Councillor Tony Belton’s January, 2017, Newslettter (# 92)
- The most important December event
for many Latchmere and Queenstown residents was the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) decision on 14th December to approve the 14-storey development at 3 Culvert Road. I was very sorry not to be there (see my operation below) but my objections were voiced by my fellow Latchmere councillor, Simon Hogg, who went to the PAC specifically to argue the case against the development, although as a non-member of PAC he could not vote. - I know that Simon, who is the Leader of the Labour councillors, wants to fight the Borough Election in May, 2018, on, amongst other things, the issue of over-development in north Battersea. It is a view that I have held for quite a few years now. Not of course that one can be against all developments everywhere and I am not. But I have seen little evidence that all the expensive, tower block developments along the Nine Elms and Battersea river-fronts have been built to the benefit of the average Londoner – rich foreigners and top-end businessmen perhaps but not too many for ordinary Joes and Joannas.
- If I had been there I’d like to think that the vote might have been 4:4 and in effect decided on the Tory Chair’s casting vote, but alas the application would still have been approved. Now let’s see what Mayor Sadiq Khan makes of the application. I know Sadiq well – he was on PAC with me when he was my deputy in Wandsworth in the early 2000s. Then he would have voted against the application. Now, however, I am concerned that his overall responsibility for ensuring the development of lots of homes in London means that he might not give local objections quite the weight that he would have done 12 years ago.
- One issue that many residents raised with me was the issue of whether the provision of new sports facilities for the Harris Academy (as offered by the developer) could seriously be considered to be a “community” benefit. Some argued that kind of provision should be made by the tax or ratepayer and not considered to be a bargaining chip in the process of planning approvals. I completely agree with the sentiments behind that view. Unfortunately, however, that is no longer the way local government works. We are discouraged more and more from paying for services (and the corollary of raising Council tax) and encouraged more and more to “trade” for them. In Orwellian speak, we bargain with developers over how much “public” benefit they are prepared to provide in return for the Council agreeing to larger and more profitable developments.
- In everyday language, this would be described as selling planning permissions but of course such language is not acceptable. Advocates of this approach claim instead that we are negotiating benefits, which the public might find some kind of compensation for adversely affecting their environment. The scandalous outcome, in this case, is that the actual physical benefit of a new sports hall and associated facilities will go down as an asset in Harris Academy’s books and not as a Council asset!
- Still it was an argument that seemed to convince one of my Labour colleagues, who to my complete surprise and astonishment voted for the application. I intend to discuss this with her further.
- On Monday, 5th December, I represented the Labour councillors at St. Mary Park’s Let’s Talk Meeting at St John Bosco school. I think I have said this before but the Council really needs to re-think these sessions. Designed to keep the public more involved and concerned about local developments, the reality is that they are attended by the “same” group of highly committed local residents, who are all invariably well known to the councillors. The meetings do not impact the lives of 99.9% of the population. It is an example of seeming well meant but pointless consultation.
- On the 7th I was due in Chelsea and Westminster
for a new knee, so to “celebrate” my partner took me away for the week-end (3rd-4th) to the Goodwood Hotel. Delightful it was too; the food was excellent; they have a great indoor pool (jacuzzi and sauna of course) and on the Saturday night we went to Chichester Festival Theatre to see E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View”, starring Felicity Kendall – not brilliant I am afraid; and on the Sunday, we had a beautiful walk round Goodwood Park (see picture), brilliant. - Then came the 7th. Well, I don’t want to go on about my knee replacement. It is after all an operation that plenty of other people have had. To be fair the surgeon did say
12/12/16, Ow!
beforehand that I would find it very painful for two weeks. He was right except that it was at least three weeks. Now four weeks later, it feels something like normal. What do you reckon on this picture of my left leg, a week into recovery? Oh, by the way, I have been told not to show this – self-indulgent one friend says – but here goes! At least it helps the memory!
- The trouble with pain is that it is almost indescribable, unless perhaps one uses poetry, but I am not sure that I am up to that. Indeed, pain is of such an immediate, transient nature, that it is almost impossible to remember. Do you have a clear image of your worst toothache? All I can say is that at its worst I decided to give my knee pain 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I have never before, ever, gone above 6.
My Programme for January
- On 10th January, I have a meeting of Wandsworth’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee, followed on 17th by the Planning Applications Committee.
- On the 23rd January, I have a meeting of the Heliport Consultative Committee. Every “large” airport in the country has to have such a committee as a consultative body between the airport and the local authority and the local communities. Battersea Heliport is the only heliport in the country so large that it falls within this rule. It is though only a consultative committee and it does not have executive powers. So we can advise on the impact of chopper noise on local residents but we cant ban particularly noisy aircraft. One limited bit of good news is, however, that we have been assured that the next generation of helicopters will be 30% quieter than today’s craft.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you, who is standing on the traditional soap box addressing the crowd? And where and when? Congratulations to those two or three people who guessed correctly that the man on the soap box was Harold Wilson, speaking at a public meeting on the way to the October, 1964, General Election. As for where, well; close observation shows the street name as Wakehurst Road, and the meeting to be on the corner of Wakehurst and Northcote Roads. And so, for this month’s mystery question, I am going to turn to you. I have been so pre-occupied with my operation and recovering from a new knee that I haven’t got round to working out a question. So, let me turn the tables on you, my readers, and ask you to pose a Battersea related question that I cannot answer and which I will pose to everyone else, next month.
Councillor Tony Belton’s North Battersea December, 2016, Newsletter (#91)
1. On 1st November, I went to the Battersea Society’s organised debate at York Gardens Library on Affordable Housing. The speakers were 
Lord Bob Kerslake of the Peabody Trust and Councillor Paul Ellis, Wandsworth’s Tory Cabinet Member. It was well attended, but frankly I was a little disappointed. Lord Kerslake told us just how awful the housing situation is for those without their own, secure roof over their heads (he added statistical detail but we all know the “truth”) and both he and Councillor Ellis talked about what Peabody and the Council were doing to resolve the “crisis”. However, as one of the audience said, their contributions are woeful, relative to the scale of the problem. Something much bigger than their worthy but small schemes is needed now!
2. Then on 2nd November, I was off to Wembley to see
my team, Spurs, give an embarrassingly lame performance (0-1) against Germany’s Bayern Leverkusen. You may well ask – Spurs and you get elected in Battersea! My explanation is that I was a kid in Tottenham and that loyalty never dies! But I must say, I don’t really like Wembley, at least for watching soccer. It is so enormous that the players are specks of colour on a green handkerchief in the distance; it’s nothing like as atmospheric as White Hart Lane. I do so much hope that the new Lane is more like the old one than it is to Wembley.
3. Last month, I said I was going to have tea with William Mitchell, the sculptor 
who did the concrete sculptures on the Winstanley estate and on Badric Court. I did so in his Marylebone flat on 4th November. He was eloquent about how he wanted to create artworks, which relate to the estate, and interestingly, where and how he did the work, which was mainly on site, using the materials that
the construction guys were using at the time. I think his murals do work and interestingly they are and always have been remarkably free of graffiti. The pictures show him, looking sprightly at the age of 90 and another of his sculptures, which adorns that I had forgotten also adorn Totteridge House, Yelverton Road. Oh, and his wife made a great cup of tea.
4. On 8th November I was at the Share Community Annual Awards in the Town Hall. What an amazing organisation Share Community is! It works with and trains people with disabilities, some quite severe and others less so. But almost all their “clients” have serious problems coping with everyday activities.
I admire the staff’s dedication and perhaps most of all their loving patience. I know that I would probably lose my rag with some of the clients some or most of the time. I guess that it helps that the atmosphere in the “share community” is so warm and positive. Here are Wandsworth’s Mayor Richard Field, and Share Chief Executive, Annie McDowell, appreciating one of the musical numbers performed.
5. And on 9th November, I was at the Council’s so-called Let’s Talk meeting at Bolingbroke School. These meetings were an interesting innovation in the 1990s and were designed to give Jo & Joanna Public a chance to meet and discuss with their local elected representatives. I was at the first one in 2001, in Roehampton. But now the meetings seem to have atrophied. At this one there were more councillors and officers than members of the public and all of the public who were there were “the usual suspects”, who the councillors all knew quite well. There needs to be a “re-think”!
6. The Queenstown ward by-election did take 
place on 10th November and I spent much of my time driving, usually elderly or infirm people, to the polling stations. But the significant thing is that “our man”, Aydin Dikerdem, won by 574 votes, in what, for Queenstown, was a landslide. The last time a Labour candidate had a majority this big in that ward was 1974! Well done Aydin. Here is Aydin, with his agent Battersea resident Amy Merrigan.
7. I was at the Remembrance Day Service in
Battersea Park on Remembrance Day itself. As is usually the case, by some strange quirk of the weather gods, the day was beautiful and bright. It was a good experience and led me into a peaceful moment of contemplation, not least about the futility and waste of the once so-called Great War. Fellow Councillor Simon Hogg is to be seen in the middle left deep in conversation with the military.
8. The fund-raising dinner in Providence House, on the Falcon Road, on 12th November was a fun event, which made over £4,000 for the club. “Providence” is by far Latchmere’s largest youth club and deserves to be suppo
rted. Here is a picture of the Providence House farm on Dartmoor, where many of the club members get an opportunity to stay and “muck in” around the farm.
9. I took my grand-children to London Zoo on Sunday 13th. Here we are plus three giraffes, courtesy of a tourist, like us. I am on the left then there’s Pen, Scarlett, Melissa, Jaimie and Jez.
10. I had an uneventful Conservation Area Advisory 
Committee on 14th November and 2 days later the Planning Applications Committee, which was dominated by discussion of the plan to install an artificial grass pitch in the southern part of Falcon Park. Wandsworth Council planners claimed that the new pitch would only take up 22% of the park, but that really is a case of proving anything with figures as at least another 18% of the park will become such fringe areas as to be almost unusable, resulting in about 40% of the whole, effectively being lost. I, of course, voted against this proposal but I am afraid that it went through by 5 Tory councillors’ votes to 3 Labour votes. In this illustration the pitch is olive green and the “usable” area of the park is in light green and it clearly shows the difficulty of fitting a rectangular quart into a banana shaped park.
11. Did you notice that from November 18th the 319 Bus started a Night Service. On its route between Streatham Hill and Sloane Square station it runs right through the heart of North Battersea and also stops at Tooting Bec tube station. Running every 30 minutes it will be a boon to all night-owls.
12. One worrying prediction about the future is the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (AST)’s assessment of what is going to happen to school staffing and budgets by 2020, which is after all only just over 3 years away. Across the country school budgets are going to be cut by an average of £401 per pupil per primary school budget and yet locally Falconbrook is taking a £752 hit, Christ Church £840, Highview £810 and Westbridge a jaw-dropping £960 cut. It really does look as though this Government is looking after schools in the leafy parts of the country and making us, in the inner cities, pay. The total cut for Battersea schools is just over a whopping £4 million a year.
My Programme for December
1. On 1st December, I have a meeting of Wandsworth’s Labour councillors. We have them every couple of months, which I don’t think is often enough, but it is our chance to get together and discuss how we are going to tackle the long-term Tory dominance of the Borough. As someone, who has not been able to solve that one for 40 years, I am of course the expert. But with Brexit to the east and Trump to the west, I don’t think that Labour positioning itself as simply a more caring, moderate version of Toryism is going to appeal any more, even if it ever did.
2. On Monday, 5th December, I am standing in for Simon as the Labour Rep on the St. Mary Park “Let’s Talk” session at St. John Bosco College in St. Mary Park ward. It will be interesting to see just what the new school is like.
3. Then on Wednesday, 6th December, we will have a full Council Meeting. I would no doubt be in mental anguish if, I were there having to listen to the nonsense emanating from Tory mouths (we, Labour councillors, are of course all geniuses), but actually I’ll be in physical anguish getting used to my new metal left knee, fitted that morning. And to be truthful I rather suspect that is my December but if things go really well then…….?
4. I will be back in the Town Hall for the 
Planning Applications Committee on the 14th December. The application for the corner site of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads is likely to be the major item of discussion. If you haven’t yet recorded your views, for or against, then now is the time to do so at https://planning1.wandsworth.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx and look for application 2016/4188.
Do you know?
Last month I asked you, “Who was Hilda Hewlett, commemorated by a plaque on a Battersea house and one time resident of Park Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive? Was she the first woman:
a) Licensed pilot in the UK?
b) To run 100 yards in 13 seconds?
c) To star opposite Lambeth born star Charlie Chaplin?”
A couple of you got it right straight-away but not many knew. She was, of course, the first licensed female pilot in the UK. If I remember rightly it was in 1910 and she was actually only the 10th licensed UK pilot at all. She went on to start her own Battersea aircraft factory, with many of her planes playing an important part in the First World War. Later, she retired to a peaceful life in New Zealand.
And so for this month’s mystery question!
On 28th November, I received this remarkable picture from my friend Christine Eccles.
It shows an historic event in Battersea, which certainly was unknown to me. There is a road sign to give a clue as to where it is and the clothing gives a pretty good indication of the period, but can anyone suggest anything more specific about the date and who is standing on the traditional soap box addressing the crowd?
Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere June, 2016, Newsletter (# 85)
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Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere June Newsletter (# 61)
May highlights
1. May was, as you have probably guessed, totally dominated (for me) by the Borough Elections. For the record, as I assume that many of you will not know the details, the votes were: Tony Belton 2172: Wendy Speck 1933: Simon Hogg 1899: William Plummer (Tory) 1218: Rose Sintim (Tory) 1203: Rosemary Summerfield (Tory) 1096: Peter Mason (Green) 508: Angela Tinkler (UKIP) 327: Hollie Voyce (Lib/Dem) 221: Robert Edwards (TU & Socialist Coalition) 106
This amounted to an average swing to the three of us, Wendy, Simon and me, of 5%, for which many thanks to t
hose of you who voted for one, two or all three of us. Indeed to anyone who voted – Great, but I am afraid that the turnout was only 34.93% so two out of three Latchmere residents did NOT vote! (This picture of us on the platform was at about 2 a.m. on the Friday morning after an election day when we were up and around the polling stations as early as 7 am on the Thursday – it was a long day).
2. In the Borough as a whole the Tory party comfortably retained control by 41 to 19 councillors, but they did lose six Council seats and Labour gained six. Other interesting facts about the election in Wandsworth included a) every single Green Party candidate came third after the two “main” parties and defeated the Lib/Dems in every ward, b) there was a 5/6% swing to the two main parties from all the other candidates, who included Green, UKIP, Lib/Dem, Independents, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and the Communist Party of Britain and c) that UKIP really did not figure anywhere at all in the Borough (or indeed anywhere in Inner London). The other notable feature of election night was the rise of women. Of the six Labour gains five were women and so now of the 19 Labour councillors 10 are women. On the Tory side there are 26 men and 15 women, with the result that we have 25 female councillors as opposed to 35 men.
3. I also went to a few Hustings meetings, all of which had a respectable sized audience – maybe 50 or 60 residents. One of the most dramatic was in Wandsworth, where the UKIP speaker had a stroke just as he was starting to speak. We later heard that, after spending a night in hospital, he went home and has recovered well.
4. A quick update on the Mayoral Bike stations. I continue to monitor the usage of all the Bike stations and there is no doubt that usage continues to grow quite rapidly. The weather of course helps so the bikes are being used about three times as much as when they were first installed in January. I am happy to give individual figures if anyone is interested but, until usage shows something new, I think I will leave it at that.
My Programme for June
1. Well, imagine you were at work and overnight you had a 50% turnover of staff. There would be all kinds of roles to sort out and jobs to arrange. So I guess that most of June I will be getting to know new people and sort out new roles. One new job for me is that I am going to take on the lead role on the Labour side on Children’s Services, all about schools and social services. That is a completely new job for me and so I have to teach myself about all the issues involved!
2. I am, however, continuing to be the Labour lead on the Planning Applications Committee, which will meet on 17th. And, of course, I will continue to be interested in the whole Latchmere regeneration project. Meanwhile Simon Hogg is taking over my current job as Labour lead on Housing and Wendy Speck is moving to Strategic Planning.
3. On 1st June I led a “History Walk”, partly in Latchmere, for Wandsworth’s Heritage Festival. This is becoming an annual feature and would interest, I like to think, anyone interested in local history. Let me know if that sounds interesting to you and I will put you down on the list for next year! A part of the walk includes the following
Did you know that?
The last time a Prime Minister took part in a duel, it took place in Battersea Fields
– a marshy area which is now Battersea Park. The Prime Minister was the Duke of Wellington, popularly known as the “Iron Duke”. He had been the British hero, along with Nelson, in the Napoleonic Wars and was in command at Waterloo, when Britain and its allies finally defeated Napoleon.
He got the sobriquet, Iron Duke, by being a hard disciplinarian, but a popular general. One of his major dislikes was duelling. He forbad it in the army because he was, not unreasonably, concerned that, if his officers had to die, they should die facing the French and not in silly duels.
So imagine the publicity that he got in London’s morning papers when they discovered that the Prime Minister had fought a duel across the river in the rather infamous Battersea Fields. His opponent was the Earl of Winchilsea, who, when it came down to it, shot into the air, leaving Wellington to fire his pistol into the ground.
This was in 1829 but how did the Prime Minister, a Duke, and an Earl come to be fighting a duel in the first place. It wasn’t about a woman or gambling debts or a casual slight but about politics. Wellington had decided to repeal anti-Catholic legislation, which had been imposed during and after the Civil War, and Winchilsea, who was an ardent Protestant accused Wellington of “selling” Protestantism short.
In fact Wandsworth, being near to Westminster but safely on the “wrong side of the river” was the scene of one or two famous duels between “top people” in the early nineteenth century. As for me, I am distinctly pleased that nowadays we use ballots and no longer bullets!
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 