Tag Archive | labour-party
January 1, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, January 2026, Newsletter (# 199) 

  1. I had the Finance Committee on 3rd I do not think that there was much of great moment on the agenda but, of course, everyone was concerned about the Government’s review of local government funding – the so-called Fair Funding Review. Some of the details came out in the national media in the run-up to Xmas. Clearly the Government is concerned to re-balance the subsidies it gives to local authorities – in other words, to move funding streams from the south, and particularly London, to the North. There were indications that Wandsworth and Westminster will be hit particularly hard, but my own experience over many years suggests that what happens to Council Tax in March and April bears very little resemblance to the worst scare stories heard in December and January – so no speculations from me just yet.
  2. On 4th December, I went up West, as they used to say, to have lunch with fellow soccer players for a club, called Witan – it was the LCC and then GLC staff team and Witan is an Anglo-Saxon word for council. I first played with them in the ‘60s and carried on with them into the ‘80s. On the 4th we re-played a few games – in the pub – largely the ones we won – especially when one of us scored. It was great to enjoy our continuing companionship, and long may it continue. However, our plans for a come-back failed.
  1. We had the Council Meeting on 10th December, followed by mince pies with Mayor Jeremy Ambache. I think Simon Hogg, the Labour Leader, is at his best in the environment of the Council Meeting – he had a good evening. I had rather a good time as well. I was replying to a Tory motion – it was critical of our programme, which includes the largest council house building programme in London. Frankly the Tories are all over the place. You may have seen leaflets about the debts that, they say, we are building up – when we are the only London Borough without debts. When they were in control, the Tories sold off more assets at below market price than any authority in history, and yet, they accuse us of profligacy.
  2. We were on our way out to a friend’s Xmas party when Penny fell down the stairs. She won’t thank me for saying this out loud but given the fantastically colourful black eyes she has, I wouldn’t want anyone to have the wrong idea about how she got them! I am pleased to say that she had recovered well by New Year.
  1. I went to a really great event on 15th December with the official opening of the new Falcon Bridge. One simple thing to note is that this 100-metre-long underpass of the railway has now got an official name – The Falcon Bridge. But that is minor. If you have not seen it since the 15th it is well worth the trip. I have heard people say it is not worth the money, even that it is tasteless. Garbage. I know people, who were scared of this main route from North to South Battersea, because it was dark, usually wet, filthy, cheerless and threatening – now it is light, bright, dry, clean, colourful, even welcoming. I expect to see a good impact on Falcon Rad in the next few years. The opening event itself was brisk and cheerful; a great testament to urban renewal.
  2. The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 18th December was uneventful, even if the attendance was a bit thin – thanks to a car breakdown and the coming of Xmas. But perhaps it is worth noting that there have been 2,440 Webcast viewings of this year’s PAC meetings. Clearly not a mass audience, but it is not insignificant that on average just over 200 people tune in and watch our deliberations. It is also noteworthy that, having chaired the committee now for just 4 months short of 4 years, I am aware of only one critical ‘review’ of one of our meetings during that time. That’s an impressive record. And it’s notable that all the PAC members, of all parties, treat the applications and the committee with the care and consideration that they deserve.
  1. On the 20th December, Jason Okundaye, a one-time resident of the Patmore Estate, wrote an article in The Guardian. In it he described Battersea Power Station shopping centre, coming “with Rolex and Cartier stores, luxury private members’ clubs and apartments with multi-million-pound price tags,” making it clear the total irrelevance of the power station development for a significant proportion of the local community. Or at least, that is what he thought as things stood before the recent decision to include 203 council houses in the development. In the article, the Patmore resident makes it clear how important it is for the local community, that Labour controlled Wandsworth Council made council housing a political priority. He praises Labour’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Aydin Dikerdem, for his major part in this victory. Well done, Aydin. I know that Aydin would also give much credit to the Council Leader, Simon Hogg, for his solid support. And indeed, to the whole Labour Group every one of whom has played a part in achieving Labour’s 2022 Manifesto commitment to build 1,000 council homes by May 2026.
  2. For completeness, I should also add that we, Penny and I, also went to four neighbourhood parties in the pre-Christmas period. They managed to be amazingly varied, crowded and bustling with everything from carols and decorative exuberance to gourmet-style canapés and engaging conversation, with almost everything in-between. This appropriately chaotic picture is from the crowded and bustling one, during the carol singing. The parties did, however, have two things in common. They were all totally festive and very enjoyable. And then a very quiet Xmas and NY with just us two and the cats, a bit of gardening – the signs of spring are everywhere – already. Happy New Year to you all.
  1. Finally, I was asked by the Chair of the Alf Dubs Lecture Trust, Anne Reyersbach, to give advance notice and publicity for their third annual lecture, on 5 February 2026 at the Battersea Arts Centre. The Trust, very appropriately named after Battersea’s MP, Alf Dubs, “exists to advance the education of the public in human rights and refugee issues through a public lecture”. Alf was, you may recall, a child evacuee from Nazi controlled Czechoslovakia, and subsequently became famous for championing the rights of victims of oppressive regimes. The lecture will be given by Professor Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London and Harvard. You can register to attend via Eventbrite:https://alfdubslecture.eventbrite.com I hope to see you there.

My January Programme

  1. I have my Council Surgery on 3rd January at 11 am in the Battersea Park Library.
  2. I have the Conservation & Heritage Advisory Committee on 8th January, the Planning Applications Committee on 20th, and the Planning Forum on 29th
  3. I will be assisting Marsha de Cordova, our MP, hosting a party for some consttuents in the House of Commons, on 12th.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, given that the Bear State is not an arcane reference to Vladimir Putin’s Imperial domain, can you solve the anagram? And many of you could indeed solve it, the answer being: Battersea.

And this month?

 

A Battersea pub is rumoured to have had a secret tunnel, used by smugglers, linking it to the Thames. What is the pub’s name, and where is it?

August 1, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea August 2024, Newsletter (# 182)

  1. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive; but to be young wasPicture1 very heaven!” wrote Wordsworth as he recalled hearing the news of the storming of the Bastille in 1789. Not sure that I could claim exactly the same thoughts on July 5th, as I took in the full glory of Labour’s 174 majority win in the 2024 General Election. I can after all hardly claim to be young anymore – but nonetheless the news brought Wordsworth’s words to mind.
  1. There wasn’t for me exactly one “Portillo moment” as cabinet member after cabinet member fell before the onslaught of an angry public. The voters showed that they did not want the Tories anymore – even if they were not quite as enthusiastic for Labour as I might have wished. Nonetheless, bliss it was!
  1. Moreover, haven’t the first few days of the Labour government already made such a difference? It feels and sounds as though the adults are back in charge of events – as even some of my Tory friends ruefully acknowledge – for the first time since the 2016 Referendum and the emergence of joker Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister.
  2. July 2024 will obviously feature in Keir Starmer’s futurePicture2 biographies if not in this version but, in hindsight, it may be even more significant than it already appears to be. On July 1st Starmer was the Opposition Leader of a medium-sized power in the Western alliance but within days of Starmer’s election victory, the French President Macron committed what appears to be political suicide and President Joe Biden has written himself out of the script. Suddenly Keir Starmer is one of the senior leaders in the Western world and the leader of one of the most stable countries in that alliance. What a month!
  3. Meanwhile, back in Wandsworth, the Planning Applications Committee was held on 18th There were three particularly significant applications – all of which were approved. The first was for 12 new council houses – way over in Roehampton. However, the other two were in Battersea. One was for a Tesco store to replace the gymnasium on the Falcon Road, though there are legal issues around that application which makes its implementation far from certain. The other is for a major development of residential units in two blocks – one of twenty storeysPicture3 and the other of seven storeys in Gwynne Road, North Battersea, near Lombard Road. It is planned that 35% of the residential units will be affordable and the other 65% will be available at market prices – a split which is in line with the current Greater London Authority’s London Plan. It is not, however, as ambitious as Wandsworth Council’s more radical ambition of achieving a 50:50 split, between affordable and market housing. Our ambitious, proposed plan amendment has not yet been approved by the Secretary of State, who may think that we are in danger of discouraging developers. The graphic shows the design line of development from the large, new block on the riverside down to the 14-storey block on the right.
  4. July has seen a number of encouraging developments in Wandsworth Council services. I have not been closely involved with all these initiatives, but I am sure everyone will be interested in, for example, how we are trying to make many facilities accessible (i.e. free) for children on free school meals. But we are also doubling the number of mega-skips available; encouraging developers to fund local improvements; introducing free breakfast schemes for many more schoolchildren; and initiating a mega-regeneration programme on the Alton Estate in Roehampton.
  5. Two events dominated the middle week of July, both slightly taking the gloss off Labour’s optimistic and confident control of the Council. The first was the discovery that on the night of July 4th, the Council got the Putney result in the General Election wrong by a few thousand votes. It was a bureaucratic error, nothing to do with the political control of the Council and fortunately, it appears as though it has made no substantial difference to any candidate – no deposit was lost, no wrong result – but it was not good for the Council’s reputation – to put it mildly.
  6. The other event was the resignation of Wandsworth’s (and Richmond’s) Chief Executive, Mike Jackson. We are told that this was for personal reasons – and I am sure that it was – but it certainly was not in the plan when he was appointed almost exactly on Day One of the Labour Council. Best wishes to him and his family. But for a Council, that has been used to long-serving senior leadership, this third major change at the top of the organisation represents an interesting corporate challenge.
  1. Meanwhile, on 14th July back in the “real world”, England lost 2:1 to Spain in the Euro- final. As always, the commentators said that we had man for man the better players whilst everyone, me included, could clearly see that Spain was the better team. Therefore, QED they must have the better manager. So, let’s blame poor old Gareth Southgate. But, I think Southgate has played a blinder ever since he was appointed as England’s manager. Hence, my guess is that our players are not actually better man for man than the Spanish team. Perhaps, because all the commentators are ex-Premier footballers, they hate to criticise players and turn instead against Gareth.
  1. Also, on the 14th I went to the Northcote Road festival, which was mainly distinguished by food and drink stalls, where, as expected, I bumped into neighbours and a few old friends – even if this year it was notable for the lack of Tories on show – were they licking their wounds?
  1. On 19th July immediately after the PAC (well at 8 the next day) Penny and I set off for a much anticipated 10-day break in Ireland. We spent the first six days in Killarney and the last few days in Maynooth, near Dublin. I had always wanted to return to Kerry having had good experiences of the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry in the 1960s!
  2. We started with a tour of the Ring of Kerry (the beautiful coast road around Ireland’s extreme south-west peninsula) but unfortunately,Picture4 the weather was very Irish and we only really became acquainted with the inside of an Irish cloud. Then two days later I stupidly managed to fall over, whilst cycling around Killarney National Park. I ended up with a cracked rib – ever had one? Don’t bother if you haven’t. They are very painful and can only be left to mend at their own pace – not fun – and so I spent the rest of our time in Ireland in a hotel bed, getting up on a couple of occasions for nice choral evenings in Irish pubs. This picture of us at Ross Castle in Killarney National Park, does remind me that the sun came out just a little before I injured myself!
  3. We finished off in Maynooth, a small Irish University town 30 miles west of Dublin, where Penny was participatng in one of her eighteenth century studies conferences. I usually enjoy those occasions – plenty of socialising and entertaining discussions, but I am afraid that on this occasion, cracked rib an’ all, I was a bit of a weakling and largely stayed in bed! Happily, Penny reports that her Conference went well – she certainly came back to the hotel in merry mood on the last evening.

 My August Programme

  1. The August Planning Applications Committee is on 21st
  2. But apart from that August is entirely free – bar a couple of planning meetings with officers and fellow councillors – until 22nd, when Penny and I will be off for what has become our traditional holiday in Croatia.

Did you know?

Last month, having listed all Battersea’s MPs, since 1900, I asked if you could list streets, parks, houses, named after any of them. Well, that certainly taught me a lesson – not one person bothered to reply – such is the interest in our MPs. (Though to be fair JP and a couple of others noticed a bad error I made about Alf Dubs’ dates!) But just in case some of you are interested in the answers, here is my list:-

  1. Burns Road, named after John Burns of course,
  2. Stephen Sanders Court in Salcott Road,
  3. Ganley Court, after Caroline Ganley, and
  4. Jay Court, after Douglas Jay, now anonymously Park Court South.

And this month?

This is a genuine question, in the sense that I do not know the answer, but would like to know it – and you may be interested as well. How many of the competitors in the Paris Olympics are resident in Battersea, if any?

April 2, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April 2024, Newsletter (# 178)

  1. March began (for me, in Council terms,) with the North East Surrey Crematorium Board of which I am a board member, on 5th March. Why – North East Surrey? Because, Battersea Borough Council bought the land for a large cemetery, somewhere cheap between Raynes Park and Merton in the early twentieth century. The crematorium was built for use by Wandsworth, Sutton and Merton Councils – and hence the name – North East Surrey. Not much happened at the Board meeting.
  2. Much the same could be said for the Council Meeting, Picture2which took place on 6th March. Its main purpose was formally to rubber stamp the Council Tax agreed at the February Finance Committee. However, there was some discussion of the state of our roads and pavements, which for some years have been deteriorating at a faster rate than we have been repairing them. I am pleased to say that we were able to announce a multi-million pound plan to do the necessary repairs and maintenance to tackle this problem – how is this for example in affluent Anhalt Road?
  3. Off to Southend-on-Sea on 10th March to have lunch with Penny’s relatives – her brother lives in a flat with a fantastic view over the Thames Estuary. I used to spend school holidays in Southend in the years immediately after WW2 – I guess it must have been 1948 and 1949 – so I have a bit of a soft spot for the town. But my, how economically depressed the town appears now – this is not affluent Brighton, much more like poverty-stricken Blackpool.
  4. On the 13th March, Penny and I were off to the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) to Picture3see The Seven Deadly Sins, but first, an Accordion Concerto – yes a concerto for an accordion – violins obviously, organs of course, but had you ever heard of an accordion concerto? It was brilliant, interesting, fun but I’m not sure that this work is sufficient to raise the reputation of the accordion. On the other hand, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s reputations are assured – they were both émigrés from Nazi Germany, Weill because he was Jewish and Brecht because he was a Marxist. Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins is described as a sung ballet with German words written by Bertolt Brecht and sung here in translation by Danielle de Niese (pictured). It is the dramatic and harrowing story of a young woman, exploited by her family and torn between money and morality.
  5. The Planning (PAC) Applications Committee was held on the 19th March. There were only four applications to be considered. One was a purely technical event and the second of no great consequence nor contention. However, we did approve the development of a school unit in central Tooting, and then, after a near three-hour debate, we rejected an application to develop 449 residential units on Springfield Hospital It was a close decision; in my view the wrong one; but what concerned me most was the mechanical, clearly “whipped” votes of the Tory members. PAC has a quasi-judicial function. It relies upon the individual judgements of its members. It is NOT whipped, although naturally most Tory and most Labour councillors vote the same way as their party colleagues – but on this occasion, Tory councillor votes were very suspiciously both uniform and predictable. (For the record: As the Chair of PAC, I do not discuss decisions before the meeting but the way I voted on this issue is now a matter of public record.)
  6. This time of the year is dominated, Picture4for those with sporting inclinations, by two traditional events, the culmination of the Six Nations Rugby Championship and the Boat Race (the National and the finale of the soccer season come in the next two months). For Oxonians, like me, the least said about the Boat Race the better but, just, maybe the E-coli scandal surrounding the event, might force change on the water industry – and about time too! And I have little to say about the Six Nations but talking rugby gives me an excuse to show a picture of Battersea Labour Party’s new organiser pursuing her sport on a typically muddy north London pitch – she’s the one with the large white gum shield! Good rucking, Zara!
  7. In the third week of February, the Labour Group had its two-evening, two-part Annual General Meeting. Simon Hogg was re-elected as Group and, therefore, Council Leader. We elected Sana Jafri as the new Mayor, and Jamie Colclough as the new Chair of the Environment Committee. Unfortunately, we also had a resignation from a West Putney councillor, who decided after six years to call it a day.
  8. On the 21st February, I chaired the Wandsworth Planning Forum, which is a twice-yearly discussion forum between the main planning societies, the Battersea Society, the Wandsworth Society, the Putney Society, the Clapham Junction Action Group and organisations like the RIBA and the Council. It was not dramatic; I can’t think of any notable decisions; but it was a very useful exchange of views, confirming our intention to do the best for the Wandsworth environment.
  9. On the 23rd March, Penny and I went to thePicture5 splendid St. Ann’s Church on St. Ann’s Hill for a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the South West London Choral Society and the Otranto Chamber Orchestra. It was spectacular, even if that is a ludicrous adjective to apply to an audio event! As the choir reached the climax of the Hallelujah Chorus and perhaps even more spectacularly the final Amen Chorus, I could feel just why choral societies are so popular in today’s individualised culture – they are clearly, at their best, magnificent collective celebrations. We were totally wowed.
  10. On 27th February, I had the Conservation and Heritage Advisory Committee (CHAC). This may seem like a niche interest, but it does important work – for those Picture6interested in our history. I was happy to say that work had started on St, Mark’s Vestry School in Battersea Rise – had you noticed? The school was built in the 1860s, just before the introduction of free, compulsory education in 1870, and is one of the last remaining vestry school buildings left. Not long ago, the roof was bust, the walls were cracked and the windows broken, but now it is on the way to being the home of a small, but obviously a very professional architect’s practice.

  11. Picture7One other thing that I learned at CHAC was that there is an original eighteenth-century cottage on Clapham Common Northside. Did you know? I hadn’t even noticed despite having lived here a mere – well many years! It is not a particularly notable building but/and it is probably the only pre-1800 building in Wandsworth that is neither protected nor listed. Should it be? Here it is – what do you think?

My programme for April?

  1. On 1st April, we are off to see a performance of Nye (Aneurin Bevan, creator of the NHS in 1948) at the National Theatre.
  2. On 4th April I have a special Finance Committee convened by the Tory councillors. Masochistically, the Tories seem to want to argue about how Labour has been handling the Council’s finances. Odd given that we have just announced successive Council Tax “freezes”.
  3. The Planning Applications Committee is on 24th April.
  4. And that seems to be that for formal Council events but I guess that there will be plenty of activity going on as we build towards the Mayoral and GLA elections on 2nd May and on the West Putney by-election also to be held on 2nd May.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, given that the International Day of Women Picture9was on 8th March who could name the woman (born in Huntingdon; died in Biggleswade), who founded which major Battersea institution, without ever, as far as we know, visiting the borough?

Two or three people emailed me with the answer, which was Mary Tealby (1801-1865), a “kindly woman”, who took pity on a stray dog, where she lived in Islington and ended up looking after several dogs in her scullery before founding a dogs’ home (1860), which moved to Battersea in 1871.

And this month?

 In paragraph 10 above, I write about an eighteenth-century building on Clapham Common Northside, which I did not know about. So, I wonder just how many surviving pre-nineteenth century buildings or structures in Battersea you/we can name? I will be really interested in seeing the result and how many of us can name 10, 15 …?