Archive by Author | Tony Belton
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!

March 11, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere March Newsletter (# 70)

March highlights

  1.  Once again the Council’s threat to close ?????????????????????????Battersea Sports Centre (BSC) dominated the month. On 10th February, the Community Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee heard, what were, I am told,  two excellent deputations from the staff (Mandy Le Fondre) and the local community (Andy Beech from Pennethorne House), but unfortunately the Conservative/Tory majority on the Committee were not really listening, or at least were not prepared to change their minds.
  2. However, I want to be mildly optimistic on this issue. Since we first heard of the closure threat, the Council has moved its position just a bit. Originally the Centre was forecasted to close this autumn. But faced with strong local opposition the Tories have retreated slightly to a position of promising a “replacement” all weather football pitch, and changing rooms at the south end of Falcon Park before the BSC closure. The Council reckons that this will be in Spring, 2016. I rather doubt that this can be done so soon. There are, as far as I know, no plans yet on the drawing board and, although the funding has been programmed for 2015-16, completion by 31st March next year looks a little unlikely. But, of course, whilst it will be a great thing to have the football pitch, especially in a rather under-used Park, it will not be a community and sports centre and it is actually a fair way from BSC – the best part of a mile.
  3. Of course the community and the Latchmere councillors have argued, strongly, that a soccer pitch is insufficient as a replacement to the BSC community facility. Under this pressure the Council has beefed up its plans for community facilities in the re-designed York Gardens. There is even a hint in the design document for the Winstanley regeneration that the new facility could include a swimming pool and there is certainly a “promise” that it will be ready by 2019. So the gap between closing the BSC and opening a brand new facility is down to a “mere” three years, though that is a long time in the life of a teenager, looking for local sports facilities..
  4. We, the community and the Labour councillors, are not, I think one should admit, going to win the battle to save the BSC as it is today. The Council has decided that the site will be used for re-housing people moved from the York Road Estate BUT we can win a battle to delay the closure until the new facilities are ready and open. The Council is now faced with a decision to make – Is it worth £100,000 a year for three years to keep a vital Battersea service? If so then losing the much loved but elderly BSC will not be a great loss in exchange for new facilities just 200 yards away across Plough Road.
  5. I know that some people who read this newsletter are card-carrying Conservatives and I suspect that my comments are relayed to MP, Jane Ellison and others. I hope that they do their bit to persuade the decision makers at the Town Hall that it is very, very worthwhile delaying the closure and not souring the local community, whose support is so very essential for making the Winstanley Regeneration a success.
  6. Ram Brewery 2On the 2nd February,Ram Brewery 1 I went to a grand launch of the Ram Brewery development. To be honest it was what one might call a “jolly” with wine and canapés, but quite impressive about what is going to happen in the centre of Wandsworth. I quite liked much of the development around the Wandle River BUT to my mind the 42 storey mega-block at the centre is just too large and too over-bearing. It will blight what is otherwise a densely packed but human-scale development.
  7. On the 11th February, Battersea Labour Party had a fund-raising evening at the Chinese Boulevard, just off Smugglers Way. The guest speakers were Tessa Jowell and Dame Doreen Lawrence, and I was the MC. We had a great evening.
  8. The next day I attended the Education & Children’s Services OSC. Unfortunately, thanks to various so-called reforms introduced by both Labour and Tory Governments, we do not spend much time talking and thinking or deciding anything much to do with schools. Local authorities are essentially being cut out of the most interesting issues, so we are more and more concerned with such matters as the contracting out of schools’ transport, or school cleaning contracts. There were, however, a couple of items of general interest.
  9. One item was the Council’s projections for population growth, and therefore of future demand for school places. On the whole, the Council appears fairly satisfied that its resources will cope, even if it does mean more temporary accommodation being installed in, say, play space. I don’t think the Council is being complacent but we will see in 2019/20, when the population growth hits the secondary schools.
  10. The other item was the Ofsted Report into “Lifelong Learning”. Very unusually for Wandsworth, the report was very highly critical of the service and of councillors’ role in monitoring the service. To be fair, the Report’s main criticism was about something that could be called box ticking, about the failure to record what the Council was doing about safeguarding pupils and not about anything that was actually going wrong. I am now on a small committee to ensure that we resolve the problem.
  11. The Planning Applications Committee met on the 18th. There were a number of substantial applications, such as the start of development at Springfield Hospital, but only one was relevant to Latchmere, whilst another will be of interest to some of you. The interesting one was the Council’s decision to oppose a new Wimbledon AFC stadium planned for the site of the Wimbledon greyhound track. The Labour councillors did not agree with this and believed it would be a good thing for Wimbledon football to move back to the Tooting/Colliers Wood area.
  12. The local application was for a 14 storey residential block on Gwynne Road, more or less directly behind the Caius Club. On balance I decided to support the application partly because of the 33 flats provided, 11 are so-called “affordable”. It will probably be a different matter when this month we consider the much higher, 28 storey, block planned in Lombard Road. What do you think of this march of giant blocks? Do you think they are largely for rich investors and make very little contribution to the housing crisis? Or are they really part of the answer?
  13. The Finance & Corporate Services OSC on February 19th decided, uncontroversially to freeze Council Tax this year but it also discussed the suggested merger with Richmond-upon-Thames. Personally I am very far from convinced about the whole merger business. There are a number of Boroughs across the country where something of this kind is happening. Westminster & Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham have gone some way to merging functions, but they did that when all three were under Tory control. After the Borough elections last May Hammersmith & Fulham reverted to Labour control and then tried to withdraw from the merger. I don’t know the details but they have run into legal and contractual difficulties. However, the problems aren’t just about politics. Wandsworth is one of the largest municipal landlords in the country with a housing stock of some 18,000 properties, Richmond has hardly any. Wandsworth is a very diverse, inner city Borough, with some very poor areas. Richmond is one of the richest, least diverse areas in the country. Wandsworth has a population over 310,000, Richmond’s is 187,000. It is difficult to imagine that a merge of offices, officers and functions can really work between two such disparate authorities.
  14. IMG_1126On 23rd February I went to hear Ed Miliband at Battersea Arts Centre giving a speech on Labour’s policy on the arts. Of course I would say it, wouldn’t I but he was excellent and very impressive. He spoke well and he answered questions easily and colloquially. He is so good in this format and so much better than he often appears in Prime Minister’s Question Time that I rather think that David Cameron’s reluctance to engage him in a major TV debate is almost largely because the Prime Minister thinks he just might lose and that his major trump card in the election will fail. Miliband then came over to our Party office on Lavender Hill and talked to us, “activists”.
  15. On Sunday 1st March I went to the flower market IMG_1120in Columbia Road, E2. I’d never been there before but I do recommend it on a Sunday morning. It’s only a short walk from Brick Lane and it is easy to make a morning of it and go from one to the other. My picture shows how colourful it is.
  16. On a sad note, one of the Tory councillors, Adrian Knowles of Earlsfield Ward died (on March 2nd actually). He was a decent and popular councillor, regardless of political affiliation. His loss will mean an early by-election, possibly on the same day as the General Election.

My Programme for March

  1.  There was a Council Meeting on 4th March, of which more next month.
  2. I am visiting Sacred Heart primary school, Roehampton, on 10th March.
  3. The 16th March is the day of the Latchmere “Let’s Talk” meeting at York Gardens library. On that evening the three Latchmere councillors, Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and me, will be at this public meeting along with Tory leader of the Council, Ravi Govindia. This will be your opportunity to cross-question us about what we are doing as your councillors – but also your chance to quiz Cllr Govindia about his policies. Being so close to the General Election, it is bound to be fairly political but I hope it will seem OK to you and it would be truly great if lots of you came to the meeting.
  4. On 18th I have the Planning Applications Committee and of course lots of preparation, canvassing and leafleting in the build up to the General Election. This has been the longest election in British history, as presumably it was bound to be as soon as Parliament agreed to fixed term Parliaments and therefore fixed election dates. I am sure many of us will be happy to get it over and done with, but we do need a positive end to this long campaign.

Did you know?

IMG_1122When I was in Brick Lane I happened to see this blue plaque on the wall of a house. I was immediately interested to read that Thomas Fowell Buxton, the early nineteenth century anti-slavery campaigner, lived in Brick Lane, where he worked in Truman’s brewery, of which he later became the boss. In my experience it is fairly unusual to find a brewer as a left-wing campaigner – obviously not the sort of brewer who in the words of the old song “watered the workers’ beer”. He took over the leadership of the Anti-Slavery Movement when Wilberforce retired in 1825 but also fought for many other reforms and succeeded in getting the death penalty removed from well over 100 offences. I have written about him before and he is of course the inspiration for the name Buxton House in Maysoule Road along with other anti-slavery campaigners, Clarkson, Pitt, Fox, Burke and Ramsey. See my newsletters #4 and 57.

One of my readers has told me off for using the word “Tory”,Tory Island2 and told me that many people will understand the description Conservative but not the word “Tory”, so I thought that I would check it out. Please let me know if this is new to you. If it is new then my next question is and why are Conservatives called Tories? The answer is in the picture on the right, which is of Tory Island, which lies 9 miles off the north coast of Ireland. (By the way, before you go further my apologies to the Irish – this is an historic description and not my own views!) In the late seventeenth century when party politics, or something like it, is first introduced to the British Parliament, some of the radicals started describing the right or Conservatives as Tories, that is a bunch of Irish barbarians, living on some small boggy island somewhere off the coast of Ireland. Forgive me – all my Irish friends.

February 17, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere February Newsletter (# 69)

January highlights 

  1. Last month, I talked a little about the Council’s threat to close Battersea Sports Centre (BSC) in Hope Street, in the autumn of this year. As I said then, this was a complete surprise to users, local residents and we three Latchmere councillors. Imagine our surprise therefore when the Tory councillors became really upset because we did NOT support the closure at the 21st January Housing Committee meeting. One of them, the Deputy Leader, even circulated a rather childish and extremely unhelpful leaflet, accusing us of double-crossing them.
  2. I had better explain. So far we three Labour councillors, that’s Wendy Speck, Simon Hogg and I, have worked fairly closely with the Council on the consultations and decisions involved in such a massive scheme as the regeneration of the Winstanley/York Road estates. It does after all involve the demolition of some 600 or so properties, most notably but not just Pennethorne, Scholey and Holcroft Houses, and the construction of many more new homes. Tenants and leaseholders (and a small number of freeholders) will have their homes demolished and rebuilt in what will be a major upheaval – or at least that is the plan. Clearly the Council would like to have the whole-hearted support of all.
  3. You might ask what has that got to do with the closure of BSC – and it would be a good question. Well somehow or another in the minds of the Town Hall bureaucrats and their Tory bosses the closure of BSC had become an essential part of the whole plan for regeneration. The only trouble is that they had not bothered to tell anyone until the day of the January Committee meeting, having announced the closure more than a month previously. Not surprisingly both the community and we, Labour councillors, were already committed to opposing the BSC closure before they made the link. They should not really be surprised. The regeneration plan has been in gestation for three years and its link with the BSC has not been mentioned until this January. What is more the Council was making a completely separate claim in December that the BSC closure would be providing more affordable homes and not JUST replacement homes for the Winstanley!
  4. The plan apparently is to use the site of the Sports Centre to build some 90 affordable units into which people from the York Road and Winstanley estates could be “decanted”. Our opposition to the BSC closure has already resulted in some back-tracking and some compromises. For example, the Council is now committed to providing a new all-weather, large soccer pitch at the south end of Falcon Park. But the Sports Centre is very busily and much more than a soccer pitch and is used by well over 20 sports clubs and local organisations and it is not as though the area is over-endowed with alternatives. We will continue to oppose closure until more is known about the replacement facilities, and the timing of their arrival.
  5. After all “What did the Council’s own reports about the 2011 riots say?” That there was not a lot for young people to do in the area. But now the Tory councillors want to close down one of the busiest centres of them all! There is a petition for signature at the following address http://www.willtowin.org.uk/#!save-battersea-sports-centre/c150j if you wish to express your opposition.
  6. The Planning Applications Committee met on the 20th. There were no significant local applications this month but the trend to convert pubs to housing continues apace. This time the closure of the Prince of Wales on the corner of Surrey Lane and Battersea Bridge Road was confirmed but that was only the last in a long line. I can think of lots in Latchmere alone: the most recent being the Duke of Wellington, the Havelock Arms, the Grove and the Prince’s Head, but I am sure you can add to the list. The disappearance of pubs, one after another, marks the loss of important community assets, which we should safeguard.
  7. One event that most of you will have missed, I am sure, was the launch of Wandsworth Radio on 12th January. I understand that it had some 3,000 listeners in the first week – we wish it well. To listen just Google Wandsworth Radio.
  8. I actually missed the launch because as I said last month I went into hospital for an “arthroscopy”. Although I said then that I would say more this month, there isn’t actually that much to say. My knee is not back to normal and it’s not killing me. But, I am afraid the story has not ended yet!
  9. There was a Council Meeting on 28th January but it was largely inconsequential except for the surprise announcement of the possible merger of Wandsworth and Richmond-upon-Thames Councils. The first thing to say about this is that this cannot be a full merger in every sense of the word as the London Boroughs were set-up by Act of Parliament (London Government Act, 1963) and can only be merged, abolished or changed by Parliament. However the Tory Leaders of the two Councils have decided that there should be economies of scale in merging many of the two Council’s operations. Hence rather than having two refuse collection services they can make do with one. Instead of having two education departments they can make do with one. Instead of having two Chief Executives, two Housing Directors, two Borough planners, etc., they can make do with having just the one.
  10. There are some obvious ways in which this plan makes sense, although it is interesting to speculate what would happen if one of the authorities went Labour and just how a Tory and a Labour authority would work together as one. But there are also many other implications, not least that the savings being discussed can only be as a result of losing about 500 jobs in the two Boroughs. But one remarkable thing about the whole process is that we are embarking on this whole adventure on the say so of two men, Ravi Govindia of Wandsworth and Lord True of Richmond-upon-Thames. There has as yet been no Council decision in either borough, no referendum amongst the people – nothing! No doubt we shall learn more with time but meanwhile we wait and listen.

My Programme for FebruaryRam Brewery 2

  1. I went to the Ram Brewery redevelopment launch (Model pictured right but not including the 42 storey Tower block) on 2nd February, had an Education and Children’s Services Committee on 12th and then of course there was Valentine’s Day, although that isn’t yet a Council event!
  2. On 18th February I have the Planning Applications Committee and then on the 19th a discussion of the two Borough merger at the Finance Committee.

In response to some of your comments.

Thanks, Viv and Shirley, for your best wishes re the operation??????????????????? – as stated above fairly, or indeed totally, painless but not sure unfortunately that it has done the job! Daniel and Kathleen were of course right in describing this picture as the alleyway between Cabul Road and Latchmere Road and Daniel was right also in thinking that I thought it would be called a snicket. But he tells me that it could be either a ginnel or a snicket, but that it is actually too wide for either. I bow to the expertise of a real Tyke.

Culvert Gypsy campKathleen was also right in saying that the gypsy encampment is right down the bottom of Culvert Road, between all the railway lines. I managed to get into the encampment purely by chance when taking a dozen or so people on a History Walk of Battersea. The only other way to see it is from the train but not just any old train. I think, but would be ?????????????????happy to be corrected, that the Overground Line from CJ’s Platform 2 to Wandsworth Road might be the best place to see it. By the way, if anyone is interested in going on the History Walk, which goes from the Latchmere pub to Battersea Arts Centre and takes a couple of hours, I am doing it next as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival on 24th May. Just let me know and I will book you in – but I should say that I do it as a Labour Party fund-raiser and charge £10.

However, I have had no reply to the question about the third picture: “what and where is this”? I have to admit that it was difficult to take a very clear picture but it is a boot scraper set in the wall. There are 3 or 4 in consecutive houses on the west side of Latchmere Road immediately opposite Knowsley Road. This is the best preserved of the set and is at 46 Latchmere Road.

January 10, 2015  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere January Newsletter (# 68)

   December highlights

  1. I went to Nightingale School on 1st December. It is meant to be for difficult children. There is, of course, an “acceptable” description and that is an EBDS school or a school for pupils with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. Let’s be honest: I was not impressed. OK, so I am no expert but in many ways this school felt more like a prison than a school. I will be keeping a close eye on it in future. I do not think it is the sort of place in which we ought to be raising our kids, even if (or especially if) they are children with difficulties.
  2. On the 8th I had the so-called Education and Standards Group, no excitement there, and on the next day the December Council Meeting. This was difficult for me! Having not been Leader of the Opposition for the best of part of four years now, I have got used to not playing as large a role in the Council Meeting but with many more Labour councillors (good thing) and far fewer Council meetings (really bad thing) for the first time in my memory – for the first time for 40 years maybe – I didn’t say a word! OK, I mock, and maybe I am taking the mickey out of myself to a degree. Nonetheless, our (the councillors that is) lessening role in the whole operation does make me wonder where democracy is going  – at least at the local level. Should we just let the local government officers get on with it – make them all in effect national civil servants? Of course, I don’t think so. What do you think?
  3. Two days later I did see an interesting play at the Royal Court in Sloane Square called Hope, which posed many of the same issues. In the play, when the councillors refused to impose any more government imposed cuts, the civil servants did take over and everything got cut. I wrote a review of the play that you can see a couple of entries back on this blog.
  4. Talking of which did you?????????????????? see/know about the Council’s threat to close Battersea’s Sports Centre in Hope Street. It was “announced” to the staff on 16th December. The Sports Centre is very busily used by well over 20 sports clubs and local organisations and it is not as though the area is over-endowed with alternatives. What did the Council’s own reports about the 2011 riots say – there was not a lot for young people to do in the area. But now they want to close down one of the busiest centres of them all! There is a petition for signature at the following address http://www.willtowin.org.uk/#!save-battersea-sports-centre/c150j if you wish to express your opposition.
  5. The Planning Applications Committee was on the 16th. There was one significant local application, which was for shopping and housing development on the site of the Prince’s Head pub in Falcon Road. The pub has been far from popular with some of its neighbours for many years now and the thought of it being replaced with shops and 27 housing units will be welcome. The development at some 4/5 storeys will fit in with the general scale of the 1970’s estate. However, it is not the first time that an application has been approved for this site and there is no guarantee that it will happen; but let’s hope that it proceeds.
  6. There were two much larger applications on sites many Latchmere residents will know well. The first in the rather shambolic area immediately opposite Battersea Park Railway Station. It will include St. Mary’s Catholic School, Lockington Road, Patcham Terrace and railway viaducts and arches including a number of small neighbouring sites. The new development will have 290 housing units and a new purpose-built two-form entry school. There will also be a direct access route from Battersea Park station to a new entrance to Queenstown Road Station passing along what will effectively be a new road with shops and offices. One of the blocks will be 16 storeys high but although I am usually opposed to yet more high buildings in Battersea I thought that this was rather a good scheme and supported it.
  7. The second application is in the heart of Wandsworth and includes Welbeck House, yes the Council’s old Social Services Department, and the Housing Department office in 17-27 Garratt Lane, along with some South Thames College land. The application was for 201 residential units, 25% “affordable”, some commercial space and a new Wandsworth Town Centre library. But it also went up to 26 storeys and included some pretty uninspired looking architecture. I didn’t like it much and voted against.
  8. I spent Xmas with grandchildren and had a HAPPY NEW YEAR’s Eve at a Jazz Club I rather like in Streatham!.

My Programme for January 

  1. I know some of you know about my wonky knee, thanks to a cycling holiday in Holland in September, 2013. Well on January 7th I had a minor operation, an “arthroscopy”, on that and, whilst strictly for my next newsletter, I will say that it seems to have gone quite well, though a bit stiff and sore. More next month!
  2. On the 12th I am going to the launch of a new Wandsworth Radio station, which is going to be based in Latchmere, in Battersea Park Road. There has been an internet based radio station covering Wandsworth called Raider’s for some time, but this new one is aimed solely at Wandsworth. Interesting and I hope I can tell you more about it and its launch next month.
  3. Yet again I have the so-called Education and Standards Group on 15th January.
  4. The Planning Applications Committee will be on the 20th.
  5. And then in the diary there is a “Special” Council Meeting on the 28th, but I don’t know why and I guess it is not going to happen! – so actually I haven’t got much on in January!

You may recall that last month I asked “Did you or do you know Fara Williams?” 00P9

 

Well, I am afraid that there has not been any response as yet so I thought I’d go a bit further and test you out with a few views taken between Xmas and NY.

Here they are with a couple of quiz questions:-

?????????????????  On the left, what and where is this?

And where is this below, what would it be called up North (Yorkshire & Lancashire), and which roads does it link? ???????????????????

 

 

 

Where is this gypsy encampment? This one is a stone’s throwCulvert Gypsy camp outside Latchmere. The other two are in the ward.

 

 

 

January 9, 2015  

High Rise developments in London – and Battersea

Just in case anyone out there still believes that the development of high rise residential blocks, on the Battersea river-front and all round the Nine Elms Lane area, has anything to do with housing need or provision of housing for Londoners then see “The Super-Rich and Us” on iPlayer BBC2 last night, 8th January at 9 pm.

This is an excellent analysis by Jacques Peretti of the tax haven and property speculation hub London has become with Battersea playing one of the major roles in the property area. The one thing it misses out on is, not only are these properties nothing whatsoever to do with supplying demand, but they are actually worsening the position.

I am not sure quite how to prove my point but I have more than sufficient anecdotal “evidence” to suggest that the ludicrous property boom along the Battersea river-front far from reducing prices in the market (which is surely what classic economics would suggest) is actually encouraging house and rental inflation in the rest of Battersea/Vauxhall, etc.

This should be compulsory viewing for all those Tory councillors and their not inconsiderable number of Labour sympathisers who believe that building more and more is anything like a sufficient response to the housing crisis. We desperately need more control of the market – oh and pretty hefty taxation of the rich!

December 30, 2014  

Hope by Jack Thorne at the Royal Court

Compulsory entertainment for Labour councillors struggling with Tory cuts in local government!

Saw this play at the Royal Court just before Xmas and I thoroughly recommend it for all Labour councillors and perhaps for some LDs and Tories too. It reminded me very strongly of my own experiences many years ago when as a raw, young Labour councillor I thought that Ted Heath was setting about destroying local government with his Housing Finance Act. It may seem odd now to think of the contortions that we went through then and all over a 50P enforced rent rise on Council tenants but this play recalled some of the same raw emotions.

The claustrophobic nature of politics comes through strongly. Non-politicians may think that practising politicians get absurdly isolated from the “people” but the voters don’t usually have the experience of the hot-house, or any idea of the pressures and of the criticism. This play gives a taste of what it is like.

How much do you cut? How much of a gesture of opposition do you pose to the overwhelming power of Whitehall? Do you fight to the last and leave the final decisions to the civil servants drafted in to take over? Or do you sell your conscience down the river and win a few small concessions? Do you take the pain of local opposition by trimming? Or the contempt of your electorate for ducking the issue?

One difference from the 1970s, as I recall them, is the absence of the “revolting” masses. Then we had marches on Town Halls and national federations of tenant associations urging on the rebels. Today, with the threat to local government arguably even greater than it was then, just where are the protests against this government’s suicidal austerity policy. I suppose the difference is that we lost that battle against central government dictation and, since then, everyone has known that in the end Whitehall will win.

Ironically, of course, the masses might win with the coming defeat of all the mainstream parties, leaving us with years of resolving the differences between left and right without any party really articulating the left. Is that the irony in the title – Hope? Is Thorne suggesting that the only hope is for the Labour Party to come out of its slumbers and issue a rallying call to the left? I would like to think so, but my word, there is some way to go!

PS Tom Georgeson, Wandsworth LP member, takes the acting plaudits with his portrayal of the ex-Leader of this gritty small, northern town. The dramatic action is limited, even if the politics is raw and real.

PPS The Housing Finance Act, 1971, led to central, nationalised control of council rents, which previously had been entirely in the control of local authorities, who had been free to subsidise rents from other council funds. It began by enforcing a 50P rent increase from 1st April 1972 and was resisted by many Labour authorities. It may have only been 50P but with hindsight it was clearly the first major defeat for local government, which has had more and more powers stripped from it ever since regardless of the bogus claims of increased localism by both the Blair/Brown and Cameron governments.

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