July highlights

1. On the 5th July I attended my favourite Latchmere (or anywhere) street party, the Triangle Party (Poyntz, Shellwood and Knowsley Road Roads triangle). The triangle is a natural cul-de-sac and makes for the best of parties. Last year the weather was pretty miserable but this year it was fantastic and everyone seemed to be having a great time. I certainly did and what is more I won the prize lottery ticket. I know councillors are supposed to give those prizes back but having bought a few raffle tickets in my time I thought at last I was entitled to accept this one. As you can see there was dancing in the streets..

The next day Andy Murray won Wimbledon, England won the first two Tests, Chris Froome won the Tour de France and the month ended with Lewis Hamilton winning the Hungarian Grand Prix. 2013 looks like competing with 2012 as one of the UK’s greatest year of sporting triumph –we are a nation of winners after all!

2. Battersea Park School Governors met on 8th July to hear the bad news that the school had failed its June Ofsted inspection. As Governors we were shocked. Two years ago we passed with flying colours and in 2011 we also achieved good exam results, but we knew that the 2012 cohort of kids were going to do rather poorly. Not that it was the pupils fault, they included a very high number of kids whose first language is not English. Ironically we expect this year’s results to be as good or better than 2011’s.

Last year the school applied to be an independent Academy (like Graveney and others in Wandsworth) but we were turned down because the school was considered to be too good. After that shattering experience the Governors had resolved to continue to be a local authority school. But now we have been told that we have no alternative but to become a sponsored Academy, that is sponsored by people like Harris (the carpet company) or Oasis, whose website says “the work of Oasis Community Learning is motivated and inspired by the life, message and example of Christ”.

I would like to make three comments about this situation. First that it is odd to be forced into Academy status a mere couple of weeks before this year’s results are due – especially given that the school expects them to be good, and perhaps even very good. Second that the Ofsted Report was produced by an outsourced team of inspectors from an organisation called Tribal Inspections. It does not seem to be a very accountable organisation and those teachers and governors who were interviewed by them were not impressed by their methodology or their objectivity. Third, the refusal to accept our request to become an Academy last year and yet to force it upon us this year suggests a distinct uncertainty of purpose on the Government’s part! What will happen next? See this space but one thing I am fairly certain of, lots of money will be spent on the building – it needs it. The Government cannot afford to get its education policies wrong!

3. There were two Planning Applications Committees in July, one on the 3rd and the other on the 23rd. As far as Latchmere residents were concerned the most interesting application on the 3rd was the approval of the plan to demolish the current Crown pub in Battersea High Street and replace it with a pub and 9 flats. This was not a popular application with many local residents opposing it, and I voted against it. But in all honesty it was difficult to argue against an application to re-build a pub and add 9 flats above it – at least under present planning laws.

The 23rd Committee was dominated by the major application for the redevelopment Ram Brewery in Wandsworth Town Centre. It may not be in Latchmere but it will affect all Wandsworth. The previous application, which included two 42 storey tower blocks, was “called in” for decision by the then Labour Secretary of State as a result of a request from the then Battersea M.P., Martin Linton. This next application was, as all Committee members, Labour and Tory, agreed, very much better. It includes 661 residential units, a small brewery, plenty of shopping and entertainment uses, improved settings for the many historical elements of the old Brewery and a gym. But it also included a 36 storey tower block and this was very contentious. It is opposed by the Wandsworth and Battersea Societies and many local residents.

I voted against. I am not happy with a tower block almost twice as high as any other building in Wandsworth, except those giants going up in Vauxhall. But I have to accept that most of the application looked quite good. My hope was that we could negotiate something even better but the application went through. As a result, I suspect that the long-overdue redevelopment of Wandsworth Town Centre will start soon and much of it I think will be rather good.

4. On the 10th July we had the final Council meeting before the summer break. The main debate was about education and the Council’s now desperate search for more school places. You may remember that the Council sold and/or demolished 10 schools in the 1990’s and the early years of this century. Joseph Tritton school in Latchmere was one, but were many others elsewhere. But now the Council is having to build class-rooms in playgrounds and build new schools. It’s been a very expensive mistake and many parents are worried about exactly where their children will find a school place.

5. On 11th July I attended a briefing about the £100 million regeneration plan for Latchmere, covering the Winstanley and York Road estates. There is nothing definite to report yet but the planning consultants, engaged by the Council, to come up with a “grand plan” gave us an indication of their first, very outline thoughts. They intend to produce a plan for consultation in early 2014. Later that same evening I went to the Battersea Society Annual summer party at St. Mary’s Church

6. Sadly, I missed the Big Local party in York Gardens on 18th July but I am told that everyone had a good time and that it went very well. The York Gardens area does not always enjoy the greatest reputation outside the immediate area but there are real signs of a much improved community spirit developing here.

7. On Saturday, 20th July, Battersea Labour Party took over the York Gardens Library to hear from our candidates to oppose Jane Ellison at the 2015 General Election. We heard from former Latchmere Cllr Sam Heath, Cllr Sheila Boswell, Dr Sundar Thavapalasundaram and Martin Linton’s election organiser in 2005, Will Martindale. We were pleased with the qualities and abilities displayed by all candidates but Will Martindale won by a clear and handsome majority. He therefore becomes, in the jargon, our PPC or Prospective Parliamentary Candidate – Will is pictured here after the selection.

Will currently works for Oxfam, engaging the financial sector on their responsibilities to the developing world. He used to work in finance for JPMorgan in London and New York. Given the economy will dominate the next election, and that many Battersea residents work in the financial service industries, he is an excellent choice for Battersea. Will also volunteered for Rwanda Aid, a charity based on the Rwanda Congo border, where he worked with the families of genocide victims to rebuild homes and schools.

8. On the 3rd July I had the pleasure of taking about 30 kids to meet Wandsworth’s Mayor, visit the Council Chamber and talk with the Chief Executive. They were under the leadership of Victoria Rodney of the Mercy Foundation, which is in Falcon Road just behind the Prince’s Head. It was a great couple of hours and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Here is a picture of them all on the steps in the so-called marble hall at the Town Hall. I am the mature one in the back row! And the Mercy Foundation organiser, Victoria Rodney, is on the Mayor’s left.

9. The latest update on Grant Road exit from Clapham Junction station and the temporary bus-stop opposite Battersea Park School is that:-
“South West Trains say that the Grant Road entrance is officially open until 1am, although it is thought that in practice it stays open until after the last train at 01.20. The original opening times are shown on the wall of Falcon Road railway bridge” and
“TfL say that they are obtaining a traffic management order for a new bus stop for Beechmore Road, and the road markings should be installed by 10th August”, implying that the stop will be reopened around this time. We will see!

My Programme for August

1. Is not a lot – it is after all August but as ever the Planning Applications Committee takes place on the 6th.

2. My fellow councillors and I are considering what we can do to safeguard the future of Wandsworth’s pubs. This is because the Wheatsheaf at Tooting Bec is under threat as is also the Trafalgar. Meanwhile here in Latchmere apart from the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Tavern that I wrote about last month, we have recently lost the Havelock Arms on the corner of Dagnall Street. Indeed I was talking to an old-timer (well sorry Ted but you lived in Culvert Road during the war, so I guess you qualify) and he tells me that what with the two on the corner of Battersea Park Road there were then 5 in Culvert Road alone! Indeed can I ask readers with a long memory in Battersea to help me start a list of the lost pubs of Battersea! There’s also the British Flag, of course!

3. And later in the month my partner and I depart for a, wait for it, cycling trip round Holland! Yes, I know it’s mad but there it is. One thing I plan to do is drop into Schiedam, a working class suburb of Rotterdam, which is incredibly twinned with Wandsworth. But it is far too Labour, well Social Democrat in Dutch terms, for Wandsworth ever to note, but as a Labour councillor I thought I would drop in and visit it!

Did you know that last month was the NHS’s 65th birthday?

This piece is about one of its founders – Caroline Ganley. It is a re-print from the September, 2009 newsletter but as it is about a hero of mine and the NHS’s birthday I thought it worth another outing.

Modest Ganley Court, immediately behind Sporle Court, was named after equally modest Caroline Selina Blumfield. Caroline was born in 1879 in Devon and died in 1966. She was an only child and her father died before she was born. Her mother, who was in service, put Caroline into an orphanage. In 1901 Caroline met and married James Ganley, a tailor cutter. They had a daughter and two sons and the family lived in lodgings in Meath Street, near Battersea Park station. Like most places in Battersea then, there was no bathroom, and so they moved to 5 Thirsk Road in 1910, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Caroline used to listen to speakers on Clapham Common, when it had its own Speakers’ Corner. She decided to join the Social Democratic Federation, a league of London Working Men’s Clubs and also became a member of Battersea Women’s Socialist Circle. In 1909 Caroline was catapulted into speaking publicly for the first time, when as the only member and chair at a meeting where Charlotte Despard was the invited speaker, Caroline found herself replying to questions when Despard had to leave. One Sunday a few years later James returned from Trafalgar Square to tell her that he had volunteered her as the only women speaker on the platform at a demonstration against the visit of the Czar!

During the war Caroline wrote a strong letter to the Sunday Chronicle proposing that Servicemen’s wives allowance should be paid through the Post Office and thanks to her this was duly accepted and became the practice. By 1918 Caroline had become a member of the Labour Party. In 1919 Caroline Ganley, along with Mrs. Duval and Mrs. Hockley, was elected as one of the very first female councillors in Battersea. As chair of the Health and Child Welfare Committee she was instrumental in getting a Maternity Home established in Bolingbroke Grove. It was her proudest legacy.

She was among the first 131 women appointed as JPs (Justice of the Peace or a magistrate) in 1920. She was elected to represent north Battersea on the London County Council which Labour came to control in 1934. After 8 years as the prospective parliamentary candidate in Battersea South she won the seat in 1945 aged 65 alongside Douglas Jay in North Battersea. She was one of the 24 women elected, 21 of whom were Labour. She and James were the first couple to celebrate their Golden Jubilee in the House of Commons in 1951 not long before she lost the seat by 494 votes.

She was elected on to Battersea Council after an absence of 28 years in 1953, and re-elected in 56, 59, and 62 and was awarded a CBE. When Battersea was incorporated with Wandsworth she wrote a poem lamenting the passing of Battersea as a Borough. When Clem Attlee died she paid a moving tribute to him at an election meeting in support of Ernie Perry who became her successor in Battersea South. She was then 85 – a formidable woman. When she died in 1966 one tribute to her in the South Western Star remarked ‘Her mind was very acute and her ability to draw together the threads of the most rambling discussion was legendary. She was a great pioneer – the most outstanding woman the co-op has produced at a time when few women took part in public life.’

June highlights

1. The latest update on Grant Road exit from Clapham Junction station and the temporary bus-stop opposite Battersea Park School is that:-
“South West Trains say that the Grant Road entrance is officially open until 1am, although it is thought that in practice it stays open until after the last train at 01.20. The original opening times are shown on the wall of Falcon Road railway bridge” and
“TfL say that they are obtaining a traffic management order for a new bus stop for Beechmore Road, and the road markings should be installed by 10th August, implying that the stop will be reopened around this time.

I may be away around 10th August but it would helpful if any reader of this email affected by this bus stop issue would let me know when it is up and running again. But how long does it take to get something, anything done!

2 As stated last month I did lead a Battersea (at least 50% in Latchmere) history walk on 1st June as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival. It went very well and was appreciated by all who went on it. My mention of it in the newsletter meant two of you asked about the next one. Well I need interest from just a few more people but I would be willing to do another, if you are interested, probably in October. It costs £10 per head, kids free, takes about 2 hours at a gentle stroll, and I guarantee that I will teach you something about the neighbourhood that you don’t know. Kids are welcome and, of course, free. We start on the corner of Albert Bridge Road and Battersea Park Road right opposite the Latchmere pub. If you are interested then please email me.

3 I mentioned that we, three councillors, were going to hold a councillors’ surgery in the Falcon Road mosque. We did on Friday, 7th June. It brought us into contact with many “hard cases” who perhaps we wouldn’t normally see at the standard surgeries. One major problem was/is language; particularly for one very elderly couple I had a great deal of difficulty understanding. Their children had got them out of civil war and horrendous barbarism in Mogadishu, Somalia, but they were clearly far too old to adjust to a completely different climate, culture and life. But for most, the problems were just like everyone else’s – mainly about housing.

4 Again there was not a lot to talk about in June’sPlanning Applications Committee on June 6th, though one application was interesting and especially perhaps for Latchmere residents and the area to the north of us. There was an application to build a bicycle and footbridge across the Thames from Lombard Road to Chelsea Harbour. This would run parallel and 50 yards upstream of the railway bridge (the Cremorne Bridge pictured here) and certainly be a fun route to Stamford Bridge! The real problem is though that it might cost £20 million and no one has promised any funding. But the applicants are quite bullish about getting some – watch this space.

5 On Tuesday 12th Wendy Speck and I had a coffee morning with theresidents of Holmleigh Court in Plough Road and on the 20th the residents of the Carey Gardens Pensioners’ Centre. On each occasion we spent a pleasant couple of hours discussing everything under the sun, including the refurbishment of Holmleigh Court’s windows, which are currently being worked on as you can see from this photograph.

6 On 16th June Battersea Labour Party members were at a barbecue to meet the 17 potential candidates to take on Jane Ellison at the next General Election. As you know I don’t talk political party matters in this newsletter but I thought it would be of general interest to everyone, including Jane who I know reads my words with keen interest (Hello Jane), to know that Battersea Labour Party will be making its choice in July. Candidates that many of you will know include Sheila Boswell, currently a Tooting councillor, Sam Heath, formerly a Latchmere councillor and GLA member, and Will Martindale, Martin Linton’s agent in the 2005 General Election.

7 The Housing Committee on the 19th June was packed with long and rather technical papers, which were largely of interest to those who love the minutiae of Committee life. But there were a couple of interesting changes. First the Council is trying to redress the balance in the housing waiting list between “need” and length of time on the list. This is not a simple question – ask yourself whether you think length of time on the waiting list is more important than needing a ground floor flat, say, because you can’t manage the stairs and there is no lift in your block. Well, for good or ill, we decided to give slightly more points than we have done previously for time on the list.

Secondly the Council is looking to increase the supply of private rented accommodation by helping to fund housing associations to build and provide properties to rent. Not sure exactly what I think about that. Before Mrs Thatcher more or less put a stop to building council houses it would have been unthinkable for Councils to pay others to do it instead of doing it themselves. However, “the times they are a-changing” and this long overdue initiative is better than doing nothing.

8 The main items of interest on the Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee on the 24th were:-
the adoption of a 20 mph speed zone in West Putney, which I suspect is going to lead to similar zones in the rest of the Borough with Little India being a prime candidate;
further added momentum to the now certain development of the Northern Line to Battersea Park – but not yet to Clapham Junction; and
the planned Crossrail2 plans to link Clapham Junction through to North East London via a high gauge underground rail-line – but that will only come in 2030!

9 I was chastised last month for not mentioning the one o’clock clubs, for which apologies. I should point out, however, that I am writing “my” monthly diary as a Latchmere councillor, in which Council events feature highly but I am not writing a complete authorised news coverage of the Council. However, I am sure that you will be pleased to hear that, thanks to the campaigning of many parents, mainly mums of course, with some little support from Labour councillors, much of the one o’clock club service has been saved – but unfortunately not the one in Battersea Park.

10 And finally I went to a friend’s garden party and thought I’d just put in this picture of me and my “grand-daughter” Scarlett.

My Programme for July

1. The Planning Applications Committee on the 3rd July has some interesting items on the agenda but that’s for next month.

2. I have an important Battersea Park School Governors meeting on the 8th of which again much more next month.

3. On the 10th July we have the final Council meeting before the summer break..

4. On 20th July Battersea Labour Party members will be at the York Gardens Library to choose our champion (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate or PCC as they are called in the trade) to oppose Jane Ellison in May, 2015. Do we need a female candidate to oppose a female MP? Or is it actually better to have a man? Or is this old fashioned gender politics and it doesn’t matter just as long as we have the best candidate – that is my position. Well by the end of the month we will know what the local Labour party has decided – Oh, and by the way, just in case you are captivated by the news stories about Falkirk let me assure you that it will be our members and not some outside party (trade union) who will decide.

5. Oh, and I might be away on hols by the end of the month!.

Have you heard of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Tavern?

This pub was popularly believed to have the longest pub name in Britain and it was here in Latchmere ward until quite recently. This picture of shows it as it is today, simply 43 Cabul Road, opposite the back entrance to the Sacred Heart Primary School. But it was a pub well into the 1970s and maybe much later than that.

You may well ask how did we get a pub with a name like that. Well as the expansion of the railways grew apace around about the middle of the nineteenth century, the towns of north and east Kent, places like Ramsgate and Margate, between Chatham and Dover, were concerned that they were being left out of the rail revolution that was linking Brighton, Eastbourne, Folkestone and Hastings to London. They got Parliamentary approval to start building in the late 50s, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) company became a public entity in 1858, the link to Victoria came in 1860 and Wandsworth Town station was opened in 1861.

Why all the railways bound for the south west should terminate at Waterloo, in south east London, and all the trains for eastern Kent come into Victoria in the south west (though some do go to London Bridge) is I am sure a fascinating study. But in summary, many private railway companies competed for access to London and instead of the tracks being part of a nation-wide plan, they were a random chance of land deals and the availability of sites. The end result was known as the “Battersea Tangle”, a nineteenth century version of our modern Spaghetti Junction on the motorway system, just north of Birmingham.

Although not originally planned, it became necessary to build a junction at the heart of the “Battersea Tangle” and hence we have Battersea Junction, incorrectly known as Clapham Junction, the biggest junction railway station in Europe (it used to be the biggest and busiest in the world but I suspect some Tokyo stations now rival it).

Unsurprisingly Battersea became very much a railway town. Indeed the Chatham, as the LCDR was known, not only ran through Battersea but later developed their major engineering works at Longhedge, near the current Stewart’s Lane Depot. Most of the railway workers lived very close to their jobs and hence it was perhaps not surprising that when a new pub was opened in the late nineteenth century it called itself the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Tavern.

April highlights

1. Have you noticed that the Grant Road exit from Clapham Junction station has been kept open until 1 a.m. It used to be closed at any time after 10 pm but I raised the matter in January at a Passengers’ Liaison Committee with the representatives of Network Rail and they announced at the Committee on the 8th April that they have decided to keep the gate opened in future. Big success for local lobbying power 1.

2. Meanwhile I hope to have persuaded the Council and Transport for London to install a temporary bus-stop opposite Battersea Park School. The main stop had been closed because of the development on the old Labour Exchange, meaning that there was a very long gap between the Latchmere Pub and Alexandra Road. I had complaints from a couple of pensioners and a temporary stop should be in place shortly. Thanks to local residents for raising the issue and big success for local lobbying power 2.

3. The main item of interest at the Planning Applications Committee on 11th April was, unusually, a Latchmere item – the expansion or otherwise of the Falcon Road Mosque. I have sent out quite a few emails on this matter to many of the local residents most concerned and so I won’t repeat them all here, but I will make a quick reference to the consultation.

I have been through all the consultation comments and categorised them as best I could – I took no notice of anonymous support or opposition. Of the 215 responses in favour of the application, 53 came from within Latchmere ward and another 98 came from other parts of the Borough. 65 came from outside the Borough. Most of these responses were simple statements of support for the mosque, with many mentioning lack of facilities.

Those opposing the plans numbered 106, of which 105 gave addresses in the Borough (the one outsider says he is a landlord of property very near to the mosque), 90 of whom were within Latchmere and the vast majority of these were from Little India, Fownes/Este Roads and the immediate area on the other side of Falcon Road. In the nature of “opposing”, these responses were much more detailed and largely centred on the traffic and parking implications of an expanded mosque. Many of these “opposition” responses said very positive things about having a mosque in the neighbourhood, with some clearly coming from “traditional” British style names expressing pride in being part of a mixed, multi-ethnic community with a mosque in it. The second largest voice of criticism, after the traffic, was aimed at what people thought of as over-development of the site. There was only one opponent, who got anywhere near to saying that the mosque shouldn’t even be there.

Clearly opinion was very divided but those living closest to the mosque were the least happy about the application and also felt more strongly about the application than those supporting it. Most encouragingly the debate was held in a very civilised fashion, which might not have been the case. In the event, the application was refused.

4. On 8th April Mrs. Thatcher died and divided the country in death as much as she had done in life. As it happens I was due to attend a meeting of the Labour Heritage Society on the Saturday the 13th, when the main presentation was about Mr. Clement Attlee, born in Putney as it happened and the Labour Prime minister, who ruled for the six years between Churchill’s great wartime administration and Churchill’s rather less successful second peacetime administration. It was difficult to come away from the presentation by Francis Beckett without believing that Attlee was by head and shoulders the greatest peacetime prime minister of the twentieth century.

Now I don’t expect to persuade my Tory colleagues of this argument and certainly not in this newsletter but if you would like to read my thoughts on Mrs. T then I have quite a long piece in my blog at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/. Take a dip.

5. On Sunday, 14th April, I attended a fascinating meeting of the Church of St. Mary of Debre Tsion and of the Ethiopian Community in London. You may have seen the congregation, the ladies all dressed in white, in Queenstown Road of a Sunday morning – but not recently. They have been locked out of St. Philips Church, which the Ethiopian Orthodox bought off the Anglicans for, apparently, £2 million, by their own clergy. The meeting was conducted in the Ethiopian language of Amharic and with some translation I gathered it was a “constitutional coup” with the congregation turning out the clergy – not often that a councillor gets to see a peaceful revolution in the making!

6. On 16h April, I went to the Battersea Library to hear a presentation on the centenary of John Archer’s installation as the first black mayor of Battersea – strangely there had been a man of Indian descendant as Mayor of, of all places, little rural Thetford in Norfolk, otherwise Archer would have been the first in the UK. Archer was a Latchmere councillor and hence one of my predecessors. He lived in Brynmaer Road, then a much more down-market street, and ran a photographer’s shop in Battersea Park Road – have you seen the blue plaque? – look out for it. The presentation was given by Kwaku, an “history consultant” clearly intent on raising the black profile in British history.

7. The Harling Court Residents Association met on 17th April. Residents there expressed reasonable concerns about the development built alongside them on the old Travis Perkins site but one good thing has come from that development and that is the recent installation at Harling Court of security doors.

8. On the 23rd, 24th and 25th I had the Planning and Transport, Finance and Corporate Resources, and Housing Committees. That might sound dull to you but on the whole they were duller than even that sounds! So a quick mention of the interesting bits from Planning. Further analysis of the 2011 census shows:-

• that the Borough’s car population is in decline, with 54.7% of us owning one, as opposed to 59.3% in 2001 – there are of course more of us!
• Wandsworth has the highest proportion of people in the UK aged 30-44
• We have the second highest proportion of non-related households, that is flat sharers
• 53.3% of us claim to be white British, but we had some of the highest counts of non-British whites from Irish to Polish to Oz
• 35% of us were not born in the UK
• With 54% of us having degrees or higher we are the second highest qualified population in the UK or 3rd if you count the miniscule population of the City of London

9. The Finance and Corporate Resources Committee had no immediately gripping matters under consideration but marked the next stage in the Government’s attack on local government services with large scale programmes of privatisation and out-sourcing. I feel strongly about all this and will have to get round to doing a blog on it some time trying to articulate my discomfort with it all – but not now – too big a subject.

10. The Housing Committee continues to tighten up the rules governing the allocation of council housing but, whilst I don’t like the changes, I realise that I am probably in a minority of one on the issue and in any case the changes are fairly minimal.

11. On the 30th many councillors attended a teach-in about Children Looked After. This very important group is, I guess, almost unknown to most constituents. It is about the 200 children in Wandsworth, there are 65,000 in the country, taken into care and for whom councillors have a personal and collective responsibility as in loco parentis – or in translation “in the place of parents”. Ever since the dreadful case of Baby P, when you may remember a small boy died through hopeless parenting and inadequate social service support, the Government has made it clear that in principle councillors are in loco parentis. What a responsibility!

My Programme for May

1. There is a Planning Applications Committee on the 8th May.

2. I said last month that I was going to a guest lecture from the poet laureate at Roehampton University. I got the date wrong! It is on 1st May!

3. The second week of May is traditionally the high point of the Municipal Year. On the 13th there is a reception for the outgoing Mayor, on the 15th the Annual Council Meeting and on the 16th the installation of the new Mayor. I must confess that I rather enjoy the week even if not many of my colleagues do!

4. There doesn’t seem to be much else on but here is advance notice of a history walk that I am leading on 1st June at 2pm as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival. It costs £10 per head and I guarantee that I will teach you something about the neighbourhood that you don’t know. We start on the corner of Albert Bridge Road and Battersea Park Road right opposite the Latchmere pub. If you are thinking of coming then please email me – nice to know the numbers to expect.

Did you know?

That Darius Knight is a Battersea boy, or more particularly a Latchmere boy? And this is Darius in his 2012 GB team kit. You don’t know about him? Well this is his story.

Born in about 1990 (he is 23 now), Darius went to Joseph Tritton school, now the Chillington Drive estate off Wynter Street, and Christchurch. When he was a kid he spent all his time in the York Gardens Adventure Playground (demolished last year by the Council!) and in the community centre, climbing on the apparatus and playing football – but also messing about on an outdoor table tennis table and on another inside the community centre.

He tells me that he spent hours playing round table, table tennis – that is where any number of kids play at the same time but after each shot the player has to go round the table and wait his turn until his turn comes round to play the next shot and you drop out one at a time when you miss until there are only two players left. They then play for the winning point. I can tell you from my own experience (Yes, I remember playing it), it is all action packed, fast and furious fun.

Anyway Darius turns out to be the best at this game and one day, yes the fairy story, he is spotted by a coach. A year or so later having dropped the soccer and the sprinting, he was a full-time student at a Table Tennis academy in Nottingham – quite a plucky decision for a youngster that age to take – up sticks and leave mum and home to be a boarder at a sporting academy in a distant town.

And then Darius starts a whirlwind sporting career, which included going to a Eurokids competition in Terni, Italy, the Portuguese Youth Open at aged 13, becoming Britain’s No 1 Under 15, being in the Under 21s European Final at the age of 18, winning gold in both the singles and the doubles of the Youth Olympics in Sydney, and winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.

Of course, the big target was the London, 2012 Olympics, for which he had become a mega-star of the hoardings being one of the faces used by Coke- Cola for advertising both the Games and Coke. But the Coke deal seems to have caused a bit of friction and as it turns out Darius did not make the final pick despite being in the squad.

Now, I sense Darius is at a turning point in his career. He is keen to help get kids off the street and round the tennis tables in York Gardens or the Katherine Low Settlement – he is very honest (and charming) about training and table tennis straightening him out after a couple of primary school suspensions but before he was too old and exposed to really going off the rails. He plays professionally in tournaments in Europe and is based in Vienna so as to be close to the big Euro action, which seems to be in Northern Italy, Munich and round and about. He wants (and needs?) sponsorship style deals but he also wants to train and concentrate on the Rio Olympics in 2016.

And Battersea and other things? his mum lives on the Dodd, and his gran (and for a while he) lived in Este Road until she died fairly recently at the age of 102. He has a girlfriend called Jordan, no not that one, and enjoys himself listening to 50 Cent – no I hadn’t heard of him either but he is a rapper called Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent.

March highlights

1. There was a Council meeting on Wednesday, 6th March. The headline debate was on the Council Tax but I guess that most will know that there has been a small increase, an increase which Labour opposed. I think more important was a further debate about the next round of cuts, which look like causing mayhem with Council services. I am sorry to say that in my view we, Wandsworth Labour councillors, have been a bit supine in accepting the pressures on the Council. We all know that national government holds all the cards and that a Labour Council would have to be cutting almost as savagely as the Tories, but I do think we should be making a noise about it all.

David Cameron and George Osborne have got the economy seriously wrong and everyone, except those blinded by Tory publicity, is beginning to realise it. Wandsworth Tories have little alternative but to support their government but Labour should be shouting from the rooftops that these cuts are damaging the country and destroying the economy both nationally and locally. The bedroom tax alone will take £3million a year out of the Wandsworth economy.

2. I went to the Big Local meeting at Providence House on the 7th and a couple of Battersea Park School governor meetings but on the whole I have had a fairly quiet month a little handicapped not only by the appalling weather but also by a bit of poor health, happily now on the mend.

3. There was not much to excite at the Planning Applications Committee on 12th March, although we did see the first reaction to the invasion of Boris Bike docking stations. An application for a docking station in Lavender Gardens was due to be considered but I put a spoke in the wheels and got the application deferred. We will see in April just what the Committee decide to do but public opposition is mounting.

I realise that some of my cycling friends will be a little peeved with me for this but I have no regrets. I think that TfL are going very much OTT (over the top) on Boris bikes. We will see whether I am right or not but a large bike docking station every 300 yards might well be appropriate for central London but it seems a bit much here in Wandsworth.

4. On 4th March there was a small celebration of Clapham Junction’s 150th birthday as a major station. I know some constituents were keen to be there. My real regrets are that I was not feeling well enough to get there!

5. On 25th March I went to a small “arts theatre” in Camden to see a play called,“The Briefcase”. Here is a picture of it, why? Because it is mine and was centre stage! The play was written by Timothy Turner, who is the son of my fellow Labour councillor, Billi Randall from Tooting. I won’t fill this newsletter with the details but you can see a review of the play in my blog at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/.

6. I noticed one day in late March that the mock Tudor gatehouse to the Peabody Estate had disappeared, that is the one at the corner of Boutflower Road and Strath Terrace. The demolition of the Peabody Estate had begun. I decided to visit that afternoon and take some photographs of the old estate before it was just a fading memory. I know it was not much to write home about but it is amazing how quickly memories fade and so here is a quick selection of photographs of the Peabody.

Three views of the Peabody, including the Eckstein Road gatehouse

My Programme for April

1. There is a Planning Applications Committee on the 11th April, on the same day as the police Special Neighbourhood Team.

2. I am going to a guest lecture from the poet laureate at Roehampton University on the 12th.

3. On the 23rd I have the Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee followed on the 25th by the Housing Committee.

4. On the 30th all councillors are having a teach-in about Children Looked After. This very important session is, I guess, almost unknown to most constituents. It is about councillors personal and collective responsibility for children looked after by the Council. Ever since the dreadful case of Baby P, when you may remember a small boy died through hopeless parenting and inadequate social service support, the Government has made it clear that in principle councillors are in loco parentis, i.e. we are in the position of being parents and have their legal responsibilities. What a responsibility!

Do you know?

Senia Dedic? I first met Senia as Secretary of the Falcon Road estate residents association (FERA – the little known estate behind Falcon Road on the opposite side from Grant road). It was obvious that she was a special person with a very special history, so I decided to interview her for my newsletter.

Senia was born in Sarajevo, then in Sarajevo but now the capital of Bosnia. Do you recall the Yugoslav wars and the bombing of Sarajevo in the early 1990s? Well Senia was there. She tells me, “It was devastating to hear the Soviet built MIGs flying overhead. I remember being in a basement cellar hearing the bombs explode above us. In one night I counted 586, before I stopped counting. My fiancé (now husband) was in the newly formed Bosnian army and to my despair went to the front line.”

“Then water, electricity, telephone and food ran out. Bread queues were bombed and thousands of hungry people were killed every day. I spent 4 months in the local communal basement with my parents and our neighbours and Mum and Dad were begging me to leave the city and the bloodshed. I left the city on the last available bus to the Croatian border. From there I had to hitchhike to Zagreb and get the train to Zurich where my sister lived. After further adventures I decided to come to London and settle in Battersea. These 20 years here are the longest, most stable period of my life”.

Five generations of her family lived under five regimes in Sarajevo, from old empires, to the Soviet Block, to today. The family history is a microcosm of the turbulence and warfare that swept through the Balkans in the 20th century.

Here in Wandsworth, with her family pictured, Senia founded the Women of Wandsworth (WoW), and the Parents’ Forum, a drop-in centre where parents bring their issues and worries.

WoW also formed a voluntary community organisation called SpaceMax to tackle overcrowding in Wandsworth by helping people make shelves, fold down desks and beds, help with de-cluttering homes, making partition walls, etc.

WoW runs an intergenerational project and a Kids project, which organises educational and residential trips for urban children to a working farm in Devon.

Senia is a Governor at Christ Church School, a Katherine Low Settlement Trustee; and a member of Battersea Rotary Club. She started the PTA and was a founder of Positive Parent Action, representing the voice of parents with disabled children. (One of her own children is a patient in Great Ormond Street, where Senia is a Member of the Hospital Trust).

Appropriate, I think, that Senia was awarded the Mayor’s Team Award for her outstanding contribution to improving London and the quality of life for Londoners.