March highlights

1.   Last month, I reported that the Council had decided to “spend” £100 million on Latchmere and Roehampton wards, and that the Big Lottery has also allocated a separate £1 million to Latchmere. Since then I have set up a meeting on 29^th March with the Big Lottery “facilitator”, Helen Garforth – officially the “Big Local Representative”, when she will be able to meet many local interest groups, such as resident associations, youth groups, women’s groups, councillors and town hall officers. Helen will tell us what the Lottery Fund is prepared to grant fund and how we go about putting bids together.
2. Meanwhile we await developments on the Council’s plans for its £100 million infrastructure development, though many who live in the Grant Road, Plough Road, York Road and Falcon Road rectangle will by now have seen the Council’s first publicity flyer on the issue.
3. STOP PRESS. An hour and a half before the 29^th March meeting, there was a shooting in Plough Road. One young man was taken to hospital and, it is said, two others were seen “escaping” on a motor bike. This is not the place to talk about the shooting (I am sure the local Guardian and the police will have things to say about it), but it did mean that we had to move the meeting to Thames School. It also rather dramatically reminded us of some of the issues that need to be tackled in Latchmere.
4. The meeting itself was an early launch of what the Big Lottery Fund is trying to do with 150 projects nation-wide, £1million a time, aimed at helping isolated or more deprived communities to re-generate themselves – far too early though to give anything other than superficial comments. We did, however, learn the boundaries of the area concerned. It was Latchmere ward from the Eltringham School site to Culvert Road, and a small part of St. Mary Park, covering Badric Court and the very bottom end of Battersea High Street.
5.   The Planning Applications Committee met twice in March on the 5^th and 15^th. On the 5^th there were very large developments approved; one in the Nine Elms area, amounting to 1800 flats, plus associated retail and office developments. What with the notification of further very large developments on and around the Sainsbury’s store, Vauxhall and Nine Elms stand to be transformed into a mini-Manhattan over the next few years. I must admit to having my fears about this. First, I just can’t see where all the business is going to come from for the scale of retail development that is envisaged – what with us all increasingly shopping online. I am not at all sure that it will work. Secondly I haven’t seen much evidence of these massive developments adding much to the community. In many of the existing estates such as the one on Chelsea Bridge Approach, the number of residences that are empty for many weeks of the year is scandalous – such a lot of them seem to be owned by foreign companies wanting a London pad for the occasional convenience of their visiting senior staff.
6.   The 15^th March Planning Applications Committee had a lot of much smaller developments, though the approval of the Council’s plans to put 139 flats on to the Eltringham School site was of major interest (and concern) to many Latchmere residents, some of whom were at the Committee. Quite a few councillors expressed disappointment that the design was not very distinguished and that at 9 storeys, at the highest, it was just a bit over-sized, but unfortunately only I and one other councillor voted against it. There was also an approval for an extension in Rowditch Lane which has caused some controversy, with me asking some questions of the Town Hall on behalf of neighbours.
7.   As everyone knows the Government is cutting back on many forms of benefit as from 1^st April. Housing and Children’s benefits are perhaps the best known but some of the implications just might surprise you, as I discovered on 13^th March, when I was asked to join the residents of the Dovedale Cottage alms-houses in a meeting they had with their managers – the Pathway Trust – about their rents and management charges. (Dovedale Cottages are at the corner of Battersea Park Road and Latchmere Road and are pictured here).
8. The charging system is complicated but taken in the round the end result is a rent increase of 20%+. Some of this is down to a straight rent increase but other items include the Council withdrawing a financial support programme for pensioners. Despite writing to the Pathway Chief Executive I am rather afraid that I will not be able to prevent the increase and the sufferers will be the 20-30 residents nearly all of whom are pensioners and not very well off.
9.   On a personal note, I went to visit my Aunt Nen in rural Essex on 16^th March. So what? I hear you say, except that she is 101, as bright as a button and is the younger of the two of us in this photograph! Her family bought her a flight in a glider for her 90^th birthday – don’t think she did anything quite so thrilling a couple of years ago (she is actually nearly 102) but she did have a great 100^th birthday party – and of course has the telegram to prove it.
10.   On the 3^rd and 4^th, I went to Dieppe for the week-end. Why Dieppe? Well it isn’t Calais or Boulogne and it is an easy trip from Clapham Junction to Newhaven and then on the ferry. One problem though is that since they have abandoned the old rail ferries, instead of docking by the station, and essentially in the centre of town, you get left a mile out of town and with no services – OK for us but not what you’d fancy burdened with luggage and/or disability. And on the way back, whilst we were watching France vs Ireland on the box, our taxi failed to turn up and we ended up running and, would you believe it, hitching back to the ferry, which we almost leapt on as she sailed!
11. But one thing they do have organised very well is their public swimming pool. Built right on the beach it has spectacular play pools and Jacuzzis and a 50 metre open-air salt-water heated pool. If you ever go, do remember to take your trunks!
12. Here is a picture of our favourite bar in the old town, which has been much bashed about in the Second World War (though we, English, ably assisted by the Dutch, burnt it down in 1694 when we wanted to curb Louis XIV’s ambitions).
13.   At 4 pm on 31^st March I am going to a one man concert given by the Chair of the Battersea Labour Party, Will Martindale. I am really looking forward to that as he plays the piano and the cello; he plays classical and jazz. He is doing it as a charity event for Epilepsy Action at St. Nectarios Church in Wycliffe Road. If anyone wants to come along I would be delighted to introduce you.
14.   There was a by-election in Southfields on 29^th March. There was a pretty dramatic swing to Labour but the end result was a Tory victory with a 340 majority.

My Programme for April

1. You will be surprised about just how early this newsletter is. That is because I am off on Sunday for two weeks and my first real holiday for some years. I will talk about it next month.
2. I have Finance & Corporate Resources Committee on 17^th April.
3. The Planning Applications Committee meets on 18^th April.
4. And of course every councillor will be busy pestering you for your vote in the Mayoral Elections on May 3^rd. I wont use this newsletter as an electioneering tool – I promised not to when I started it. But if anyone wants help with getting a postal vote or a lift to the polling station then let me, or one of my colleagues, know. Actually as I am away it better be them on wspeck@wansdworth.gov.uk or shogg@wandsworth.gov.uk.

What do you think?

At the beginning of this newsletter I said that the Big Lottery was going to spend £1million over 10 years on funding community facilities in Latchmere and a small part of St. Mary Park. That works out at £100,000 each year. We need good ideas for what to do with it. We could for example argue that £10,000 should go on funding York Gardens Library or £5,000 on landscaping near Chesterton House. But what the Big Lottery Trust wants is our ideas. Do send me your thoughts and let’s make sure we make the best possible use of this £1million. I said all that last month but will continue repeating it for a bit until we get some ideas.

What about a Latchmere Olympics in York Gardens? An afternoon of events for toddlers to grandparents?

Editorial

1. Frankly this one is dated but I am putting it on the blog for the record!
2. Just in case you wondered I have decided to skip the December Newsletter by the simple expedient of changing the naming convention. In the past I have called the Newsletter after the preceding month, but as from now I am naming it after the month at the beginning of which it appears. Hence this is the January and not the December Newsletter.
3. I have until now had a Did You Know? section at the end of the Newsletter. That obviously becomes more and more difficult over time and so I am going to make that section more general, including Comment as well as Did You Know?.

December highlights

1.  On 5^th December I attended a meeting at the Doddington & Rollo Association Hall, which had been called by “Wandsworth Against Cuts”. Speakers included Austin Mitchell and John McDonnell, both Labour MPs, and a tenant speaker from East London. The meeting was inspired by the Government cuts and their impact on local government services and by the Council’s response to the riots and specifically the threat to evict the families of rioters.
2. Perhaps 50 people turned up, which is not bad for a public meeting nowadays but these protesters are never going to achieve their objectives if they ignore the Labour Party, the most powerful anti-Tory vote in Wandsworth, and for that matter most of the country. So whilst I have a lot of time for left-winger, John McDonnell, I cannot say quite the same about Austin Mitchell, who is, for me as they say, “all mouth and no trousers”. And really what is the point of having that kind of meeting without one single Labour councillor being invited to speak – we are the only real opposition to the Tories and having a protest without us is pointless. (OK, this is a bit of a beef from me because I have done more to publicise the ludicrous policy of evicting innocent mothers and children than anyone else and they didn’t even bother to ask me to speak – but so be it).
3.  The Council Meeting on 7^th December was a curious affair. The Council is pursuing a programme of cuts, which meant a couple of million from education and £1 million from Social Services, but it was very difficult to work out what they meant as the Tories were indulging in salami slicing – a small slice off every item of the budget with a few backroom staff cut here and a few more cut there, enabling them to say that they were not cutting services. Services will, of course, be affected but perhaps not in very public ways – just delays in getting answers and slower telephone response rates – that sort of thing.
4. The Tories chose to have the set-piece debate on the economy and its impact on the Nine Elms area, which seemed an odd choice given that the owners of Battersea Power Station went bankrupt in the same week. The other big debate centred on the Council’s decision to abolish Wandsworth’s Parks Police. The proposal is that the Met Police will take over the role and save the Council money. No doubt the debate will be on U-Tube at some point though I can’t find it yet. However, if you haven’t yet seen a Council debate let me give you the link to the speech I made in September against the Council’s policy to evict the families of convicted rioters. The link is:-

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/info/10058/decision_making/1232/council_meetings_online_council_21_september_2011/4

1. The Planning Applications Committee on 15^th December was a very low key affair. But on 19^th December I attended a small exhibition at the Council about the Council’s plans for the future of Eltringham School. It was a “Drop-in” style of consultation and it was a bit difficult to assess the number of locals who attended or their general reaction to the plans, which are for a residential development. As a member of the Committee I will have to give my view on this in the next couple of months. Do let me know if you have any views on the matter.
2. Did you see the Evening Standard, 14^th December? On page 6 there was an article headed “Google puts Battersea on the map after six years of dodgy directions”, which majored on my part in getting Google to move the name “Clapham” from its position on Google maps above the Battersea Arts Centre (the old Battersea Town Hall) to its rightful place over Clapham High Street.
3. For the details of the story see this website www.lovebattersea.org.uk. But let me correct the details. As the site says I am a joint-Chair of the organisation trying to get Battersea named “properly”, but the rather jokey quotes attributed to me by the ES actually belong to my good friend Philip Beddows, a maverick rather amusing ex-Tory councillor. Oh, and as for the organisation: it’s called SW11tch – play on SW11 and switch the name from Clapham to Battersea – get it!
4. Philip’s grander fantasy is to get the station renamed Battersea Junction but somehow I think that is a trifle ambitious!

My Programme for January

1. I have a meeting of the Finance & Corporate Resources Committee, the Council’s premier policy committee, on 25^th January.
2. The Battersea Park School Finance & Personnel Committees on 23rd.
3. The Court Case against a Wandsworth tenant’s son continues to sentencing!
4. The Planning Applications Committee on the 19^th.

Did you know?

That my fellow councillor, Simon Hogg, has been encouraging me to write a blog. So I have taken him at his word and started one. I am not really sure that it is my style. I write long pieces, which are not the blog style. But my latest entry is about the appalling story from one Tory councillor and his views about Council tenants. Here is the link – let me know what you think!          https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/

Yours sincerely

Tony Belton, Latchmere Labour Councillor