletic – not exactly dance but plenty of physicality in this show – and dynamic. However, the star of the show was Liberty Buckland, who played Yarico herself.

Liberty has a beautiful and powerful voice. Personally I would love to see her play Maria in Westside Story and add some life to the rather insipid classical film version played by Natalie Wood. She brought passion and vibrancy to the role.

But Alex Spinney’s Inkle deserves more than just a mention – again a good voice if perhaps not with the power that one might envisage for the role – and again superb athleticism. Jean-Luke Worrell’s Cicero was yet another among a string of excellent performances.

I went with some people hoping and expecting a little-known eighteenth century play – don’t go with that in mind as what they got was a lively, loud (but not too loud) very modern take on an old story of man’s inhumanity to woman! It does, however, end on a very upbeat and uplifting number called Spirit Eternal. If you read this NOW then I recommend you go straight-away. You have until 28th March, 2015!

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