Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere April Newsletter (# 59)
March highlights
1. Of course it was not until March that the formal Council Tax decision was taken, that is agreed by full Council. But it was a formality and everyone knew what the result would be – a frozen Council Tax. That was pretty much what March was like – a slow wind down in the build up to the Council Election on May 22nd. Indeed the Council has what is known as a purdah when virtually no “political” business takes place until after the election – except of course the Planning Applications Committee, which like “Ole Man River just keeps rolling along”.
2. There wasn’t much on at the Planning Applications Committee either, except for 69-71 Falcon Road. This Halal restaurant is clearly very popular with its customers but is not as popular with its neighbours, who complain about the timing (and therefore noise) of its operations and its waste clearance record. Some of the neighbours are angry about the Committee giving the restaurant permission but the Council was in a bit of a jam. The application included improved waste procedures and a better smell extraction duct. The Committee could hardly refuse improved storage and effective extraction units when they were the main causes of previous complaints.
The Committee insisted, for what it was worth, and I know some neighbours do not think it worth much, that the restaurant will be closely watched by planning inspectors.
3. The other day, walking along Falcon Road, I looked,
truly looked rather than just glanced, at the entrance to the Falcon Road Estate. The one right down by the railway bridge, next to the bus stop and opposite the bus garage entrance. Here is a picture of it. I think it’s truly spectacular and a mark of what residents can do given the right kind of project. Have a really close look next time you pass by and feel inspired to do the same to your garden, or estate.
4. A number of constituents have asked me about the piece I wrote on the Bike docking stations and whether I could provide an update – well, I can. The Town Hall provides them to me, if I ask, on a monthly basis and I now have both January’s and February’s figures and can draw a few comparisons and conclusions. January is, of course, 6% longer than February and this year they were both about as wet and cold (or not so cold) as each other and so they are quite good comparators. Overall, the February usage of the bikes at 22,979 was 7% higher than January’s. The range of usage is quite large with over 1,000 usages at Falcon Road, Albert Bridge Road and Queen’s Circus and less than 100 usages in Stewart’s Road (Nine Elms) and Manfred Road, Putney. Although these figures appear quite high to me when you divide them by the numbers of days in the month, then one can wonder at the cost of this scheme.
So for example the usage at Manfred Road is just over 3 a day, which given the cost of the installation means it will be years before there is any real pay-back. We know that the docking installation costs were over £2 million. We also know that Barclay’s Bank has NOT sponsored the scheme to anywhere near the extent that Mayor Johnson (I’m not calling him B…s!) hoped. And we also know that TfL is being very secretive about the running costs. But the truth will out over time and although, I think the bikes are a great idea, I do suspect that TfL has gone over the top a bit on implementation.
As far as Latchmere is concerned, I think it is fairly obvious with a total usage of 759 in February that the Grant Road triple station is far too large for the demand. The contentious station in Fawcett Close with 206 had a large 57% increase in usage over January figures; the equally contentious station in Usk Road had a 52% increase from 162 to 246. Will demand continue to rise or will familiarity breed contempt? Interestingly, with the exception of Falcon Road, the really large usages are very near to Battersea Park. Is this because people want to “give it a go” with a ride round the park or does it demonstrate a substantial commute to Chelsea?
5. From my canvassing for the Council Election, it is clear that the regeneration of the Winstanley and York Road estates is causing considerable concern, not to say distress. One lady, living on her own, told me that she had moved in when the flat was new, in 1956 I think she said. She hated the idea that her flat might be demolished. As far as she was concerned it was her home and she loves it; it was where she had brought up her family and lived with her husband. Now her husband is dead and the kids have fled the coop but this was and is her life and the Council wants to demolish it. It is pretty important that we, the Council, get this one right.
The general strategy has been agreed by the Council, and the Housing Department staff are now on the estates consulting about it. And it is quite right that they should be advising and consulting with residents about the Council’s intention to demolish some of the York Road Estate and replace it with new build. But what I would like to make clear is that NO final decision has been taken yet on any single issue, and indeed there are powerful arguments against some of the suggestions. So if residents want to fight and campaign against the Council’s plans, they should not give up but they should make their voices heard loud and clear.
It is strange that, given the general distrust of the word of anyone in “authority”, that when it comes to one relatively junior officer saying that the Council has a plan to demolish this block, that comment is taken as a definite fact. Let me repeat, it is a plan and plans change as circumstances change, as opposition or support strengthens and weakens and as opinion is clarified. Some or even most of the Council’s plan will happen but I could almost guarantee that it will not happen exactly as is planned. If you can get all your neighbours to oppose one element of the plan then you will probably win the argument. If you can’t get anywhere near 50% to agree with you, then you won’t win and you won’t deserve to win.
6. Last month I wrote about the worrying report from
London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) about air pollution in Battersea at levels 5 and 6 times higher than European Union targets. I said that the worst pollution of all is under the Falcon Road railway bridge. Well following publication of this report the Battersea Society organised a morning of action on the 28th March. Some of us were sent off to interview shop workers to see if they were concerned and others looked for lichens and other plant-life that flourished in clean and/or dirty air.
Others of us attached measuring devices to various road sings so that we can measure levels of air pollution more accurately. Here I am fixing one of LSx’s measuring devices to the bus-stop just by the railway bridge – Yes they do have permission to fix measuring devices to bus-stops. As I said in March, I will be using this research to press for early improvements to the environment under the Bridge!
My Programme for April
1. Of course there is, as ever, the Planning Applications Committee on the 14th. However, for me and my colleagues there will simply be more and more election campaigning. So give us a wave if you see us about – it’s just part of the process! Oh, and as you swear and curse at having your TV viewing disturbed and exclaim that we are all the same, oh and in it only for the money, just give a thought. Would you rather live in a country where the only way to change a government was by war or revolution.
Did you know about Christ Church, Battersea?
Last month I wrote of the modest, modern church in 
Christ Church Gardens. I also wrote that its very different Victorian predecessor, consecrated on 27 July 1849, was full of all the confidence I associate with Victorian times. I also said that there is a rather splendid photograph of it in a Wandsworth Town Hall Committee Room. Well, here it is!
Well, the church certainly is very different from its current namesake but the picture certainly isn’t as I then said from the 1930s. A quick glance demonstrates that it is earlier than that. Does anyone know, or can anyone work out just when this might have been taken and let me know. I have my own idea, which I will share with you next month. Oh, and can you suggest who the photographer might have been? I have an idea about that too!
Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere February Newsletter (# 46)
January highlights
1. I went to the Passenger Transport Liaison Group on 7th January. Sounds dull, I know, but actually it deals with quite a bit of important detail. I asked why the Grant Road exit from CJ station is closed before the other exits. This means that many of you, catching the late trains from Waterloo and Victoria, have to walk out of the main exit and all the way round under the Falcon Road bridge – not the pleasantest of walks! The Network Rail representative said that he would look into the issue and just maybe get it extended to 1 am.
I also asked the TfL representative about “forcing” passengers to get off the C3 and 295 in
St. John’s Hill, when it would be more convenient and safer for them (you) to stay on the bus to the terminus at Grant Road. I am afraid that the TfL man was a right “jobsworth” and was more concerned about the safety issue of getting off the bus at such a free-stand as the terminus and less about walking under the bridge. Of course if anything did happen at the terminus then TfL would be liable, whilst if you simply get mugged under the bridge then one thing’s for certain: TfL won’t get it in the neck! A frankly pathetic response! However, perhaps the Council can include some re-structuring of that bus stand as part of its big investment in regenerating Latchmere!
2. At the Planning Applications Committee on 14th January we approved the demolition of the gas holders that stand behind Battersea Park Station. Though not exactly in Latchmere, they are almost as well known a landmark of Battersea as the Power Station. I guess it will be a couple of years at least before they disappear but here is a reminder of them as they look now. There was no significant application relating directly to Latchmere.
3. I was at the Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee (I hate that name) on the 21st.
There was an awful lot about speed humps and parking controls but largely in streets in Tooting. The only matters which, I thought, were of wider interest and especially here in Latchmere were a paper about building a pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the Thames between Vicarage Crescent and Imperial Wharf, and the plan to expand the Mayor’s bike scheme.
The bridge would be on the upstream side of the Cremorne or Battersea Railway Bridge and would obviously be a great addition to life since as you know there is a big gap in bridges between Battersea and Wandsworth Bridges. However, the expected cost is £20 million and there is no known source of funding and so I am afraid it is merely a “bridge dream”.
The Mayor’s bike scheme is, however, going ahead and the cost in Battersea will be the best part of £2 million with cycle stands (docking stations) installed all over the place. A few of the 17 Latchmere sites are Grant Road, Sheepcote Lane and Plough Road. A full list can be seen at this link http://ww3.wandsworth.gov.uk/moderngov/documents/s26267/13-61%20Appendix%201%20to%20Cycle%20Hire%20Report.pdf. I can see some arguments coming up when they go the Planning Applications Committee! But at £2 million for Battersea alone I really, and rather unfashionably, wonder whether just some of this money could be spent reversing other cuts, such as welfare benefits, adventure playgrounds and one o’clock clubs. What do you reckon?
4. On the 23rd we had the Housing Committee. There were a few technical matters but two main changes: one about the annual rent increase, which is more or less in line with inflation at a weekly average of £3.44, and secondly the impending change to housing and Council Tax benefits. The first thing to be said here is that the Government are cutting these drastically and that many people at the poorer end of the spectrum are going to find life really tough. There is already anecdotal evidence of quite a few children with free school meals “disappearing” from our primary schools. It seems that schools are picking up signs, before the housing department, that quite large numbers of people are being forced out of London. I think it is too early to say quite what level of disaster this is for some in the community, but we do know quite a bit about the impact of the so-called “bedroom” tax. I have a local and worrying case that you can read about on my blog site at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/ under the title “State Snooper in the bedroom”
Highlights of 2012
1. My colleague, Simon Hogg, has produced his own blog of a few of our (Latchmere Labour councillor) achievements in 2012. You can see his account at http://simonhoggblogs.com/2012/12/31/9-things-your-local-labour-party-did-for-you-this-year/
2. I haven’t really kept a diary of my own “achievements” but am now making a resolution to do so in 2013, but my own personal highlight is fighting the Council’s policy to evict the families of those involved in the riots of August, 2011. As I have often said, it is not that I have much sympathy for the rioters but making them homeless, and more particularly their innocent mothers and younger siblings, seems like pointless revenge. The international interest was staggering and I was interviewed by press and TV from Russia, France, Spain and Canada. In the end the Council backed down!
My Programme for February
1. There is a Council meeting on Wednesday, 6th February, with Planning Applications on the 11th and Strategic Planning and Transportation on the 20th with the Housing Committee following on 27th.
2. The Finance Committee will decide on the 27th February next year’s Council Tax but essentially since that has been nationalised for some years now, we know that will be frozen or more or less so.
3. There is the Greater London Labour Conference on the week-end of 16th and 17th February, though by then some of us will be deep into the Six-Nations Rugby Championships!
4. There is the police Special Neighbourhood Team (SNT) on the 7th and numerous other smaller meetings.
Did you know?
Everything about the Latchmere Estate? I thought I knew quite a bit but this month my attention was drawn to a blog-site called Municipal Dreams. This is obviously the pride and joy of a real municipal historian and there is masses in there about the reconstruction of bomb blitzed Plymouth and about Poplar but if you scroll down to the 1st January entry there is a really interesting bit on the Latchmere Estate – a must for history buffs, the Battersea Society, etc.
My Latchmere June Newsletter (# 38)
May highlights
1. The Mayoral Election took place on 3rd May. Congratulations are due 
to Boris Johnson and his local running mate DickTracey, But I doubt that any party was very pleased with the result, with Boris winning by a small margin against Ken, for whom it was undoubtedly one election too far. The Labour party did quite well across the country but perhaps not well enough to be complacent. Apart from Boris, it was a disastrous election for the Tories but not quite as bad as it was for the Lib/Dems. The picture is at the Committee Rooms in Falcon Road.
2. But we can’t let this occasion go by without saying a word about Ken Livingstone. It was an election too far – perhaps two elections too far, but let’s make no mistake he has been a giant of London politics for the best part of 40 years. It is difficult to remember now, just how popular he was for most of those years.
Apart from his roles both as a Lambeth councillor and an MP he has been the London city boss for 13 years, from 1981-86 as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) and as Mayor from 2000-2008. He defeated the official Labour candidate, Frank Dobson, in 2000 (making him one of the most successful independent candidates ever in British electoral history) and massively outpolled Margaret Thatcher in all the London popularity polls in the late 80s.
But he also has a stream of achievements behind him, which would be the envy of many politicians. He almost invented today’s cosmopolitan London, with his emphasis on the Rainbow Coalition and a 24:7 city life-style. Certainly his espousal of equal opportunities, almost a joke at the beginning of the 80s, has made it standard practice in even the most conservative of establishments. Livingstone transformed London bus services and was the first and only person to reduce rather than enhance the dominance of cars on the London roads, both with lower fares and the congestion charge.
Even his “mistakes” usually had a positive outcome. Too far back for many to remember but he invited the IRA (Irish Republican Army) to talks at what was then County Hall. The right-wing press slaughtered him for talking to, and giving respectability, to terrorists. But Thatcher followed not long after and 10 years later Tony Blair brought a level of accommodation and peace to Northern Ireland – but Ken had blazed the trail. Perhaps his finest single moment was his speech immediately following the dreadful London 7/7 bombings, when he stood up for a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan London which would not be cowed by terrorism and blood.
His opening sentence on the day of the bombing was; “This city is the greatest in the world, because people live side-by-side in harmony – and Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. … We are here because people from around the world come to London; people live in London, to fulfil their dreams and to achieve their potential. They choose to come to London, as so many have come before, because they come to be free”.
If Boris achieves half as much he will be doing well – something I hope he remembers at the opening of the Olympics, which would not be coming to London without Ken’s participation – along with many others.
3. I attended one of the consultation meetings the Council had at York Gardens Library on 22nd and 23rd May, but frankly the Council really does not know how to do these consultations. Very few people attended and that was no great surprise as the Council seemed to think that consultation about a blank sheet of paper was what was required. It contrasted strangely with the Big Local meeting on 24th, which had 24 participants planning a June 14th meeting of which more below. But the real contrast was with the London Citizens South London Assembly held at BAC on 29th May. There were 300/400 people there at an almost evangelical public meeting. There were more Latchmere residents at this meeting than at any I have seen and there were promises of many start-up residents associations. It was also notable for a real grilling given to the Council Leader, Ravi Govindia. He did not come out of it well.
4. The 23rd May Planning Applications Committee had not one application from Latchmere but a couple of days before I went on a site visit to Covent Garden Market, pictured here in neighbouring Queenstown. This is yet another enormous site, 
currently pretty much ignored and out of mind as far as most Battersea residents are concerned, but where gi-normous planning applications are expected in the next few months. The market will be re-built but added into the mix will be several thousand new homes – exciting times coming in Nine Elms Lane.
5. On the same theme I and my councillor colleagues, Wendy Speck and Simon Hogg, were shown the developers plans for the Prince’s Head pub in Falcon Road. This pub has been a source of some controversy with many local residents for many years. A developer now wants to demolish it and build a block of 30/40 small affordable flats, known as pocket concept flats. Whilst in many ways it is sad to see yet another pub go, this particular pub will not be any big loss and on the whole I thought the development looked good. The developers are happy to discuss it with any local residents’ groups.
6. On 27th May, I took part in Wandsworth Heritage Festival by leading a History walk from the Latchmere pub, via the Park, the Latchmere Estate and the Shaftesbury Estate to Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) – there were 15 people – very enjoyable.
My Programme for June
1. The Jubilee, of course, on the 3rd June along with street parties and the like through-out the week.
2. On 14th June the Big Local is having a Vision Day at York Gardens Library, between 3 and 8pm.
3. The Planning Applications Committee is on 21st June and whilst I do not know for certainty what exactly is on the agenda, in the next few months will include applications for Covent Garden and the rebuilding of Clapham Junction’s Peabody Estate.
What do you know?
I am not putting myself on quite the same level as last month’s extract about the Duke of Wellington but I thought I should say that after years and years as the Labour lead on both Wandsworth’s Planning Applications and the Finance and Corporate Resources Committees, I have just become our lead both on the Housing and on the Strategic Planning and Transport Committees. I will continue to sit on the Planning Applications Committee.
November Newsletter
November highlights
1. On 1st November I spoke at the Boundary Commission Hearing, in the Town Hall. The Commission’s recommendations for the new Parliamentary boundaries are very extensive and involve massive changes across the country. As far as Battersea is concerned the plan is to divide it in half, with the railway lines as the approximate boundary, with the north joined to Vauxhall in a Battersea and Vauxhall constituency and the south, including Clapham Junction itself, being joined with parts of Tooting and Clapham in a new Clapham Common constituency.
This change is due to the need to revise boundaries across the country as some areas grow, in population terms, faster than others. The problem is largely caused by the Government’s insistence that no constituency should deviate from the norm by more than 5% – it used to be 10%. As it happens, the current Battersea constituency is more or less the right size but when you start changing boundaries right across the country then clearly there is a ripple effect. The result is just about “All Change”.
I opposed the changes for all kinds of reasons but the most important is that the planned growth in population in Nine Elms over the next few years will require the boundaries of Battersea to be changed again before the end of the decade. It is a recipe for constant change and constant confusion. It will weaken people’s identification with their constituency and will therefore, in the end, weaken deomocracy.
For those of you, who are really interested, my actual presentation to the Commission is also on this blog.
2. On the 10th November, I had dinner with Ken Livingstone at a fund raiser for the Putney Labour Party. This picture was taken a couple of years back.
3. On the evening of 1st November I attended the York Gardens Library re-launch. Clearly this was a grand occasion for some celebration, as the work of all those volunteers, who have done so much to save the library, came to fruition. The only really galling thing about the evening is that Tory M.P. Jane Ellison and Tory Cllr Jonathan Cook – the ones who had done most to put the library under pressure – got to have the pleasure of speaking and opening a library that owes almost nothing to them. Really galling for this Labour councillor, and for some of the activists involved in saving the library!
4. On the 3rd November I went to a debate in the Council Chamber on “How Green Wandsworth Council is” with new Transport Minister and Putney MP, Justine Greening, and Wandsworth’s Deputy Leader Jonathan Cook. It was largely about the Government’s new “Green Deal” initiative. Last month, I said that I was sceptical about the Tory party being green – I was not wrong!
The purpose of the “Green Deal” is, in effect, to persuade the energy companies to lend money to domestic customers, so that they can buy insulation and other energy conservation measures. In theory, the utility bills will then be reduced and the customer can re-pay the debt by continuing to pay the old level of bills until their debt is paid off.
It all sounded ok in theory, with repayment made through utility bills on the basis that, as the energy content of the bill declines, then the repayment content of it will increase until the loan has been paid off.
It sounds reasonable in theory but whilst it is clearly not the “Big Solution” that the Government seems to think it is, it also seems to me to have a myriad of problems. Who says a particular investment is going to pay off? Who guarantees the quality of the job done? Who picks up the bill if the energy bills do not come down significantly? How is this all going to be calculated in a period of energy inflation? As they say, the devil is in the detail and details are what this Government is notoriously bad at.
5. On November 5th, I joined Jane Ellison at the formal opening of the Mercy Foundation’s computer training facility at 64 Falcon Road. Jane and I were there to present certificates to “graduates” of their word processing and other courses. You couldn’t say that they were high level qualifications but the comments of some of the graduates were quite moving. One lady said that she was basically illiterate, and I mean illiterate and not computer illiterate, before she started the course but now, three months later, she had just made her first on-line grocery order. She was rightly thrilled – quite an achievement for the Foundation – I thought.
6. Later that day I went to the Fireworks Display in Battersea Park. Did you go? And if so what did you think? The chat where I was, was that it was not as good as in recent years. I took a couple of Japanese academics I know – and they certainly enjoyed it!
7. At the Finance and Corporate Resources Committee on the 16th there was a great deal of solid but largely bureaucratic content but there were two items of real interest to plenty of people in Latchmere and especially right down by Wandsworth Bridge. The first was the decision to declare the Eltringham School site surplus to requirements. The school is in Eltringham Street off Petergate and everyone will know it even if they think they don’t. It can be seen on the left as one approaches the Wandsworth Bridge round-about. It is in the Council’s books as an asset worth more than £10 million. I think at that kind of price we are going to get another very expensive block of flats with not many affordable homes!
The second item was about the Council’s acquisition of Putney Hospital for the purposes of creating another so-called Free School in the Borough, though on this occasion at primary level. I think there is little doubt that Wandsworth Borough Council wants to break up what it sees as the monopoly state schooling system.
8. The following evening the Planning Applications Committee had a record 350 page agenda! Bit of a sweat that was! But despite the size of the agenda, the only matter of any great interest to Latchmere was the application for what effectively will become half a dozen very expensive town houses on the site of the old Labour Exchange in Beechmore Road. If you do not remember it here it is on a wet November day in 2009, when I was canvassing for the then forthcoming Council elections.
9. I am the only Labour representative on the Heliport Consultative Committee, which was held on the 21st. The Heliport is so big and busy that it has, by legislation, a consultative committee just like all major airports in the country. It is, of course, the only heliport that large, but actually we don’t do a great deal other than monitor noise levels and try to keep the disturbance it causes to a minimum.
10. I went to the Battersea Police Ball on the 26th, which as ever was a hoot! Not a cheap evening out but, if you can afford it, I do recommend it at least once. It is so wonderfully naff, or do I mean camp? But it raises plenty of money for the Summer Play Scheme for the children of Battersea – so it’s all in a good cause.
11. I am afraid I couldn’t make the Wayford Street Residents association meeting on 24th November – apologies!
My Programme for December
1. A meeting on the Doddington Estate on 5th December about the Council’s cuts.
2. The Council Meeting on December 7th.
3. The continuing Court Case against a Wandsworth tenant’s son on 12th.
4. The Planning Applications Committee on the 15th.
5. And Christmas! Talking of which A Very Merry Xmas to you and yours!
Did you know?
This rather dashing picture is of Alliott Verdon Roe, the first Englishman to make a powered flight, and founder in 1910 of the AV Roe & Co. aircraft manufacturer (better known as Avro). I am writing about him as the last person pictured in the Haberdasher Arm’s Mural, of whom I have not yet written.
His connection with Battersea and Latchmere, apart from being in Barnes’ mural is rather tenuous. He used the stables at his brother’s house in West Hill to design and model planes including his ‘Bulls Eye’ duplex triplane, which was put into production in an arch beneath the nearby railway. (The Council has very recently, 28th October 2011, unveiled a plaque at the site of Roe’s first workshop in West Hill.)
He was the founding genius of the British aerospace industry, his planes being the first to take part in a bombing raid on German lines in the First World War. But by far his most famous aircraft, betraying his Lancashire origins, was the World War Two bomber, the Lancaster.
See http://www.londonmuralpreservationsociety.com/murals/battersea-perspective/ for Brian’s own description of his mural.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Belton
Latchmere Councillor
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 