Tag Archive | Battersea Park Ward
May 1, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, May 2026, Newsletter (# 203) 

  1. This is the 203rd, and could be the last, edition of this Newsletter if those of you, who live in Battersea Park ward, don’t go out and vote for me and my Labour colleagues Vicky Asante and Daria Hass on 7th I think that we have done a pretty decent job of running the Council during the last four years and we deserve a second term, but clearly Keir Starmer’s current problems and the disaster of the Israeli/American:Iran war are not making it easy for us. Our track record includes
  • Having the lowest Council Tax in the country,
  • Having the most generous Council Tax relief fund for the less affluent of us,
  • Starting a house-building programme, with 1,000 Council units built, under construction or planned,
  • Creating in Springfield Park, the largest new park in the UK sine the 2012 Olympic Park,
  • Starting a clean-up and brightening of the Borough – see the Thessaly Road Bridge and the Falcon Road Bridge (Underpass) improvemets,
  • Introducing the Access For All scheme for those on concessions,
  • And being London’s 2025 Borough of Culture.

Our manifesto for the next four years, here being launched by Battersea Councillor Simon Hogg, promises

  • To keep Wandsworth’s Council Tax as the lowest in the country,
  • Doubling the current level of street cleaning,
  • Introducing Neighbourhood Wardens to keep the Borough safer,
  • Aim to be a net zero carbon Borough by 2030 – tough but we are aiming for it,
  • Add a further 1,000 new council homes – we believe everyone deserves a decent, safe home.

I think we have done some great work. It would be a crying shame to lose it all because of a Tory victory, especially one gifted by well-meaning but naïve Green or Liberal Democratis votes. From a personal perspective, being a councillor, for over 50 years, it is an enormous part of my life and it would be painful to lose this election.

  1. Because of the imminent Council Election, there were not many ‘Council meetings’ in April. Most councillors were committed to electioneering – canvassing and leafletting – and the inevitable increase in casework that follows from being out on the streets – that was certainly the case with me, although I must say I owe a vote of thanks to my fellow candidates Vicky Asante, left, and Daria Hass for doing lots of the legwork for me. We, all three, enjoyed the opportunity to go out and talk to you, the electorate, even if some of you seemed less than excited by the prospect!
  1. It was good to hear from one reader that the Battersea Park Gate, destroyed by a lorry a few months back, has been carefully rebuilt and that it is back in action. Thanks for that – I possibly would not have noticed so thanks for the info.
  1. The 6th April was my birthday. Penny and I decided to have lunch at the Shard, investigate Borough Market and visit Southwark Cathedral. The Market, needless to say, was buzzing. As much a tourist trap nowadays as opposed to being an old-fashioned, unexceptional street market, it never ceases to amaze – especially with its range of cheeses. The Cathedral is almost lost under the London Bridge: Waterloo:Cannon Street railway junction, but it is well worth visiting – if you can find it. Medieval in origin much of the Nave was reconstructed in the nineteenth century, but nevertheless has that awe-inspiring grandeur common to English (and Northern French) Gothic cathedrals. And then there was lunch at the Shard. I must confess that I have not previously been up there, so it was a thrill to be lunching with a view – not that we went as high as you can, but we were above St. Paul’s. It was a great way to spend a birthday, and London looked splendid in glorious sunshine.
  1. Off to Tate Britain on the 12th March to see the Constable:Turner Exhibition. It was brilliant but absolutely jam-packed – no way to admire some of Britain’s greatest works of art. But what a fascinating pair Constable and Turner make. They were in not very friendly rivalry, vying for pre-eminence. Turner all experimental; widely travelled across Europe but especially Italy; throwing all conventions aside; simply stupendous in some of his seascape paintings – see one painting entitled Fishermen upon a Lee-Shore in Squally Weather. Constable in contrast hardly moved from his native Suffolk, and his paintings have all the peace and calm that suggests. But they also show a very deep respect and admiration for English rural life and the contribution of the rural workforce. Great show assuming you could see past the crowds.
  1. On 14th April I, and fellow Councillor Critchard, went off to Wembley to see England’s Lionesses win a closely fought and critical World Cup qualifier 1-0. As it happens Lauren Hemp scored in the first couple of minutes, which seemed to have a dampenig effect on both teams, wih neither side looking much like scoring, despite the bar being hit twice. In that sense the match was a little disappointing, but what was not disappointing was the whole atmosphere and flavour of going to a women’s international match – so much more civilised and well-behaved both on and off the pitch, than their male counterparts.
  1. The Planning Applications Committee was on the 15th You may remember that last month I was pretty sceptical about whether our objection to a massive Lambeth development – one tower 230 metres high, 755 feet, about 30 metres, or 100 feet, higher than the current highest tower in Vauxhall – would make any difference. But my scepticism was totally unjustified as I understand that the weight of objections was such that the application has been withdrawn.

Well this month, the main application was for the demolition and redevelopment of Meadbank, BUPA’s large residential home, near the junction of Parkgate and Battersea Bridge Roads. Given the amount of construction work in the Parkgate Road area, and the unfortunate coincidence of the closure of Albert Bridge for an indefinite period, the timing is unfortunate to say the least. However, Meadbank has had to close because it is not up to today’s required standard – most notably it is no longer acceptable that residential rooms for the elderly do not have en suite facilities. Slightly reluctantly – we were concerned about the scale of the building and overlooking of neighbours –  we approved the application.

On the 29th April I went to a meeting of the residents of James Searles Lodge, (sheltered housing unit, immediately adjoining the Meadbank site). They had legitimate concerns about the dust, noise, nuisance and disturbance that the development will cause. They were also worried about the traffic and parking implications of the Meadbank development along with the neighbouring Ransom’s Dock, Vivienne Westwood, and Elcho Street developments, which are all due to start in the near future. I promised to organise a meeting with relevant officers to discuss and co-ordinate development management plans for all four developments.

  1. On the 24th April Penny and I went to the Olivier Theatre to see Maxim Gorky’s play Summer Folk – its Russian name is Dachaniki. I knew that Gorky was associated with the revolutionaries before the 1917 Russian Revolution, but I had never seen any of his plays, and knew little about him. He had an amazing group of mentors and friends. Anton Chekhov discussed drama with him, indeed Chekhov suggested that Gorky should take advice from Tolstoy.The play portrays the stultifying boredom and futility of the lifestyle of the Russian middle classes, who were escaping from the torrid summer heat of Moscow and St. Petersburg to their country dachas – a bit more than our country cottages but not exactly stately homes.

Whilst Chekhov describes this with amused satisfaction, Gorky’s play is full of contempt, loathing and nihilism – not without some comedy and a lot of absurdity. It is easy to understand why a revolution was coming to Russia, indeed the play more or less predicts it. It all combined to make the play interesting but not exactly full of laughs. Its opening night in 1904 caused a sensation and within a year there was an uprising in Moscow, the Russian navy was heavily defeated by the Japanese, and Gorky, as a member of the Bolshevik Party, was imprisoned. Change was coming. It made me think of today’s billionaires, whether of the western IT type or of the eastern, kleptocratic type. Indeed with the seemingly inevitable and continuing rise of today’s billionaires, the play has a relevance and topicality that on reflection, I had not expected.

  1. Candidates for public elections are nowadays asked to make all kinds of pledges on any number of issues. It is not a tactic that in general I approve of, but one pledge we have been asked to make is in support of the Palestinian people, and I happen to think that this issue is so important for humanity that on this occasion, I have made an exception. Hence see the attached.

My May Programme

  1. The May 7th Borough General Election defines the whole month for us Labour councillors. If we win, we will be deciding which team of our councillors will lead us through the next difficult four years. If we lose, the pressure is off us directly, but the mood will be grimmer; and if we end up with a coalition – which will be for the first time in Wandsworth’s history – then I guess we will have a busy period of negotiation and, hopefully, not too much confusion.
  2. Meanwhile in May, Spurs’ fate as a Premiership side for the 2026/7 season will be resolved, I must say that it is looking pretty grim right now!

Did you know?

Last month, I asked, “Whether you knew that a Battersea-based athlete won a silver medal at the recent Parisian Para-Olympic Games. Do you know who that might be and what is his connection to Battersea?”

The answer is that Marcus Perrineau-Daley, won the silver medal in the 100-metre sprint, just two years after he broke his spinal-cord in three places following a motor-cycle accident. As for his connection to Battersea, well that is his membership of Carney’s Community. And the picture shows him, and his tri-cycle (front centre-left), celebrating his achievement with the team at Carney’s. 

And this month?

Watching some of the snooker world championships, I pondered just where was Battersea’s specially built Temperance Billiards Hall – built in 1922 and used for many years for bingo and snooker – and what is its current use?

PS For back-dated numbers, web-search ‘Tony Belton’ to access my blog: to sign on for future copies email tonybelton99@gmail.com.   

 

May 29, 2022  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea May 2022, Newsletter (# 155)

  1. I started this newsletter 13 years ago as a Latchmere Ward Newsletter. On Thursday, 5th May, thanks to the Boundary Commissioners, Latchmere disappears; not the pub of course nor the estate but the political entity, a political entity which dates back to the late nineteenth century, and the creation of the old Metropolitan Borough of Battersea. It also means for me the end of forty years, of representing the ward on the Council. But, I hope to continue on 6th May representing Battersea Park, which includes about 35% of the old Latchmere Ward. My Labour colleagues, in Battersea Park ward, are Juliana Annan and Maurice McLeod, whilst my old Latchmere colleagues Simon Hogg and Kate Stock are the Labour candidates for Falconbrook ward.
  2. Wandsworth Council has been in purdah during the last month before the Borough election. That means that Council politics stopped for the month and that the only significant meeting for councillors was 26th April’s Planning Applications Committee (PAC). There were, however, several major applications to be considered, with considerable implications for Battersea, namely Burridge Gardens, the Bridges Court site, Battersea Square and the British Lion site, Thessaly Road.
  3. Battersea residents will know that the old Peabody estate (“Burridge Gardens”), has been in a demi-world state of demolition and reconstruction for the last ten years. Hopefully, the application, which the Council approved last week, will be the start of the last chapter of the process!  You will be interested to know that I and two other Labour members of the Committee voted against the proposal, not because we were against new homes but because the proportion of family-friendly and socially-rented homes was once again scaled back. George Peabody, the nineteenth-century American philanthropist, who spent many of his US dollars building the original Peabody Estates for the poor of London, would have been horrified.
  4. We were “merely” approving “detailed changes” to a Bridges Courtpreviously approved application, at the Bridges Court site, at the junction of Lombard Road and York Road. The detailed changes included an extra 41 residential units! However, 35% of the 177 residential units are said to be affordable, which by the standard of many private sector applications is good. Nevertheless, I have serious environmental concerns about having a 25-storey block at this location. Aren’t we supposed to have a care for the wider urban environment?
  5. The Battersea Square site was an application for the expansion of Thomas School to make it a small/medium-sized independent school for approximately 440 pupils. The development will not change the general physical appearance of Battersea Square, but many local people are, and will continue to be, concerned about the traffic implications of expanding the school. We were assured by the officers that there would not be insurmountable problems, but I have my doubts!
  6. My fellow Labour Councillor Sheila Boswell raised the interesting issue of school spatial standards, by which she meant “Isn’t this a very small site to have 400+ adolescent boys running around? Are there not any standards that need to be applied?” She really didn’t get a straight answer to that question, so let me provide it. There were indeed guidelines but they were abandoned and ignored by Mrs Thatcher’s Government in the early 1980s, when the ToryParty was intent on increasing the provision of private education.

    Brit Lion 2

  7. And finally, there was a relatively small and uncontroversial application for a block of 17 flats on the British Lion site, Thessaly Road. This picture of the old pub, which then was known as Maloney’s is shown as a reminder that it has been an empty site for 15 years! I am sure that Carey Gardens residents will be more than pleased to get some new neighbours.
  8. Meanwhile, most councillors have been fully involved in election campaigning. For my part, I have met many new Battersea Park electors. One meeting was with Connaught Mansions residents. It was held in Salesian House, Surrey Lane, on 27th April, and facilitated by Battersea Communities. The residents resolved to establish themselves as a regular working group; I am pleased to report that the owners welcomed this development, claiming to look forward to resident involvement in the block’s planned regeneration. I have some experience of the issues that arise during regeneration on this scale though mainly in the public sector. I hope that I can bring that experience to bear in Connaught Mansions to advantage.
  9. Earlier in the month, I accompanied Penny to Rome, where sheBleu Train was holding business meetings with her academic colleagues. It’s a few years since I was last in Rome. During that time, further areas of the old city have been excavated and opened up to the public. The eternal city is as stunning as ever. Penny and I went by train and stopped overnight in Turin, which was a far more impressive city than I had expected. On the return journey, the star event was lunch at the station buffet in Gare de l’Est in Paris. The station buffet “Le Train Bleu” was built and opened in 1901. We stopped there for lunch between trains – a bit different from Clapham Junction station. I recommend it for anyone who has a couple of hours to spare between the Channel Tunnel train and any further train from Gare de L’Est! The food was excellent but not very expensive – and the total ambience very French.
  10. We also squeezed in a couple of days in the Forest of Dean, on the Wye ValleyWelsh border. It was deliberately a very quiet break, with visits to Chepstow, Monmouth and the Wye Valley, which as you can see is spectacularly scenic!

My programme for May

Regular readers will know that I normally announce here what my plans are for the coming month. But on this occasion, almost everything depends upon the result of the election on Thursday, 5th May. The one thing that is certain is that the Council’s Annual Meeting is on 25th May.

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked, “Who was the man (trained by the celebrated architect John Nash) who shaped much of Battersea Park and is commemorated in the name of a Latchmere (Falconbrook) council block – soon  to be demolished?”

The answer is Sir James Pennethorne (1801-71), who was born in Worcester, came to London to train as an architect under Nash and designed both Victoria and Battersea Parks, probably the largest public spaces created in Britain during Victorian times.

And this month?

In Battersea Park, there is something called the Ballast Wall. Do you know where it is and what it is? And why it is so different from any other structure in Battersea Park?