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January 21, 2019  

Councillor Tony Belton’s January, 2019, Battersea Newsletter (#115)

  1. On 5th December, there was a Wandsworth Council Meeting, which has become, I am afraid, inconsequential. Why so? Both the frequency and length of Council meetings have been much reduced since I first became a councillor. Hence all the business has been taken out of them, and they have been cleansed of all the controversy, and all the interest, and all the drama.
  2. Since Tony Blair’s disastrous reform of local government structures, Council Meetings are the only political forum where the Leader can (sort of – it’s like Prime Minister’s Questions, like May, Wandsworth’s Leader doesn’t really answer the question) be held to account or, if you like, challenged to justify his/her policies. The Leader of Wandsworth Council, Councillor Govindia, is not on any Committee, where he can be given the kind of grilling that is the life-blood of traditional British politics.

  3. The old Council Meeting procedure may have been an out-dated process but nothing has replaced it. Govindia is indeed, what Lord Hailsham predicted 40 years ago, an elected dictator (of the Council). PS This is not a party-political point! Labour Leaders in other Boroughs are in a similar position, as indeed is Labour’s Leader of the Opposition, my Latchmere colleague Simon Hogg. We must either restore the old functions of the Council Meetings or put Leaders back into Committees. We must make Leaders regularly accountable once more – and not just at an election, once every four years.

  4. The next day Battersea Labour Party ran a Battersea’s Got Talent marsha & ajb as santacompetition at the Labour Club in Falcon Road. The judges were our MP, Marsha de Cordova, and Yours Truly masquerading as Santa Claus. Frankly, I was really surprised by the high quality of some of the performances, especially from our juggler, Ben. It was such an unusual display but, unfortunately due no doubt lyons peteto a lack of practice, there were a few dropped catches. So, we decided to award the first prize to our saxophonist, Pete Lyons, and his accompanist, on the trumpet, Martin Linton – formerly Battersea’s MP.

  5. On 7th December, the Labour councillors had a Christmas dinner at Latchmere’s Fish in a Tie restaurant. I was persuaded to join the wilder, and maybe slightly younger, spirits of the party for further drinks at the Revolution Bar in Clapham Junction. I was rather surprised to be accosted by the bouncers with a demand for my ID, it being some time since I had to prove that I am over 17. But having got “my party” in, I must confess that I decided to walk home and leave them to it.

  6. A group, called the Friends of friends of christchurch gardensChristchurch Gardens, organised an al fresco morning barbecue on Sunday, 9th December. The aim of the Group is to help tend and care for the Gardens on the corner of Cabul and Battersea Park Roads. It is, of course, the Council’s responsibility but, especially in these “austerity times” it is also for the local community to respond – and the community has in this case; 30-40 people turned up. Good luck to the Friends in the future.

  7. Talking of which, have you come across a Group called The Plog-olution? I don’t like the name, either; but it is an interesting local development. According to its web-site this group started in Putney and was a spontaneous public reaction to the parlous state of our public spaces. I came across maybe 20 of them, all tee-shirted, jogging around Clapham Common, collecting bags and bags of litter as they went. They have scoured the Thames riverside and Putney Heath, amongst other local public spaces. It is a fast-growing and spontaneous reaction to cuts in public expenditure – look them up at www.plogolution.com.

  8. The Planning Applications Committee, on the 13th December, was dominated by an application for a large development on the corner of Lombard and York Roads. Readers might know the site because it is currently occupied by a Halfords Store and a Pet Store. The proposal is to demolish the existing buildings and replace them with a six storey self-storage facility, including artists’ studios and so-called flexible office space plus a 4, 6, 8, 13 and 20 storey development of 168 residential units with ground floor shopping and 71 office spaces on the first and second floors. The proposal would also include 64 basement car parking spaces and 344 cycle parking spaces, plus ground floor parking and loading space for the self-storage building and surface level access and service areas. At the same time there will also be landscaped areas including the formation of a new square on Lombard Road and widened, landscaped footways. You might like me, wonder how all this will fit onto this relatively small site. I am not quite sure even having seen all the plans!

  9. The Lombard/York/Plough Road junction area is clearly destined to become, or already is, the centre of a number of very sizeable developments. The area will soon be very different from what it was five years ago and a good job too. Then it was, one has to admit, blighted and ramshackle. But I am concerned that we do not get simply more expensive and largely empty “boxes in the sky”. If the current down-turn in the property market continues beyond Brexit, as surely it will, then these massive developments are in danger of becoming expensive white elephants, loved by some but very unpopular with many.

  10. On 14th December, our MP, Marsha de Cordova, unveiled a blue plaque charlotte despard plaqueto Charlotte Despard on the Battersea Labour Party’s office at 177 Lavender Hill. Despard, who stood as the Labour Party candidate for the General Election exactly 100 years earlier in 1918, donated 177 to the party. During her long life, she was not only a suffragette but a doughty campaigner against many right-wing and for as many left-wing causes. For those, who are interested you can read ‘Why is the Remarkable Charlotte Despard not Better Known?’ in P Corfield’s blog at https://www.penelopejcorfield.com/monthly-blogs/.
  11. Afterwards there was a party anddespard plaque5 speeches just across the road in the Battersea Arts Centre. Speakers included Polly Toynbee, seen speaking here, Battersea’s own feminist campaigner Jeanne Rathbone and Sara Apps(Linton). It was a very successful event.
  12. One day in mid-steam train @ lmDecember, I was going along the Latchmere Road where I was captivated by this sight of a magnificent Steam Train, quietly sitting on the bridge. It was puffing gently, rather like a senior citizen relaxing with a big, fat cigar. It didn’t stay very long and, when it burst into action, it gave one just a little flavour of what Battersea must have been like before electric trains replaced these romantic but filthy monsters! This particular example regularly pulls an excursion train on trips out of Victoria.
  13. 20th December was a busy Christmas event day for me with the Battersea Park Rotary club lunch and the Battersea Society drinks in the evening at the Duke of Cambridge. It was encouraging to see lots of new blood at both events and both organisations seem to be in rude health.
  14. On Boxing Day, we went to Winchester to see daughter and son-in-law’s new house – very nice. In the afternoon, we walked, along with what seemed like every other resident of the city, up and over St. Catherine’s Hill, a steep if small hill commanding a great view over the Itchen Valley, the city and the mizmazecathedral. At the top there is an iron age fort and a charming cut pattern in the grass called the MizMaze, pictured here. It is old, but not so old, with best estimates suggesting that it was cut in the seventeenth century. It is a continuous 624 metre-long walk. I walked every step of the way – as you can see from the picture it was easy but did call for some self-discipline! However, I am afraid, St. Catherine’s Hill is so popular and so trampled on that I do think it is time someone started thinking about the need for ecological protection of both fort and Maze!
  15. We had actually done the same walk with the family on 2nd December. But then, it had been very wet and slippery on a firm chalk base. So, guess what? On the way down, Penny went head over heels and landed head first, fortunately, in a patch of soft, if soaking grass; and, immediately afterwards, I fell over and gave myself a black eye – and I wasn’t laughing at the time, as some unkindly suggested!
  16. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we have been to a couple of shows, Company at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Lane, on 28th and The Double Dealer at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond on 29th. Pen was a bit disappointed with the first, protesting that a musical really should have some dancing – she can be so traditional! But I must confess that I wasn’t smitten either. It was very cleverly staged and superbly directed, handling the constant change of players and sets with smooth professionalism. The quality of the songs and performances could not, however, make up for the lack of plot or character development.
  17. The Double Dealer was, however, completely different. Congreve’s Restoration Comedy (1693) is, like all Restoration Comedies, bawdy, slap-stick, enjoyable and wildly improbable. The plot changes with manic rapidity and is far too complex to follow – at least by me. A review of the play will appear shortly in the Criticks [sic] section of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies website at https://www.bsecs.org.uk/.
  18. The Orange Tree Theatre itself is a very intimate little theatre and one is literally in touching distance of the actors, who all seemed to be having great fun playing their parts. The theatre also has the great advantage of terrific convenience – for Battersea residents. You can easily be at Clapham Junction, platform 6, and in the theatre within 15 minutes and as the play runs until late January, why not give it a try?
  19. In the quieter period since Christmas I have done a bit of gardening and some thinking about the mess that the country and the political parties are in about Brexit. There seem to be very few options. I reckon that realistically there are four: a delay and extension of Article 50; May’s deal; a no deal Brexit; or an about turn engineered either by Parliament or a Second Referendum.
    1. The second option is May’s deal. It might work because everyone can see that it is, at least, a possibility, even if it is a worse option that staying in the EU as we are now. Any Labour fantasy that Jeremy Corbyn will be able to negotiate a better deal is precisely that – a fantasy, that surely not even the Labour Leadership can take seriously.
    2. The No-Deal Brexit option, once so beloved by Boris Johnson, is no longer taken seriously even by Liam Fox. The majority of Labour members especially here in London would be horrified. There is so much opposition to this option that it is likely, but not certain, to be a non-runner, but either way, Labour has no interest in it.
    3. Lastly, the About-Turn option could happen like a flash of lightening as MPs realise that this issue is bigger than their individual careers and ambitions. However, an About-Turn seems unlikely without either a Second Referendum and/or a General Election. In the event of either of those, then Labour’s position is likely to be decisive but only if it comes out with a strong Remain position. If Labour doesn’t do that, then it will be playing second fiddle, at best, to the Government and the Brexiters, and hence failing the primary duty of The Opposition and that is to oppose and pose an alternative for the public to choose. If Labour does come out for a strong Remain position, however, there will of course be serious issues to address in many parts of the country outside London, but these issues need to be tackled anyway. If Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party do not wake up to this challenge, then, in my view, we will never be forgiven.
    4. But there is one version of the About-Turn, which no one has addressed. In the nineteenth century Disraeli reversed traditional Tory Party when he famously and infamously “dished the Whigs” by stealing their policies and subsequently winning the General Election. What if May, similarly, suddenly declared that she had genuinely tried her best to deliver Brexit but could not command a majority in the House of Commons; that in fact the Leave campaign had not been proved viable; and that she was now going to keep the UK in the EU. My guess is that she would win the day!
    5. Given the terrible state of our politics, I guess we might well go for the first of these options – i.e. kicking the can further down the road. And maybe the EU will let us get away with that for a while. But just why should it; the EU has business to get on with too and Britain will soon be forced to decide between the other options. In this short-term play, the Government is likely to be the only player whilst others can only watch and comment.
  20. December has been a bad month for my old pal, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, but an even worse one for senior management at Transport for London or TfL. Early in the month it was announced that Crossrail was going to be delayed by nine months – perhaps no surprise on such a mammoth project. But this announcement was so sudden and so late that questions need to be asked of TfL. Then at the end of the month, it was announced that the Northern Line Extension to Battersea Power Station was also delayed – this time by a year. I can’t help thinking, with Oscar Wilde, that one major delay might be bad luck but two seems like bad TfL management.
  21. I can’t help recalling too that, before it was abolished, the much but unfairly vilified GLC managed to build the equally massive Thames Barrier to time and under budget. I hope that the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which is having such a big impact on North Battersea follows the pattern of the Barrier and not those other projects! (Personal disclaimer: I worked for the GLC and am proud of it.)
  22. My colleague, Latchmere Councillor Kate Stock, is getting more and more concerned about the future of the York Gardens Children’s Centre. The Council is not as yet being very explicit about its future but it is clear that the services will be much reduced. I know she would appreciate support from you. So, please write to Councillor Govindia, Leader of Wandsworth Council rgovindia@wandsworth.gov.uk, copied to cllr.k.stock@wandsworth.gov.uk, I know she would appreciate it.
  23. Finally, I was pleased to hear that Victoria Rodney, of the Mercy Foundation, Falcon Road, received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List. I was asked last spring to write a reference for Victoria in support of her nomination and was more than happy to do so. Victoria, largely out of her own pocket, established the Mercy Foundation to help and support some of the most disadvantaged people in our community, with teaching in English, basic IT and other skills. She is both a warm-hearted and loving person and a woman of considerable tenacity and drive. Congratulations, Victoria.

My Programme for January

  1. On 6th January, I have the Battersea Society’s Annual Dinner.
  2. On 8th January there is a meeting of Wandsworth’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee.
  3. And on the following day there is another lunch-time Opera Recital given by the international students of Wandsworth’s National Opera School. It is held in Wandsworth Town Centre and is usually about one hour long. It is some of the highest quality entertainment that can be had – entirely free!
  4. On Monday, 14th January we have the Honorary Aldermen Ceremony at the Town Hall. I must confess that I am a bit conflicted about this. Honouring councillors merely because they have been councillors for eight years, or is it 10 seems to me to smack just too much of what one old friend of mine would have called municipal tomfoolery. I have never been to the occasion, but as this year one of the recipients is my old Latchmere colleague, Wendy Speck, I might just make an exception!
  5. On the 24th January the Planning Applications Committee will end what, for me, is a light month.

Do you know?

My question last month was as the Battersea Chess Club claims to be the oldest, continuingly functional chess club in the country, when was the nearest date to its foundation 1850, 1900 or 1950? The club was actually founded in 1885 and so the correct answer was 1900.

And this month? In honour of Despard, name more than one building or institution (e.g. school or hospital) in Battersea named after a woman – excluding the Virgin, Mary?

January 17, 2019  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea December, 2018, Newsletter (# 114)

  1. On 1st November, I went to the Commons for our (Battersea’s Labour councillors) monthly meeting with the MP, Marsha de Cordova. What a change has taken place in Westminster over the last 40 years, (no) thanks to terrorists! I can remember just walking in off the street to meet the MP and then going up to the public gallery to listen to the debate. But now, understandably, one has to go through body searches both mechanical and manual and then undress (well take off belts, shoes, etc. – it’s just like flying). And as for the public gallery, what was a fascinatingly real experience now has to be viewed through bullet-proof glass. All justifiable, I suppose, but to put it mildly a crying shame. Terrorism certainly has been effective at some things. The meeting – oh nothing special; just party business.
  2. The following day, we went toChekhov's First Play Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) to see Chekhov’s First Play by Ben Kidd and Bush Moukarzel. It was a play about perceptions of people and truths and as such very ambitious, but unfortunately it did not work for me; I simply left a little lost and not persuaded. I guess that it is what should be expected from experimental theatre and it did seem to work for many in the audience.
  3. It was also the first time that I had been to what was, before the disastrous 2016 blaze, the Grand Hall. Have you been? It’s well worth a visit, along with the other new features of the Arts Centre. Contentiously, the designers have left much of the building cleaned up but simply as the fire left it. I am not sure that works as it looks a bit dark and miserable for my taste. But there is nothing irreparable about that and it could be put right, in my view, by a good plasterer and a bit of paint, or pictures or murals or even tapestries! What used to be the Lower Town Hall has been converted into a work hub and I think it looks really good. The object is to supply nursery space for seed businesses. There is work-space and access to computing resources, meeting rooms and a community of small creative and/or start-up businesses.
  4. Throughout the Arts Centre you can find small spacesWallpaper BAC where the wall-paper is designed by Nicholas Hughes, especially for BAC. It is a brief pictorial representation of some of Battersea’s history. So apart from the Town Hall itself, you can find John Archer, the first black mayor of a major authority (Battersea, 1913-14); the statue of the Brown Dog, the cause of the Brown Dog Riots, 1903-10; John Burns, MP and the first working class member of the Cabinet, 1905-10; and Pluto, the BAC cat (now retired). A busy but stimulating wall-paper design.
  5. On Sunday, 4th November, I and maybe 100 other London councillors fromBritish Board of Deputies (Jews) Conference all parties went to Camden Town to Jewish London: A Seminar for Councillors at the Ort House Conference Centre. It was organised by London’s Jewish Community, I imagine, in the light of the perceived rise in ethnic and religious tensions in Britain. It was informative about Jewish views on such things as Faith Schools and on Jewish concerns about anti-Semitism in the UK and, specifically, in London. As it happens, I am opposed to Faith Schools in principle, so there were limits to my support, but that didn’t stop the conference being an interesting and educative experience.
  6. On 6th November, I played for Battersea Chess Club against Hammersmith and Fulham Chess Club. For those interested in these things, I do not have a national grading as this was my first competitive game Chess Club(except against my brother-in-law at Xmas) for many years, certainly this century! My opponent, Andy Routledge, was graded 128; we were playing on board 25! I think we are the largest two clubs in the country. He won but I was holding my own until about move 26 – so not too bad!
  7. I went to the club again, which meets every Tuesday at the Labour Club in Falcon Road, on 20th November. As you can see in the picture, it was set up for a massive event – there were well over 100 players – so I joined in. What a mistake! I found myself playing eight three-minute games in quick succession and being hammered in every one of them. The club write-up the next day said “It was as big a night as we’ve ever held with 12 International Masters, five Grandmasters and a host of well-known faces in the chess world at the club”. This experience should teach me to read meeting notices properly!
  8. I had a pleasant lunch with Wandsworth and Merton’s GLAMLeonie - Copy (Greater London Authority Member), Leonie Cooper, on 7th November and also had a brief chat with Labour’s Leader on the Greater London Authority, Len Duvall.
  9. On 9th November we went over to the Clapham Picture House to see Mike Leigh’s film, Peterloo. Leigh certainly picks some interesting subjects such as the great painter J M Turner and is clearly interested in the very early nineteenth century, when Turner was working. The Peterloo Massacre took place in 1819; fifteen demonstrators died in a clash with the military. It was a major moment in the development of British radicalism; it marked a stage in the advance of suffrage, with the Great Reform Act following 13 years later. It should make the subject of a great film, and it certainly is a good-looking one, but I am afraid that there is something wooden about Leigh’s film; it’s almost an oil painting. What did others think? Oh, on the same theme, the TV special of the month was, I suggest, They Shall Not Grow Old – were you a big fan or again like me, impressed but not wowed by the technological wizardry?
  10. Then on Saturday, 10th, I went to Providence House’s Annual Fund-Raising Dinner. Providence House, under the devoted leadership of Robert Musgrave, is one of the most successful and few remaining youth clubs in Battersea. With so many of us concerned about knife crime and the vulnerability of youth in today’s society, it is essential that clubs like Providence get everyone’s full support. It was a great evening, for the best of causes.
  11. The Remembrance Day Sunday Service on 11th November was something special because it was, of course, the centenary of the end of the World War, aka The War to End all Wars – if only. The Vicar of St. Mary’s Church, Canon Simon Butler, gave an admirably thoughtful and ecumenical sermon – it was brimming with understanding and compassion. If I were a practising Anglican, he would be just the kind of vicar I would like.
  12. The Civic Awards Ceremony took place on 13th November. This event gives an annual opportunity for the community to thank some individuals for the outstanding contributions they make to our society. One of the seven winners was, this year, a Latchmere resident, and, she told me, a regular reader of this newsletter. Ayan is, and for several years has been, a leading light in the Association of Somali Women and Children.
  13. The Planning Applications Committee, on the 21st November, was, if possible, even lessGroom Peter as Dietrich substantial (about back extensions and the like, not over-sized developments) than last month. Is this a major indicator of the economy turning down even further than it has already? I suspect so.
  14. On 24th November, we went to see Peter Groom’s Dietrich at Walton’s Musical Hall, Wapping. I thought it was a brilliant performance and have said so in my review on my website at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/review-of-peter-grooms-dietrich/ The picture illustrates Groom’s very androgynous but sensual performance.
  15. On 25th November, the Latchmere Labour Party had a pub quiz night at the Anchor pub, Hope Street. Not of itself of particular note, but just to flag up that it looks unlikely that we shall keep this nice, little local unless it gets a bit more custom. It’s such a dilemma for the pub business as in their desperate bid to maintain custom, they sometimes provide loud, noisy entertainment. I have already had (reasonable) complaints from neighbours about the Anchor! Let’s hope any disputes are amicably resolved and the pub thrives.
  16. There are a few local developments of interest that I have noticed over the last few weeks, which are not particularly date related but are noteworthy. They are as follows:-

consultations have just begun about the details of the new Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) due to be installed from 21st January 2019 in the Rowditch Lane (off Culvert Road) area;

the start to the “improvement” works in Falcon Park, including in particular the installation of an all-weather soccer pitch. It is also intended to improve the northern (i.e. the one off the passage-way) entrance to the Park. I believe that there will be an improvement although the work will not be completed until late summer, 2019. But there is soon to be a consultation on the details, which I hope will get lots of responses;

the Council has consulted onArtist_impression_bridge_850px the possibility of proceeding with the new pedestrian and cycle only Pimlico Bridge. I think that it is unlikely to be built, because Westminster Council is against it. Hence, I don’t think that it’s worth us Battersea Labour councillors opposing it and getting bracketed as “refuseniks” – but all my colleagues think I am wrong! I guess you win some and lose others!

perhaps most significantly, in London-wide terms, on 23rd November, Millicent, a tunnel-boring machine named after suffragist Millicent Fawcett (not sure that as a feminist I approve of a tunnel-boring machine being named after a leading suffragist!), started digging London’s super sewer under Battersea. This is the start of building the 25km, or 15 mile, Thames Tideway Tunnel, which is designed to cope with the increasing pressure on our sewage system;

the Council’s consultation on the future of the York Gardens Children’s Centre can be viewed at https://haveyoursay.citizenspace.com/wandsworthcsd/childrens-centres-18/consult_view/. In theory, consultation ended on 3rd December, but legal decisions have shown that any responses, made before the final decision, have to be taken into account, so don’t be put off! The Children’s Centre is under threat so respond now!

My Programme for December

      1. On 6th December, I have the final Council Meeting of the Year. I am due to speak on the Regeneration Programme for the Winstanley Estate. I am a little concerned that when we vote against the Council paper, there will be a possibility that our opposition will be mis-understood. I want to make it clear that we will NOT be voting against the re-development and the improvement of the estate, as such, but against the amount of private as opposed to public housing that will replace the current buildings.
      2. On Sunday, 9th December, I hope to go to a meeting of the newly formed Friends of Christ Church Gardens.
      3. On 12th December there will be a commemoration service for the 35 passengers, who died in the (so-called – actually Battersea) Clapham Train crash of 1988 and, totally separately, the funeral of long since retired Wandsworth Chief Executive, Albert Newman. I will go to Albert’s funeral.
      4. And as its December, I suspect that there will be the Battersea Society, the Battersea Park Rotary Club, etc., etc. Xmas socials!
      5. And, of course, there is the tragi-comedy of Brexit to be played out! At the time of writing, the Government had merely beenBoundary Posts at Wixs Lane defeated three times in the Commons. When will we all come to our senses?

Do you know?

Last month, I asked, “Just what are these posts? What do they de-note? And how many of them do you know?” These two, on Wix Lane, mark the Battersea and Clapham Parish boundaries. If you want to know more and there are many more, all documented by my old friend Philip Beddows and co-founder with me of the Love Battersea website. See https://sites.google.com/site/lovebatterseacampaign/batterseaboundarymarkers.

And my question this month is: So, Battersea Chess Club is one of the largest in London. It also claims to be the oldest, continuingly functional chess club in the country. Take a guess as to which date is the nearest date to its foundation

  1. 1850?
  2. 1900?
  3. 1950?
November 28, 2018  

Review of Peter Groom’s Dietrich

Dietrich

Natural  Duty

A  One  (Wo)Man  Show

Groom Peter as Dietrich

Went to Wilson’s Music Hall last Saturday to see this one man show, written and created by young actor Peter Groom – and it was a show and not quite a play, a 75 minute, no breaks, no interval show – what an evening, what a show.

Groom recounts a short version of the most traumatic years of Marlene Dietrich’s life and sings a dozen of her songs. He starts by mimicking Dietrich brilliantly and convincingly but over the course of the show he seems to think that evoking the sensuality and abstraction of “Marlene” is more important than slavish imitation. He is right. Groom’s androgynous manner and slim figure equip him to “be” Marlene with absolute conviction. He has mastered a feminine walk and Dietrich’s bold, almost aggressive stance.

Dietrich, a German woman, was plucked from the Berlin stage in 1939 by Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg and taken to the city of dreams, Hollywood. There she lived the nightmare of a patriotic German, who, loathing Nazism, took American citizenship, inevitably deserting her mother until after the war. Groom played Dietrich as a person displaced from her nation but also displaced from her personality, her loves and life. Her appeal to men emphasises this “quality” of abstraction, including abstraction about men, who she sees as subservient beings of a lower, more vulnerable order.

If you have never been to Wilton’s, it is a genuine, restored nineteenth century musical hall, which is well worth the visit, even if the Wapping location is not easy from Battersea. There is a bar and bar food, well at least pizza; the environment is very informal; the clientele was, at least on Saturday, 24th November 2018, fairly young and fairly gay.

And to make the perfect evening I got back to see Spurs thrash Chelsea 3:1 on Match of the Day and it should have been 6, 7 or 8:0. A very satisfactory end to the day.

Peter Groom was a five-star performer in Dietrich at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival and is apparently repeating the performance at the 2019 Brighton Festival. Go and see him/her.

October 1, 2018  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea Newsletter, October, 2018, #112

  1. It’s now two months since I wrote about building control regulations and Mrs. Thatcher’s so-called reforms. Last month I said that I have had a heart-felt response on the subject. Two of you, however, thought I was criticising builders, which was certainly not my intention. But this last month I got yet another reply strongly supporting my criticism of the process and the rules. I quote it extensively, because I think it exposes the idiocy of having a regulatory regime, being subject to freelance inspectors, who are picked by builders. The quotation is as follows:-
    • “I am an original owner of a flat in a block built in 2010, where we have had a major issue on fire safety. We flat owners have had to pay around £40,000 to make structural improvements to the block …, having been told by fire safety experts, and ultimately by London Fire Brigade under threat of enforcement order, that it did not meet fire safety regulations (I understand the words “we can’t believe a new block got through like this” were used)
    • .……… it raised the question who signed off on the block, the answer being precisely your scenario of privately contracted building inspector engaged by the developer. I cannot express how inadequate their response was when we took the issue up with them. The particular fire safety point may have been signed off without the inspector ever actually having viewed the property.
    • I suspect an endemic issue of private inspectors ‘waving through’ building sign offs, partly due to being paid flat fees which incentivise ‘light touch’ engagement, and partly being concerned not to raise issues which discourage repeat business from developers.
    • Subsequently we have seen the appalling Grenfell tragedy. You refer to the “dreadful price” of the building control system, but building control concerns much more than cracked walls and damaged foundations. I wonder just how dreadful the price of this rancid system might yet be, scaled across the vast levels of development in London alone, blithely waved through by these shoddy operators.”
  2. Surely this quotation is proof enough that there is a problem, and Grenfell is a massive statement about how serious it is. We need fresh legislation to re-establish a simple regulatory regime, with an established, reliable and respected inspectorate – not a random set of freelance experts not subject to official validation.
  3. Ever been to Bordeaux? Not many of my friends have done anything more than pass through. It is actually worth a bit more than that. The fundamentally 18th century centre has been re-engineered around four or five brand new tram lines and is almost entirely pedestrianised. OK, it’s a relatively small city by London standards, but it was so pleasant walking around the town day and night, without having to dodge cars, or breathe their fumes, and to hear laughter and voices across the road. We went by train and then flew from Bordeaux to Croatia, where we stayed in the same fishing village that we have stayed in for five years – lots of swimming, reading Trollope’s The Way We Live Now and fish, fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
  4. Whilst I was away my fellow Labour councillors organised a public meeting about Wandsworth Council’s response to fire hazards in multi-storey tower blocks. It was held at the Alma pub and was a reaction to the apparent intention of the Council to install sprinkler systems in all 10+ storey blocks.
  5. It was an understandable reaction to Grenfell but it was essentially a knee-jerk one. For example, the Council did not suggest even the most cursory of inspections, when a moment’s thought might have suggested that Grenfell-style risks are much reduced where there are separate staircases at either end of blocks, such as on the Doddington estate, or where the construction method was traditional brick and mortar, such as Battersea Fields, or where cladding had or had not been used. Given also that it appears as though leaseholders could be charged up to £5,000 each for an installation they do not want and which may be of only dubious purpose, it is not surprising that there is a head of steam against the proposal.
  6. The meeting was held on Sunday, 2nd September, and was packed out with at least 100 tenants and leaseholders in attendance. It was chaired by the vastly experienced councillor and Wandsworth Greater London Assembly member Leonie Cooper, standing centre. The other four councillors on the platform as shown in this picture were Claire Gilbert (Roehampton), Maurice McLeod (Queenstown), Paul White (Tooting) and Angela Ireland (West Hill). Of these four, three were only elected in May, less than four months before this meeting. They organised and ran the whole meeting in what was quite an impressive baptism as it appeared to this “mature” councillor then sunning himself in Croatia. Well done to the team.
  7. On the 18th September I had the Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee, which had one of the lightest agendas I can ever recall. There was, however, an interesting paper on how to remould Battersea High Street, and especially the market, into a street just about worthy of the name. Unfortunately, I didn’t think the Council’s paper was up to the task (and it was amazingly expensive for what it proposed), but improvements to the High Street are now, as they say, on the agenda and I hope to see some exciting ideas coming forward.
  8. The next day, 19th September, I had the Planning Applications Committee. At first glance, there did not seem much of interest but further study proved otherwise. There was new detail on the mega-development of the old post office sorting office site in Nine Elms. The application from US company, Greystar, was for 894 BtR (Build to Rent) units. This was one of the first and definitely the largest appearance in the UK of the US housing product, BtR. Yes, I hate the phrasing too – “housing product” – Ugh!
  9. The Tory majority on the Committee were really proud that this new “product” should be coming to the Borough, making us a pioneer of a new, efficient, privately rented sector. For everyone’s peace of mind, I hope that they are right, but I suspect that corporate America invading our housing market is going to have similar impacts as Uber to taxi services, Amazon to high street shopping and PayPal to subscription services, etc. It will put pressure on our own landlords at the medium and top end of the market and in the end leave local authorities and housing associations to pick up all the pieces at the lower end of the market.
  10. The second interesting application was for a housing development on the site of the old Balham Bowls Club, Ramsden Road. I found this rather sad, because it meant the loss of a pub’s bowling green. I don’t know how many pubs in the country, let alone in Inner London, still have their own bowling greens (I know one in Suffolk), but I wouldn’t mind betting that this was the last in London – gone for ever.
  11. Meanwhile, in another interesting indication of how the market is moving, the Council has taken enforcement action against a property in Battersea being used as an Airbnb property. I haven’t come across this much but a fellow councillor in Tooting tells me that he is plagued with 100 or so Airbnb (or similar company) “hires” usually of private houses, which are being used as vice dens or party locations. I would be interested to know if any of you are experiencing similar problems associated with this trend, here in Battersea.
  12. I went back to my old college on 22nd September. About a dozen of us, from further back than I care to admit, met up for dinner and a drink or two. It was great fun, but it meant that I totally missed London’s Car Free Day and no one has mentioned it to me either – I guess that means it was a bit of a non-event, which is a shame. It becomes clearer by the day exactly what damage is being done to our environment (and our health) by the internal combustion motor car – a great pleasure but also a killer!
  13. I didn’t go to Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference but it appears to have gone rather better than many expected. Last month, I said that if Brexit is a disaster and if Labour hasn’t had the courage to take a stand on the issue, then the Labour Party will pay a heavy price. I suspect that Keir Starmer has created enough space, just about, for Labour to avoid that trap and come out of this sorry saga in not too bad a shape. How come he doesn’t get mentioned as being the next Leader? OK, not being a woman is a handicap, but not even getting a mention!
  14. I suspect that there are quite a few Tories, who rather desperately hope to leave their Conference in Birmingham in as good a shape!
  15. On the 27th September, I went to the pretentiously named Village Hall, Battersea Power Station, to hear Dorian Gerhold talking about the history of industrial Wandsworth. He gave a broad sweeping description of the many major industrial plants and processes that have developed in Battersea, from the first major railway in Britain (horse drawn trucks), Battersea enamels, early aircraft manufacturing and copper smelting techniques to the UK’s busiest railway junction and the Power Station.
  16. I say the “pretentiously named Village Hall”, because of course, whatever the Power Station development becomes, it can never really be a village. I have never made any pretence of liking much of what has gone up in the Nine Elms area, but many in the Council’s planning hierarchy, official and political, are very proud of most of the developments. Of course, getting the US Embassy and Apple to move in are major triumphs, which cannot be ignored. So, putting jaundice and prejudice to one side, I ask myself, and some of you, do you see any really valuable and innovative developments? And, even if you do, are those developments worth the unremittingly Alphaville kind of atmosphere of the place? I would be interested in your views – one thing one can say for the development, however, is that it has opened up the riverfront – here is Chelsea Bridge, more or less from the Village.
  17. On Saturday, 29th September, I went to a dinner in commemoration of the life of  Sally-Ann Ephson, a Labour councillor in Queenstown, who died two years ago after suffering for many months from Sickle Cell Anaemia. The dinner was both a tribute to the brave Sally-Ann and a fund raiser for the Sickle Cell Society, a ferociously painful and merciless condition. The picture is of our guest speaker, Battersea MP, Marsha de Cordova.

My Programme for October

  1. The first week of October will be dominated by the Tory Party Conference – not something that I would normally highlight but something makes me think that this particular week could be of major significance for all our futures – ho, and just might provide a few laughs!
  2. If you follow my newsletters closely then you will know that I accompany my partner to many of her lectures, hence you will not be totally surprised that on 5th October, we are off to Reykjavik, Iceland. That will be a new experience – especially if we are lucky enough to see Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights!
  3. There will be a Council Meeting on the 17th October and the Planning Applications Committee on the 18th.
  4. On 20th October a plaque to Caroline Ganley will be unveiled at 5 Thirsk Road at 11 a.m. This is part of Battersea Society’s plan to install as many commemorative plaques to women as we already have to men. Why does Mrs Ganley deserve a plaque? See below.

Do you know?

Last month, I asked as an aside whether anyone knew the connection between Lavender Gardens, Henty Close on the Ethelburga Estate and the Cornet of Horse? Two of you did, the connection being one G A Henty, who wrote a phenomenal number of books, 100+, either for children or adventures about the British Empire. He lived in Lavender Gardens and drank at the Cornet of Horse (now named the Four Thieves). Surprisingly enough, Henty Close on the Ethelburga Estate was also named after him. I think that one can imagine the style and values of his books by saying that one of my readers thought her comments wouldn’t get through the censors and the other, remembering books she read at the age of eight, thought they were rattling good yarns!

But my main question was about the photograph on the right, which I took in Webbs Road. This got the most enthusiastic response that any of my questions have provoked. What is it about bodily functions that interests the human so much?

The answer is that it is a “stink pipe” or as one person said a “stench pole”, installed by the Victorians to take the stench out of the sewerage system and expel it high into the sky. There are hundreds of them on our streets and most of us never notice them. There are about four on Bolingbroke Grove alone. One respondent sent me the addresses of three websites devoted to mapping and photographing them and yet another tells me that they were exported to Sydney, Australia, where they can also still be found. Here is just one of the websites: http://stinkpipes.blogspot.com/

So, to this month’s question: Caroline Ganley is having a plaque unveiled to her next month. Ganley Court is a fairly unremarkable Council block on the Winstanley Estate, which was named after her. Here she is, on the left, but who was she and why is she worth commemorating?

 

 

August 4, 2018  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August, 2018, Newsletter (# 110)

  1. To start with a serious point on building control. Once upon a time Building control regulations and their application were overseen by the state, or an arm of the state, in this case local authorities, with the result that most of us could live in peace and accept that any building works happening in our area were shall we say “kosher”. But in the last few months I have had a worrying increase of cases, where constituents have complained of damage consequential on neighbours’ building “improvements”. One constituent complained that not one room in his house was unaffected by the extensive works next door – walls were cracked, windows and doors open and close less easily than they did before, foundations damaged, etc. And in the last month another constituent has reported being seriously worried about the standard of workmanship in a neighbour’s back extension.
  2. It was Mrs Thatcher, in her dogmatic “escape” from the “Nanny State“, who removed the need for “independent”, state, building controls, when she allowed architects and contractors to employ their own building inspectors. It was in future to be self-regulation – the kind of system that we have seen fail in the City and everywhere else that the Tory party has rebelled against so-called “red tape”. Of course, the system did not collapse immediately after Thatcher introduced her so-called reform. But, with time, the temptation to cut costs has become too great for some.
  3. So, my current case, in a Victorian street, not a million miles from the Latchmere pub, concerns “Authorised inspectors” from a “building control” company, who have withdrawn from the job, mainly I think because they did not have the clout to impose decent standards on the builders. They were only “authorised inspectors” in the sense that they were being paid to do the job and the company is a somewhat grandiosely entitled small company founded in 2006. I am sure that it probably does a good job and has good professional standards. It does not, however, have the enforcement powers that the local authority has. Hopefully Wandsworth Council will now step in and enforce decent standards, but not until after my constituents and their families have gone through agonies and quite possibly considerable expenditure.
  4. We are, collectively, paying a dreadful price for the anti-red tape ideological revolution that the Tories are unleashing on us. Most people will know of the destruction of the Probation Service, the chaos of the Benefit System, the mayhem in the education service, not to mention of course the Health Service, but my point is that it is rampant in even the most unconsidered corners – building regulations!
  5. The Council’s Building Control unit does occasionally have great successes. Here, for example, is a pub, which used to be called the Artichoke, on St. John’s Hill. It was almost completely demolished, without planning permission, when the Town Hall got working with its enforcement powers. I don’t know when it is due to be re-opened but it doesn’t now look too long into the future. The moral is: if you see some cowboy developments, complain to your local councillors. S/he can’t solve everything but there are still some building standards to be enforced.
  6. Enough of sermonising! July was, of course, spectacular for the heatwave and fortunately we did not have a heavy load of Council business, other than the “usual” business meetings, of which the Council Meeting on 11th July was outstanding. It was a big occasion for quite a few members as they were making maiden speeches. All of them were very good but I think my favourite was from the new Queenstown councillor, Maurice McLeod. I had never heard him speak before but he brought a distinctive and powerful voice to the debate, making the important point about lack of diversity amongst councillors.
  7. Two days later we went off for 10 days in Devon and Cornwall, with the kids, and then off to Shallowford Farm. The farm, pictured here, provided the farm animals you may have seen in Falcon Road, this summer and works with Providence House Youth Club. By which I mean, that up to 18 youngsters at a time visit the farm on Dartmoor and have a great time learning about a rural life, a million miles from Battersea; about feeding the animals, mucking out their sheds, etc. Providence House and Shallowford Farm do a great job, expanding the horizons of many Battersea kids. If you want to know more then consult: www.shallowfordfarm.co.uk.
  8. From Dartmoor, we went on to visit one cousin in Newquay and another in Polzeath. The weather was sensational – so sensational that I actually swam in British waters four times in 8 days. Quite something.
  9. I did, however, come back for the day on 19th July to attend the Planning Applications Committee. There were a couple of interesting applications affecting Battersea. One was in Gowrie Road, off Lavender Hill, which was an application to demolish the whole house, except for the façade of the house and build inside it a completely new house twice the size of the current one. The street scene will be unchanged and so there are few grounds to refuse the application, but inherently with such major works, there must be potential for cracked walls and complex party wall agreements – see earlier paragraphs.
  10. The second was an application for further development at the Royal College of Art campus, at the corner of Parkgate and Battersea Bridge Roads. This was an improvement on an already agreed development. It is a major educational establishment of London-wide importance but might turn out to be hugely controversial for some residents!
  11. The largest application related, however, to Springfield Hospital. It was for 829 properties, a new park, and a school, but it included the closure of the nine-hole golf course. It turned out to be fairly uncontroversial but opening up the grounds of the old Springfield Hospital for new housing and a new park could/should transform this part of the Borough.
  12. Residents of Clark Lawrence, Shaw and particularly Sendall Courts will be pleased to know that the Council has, at last, come up with a solution to the perennial flooding problems that hit the lifts during and after storms. Indeed, my last note from the Housing Department said, “The drainage works at Sendall Court are nearing completion so we will shortly be testing them to reassure ourselves that they will be effective before undertaking the same works at Clarke Lawrence Court and Shaw Court.”

Read More…

May 24, 2018  

Privacy Policy

I collect data from the public, Labour Party members and friends and family. This policy statement describes how I use that data first as regards the public. Note that anyone can email me at tonybelton@btconnect.com if they wish to have their data removed.

The public.

This policy statement describes how I, Councillor Tony Belton of London Borough of Wandsworth, protect and use the information you give me when you use this website or ask to receive my monthly newsletters. If you are asked to provide information when using this website, it will only be used in the ways described in this policy. This Privacy Policy was written in May 2018 and will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. This is version one, V1.

I gather and use certain information about you in order to inform you of Wandsworth Council developments, my part or view of them especially as they refer to the ward I represent, Latchmere, and to a lesser extent other parts of Battersea and the wider Borough.

Using the details that you sent me and/or data from the Electoral Register, which I as an elected councillor (just as the MP or GLA member) have the legal right to obtain from the Electoral Registration Officer, I collect all or some of the following information:

  • contact information such as email addresses; and
  • your actual address including postcode.

My main purpose in collecting this data is to create a circulation list for my monthly Newsletter, which started nine years ago with the next edition due in June, 2018, being the 108th edition. Only once, in August 2011, did I produce 2 editions and that was the occasion of the Clapham Junction riots, which I judged deserved a second edition.

I occasionally use your details to conduct surveys, for example I once did a survey of your preferences for times of closure of the Grant Road station entrance. I NEVER pass your details on to the Labour Party, either nationally or here in Battersea, though occasionally pressed to do so.

I might in future use your details

  • to improve the newsletter or service I hope I provide as a councillor;
  • to contact you in response to a specific enquiry; and
  • maybe to share with selected parties, but only with your prior consent.

Complaints or Queries

I do try and maintain high standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, I do take any complaints about this very seriously. BUT I am not a computer specialist and do not always have access to great expertise. Hence, I once had problems processing an individual’s data, but it was eventually resolved. I would encourage you to bring to my attention any use of information, which is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. I would also welcome any suggestions for improving the procedures.

Any query or complaint about this policy statement, or the way that I have used or processed your personal information, should be sent to the following email address: tonybelton@btconnect.com.

Labour Party members

In general all the above applies, with the following exceptions:-

  • your data came from party sources and as an elected representative of the party my current (24/5/18) interpretation of the GDPR legislation is that as you gave that data voluntarily to our party you accept my use of it;
  • I will occasionally use your data for party matters as well as for the newsletter.

Friends and family

In general all the above applies, with the following exceptions:-

  • you volunteered the data and accept my use of it but only for the newsletter.

 

 

March 3, 2018  

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

      1. I went to the Clapham Picture House to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It is billed as a “black comedy”, which I suppose is fair as there are many funny lines but it is so searingly black, so piercingly bitter, so tough that it is difficult for me to think of it as a comedy in any sense at all. The film uses the landscape of backwoods rural America to frame a story of brutality and violence presided over by a good ‘ol boy style of sheriff. It is coolly directed by an Englishman, Martin McDonagh, and brilliantly acted particularly by the lead, Frances McDormand.
      2. McDormand plays an embittered mother of a murder and rape victim out to reap vengeance upon the supine, corrupt, unaccountable police and, if she can find him, her daughter’s killer. It is painfully honest and depressing for the hopes of a liberal America BUT in the last reel she finds an ally in one of the cops and as several of the players start showing moral growth, we are left with a parting question mark. Is vengeance sufficient? Is it perhaps even worse than the original crime?
      3. I thought it was a brilliant film but there is another view. One which says that this is a metropolitan view of hill-billy country and that the moral growth is all too convenient and the apparent evil all too neatly framed for credibility. Go and see it and let me know your views.

February 14, 2018  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea February, 2018, Newsletter (# 104)

        1. On Twelfth Night, I went to an enjoyable dinner with members of the Battersea Society. The Society organises a myriad of local and London based events and campaigns about local amenity issues, such as planning and the state of our parks and public spaces. If you are interested in joining but don’t know how then do, please, let me know.
        2. On 12th January, we went to see The Darkest Hour, the film about the decisive month of May, 1940, when Churchill became Prime Minister. The film was shot in such a way that it emphasised how dark and claustrophobic the world must have appeared in Whitehall’s underground war room. I thought it was brilliant – personally I preferred it to Dunkirk, which I thought a bit sanitised. But there was a dud scene with Churchill, the PM, on the Tube between the Embankment and Westminster. It was excruciating. Intended, I suppose, to demonstrate how Churchill instinctively understood the British public rather better than did the other stuffed shirts in the Cabinet; it was like no tube journey you or I have ever experienced. Quiet enough for an in-depth debate, between 10-15 people, with frankly a token West Indian in a 1940 crowd.
        3. On Monday, 15th January, I met a newly appointed Council officer, selected by and paid for by the Home Office but working for Wandsworth and Richmond Councils. His job is to assist the Council and the Home Office to counter extremism in Wandsworth and Richmond. This is a Government initiative, but to be honest, I think the Government has perceived a problem and decided it had to act but doesn’t know what to do. Sure, we have known some civil disturbances; we have some crime issues; in the 80s there were a couple of IRA cells in Battersea (Do you remember the discovery of two IRA bomb factories near Clapham Common?), but if we have violent extremists, they haven’t exactly advertised themselves. Tough job, but hopefully not one that’s needed here.
        4. Wandsworth Labour’s Shadow Cabinet, of which I am a member by virtue of being the planning lead, met on 19th January. I don’t normally indulge in internal party business in this newsletter but, three months before May’s Borough Election, this was rather different. We were discussing our plans for changes in Council policies and, by implication, our manifesto for May. It is NOT yet ready for publication but it will be no surprise to anyone that housing provision will be high on the list.
        5. On the 22nd, I went to a book launch in an historic building in the City. This time it was the Skinners’ Hall, a stone’s throw from St. Paul’s and Cannon Street station. From the outside, Skinners’ Hall looks nothing special, but inside you discover a Grade 1 listed building, dating from the thirteenth century, although the whole building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and the current one was built 1667-1683. Amazingly enough, like the cathedral, it was almost untouched by World War 2 bombing. I don’t suppose there are many real skinners (of animals largely for leather) left in the Worshipful Company, one of the richest and oldest in the city, but it demonstrates the historical importance of the trade! The book was Essays on Medieval London by Professor Caroline Barron, a family friend.
        6. The next morning it was back to the important, Rubbish bins Kambala Estate 180123even if mundane, business of joining with Council officers and some residents for a tour of the Kambala, Falcon and Wayford Road estates. On the whole, we thought they were in good nick but as always on the Kambala Estate, there were problems with rubbish! This picture is of conditions behind Haven Lodge. I trust that it got cleared soon after our visit – but it is a perennial problem.
        7. The January meeting of the Planning Applications Committee was on the 25th and it was packed with major applications, four of them in Battersea. First, the half-completed Peabody Estate development: Peabody had to stop the development, as planned, because it was becoming financially unviable. So, they came back asking for 52 more flats, half for sale on the open market and half for social renting. They suggested adding a couple of storeys here and a couple there. The Committee did not really have much choice but to agree: and we did. I suspect the change will hardly be noticed as the additional storeys are lower down St. John’s Hill than the blocks already completedI voted against two very large developments, which were, however, approved by the committeFirst, 13 blocks between 8 and 15 storeys with 517 residential units are planned for the Smugglers’ Way, B&Q site. 35% of these are described as affordable. There are things to be said in favour of the development. However, in my view it is just too big, with too many high blocks at too high a density. Secondly, a large 82-unit block rising to 14 storeys was approved on York Road, on the Chopper/@Battersea pub site. Again, I voted against on much the same grounds.Swandon Way East              Swandon Way westWhat do you think of these developments either side of Swandon Way?
        8. The fourth major Battersea development was an application to expand the Royal College of Art campus on Battersea Bridge Road. This had many objections from the immediate neighbourhood of Parkgate Road and, frankly, I can see why. This large university building looks as if it will dominate the area, but the Committee thought that the major benefit of having the University in North Battersea outweighed the disadvantages. On this occasion, I agreed.
        9. There was also an interesting application for 86 residential units with one, six storey block at Jaggard Way, which is behind Wandsworth Common station, just yards outside Battersea. The planners’ recommendation was to refuse it, which we did unanimously. However, I must confess that I had the ungenerous thought that the Committee was keen to vote against a quite small development in rich, posh Wandsworth Common when substantially larger, less pleasing developments in North Battersea were being approved.
        10. On 29th January, I had a fun meeting at the youth club, Providence House, in Falcon Road, where we made plans to bring Devon’s Shallowford Farm to Battersea, or more particularly some sheep, calves, pigs and a tractor from the Farm for four days in early June. The farm, which is twinned with Providence House, is visited by many youth club members and is an invaluable rural experience for hundreds of Battersea kids. Keep a look out for it!
        11. The next day I had discussions with planners at the Town Hall about a planning application for developments near both Time House and Sendall Court. At the moment this application seems unlikely to be considered in Committee before April. I am sure that it will be contentious and I am rather concerned that the Council is trying to get too large a development through on the coat-tails of the so-called Winstanley regeneration.
        12. Finally, Wandsworth’s Design Awards Panel met on 31st January. The panel of architects, amenity societies and two councillors, including me, had before it all the North Battersea “icon” buildings like the Lombard Road Tower and the Nine Elms Lane development. But actually, none of those got near to winning, the victor being the under-stated, cleanly designed Chadwick Hall students’ accommodation at Roehampton University.

My Programme for February

  1. On 7th February there is a special Council Meeting. There is actually nothing special about it as it happens every year and is largely a technical operation agreeing the record of expenditure during the year and the approximate shape of the budget the year 2018-19. There will however be ratification of a 1% rent increase for council tenants and decisions on next year’s budget leading to the Council Tax decision on March 7th. I think I can guarantee that in Election year there will not be any really unpleasant surprises!
  2. On 13th February, I have a meeting of the Central Housing Panel, a quarterly consultation meeting with council tenants in Latchmere and other parts of the Borough.
  3. There is the Community Services Committee on the 20th followed by the Planning Applications Committee on 22nd February.
  4. On 27th February, I am off to St. Paul’s Cathedral for a celebration of the life of Mary Turner, of whom more next month.

Do you know?

Last month I didn’t set a question and this month’s is ridiculously easy but I just couldn’t resist the picture – thanks to the Battersea Memories website as the source. And as for the questions then:-

  1. Where? When? How?
  2. How many things can you name that are still there and what are they?
  3. And can you name what is there now?
September 14, 2017  

Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea September, 2017, Newsletter (# 99)

  1. This newsletter is going to be short, well, comparatively – August was a quiet month! In passing, have you noticed the number (# 99) in the heading?  It indicates that this is the 99th edition of my monthly newsletter. In other words, I have been producing this for 8 years and 3 months, well actually 2 months, because in August, 2011, I produced 2 editions so as to cover the Clapham Junction riots. I am now wondering if and how to celebrate the 100th edition, next month!
  2. One of the first things I did, after I got back from Scotland, was to have lunch at the Fish in A Tie restaurant in Falcon Road with fellow councillor, Simon Hogg. I went by bike and padlocked my bike against street railings in full sight of where I sat. So, imagine my anger, and amazement, when I saw three youths about 16/17 years’ old fiddling about with the padlock. I charged out, as best as my new metal knee would allow, and tackled the three of them. They rode off, after a short scuffle, but unfortunately on my bike and two of their own, assuming that they weren’t stolen too, leaving me holding one of theirs – and a broken padlock!
  3. The Special Neighbourhood Team, or most of it (pictured here with captured bike), arrived after a call from Simon. One of them came in and took a statement from me – at the dinner table. They said that one of the villains was arrested in Dagnall Street, but I have heard nothing since. I lost my bike and the police have “acquired” a bike as material evidence. What a nuisance! More to the point, what a tragedy! Three young villains, well on the way to wasting their lives on petty crime and under-achievement. It would have been good to have caught them properly and talked to them long and seriously, before they graduate onto more serious crime.
  4. On August 13th I went to a Labour Party fund raising garden party in Putney. Leonie Cooper (pictured here), our Greater London Assembly member, was the main attraction at this enjoyable summer occasion. She spoke about life at City Hall, the Grenfell Tower fire disaster and the housing crisis in London.
  5. On the 16th Seth Gowley, an Oxford geography student, writing a PhD thesis on urban regeneration, visited me to ask about my views on the Winstanley Estate regeneration. He had interviewed some of the residents and other local “experts” and had visited a few other examples of major regeneration projects in London and other big cities. Gratifyingly, he commented that he thought that we have done quite well here on the Winstanley, compared to other places in the country. He based this view on the largely positive reactions that he had had from residents.
  6. You may be surprised to hear that I am a member of the Licensing Committee – I have never previously mentioned it. It met on August 22nd to decide whether a Putney restaurant should be allowed or not to use some outside space for drinking and smoking for an extra 30 minutes. What a bore – a summer evening spent on such a minor matter!
  7. This was part of Tony Blair’s 1997-2002 reforms of local government and, to my mind, this was one of the more useless of those reforms. Prior to 1997, licensing at this level was decided by local magistrates. Having been a magistrate, I know that this kind of decision would be taken in 10 minutes, or maybe 30, in a busy day full of other largely administrative matters. Blair argued that he was returning powers to local government.
  8. This, however, was no such thing. Local government was being handed power over the trivial but was totally constrained on the major licencing policy issues, such as deciding on the total number of drinking establishments, pubs or bars, that would be acceptable in, say, Clapham Junction. Government thinking was, and is, that decision should be left “to the market”. Then, of course, one is left with the old neo-liberal lie “that one cannot defy the market”.
  9. The following evening, I had the Planning Applications Committee, which on this occasion had no decision to take of any significance, except to the applicant him/herself, and their neighbours.
  10. On 26th I went to the Ingrave People’s Project Street Party, Hicks Close. The party was organised by Donna Barham, who some of you will know is a Hicks Close resident. Donna has been doing sterling work, maintaining community spirit in the Kambala Estate, organising summer day trips to the coast and winter trips to the Christmas market in Oxford. Donna was thinking of standing to be a councillor at next May’s Council election. It would have been great to have had her on Wandsworth Council as a colleague, but she decided her community work was, and is, more important to her. Here is Donna, second left, along, with two Spidermen, Princess Elsa, from Walt Disney’s Frozen, and a Kambala resident.
  11. On the political front, I was pleased to read Keir Starmer’s 26th August statement on the Labour Party’s position on Brexit negotiations. It has been agreed by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Leadership and hence is of national importance. It has been clear to me that the previous ambivalent stance could not stand for long. Given the Government’s hopeless stance on Brexit, our two-party political system demanded that Labour, as the official Opposition, made its position clear.
  12. Changing the focus, have you seen the new electric car charging points installed in Grant Road opposite the station entrance. There are others promised across the Borough, Cabul Road for example. Soon we will all have to get used to having cars wired up across the pavement. That is bound to raise issues that have not yet been considered. But in the next 10 years we will see the end of new combustion engine cars and a massive increase in electric cars.
  13. Finally, I should congratulate all those students, who did so well in this year’s exams, with special mention of students at Latchmere’s Harris Academy and Thames Christian College.

My Programme for September

  1. On 11th September, my colleagues, Simon Hogg and Wendy Speck, and I will be on the platform at York Gardens Library at the Council’s Let’s Talk meeting. This is an opportunity for Latchmere residents to question us, and a team of council officers, about anything from potholes, to progress on the Winstanley Estate regeneration, from safety on our roads to social care for the elderly.
  2. On 13th September, I hope to go the Royal College of Arts (RCA), to see the plans for the new RCA building in York Road.
  3. On the 19th September, I have the Community Services Committee. I don’t know yet what will be on the agenda, but one possibility is a proposal to demolish and reconstruct the Northcote Road Library.
  4. The September meeting of the Planning Application Committee is on the 20th
  5. The Labour Party Conference runs from 23rd to 27th September and I am booked in to Brighton for the duration. I have been often enough before but this one promises to be something a bit special. I am sure that there will be masses of discussion about the future of the UK in, or out, of the EU.

Opinion Piece

The Tory Party is currently putting up a good imitation of total implosion. In July, 2014, I wrote a blog, where I suggested that the Tory party was in danger of a major split – right now that blog looks prescient. Read it at:-
https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/the-tories-face-a-disaster-called-europe/
Tell me what you think. Is this just a blip or something more serious for the Tory Party? And if the Tory Party does implode, then what will be the impact on Labour? I don’t think that such a collapse will be simply an unmitigated benefit for Labour, except in the short-term.

Do you know?

Last month I asked whether anyone knew where is the larger identical twin to this the Barbara Hepworth statue, pictured here by the lake in Battersea Park.

A number of you got the right answer, which is the United Nations Building in New York City. It was commissioned from Hepworth as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld, following his death in an air crash in Africa in 1961. Hammarskjöld (pronounced Hammershelt) was General Secretary of the UN and his death was the subject of much speculation – was the plane shot down by Western agents or African warlords? Was it really an accident or was it an assassination? Were the killers, agents of western imperialism, or tribal warriors? A modern mystery.

July 10, 2017  

Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea July, 2017, Newsletter (# 97)

  1. First, apologies for failing to produce a June edition of my newsletter. Mrs. May’s mistaken decision to call an election cost her plenty but it also meant I lost a political bet and didn’t finish the June edition! I lost the bet but, as she discovered, I was absolutely right about why she shouldn’t have called the election!
  2. On the 1st May, I went to the Old Vic to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a play by Tom Stoppard. R and G are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet. They are incidental characters in the tragic drama of Hamlet’s decline and death. Stoppard’s genius is to make a funny but tragic story out of the inconsequentiality of their lives and their best intentions. It’s not quite the tragedy of little men within a bigger tragedy for a bigger man, with all the elitism that would imply but it’s pretty near to it – brilliant.
  3. And then the next morning, the 2nd May, news started trickling through that Labour’s candidate for the 6th June General Election was likely to be Marsha de Cordova – “who she?”, I heard, asked by 1,000+ Battersea LP (BLP) members. Marsha, of whom more later, turned out to be a charming and attractive candidate, enthusiastic and friendly. Here she is, front left, at a “candidate adoption party” with GLA member, Leonie Cooper and previous Labour MP, Martin Linton.
  4. The selection was done by a committee of the London Regional Party and the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), inevitably dominated by party apparatchiks. This was not the way one would ideally choose the candidate and admittedly the election was sprung on us, but all could see that there was at least a possibility that the election would happen before the scheduled 2020 date. The Labour Party should have been more prepared – bad mark against Labour’s Leadership!
  5. I volunteered to be Marsha’s agent for the campaign – what a mug to volunteer for all that work! Party agents, amongst other things, have a legal duty to ensure that their party’s expenditure for the election does not exceed the legal limit, which in our case was approximately £14,000, i.e. we, the agents, are the ones that go to prison if it does. The deadline for the statutory return of election expenditure is 14th July.
  6. Meanwhile I had arranged to have coffee on May 3rd with one Matt Rosenberg to discuss his ideas for making a film of the Winstanley estate with, and even written by, pupils of Falconbrook School, Latchmere. It turned out that Matt had quite a record of making films/DVDs of London communities and neighbourhoods. It seems like a fascinating proposal, which we will pursue in the autumn.
  7. I got back to the office, just in time to meet Marsha, then a quick drive round the constituency with Marsha and a photographer to picture her with the Power Station, Clapham Junction and Queenstown Road stations and, of course, St. Mary’s Church in the background. You may have seen the one of her from the other side of the river with the Power Station in the background. A few days later, I took this one, which was used on her election address. I am quite proud of it!
  8. On 4th May, we had canvassing to be organised, stationary to be printed, members to be contacted, supplies to be ordered. We also had a photo-shoot outside the Battersea Arts Centre with all of the current Labour councillors in Battersea, the GLA member Leonie Cooper and two ex-MPs, Lord Alf Dubs and Martin Linton.
  9. Friday, 5th May was quiet; just Marsha’s election leaflet to write, to design and to send to the printers. A few discussions about apostrophes (‘), split infinitives, spellings, “Are they Tories or Conservatives?” – that sort of thing. (Did you know that it has been a minor Labour Party debate for years “whether to refer to our main opponents as Conservatives, vaguely respectful and formal, or as Tories, more colloquial and less respectful. I belong to the “Tories” school of thought. What do you think?)
  10. On the 6th my partner and I went to the Royal Opera House to see the UK premier of Thomas Adès’s opera, The Exterminating Angel – pretty unusual for me, but Adès’s mother was my partner’s flatmate in London immediately after university and so we are old family friends. It’s not that I haven’t been to the opera a few times; I could almost claim to be a fan of, in particular, Mozart, but Thomas Adès is a very modern, “post-melodic” composer. His opera was staged impressively and sung brilliantly. The story, derived from the Luis Bunuel film of the same name, is of an elite dinner party, symbolically trapped in a stately home, deserted by the servants, helpless at caring for themselves and increasingly and pathetically blind to their circumstances – it could easily be a metaphor for a United Kingdom blindly, blithely and arrogantly trapped into a hopeless Brexit – except that I believe the UK will escape from the current Brexit impasse. How? Let’s wait and see.
  11. On the following day, 7th May, Marsha and I attended a meeting about gun and knife crime at the Battersea Chapel, Wye Street. It was called by Reverend LeRoy Burke and was one of the most extraordinary meetings, of the many I have attended. It began a little after 6 in the evening and was still going strong when we left at 10.30. There must have been the best part of 400 people there, of whom perhaps 10 were white and the other 390 of mixed and Afro-Caribbean background. At least 50 people spoke of their anger and concern about the extent of knife crime in Britain, in London and in particular in Battersea. It was part revivalist, part confessional but, whatever it was, it was so totally different from any Council organised meeting on such an issue would have been. Men got up and spoke, (though sorry to say it of my sex) but much of their contribution was bluster and anger. Women spoke with emotion and passion, they spoke of the need for the community to come together to rid itself of this scourge, but not in a self-pitying manner rather in a determined and encouraging way. It was impressive but is there the will or the organisation to make it any more than a one-off protest?
  12. On Tuesday, 9th May, Marsha and I had a pre-meeting with Wandsworth’s Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), in order to make sure that I submitted her nomination for the election correctly by the legal closure date of 11th May. The ERO had similar pre-meetings with all the parties competing in the three elections of Battersea, Putney and Tooting. I must say that the ERO spoon-fed the political parties in the three Wandsworth constituencies and if any one of us had got the nomination process wrong they would have been be truly and amazingly incompetent!
  13. On the 10th, I took Marsha to meet Victoria Rodney, founder and boss of the Mercy Foundation, in her office in Falcon Road. What a woman Victoria is! As far as I can see she self-funds and supports an organisation, whose sole function is to provide various basic training to under-educated, usually ethnic minorities. I have helped her with teaching English to Somali refugees, but her organisation largely trains people in the use of IT and other basic skills, such as childcare. (So, imagine our surprise to see Victoria appearing in the Tory candidate, Jane Ellison’s, election literature – just shows the difference between us party hacks and someone like Victoria, who is simply keen on support wherever she can get it!)
  14. From there we went to the Katherine Low Settlement (KLS), where Marsha met a couple of client groups, one of the elderly and one of the educationally challenged. I should say that in these days of limited state support, KLS, located in Battersea High Street, is now one of Battersea’s key social and welfare organisations.
  15. Some Council events carry on regardless of elections and they include the Planning Applications Committee on Tuesday, 16th May. But on this occasion, we were very much going through the process of democratic review. I don’t think there was one item on which there was any disagreement – all the applications went through, as they say, on the nod.
  16. Then on the next day, Wednesday, we had the Annual Council Meeting. This is the annual Mayor-Making ceremony: that’s nothing to do with London Mayor Sadiq Khan but the swearing in of Wandsworth Borough’s ceremonial leading citizen: in this case Mayor Jim Madden. It’s a pleasant enough social occasion, the food isn’t bad and the drink is sufficient, but frankly it is becoming a bit of a farce. Every new Mayor adds a little embellishment that appeals to him/her so that the ceremony becomes less and less relevant to the business of the Council. An old colleague of mine would have called it Municipal Tom-Foolery and a new one, Queenstown’s Cllr Dickerdem, commented acerbically that one would never guess from the evening’s processes that the Council was cutting public services.
  17. On the next day, back to KLS with Marsha and a mid-day performance of The Wait, written and performed by the Gold and Silver Players of the Katherine Low Settlement, a troupe whose only qualification is to be 60+. This was a quite brilliantly written, if far too short, very witty take off of life from a modern pensioners’ point of view – about queues in the surgery, young people not offering seats on buses – the stuff of ordinary life – very entertaining.
  18. On the 19th, Marsha and I joined half a dozen other Labour councillors at Wandsworth Foodbank’s presentation of their annual report and the statistics on foodbank use in Wandsworth. This year it was even more startling than in 2016. Foodbank use has risen in Wandsworth, one of the richest areas in the whole country, by three times the national rate of increase and last year foodbank use in the borough rose by 25% compared to a 4% increase across London as a whole. Clearly the safety net for Wandsworth’s most vulnerable residents is broken.
  19. Then on 22nd May came the ghastly Manchester bombing – what a tragic waste of young life. How cruel, how wicked, and yet life does and must go on. So, in what might seem a heartless way, those of us involved in the election campaign started thinking about what it meant for us. To start with Battersea Society’s York Gardens hustings meeting for the 23rd was cancelled. Then all the major parties announced the suspension of campaigning for a couple of days. But what did that mean? All canvassing, all deliveries? We were already on a tight schedule; when would it be considered seemly and decent to start again? Indeed, without military style control and discipline (and communications system) over hundreds of volunteers how could one in any case guarantee a halt? Suffice to say, we worked things out and carried on – sadly.
  20. On 2nd June, my partner and I went to the Barbican to see a concert, conducted by Thomas Adès. The star event as far as I was concerned was his rendition of Beethoven’s 2nd symphony. You could hear Beethoven’s development from his almost Mozartian virtuoso beginnings to the full romantic genius of his maturity. Congratulations to Thomas.
  21. Marsha and I went off to my favourite Street Party, on 3rd June: the Triangle (Poyntz, Shellwood and Knowsley Roads) Party. After years of not winning raffles, tombolas, etc., I have now won two in a row at the Triangle. My partner and I had a very nice dinner at the Nutbourne Restaurant, Ransome’s Dock – and very nice too but I’ll have to avoid winning again!
  22. The next day we attended the much more ambitious Old York Road Street Party. This was on a much larger and more commercial scale than the Triangle, but of course it was less intimate – still fun though.
  23. One of the interesting features of being Marsha’s agent was attending religious events, which I would never usually go near. So, for example, on 3rd June we attended a Muslim meeting at the St. Anne’s Church Hall, St. Anne’s Hill, and then on 4th we went to the Ransom Pentecostal African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Mallinson Road, off the Northcote Road. Marsha was invited to speak at both. The Muslim meeting was gender separated, ordered, quiet and orchestrated. The Pentecostal Church was emotional, exuberant and inclusive with a brilliant jazz pianist. Guess which a) I preferred and b) which I think has the greater future in this modern world?
  24. And then on Monday, back to serious campaigning, first with the Borough-wide South Thames College hustings at mid-day. This had 2 Lib/Dems, a UKIP candidate, a Green party candidate and Marsha, Battersea’s Labour candidate. The audience, a group of maybe 50, was a very diverse set of further education college students, some of whom were interested from the off and some were bored and speedy departees (Interestingly enough when the UKIP candidate got into a dispute with the chair, a fair number walked out; they were not interested in any hassle). It was the first time Marsha had “appeared” at a hustings meeting. I was impressed by the amount of homework she did in advance but also couldn’t help noticing how nervous she was. She needn’t have worried. Marsha has such an authentic, enthusiastic personality that she has a head start over almost all competitors!
  25. Then pretty well straight off to Newton Prep, opposite the Dogs’ Home, for a very different kind of hustings. Chaired by the Headteacher and attended by pupils and parents, with pre-written questions carefully presented by pupils, this was a much more ordered occasion. The panel was the Lib/Dem’s Richard Davis and Marsha but also the Conservative candidate, Jane Ellison, seen here at the lectern. Jane, our MP since 2010, knew her stuff, OK, but she does not put over her message with the same passion and belief as does Marsha. I know I am biased but I think Marsha won the hustings competition.
  26. Then to Election Day itself, June 8th and, who should I meet outside my front door but Latchmere personality Joseph Afrane, pictured here – I love the shoes! I have “fought” 13 Council elections, 9 or 10 London elections for Mayor, GLC, etc., a few EU elections and this was my 12th General Election, so I wasn’t up at 5 am delivering polling day leaflets as some of our keenest volunteers were. Nevertheless I was busy from about 9 am until 4 or 5 on Friday morning. So it was a pretty long day. In many ways, it was like all the rest: chaotic, frenetic, a few lost tempers (I got shirty a couple of times, including to one Tory volunteer outside the George Shearing Centre and if you are reading this then apologies – put it down to the heat of the day!), mistakes, heart-warming stories about the great efforts some people make to register their vote, and exhaustion.
  27. On election days, I have never been totally confident of victory, nor indeed of defeat. But I was very confident of a Labour victory in Tooting and knew we were doing quite well in Battersea, so I was looking forward to the count. I stopped off at home and had a quick shower at 10 pm when I picked up the exit-polls announced on TV. Were we really doing that well? It looked good from the start as the Labour votes mounted up but there was a slight hiatus towards the end as suddenly several hundred Tory votes took Ellison into what appeared like a slight lead. I was girding myself up to demand a recount but then suddenly a large bundle of Labour votes tipped the balance into a de Cordova 25,292: Ellison 22,876 victory with a 9.95% swing to Labour.
  28. I know Jane Ellison pretty well. She has always been an honourable opponent and has worked with me on some issues, especially planning. Of course, as a member of a Tory Government she has had to vote for some awful policies, not least Article 5 and, therefore, Brexit. I can only imagine how disappointed she must be and for that reason, if nothing else, she has my sympathies.
  29. On 15th June, Marsha invited me to her “swearing in” in the House of Commons. I had never been to this ceremony before and in some ways it is a very mundane process – after all they need to swear in 650 MPs at about 30 seconds per MP, which makes it a 6 hour process. But after Marsha’s “turn” we went and had lunch on the terrace and toured the balance. This picture shows Queenstown Councillor Aydin Dickerdem, photographing Marsha and her friend and supporter Tracey Robinson.
  30. But over-shadowing all that was the disastrous fire that struck Grenfell Tower late on 14th June. This meant that the Housing Committee on the evening of the 15th was dominated by discussion of Wandsworth’s many tower blocks and in particular the three blocks with similar cladding to Grenfell Tower. The three are Latchmere’s Castlemaine and Weybridge Point and Putney’s Sudbury House. I think the Committee members gave the officers a pretty good grilling, but, to be fair, I also thought the officers responded with conviction and sincerity. Watch for cladding replacement and other remedial works in the next few months.
  31. On 18th June, I went with Marsha to the nation-wide Great Get Together in commemoration of Jo Cox, the Labour MP murdered a year ago in her constituency of Batley, Yorkshire. The Get Together was held in the grounds of the Holy Trinity, Clapham Common. It was the right and positive way to celebrate Jo Cox’s life.
  32. On the 21st June, I had the Planning Applications Committee. This had quite a few very interesting applications all over the Borough but the one that dominated the evening was the Battersea Power Station developer’s bid to reduce the volume of affordable housing that they are committed to deliver along with their total development at the Power Station. You have probably seen some of the controversy around this application with London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, coming out strongly against the application. The Labour members of the Committee, and one of the Tory councillors, hardly needed Sadiq’s exhortations to vote against, which we duly did. But, unfortunately, the Tory majority granted permission.
  33. And then on 24th June I was off to Sardinia with the grandchildren for a week – a break at last! I will report on that next month along with comments on the Finance Committee of 29th June, which had interesting implications for Tours Passage and Falcon Park – both in Latchmere.
  34. During the last month I put out a notice titled, Can you help me? In it I described the predicament of a young single mother in North Battersea, who found herself homeless. The Council provided her with a flat but she had no possessions and so I put out a request for help. I am delighted to say that quite a few of you volunteered furniture, kitchen utensils and even money. Well, in response another of you wrote to me saying, ”A neighbour sent me this as they knew I had some bedding etc. We have a sofa bed in pretty good condition, and single bedding – sheets, duvets etc that has only been used one year while my daughter was at uni. We’ve also got a dining table which is lovely but probably a bit big for a small family. I should also have some kitchen stuff. We live near Battersea Park, is any of it ok for you?” I am not sure that I want to become a volunteer Exchange and Mart, but if any of the above is of interest to you then do let me know.

My Programme for July

  1. On 1st July, there was the Falcon Festival and then there was an Independence Day Party that my colleague Councillor Peter Carpenter gives in honour of his American wife.
  2. On 2nd July, we have organised a fund-raising rounders match in Battersea Park.
  3. On US Independence Day, I had a meeting of the Council’s Design Panel, which is spending time creating and extending a Wandsworth heritage database.
  4. On 10th July, there is a meeting of the Wandsworth Conservation Advisory Committee.
  5. Two days later, there is the last full Council Meeting before the recess.
  6. On 13th the three Latchmere councillors are due to meet the contractors for the Winstanley regeneration programme, which first talked about in 2011, looks like really starting later this year. After the disaster of Grenfell Tower, we will need to take particular note of all fire safety measures!
  7. On the 14th July, there is a BBQ for Doris Emmerton Court residents, to which I have been invited, and the annual Battersea Society Garden Party in the grounds of St. Mary’s Church.
  8. On the 20th I have the Planning Application Committee.
  9. On the 25th we have an inspection of St. James’ Grove, which will be particularly interesting given that “cladded” Castlemaine is a major part of the estate. After Grenfell Tower this will be an important occasion.
  10. On 29th July, it is my turn to take the councillors’ surgery at Battersea Library.

Opinion Piece

Two months ago I wrote that “we in Battersea should, therefore, vote for the candidate most likely to argue (and vote) against Hard Brexit, whatever that is, and fight still for a Remain position”. I did say that the Lib/Dem candidate would also vote for a Remain position but that the Lib/Dems were not a realistic winning option.

In that context, some have argued that Marsha’s vote against the Chuka Umunna amendment to the Queen’s speech was a mistake and, worse, a betrayal of her constituents. I think that is a rather premature judgement. Clearly both major parties have major difficulties coming to terms with Brexit/Remain, especially given the Referendum’s majority in favour of Brexit and given the complex make-up of the Labour and Conservative parties.

I believe that it is probable that either or both of the Labour and Tory Parties will face a major internal crisis over the EU. How they get there and who gets there first will be major factors in the future of the UK. I am sure that there is much more jockeying for position to come and I know that Marsha will take an active, anti-Brexit role in the parliamentary debates.

Do you know?

Last month, I asked whether anyone knew anything about this house, including the simple question “Where is it?”

Well, the only correct answers came from people who lived there or were friends of those who did. The house is 22 Mossbury Road, barely 100 yards from the Falcon and the centre of modern Battersea. Actually, the rather more imposing traditional front is on the west side of the building, the right as you look at it, but unfortunately can only be seen from inside the property.

The house is one of the oldest in Battersea, dating from the very first years of the nineteenth century and so about 200 years old.
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