Tag Archive | Winstanley Regeneration

That was June, June that was

1 June. I was walking along Trinity Road, in Wandsworth Common, when I saw this magnificent hearse. Obviously, it marks a sad event for someone, somewhere, but it also provides a spectacle and an insight into cultural diversity, between the sombre nature of some funerals and the joyous celebration of a departed life “enjoyed” by others. (please note this version of the blog is without pictures – techie problem! I hope to sort shortly)
5-6 June. Penny and I went Eastbourne for the weekend. On the Saturday we went to Pevensey Castle, five miles from Eastbourne, where William the Conqueror landed at the start of his conquest of England. The magnificent ruins of the Castle command a splendid view over the coastal plain/marshes and of the sea, which has retreated a couple of miles since 1066. This photograph of the Norman castle ruins is not the best – of the castle – but I chose it for one very special feature and that is the gun emplacement set in the Norman Tower during the Second World War – an eleventh-century pillarbox defence. So, from some fortifications at Pevensey in Roman times through to its military use in the twentieth century, it has had an active history of 16 centuries – a truly unique British castle.
On the Sunday, we went on the “Annual Family Walk” from the Birling Gap to the top of Beachy Head. I was a little doubtful about whether I could make it all the way, but managed OK. The trouble was that, whilst the rest of the country was basking under a beautiful sun, we were trapped in a sea fog and couldn’t see the sea, the Beachy Head light-house or almost anything else. And the day had started with this beautiful and tranquil, if unspectacular, dawn at about 3.45 am!
7 June. I went to a lecture organised by Labour Heritage and given by Baroness Dianne Hayter. She was talking about a book that she had written in 2006 on the centenary of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and about the 29 MPs, who in 1906 got together to form the PLP and, effectively, the Labour Party. The book, called Men Who Made Labour, is a record of the lives of these 29 men and their experiences as the first Labour MPs. Nearly all were what we might call “working men”, with very few having had any formal education beyond the age of 12 or 13. Almost none had ever been to London before their election and none had had any exposure to life in Parliament. The challenges they faced were immense compared to most modern-day experiences. But nevertheless, through self-education, hard-work and endless commitment they became over time Cabinet Ministers and, in at least one case, Prime Minister. Dianne, an old friend, told the story with passion and understanding – it was an hour’s Zoom well spent.
10 June. This time, I was doing the talking – to Croydon Trades Council. Croydon Borough Council recently decided to hold a referendum on 7^th October this year, when the voters will be asked whether they want to have an elected Mayor or to keep the current Leader and councillors model. As it happens, one of the Trades Council members recalled reading an article I had written in 2007, on why elected mayors are “bad news”. Hence I was invited to speak. My speech went well but I think most of the audience was on my side before they had even heard a word. Nevertheless, it was good to get a good reception. If you are interested in my arguments against elected Mayors, then you can see the article on my blog at tonybelton.wordpress.com/
Constituency Boundaries. Boundaries are extremely important to people deeply involved in politics. It may seem very boring to most but it is a matter of life and death to real politicos. It is because they have manipulated electoral boundaries so efficiently that the Republican Party is stronger in the US House of Representatives than its poll numbers would suggest. Indeed the word “gerrymandering” is an American word of abuse, originally aimed at the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts called Elbridge Gerry and the boundaries he drew up in 1812 for a new voting district, shaped, it is said, like a salamander or as the Boston Weekly Messenger called it a “Gerry-Mander”.
This comment is a long-way round to introducing the fact that the Boundary Commissioners have recently produced their latest proposals for parliamentary boundaries. The whole point of these proposals is, of course, to try and bring some kind of democratic equality to bear on the electoral process by making parliamentary constituencies of more or less of equal population size – the law actually allows a 5% variation. Unfortunately, geography is nowhere as neat as arithmetic, and so five constituencies are defined by geography and not by population numbers. They are the islands of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides, Anglesey and two on the Isle of Wight.
Fortunately on this occasion, the growth in Battersea’s (and the Borough’s) population more or less reflects the growth in the country’s population, hence no gerrymandering is required. The three Wandsworth constituencies of Battersea, Putney and Tooting, as proposed, are almost unchanged. But Tory Party MPs may be less keen than they were to implement the boundary redistribution, because, since the 2019 General Election, they do not stand to gain as much as they had previously expected – or at least that is what I have heard Labour cynics say! And, if that is the case, then maybe – as so often before – nothing will happen. We really ought to take these crucial decisions out of the hands of active politicians, and into the hands of the independent Electoral Commission.
22 June. I had a meeting in the morning of the North East Surrey Crematorium Board – and after its routine business, I was shown the grave of John Archer, famously the first black Mayor of a major local authority when elected Mayor of Battersea in 1913. I must confess that the grave itself is fairly unremarkable but it has its place in Battersea history, even if the graveyard is located deep in Merton! Or even Sutton?
On the way back home from the Crem Board, I passed an unusual scene in Christchurch parsonage garden. Not exactly where I expected to see a rehearsal of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest but that is what it was – and I never found out when and where it was produced but it made for an entertaining surprise for anyone walking along Candahar Road, just off Battersea Park Road!
That same evening there was a meeting of the Planning Applications Committee and, as regular readers will know, there is usually something of interest on the agenda. But on this occasion – nothing. So, I pass on to the Education Committee, which had two items that sparked an interest. The first was a Report on Wandsworth Independent and State School Partnership. Now, with one of the largest private-sector engagements in public education in the country, one would think that this issue has to be of major significance to Wandsworth local education authority. But with the final recommendations saying “This paper sets out the plans to strengthen the relationships between Independent and State schools in Wandsworth with a view to establish a long term mutually beneficial cross-sector partnership adding value to both sectors and securing targeted support for disadvantaged pupils in the borough…There is no additional financial implication for Council” – the heart sinks.
The second item that caught my eye was the Report by the Director of Childrens Services on Wandsworth catch up strategy – that is, to catch up on education following all the disruption caused by the Covid Pandemic. How exciting and demanding one thinks, until reading the recommendations which say, and I quote, “No decisions are required on it by the Council”. That was Council politics in June, that was!

My Programme for July

1. On July 1^st we have the result of the Batley and Spen by-election – of course Labour won but more about that next month!
2. I am taking Battersea’s MP, Marsha de Cordova, to Wimbledon on 6^th July, which will be fun.
3. On July 12^th I have a meeting of Battersea United Charities, where Marsha will be a guest.
4. On 15^th July both Kambala Cares and the Battersea Society are having their summer parties.
5. A meeting of the Special Neighbourhood Team is due to be held on 20^th.
6. There is a Council Meeting on 21^st July.
7. On the 23^rd July the Falcon Estate Residents Association Committee is having an annual dinner.
8. The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 27^th July.

Did you Know: Last month I asked, “How many pubs are there in Latchmere ward? Their names? And how many have closed to your knowledge in the recent past and their names?”

Not one of you tried a reply, and I don’t know the answer but let us work it out, working from west to east. There is the Anchor in Hope Street, the Asparagus and the Suburb in Falcon Road, the Latchmere and the Clockhouse in Battersea Park Road and the Flag in Culvert Road, and that is that – I think. Closed: in the recent past: the Grove, the Duke of Wellington, the Meyrick Arms, the Prince’s Head, the London, Dover and Chatham Railway Tavern, pictured right, and the Havelock Arms. So, 6 down and 6 remaining; pubs really are an endangered species in our current environment!

And for this month can you tell me:

Where in Battersea was the location of a pioneering aircraft factory, named Omnia Works, where WW1 fighter aircraft were made? And where, again in Battersea, did its owner and managing director live?

June 12, 2021

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Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea June 2021, Newsletter (# 144)

I am having a season of anniversaries! What with reaching the dreaded 80 in April, on 13^th May I notched up 50 years as a Labour councillor – it must be a drug – or certainly an addiction. The Town Hall put out a press release, which was nice of them. They dredged up a picture of yours truly in 1971. Here it is; as shown in my election leaflet, would you believe? I won Northcote ward that year and subsequently Graveney before settling down in Latchmere in 1982 – but enough of me.
On 2^nd May, I went canvassing in Bedford ward, just near Tooting Bec station with the Labour candidate in the Bedford ward by-election, which was held along with the GLA election on 6^th May. It was a Labour area and it was an enjoyable occasion – canvassing is always much more fun when you do NOT get doors slammed in your face and have no abuse to deal with (I am not suggesting, by the way, that Tory canvassers don’t get the same treatment in reverse). I was impressed with Labour’s candidate, Hannah Stanislaus. Whatever else she brings to the Council – she has a good, bold, confident doorstep manner.
On 6^th May itself, Labour did well in London in general and in Bedford and Wandsworth in particular. The by-election result was strikingly similar to the Bedford result in the 2018 Borough election. The turn-out at just over 51.4% was very slightly higher this year than the 48% turn-out in the Borough election and the Labour and Tory votes were very similar, with Labour on 50% as opposed to 49% and Tories on 24% as opposed to 23%. Interestingly, the Green candidate gained 50% more votes than in 2018 – admittedly from a far lower base but the Greens must feel that they are on the move.
On the same day, of course, Sadiq Khan was re-elected Mayor of London and Leonie Cooper re-elected as the Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth. Congratulations to both of them, who I know well having been a fellow Wandsworth councillor for more than a dozen years. They are part of the story that London has become an overwhelmingly Labour city. But I think that both, Sadiq and Leonie, have questions to answer. In Sadiq’s case, his first term has been defined by disaster, with the Grenfell Tower disaster of 2017, being followed by the Covid crisis of 2019-21 (22, 23?). And in this election he had an admittedly small (1.6%) swing against him achieved by someone universally perceived as one of the weakest Mayoral candidates ever, the Tory Shaun Bailey. The opening of the Elizabeth Line Crossrail might have given him a completely undeserved triumph, but in fact, it has left him with an equally undeserved calamity – “undeserved” in both cases because the decisions, the planning, the construction mostly pre-dated his time as Mayor and triumph or calamity they “merely” happened on his watch. Can he realistically achieve much in the three years left to him, given that Covid remains the significant factor that it is? Does he decide to go for a third term? Does he like Johnson before him, plan to return to the Commons? He will still only be 54 years old, so he still has time to achieve yet more. But if I know Sadiq, and I think I do, then he will have a pretty shrewd idea now of what he is going to do and he will not let on about it to anyone.
I think Leonie’s questions are easier, at least to pose. Does she decide to be primarily the first Labour Leader of Wandsworth Council since 1978 or the deputy leader of Labour in the London Assembly? I know which I would consider the more important (what after all does being an Assembly member mean apart from getting a massive salary?). But on the other hand, being on the Assembly is arguably a better stepping stone to the Mayoralty (how about being London’s first female Mayor?) or a seat in the Commons. But either way, Leonie does not need to decide, nor will she, until after the May, 2022, Borough election, when she will discover whether she is, or is not, Leader of Wandsworth Council.
On the 11^th May, Penny and I went for a walk in Nunhead Cemetery. It’s well worth a visit in spring, or I guess in autumn for the falling leaves. Wildflowers and generally rampant undergrowth climb over magnificent late 19^th and early 20^th century statuary, spread across a very large site. A quick rule of thumb comparison on Google Maps suggests that it is about half the size of Battersea Park and almost completely empty – at least of live bodies! It also commands magnificent views of the city, with one view, in particular, focused on St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is actually a “protected” view (in planning terms, i.e. new buildings are not allowed to obstruct the view) as indeed is a similar distant view of the Cathedral from Richmond Park.
Talking of which, did you happen to see a recent list produced, by a Wandsworth news blog, of 10 special open-places to visit in South London? Strikingly we, in Wandsworth, are right in the epi-centre, with Richmond Park top of the list and others included Wimbledon Common, Battersea Park, Wandsworth Common (a mistake there I think as the write-up didn’t sound like the common I know), the Crystal Palace dinosaur Park, Nunhead Cemetery, Greenwich Park and a couple of complete strangers near Sidcup, south-east London. With all the travel restrictions we face today, perhaps we will bump into each other at one of these London beauty spots!
On 25^th May I had the Planning Applications Committee. In the last couple of months, I have rather down-played the interest in this committee but May was different. As always there were a number of small and locally important applications but only two of major significance and they were both in Nine Elms. I voted against both, though the first vote was almost a gesture of frustration as I knew that it was really a box-ticking exercise at the “details” level of the process. Nonetheless, despite the poor re-production I hope you can see why I should be against such a monolithic construct! The second was a giant hotel next to, and destroying the view of, the American Embassy.
You might have seen coverage in the press of the new Nine Elms “Sky Pool”, which was opened in May. My Labour colleague, Aydin Dickerdem, who represents the area of Nine Elms where the Sky Pool is situated, reminded me of my August 2015 Newsletter when I asked whether people had seen “the fantasy proposal for a swimming pool in the sky? Captioned in the Daily Telegraph as the “Glass-bottomed floating ‘sky pool’ to be unveiled in London”. Now, it is completed, it confirms my worst fears. It is a display of conspicuous consumption by an arrogant affluent class of developers, which reminds me of Marie Antoinette quipping that the starving Parisians of pre-revolutionary France should eat cake. No wonder she was soon to lose her head: I wouldn’t wish quite that on the planning committee and the developers responsible, but with the homeless walking the streets and foodbanks doing a roaring trade, they deserve some telling punishment.
On 26^th May we had the Council’s Annual Meeting. All 60 of us in the Civic Suite were spaced out like candidates in a major public examination but instead of preventing us from cheating this lay-out was: so that we could socially distance. Of course, the effect was precisely the opposite, as it was clear we were meant to be unsocially distanced. This procedure was rather strange as these annual meetings are meant to be for the new Mayor’s family and friends to share a drink and a chat with everyone who attends. So we had a Mayor-Making when not one person talked to the Mayor. A new experience for all and especially for the Mayor, Richard Field, a councillor in Nightingale ward, Tooting.
On 30^th May Penny and I stayed with Mary Jay in Oxford. Some of you, but not many I guess, will know Mary, the widow of Douglas Jay, Battersea’s Labour MP from 1946 to 1983. We were also there to introduce a Brazilian friend to both the city and the Bodleian Library. We took Antonio round Oxford and, in particular, round Magdalen College. Both looked magnificent in the early summer sun and, whilst we were in the Cloisters, this feathered friend popped by for a chat.
On 22^nd April, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) and, if I said that the March PAC, was uneventful, then the April version made it seem positively momentous. The interest in individual planning applications was still sufficient, however, to inspire the virtual attendance by 52 people – it was very rare for pre-Covid, pre-online PAC ever to have an audience of 50 – so perhaps there will be some benefits from the new post-Covid regime. But councillors and officers will have to learn a few more broadcasting related presentational skills if they expect to be taken seriously!

My Programme for June

On June 7^th I look forward to hearing Diane Hayter talking about the first 29 Labour MPs, who started the PLP, the Parliamentary Labour Party, in 1906.
On June 10^th, I am talking to a group of Croydon trade unionists about the rights and wrongs of having elected Mayors. Croydon is planning to have a referendum on the matter in the autumn and clearly many are undecided about which way to vote. I am very much opposed.
On June 11^th, I am going to give my knees a trial run on an 18-hole golf course for the first time in several years! Fortunately, my partner’s knees are worse than mine so we will be using buggies! Too much football for too many years did for our knees!
The Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 22^{^nd}

Did you Know: Last month I asked, “What was the connection between the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Battersea?”

And the answer was simply that the British company, Dorman Long, which won the contract to build the bridge, had a significant part of its London operation in Queenstown ward, Battersea.

And for this month can you tell me:

How many pubs are there in Latchmere ward? Their names? And how many have closed to your knowledge in the recent past and their names? And whilst I will be open to rational debate, I will be the final arbiter on what is, or is not, a pub, etc.

April 12, 2018

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April, 2018, Newsletter (# 106)

On 7th March, Wandsworth’s Mayor Les McDonnell and I presented certificates to Mercy Foundation students of English. The Foundation is organised and very considerably financed by Victoria Rodney; she is the driving force behind the Foundation, which is in effect a one-woman voluntary organisation. Her main objective is to improve the life chances of many of the, frankly, poorer and less educated people of Battersea. Her clients come from all over the globe, with on this occasion, graduation certificates awarded to a couple from Portugal, a man from Afghanistan, a Bulgarian woman and a dozen others, largely from eastern Europe.
However, Victoria surprised me by finishing the awards with a certificate for me(!) and my contributions to the Foundation’s efforts – very nice of her but apart from helping in a few simple English conversational classes and helping her to apply and win grants, I don’t think I have done that much to deserve a certificate.
Later, the same day, we had the last Council Meeting before the Borough Election. It was the usual pre-election antics, but with one outrageous ploy played by the Tory majority, the like of which I haven’t seen in 40+ years of Council meetings. The Tories, without giving any notice or any apparent thought and certainly without due notice, moved a motion about spending an extra £10 million on Council services. This tactic was absolutely outside Council rules, but they avoided censure by using the weasel words, that they would “investigate” spending the money. In other words, the motion meant nothing. But it didn’t stop the Council producing a Council press release the next morning, giving the appearance of making £10 million available for local services – talk about playing politics on the rates! Although I suppose that this resolution does, at least, demonstrate that even the Tories recognise that austerity has gone too far.
On March 9^th, I went to the funeral of ex-Councillor Gordon Passmore. Gordon was a bit out of the ordinary as a councillor. He was elected as a councillor to the old Metropolitan Wandsworth Borough Council in 1960 and on nine occasions to the new London Borough of Wandsworth (1964, 68, 74, 78, 82, 86, 90, 98 and 2002). His long service as a councillor included leadership in a myriad of roles, most notably finance and planning. He and his wife, Shirley, were also for many years the driving force of the Wandsworth Society.
However, the most extra-ordinary episode of his life was his war experience. He was called up to the Fleet Air Arm, aged 18, on December 7^th 1941, the day Pearl Harbour was bombed. He was a gunner starting in a biplane. He flew over 230 sorties, about one in every four days, in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and finally, in 1945, off Japan. On 6^th June 1945, he was shot down in the Pacific and spent several hours “in the drink” until he was picked up by a Royal Navy destroyer. He was a hard-line Tory councillor, but polite and decent with it, and I suspect his wartime experiences gave him a broader outlook than some of his colleagues. Gordon Passmore was a quiet, mild-mannered man – very different from most of today’s Tory councillors.
On 12^th March, I went to Preston to hear a debate about the Preston Model, which has been much touted in the local government press as an exciting new way to organise services so at to avoid some of the enormous cuts being imposed on local authorities. I was not over-impressed, but largely because I doubt that the methods used in one medium-sized, essentially self-contained town of 114,000 people, would work for Wandsworth’s third of a million embedded in a vast metropolis. However, on a typically (for this March) cold and wet afternoon, I did have an hour to spare in Preston Town Centre and as ever, up North, was over-whelmed by the nineteenth-century grandeur of the centre, clear I hope even in this rainy picture of the court house.
Earlier in the month, Harris Academy, in Battersea Park Road, asked our MP, Marsha de Cordova, and me to be two of the five-strong panel of judges for a fun competition being run for Year 8 students. The competition was held on 15^th March, between six teams of kids. They had been asked to devise a presentation on behalf of a charity, local or national, with the prize of £1,000 being given to the successful charity. The teams were inventive. The presentations included songs, poems, rap and speeches. The winners were the group advocating Cancer Support. Marsha presented the winners’ cheque.
On the 16^th the Wandsworth Design Awards were presented at Roehampton University. The first prize went to the design team who created Roehampton University’s own Chadwick Hall students’ accommodation. I mentioned this in my February edition of this newsletter (#104), but here is a reminder of Chadwick Hall. The presentations were made in the “Portrait Room”, one of the University’s grandest rooms. As this part of the University had been a women’s college it was not surprising that most of the grand portraits were, indeed of women. But, nevertheless it was striking that these imposing nineteenth-century portraits were nearly all of women, and made me reflect on what an incredibly male dominated history tale we tell.
On Monday, 19^th March, I had the Passenger Transport Liaison Group. There were two items of real interest to Battersea. First, on the railways, it was reported that there have been more than 7,000 respondents to the consultation on the proposed new rail timetables. The new timetables are part of an ambitious expansion programme with longer trains and platforms, and increased capacity right across the system. However, to allow a greater number of services on the Reading lines out of Clapham Junction, there was a proposal to cut as many as half the trains stopping at Queenstown Road railway station. The reaction was antagonistic – so antagonistic that I feel certain the planners will re-consider! (PS I have heard today, 4/4/18, that these cuts have been postponed awaiting further consideration).
There were also interesting developments on the bus front. Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that, by 2020, all London’s buses will be of the new, cleaner, non-polluting variety and secondly that two new Chariot bus services will be confirmed. One is the Battersea Bullet, from Battersea Park to Kennington station, and the other the Wandsworth Wanderer, from the Wandsworth river-front to Clapham Junction. The American Chariot pictured here is ordered online. I must confess that I haven’t even seen one, although the service was meant to have started by now. Have any readers tried the booking system or actually ridden on one?
On Tuesday, 20^th March, I had another meeting of Wandsworth’s Labour Shadow Cabinet. Again, we discussed our draft manifesto, which will be published in the next few days – see last month’s newsletter for my comments on the importance of manifestos in the political process.
The March meeting of the Planning Applications Committee was on the 22^nd. There were several planning applications of importance to Battersea. There was one from St. George, the Battersea Reach property development company. The application was designed both to cut some and privatise more of the underground parking spaces at the giant riverside development. It clearly would have affected the residents of Battersea Reach but it would also have increased the pressure on parking in Petergate and Eltringham Street. The Committee unanimously rejected the application.
Another application was for a 10-storey tower block in Havelock Terrace, which would have light industrial uses on the first three floors and offices on the upper floors. The block would be hard up against the railway tracks and away from residential units; it also looked rather an attractive building – supported unanimously.
But by far the most important application was the first of many relating to the Winstanley/York Road Regeneration Project. The application comprised of three separate buildings, from 6 to 20 storeys in height. One of the buildings is designed to house jointly a school and a chapel; another is for 46 council homes in a six-storey block at the junction of Grant and Plough Roads; the third is for 93 private residential units in a 20-storey block at the junction of Grant and Winstanley Roads.
This application posed three problems for me, in particular. First, I am not happy with the proximity of the six-storey block to Time House. Secondly, I am opposed to the march of 20+-storey blocks across North Battersea, especially when all the units in this block will go to the private sector. However, I am committed to trying to improve the environment and the housing conditions of the people, who live on the York Road and Winstanley Estates. To do that, the Council needs to re-locate the Thames Christian College and the Battersea Chapel and to build council properties to allow relocation of residents. But in addition, income received from the private block is required to pay for the re-construction, and, if we are to have 20-storey blocks for sale then having one almost on top of Platform 1 of Clapham Junction station seems the best place to do it. I am sure that I will be coming back to this project on many occasions before it is completed.
On the 26^th March, I attended a meeting of Battersea United Charities (BUC), united because it is the marriage of several small charitable bequests and possibly best known for its Christmas Day dinner party for pensioners from all over the Borough. BUC makes small grants to individuals in training, to primary schools for holiday trips and to voluntary groups providing services for any number of Battersea people. On this particular occasion, we agreed to support, through a small grant, the visit of a Devon farm, with associated livestock, to Falcon Road – keep a look-out for sheep pens outside Providence House! If you have plans and needs of your own and feel a small grant would help, then let me know and we can discuss whether BUC might help.

My Programme for April

1. The Planning Applications Committee will meet on the 18^th April.
2. On the 24^th I will be representing the Labour Party at an election-hustings meeting organised by the Battersea Society in York Gardens Library.
3. On 27^th April, I have been invited to attend a meeting of ACAN, Afro-Caribean Nation councillors, at City Hall. You might well be surprised at that and I was when I received the invitation! I can only imagine that it is because last year I spoke at a Black Lives Matter debate at the East Anglia University in Norwich.
4. Finally, on 28^th April, I have the Council organised surgery to run at Battersea District Library. It will be curious to do that with only five days left before the Council Election on May 3^rd.
5. Preparing for that election will clearly take up much of the rest of April!

Do you know?

Last month, I used this picture and asked, “What was the connection between it and Britain’s greatest engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 – 1859), who built the Rotherhithe Thames Tunnel, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, most of the Great Western railway and the first iron ship?”

I also said that the connection might just have appeared right at the top of this picture. To my surprise, quite a few of you knew there was a connection, but disagreed about the exact nature of the connection. Actually, his father had a sawmill near to the current Battersea Bridge and a factory, where he made army boots used in the Napoleonic Wars. Isambard, who worked very closely with his father on many major projects, was a regular visitor. Congratulations to those that got that right.

Thanks to Christine Eccles and Battersea Memories for this one. Pretty easy, I know, but I like the picture: Where and when was this photo taken? And do you know the current use of the church on the left-side of the road?

March 4, 2018

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea March, 2018, Newsletter (# 105)

February was a short and quiet month, which will probably be best remembered for the brutal way it ended: with the coldest winter snap we’ve suffered in years. Still, it had the occasional compensations, such as my walk on Wandsworth Common near Bolingbroke Academy on the 28^th.
Back to the beginning, on 7^th February we had the Council Meeting but, as I have said before, this does not have the civic significance that it had when I first became a councillor. Indeed, the only discussion of any interest was the technical background to the March decision on Council Tax, which essentially signalled that there are not going to be any really unpleasant surprises when the Council Tax bills come out later this month. If you are interested in my views on local taxation then go to https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/
February 8^th was the centenary of the reform which gave the vote to almost all British women over the age of 30. Wandsworth Labour produced an electronic leaflet to commemorate the occasion, starring women “we knew” personally, who won the right to vote and were directly involved. One was Nellie Florence Belton, my nan who is on the left, with baby Nen, my aunt, and grandfather, Ernest. The script tells of how Nellie gloried in taking a lift to the polling station in a white, open-top Rolls Royce, driven by the Tory MP. But, thanks to the secret ballot, she did not have to tell him that she had voted Labour.
On Friday, 9^th February, I had the pleasure of going to a small theatre in Barnes to see a farce, called Liberty Hall, which was written by an old Battersea friend of mine, Robin Miller. Robin is an actor, who has now turned to writing plays. This was her second, the first being a murder mystery called Murder on Cue. Appropriately for a farce, the plot was truly farcical but the characters were all credible and their reasons for coming on stage and leaving it were nearly always coherent. The script was funny and everyone ended up with the partner they deserved. I haven’t seen Murder on Cue but, on the basis of this play, I do hope Robin will write more plays and, perhaps, get them produced “up Town”.
Two days later my partner and I went to the Clapham Picture House to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It is billed as a “black comedy”, but it is so searingly black, so piercingly bitter and so tough that it is difficult for me to think of it as a comedy in any sense at all. I thought it was brilliant but there is another view – see my blog. Go and see the film and let me know your views. It is coolly directed by an Englishman, Martin McDonagh, and brilliantly acted particularly by the lead, Frances McDormand.
On Sunday 11^th, we went off to the National Portrait Gallery to see the exhibition of Cézanne portraits. Picasso said of Paul Cézanne that he “was like the father of us all” and of course his most famous landscapes of Provence and the south east of France are major works in the Impressionist portfolio, but I must say his portraits did not grab me. I thought that this self-portrait was an exception to my rule that his portraits revealed very little about character. But it is never a waste of time going to the National Portrait Gallery because it has a restaurant with one of the best views of London, even if the food is not cheap. The Tudor room, next to the restaurant, is also a delight, especially with its paintings on wood of Tudor high society from Elizabeth l down – many by unknown painters.
On the following Tuesday, I had another meeting of Wandsworth’s Labour Shadow Cabinet. We discussed how the election campaign is going and where and when to apply our resources. We assumed that the Tories will, in the build up to May 3^rd, spend more money than we can afford, but that we will have far more canvassers. Then we had a presentation from our advisors before moving on to further discussions about the manifesto. I guess some will think that writing a manifesto is a simple, ten-minute job – not at all.
The first use of a Manifesto in British political history is Sir Robert Peel’s 1834 Tamworth Manifesto. With the Tory Party, in a very poor position, Peel decided it was essential to make a statement about the party’s purpose and objectives. Ironically, he did not win the subsequent election, but he did set a standard, which every political party has felt it necessary to follow. The Manifesto is not just “a piece of paper”, but a statement of a party’s aims and objectives, against which the party can (and should) be judged – at least until the next election and the next manifesto. It is, therefore, far more important than the fact that very few of the public actually read manifestos. It is a work still in progress.
On 20^th February, the Grants Committee made various grant awards to voluntary organisations across the Borough. I am not a member of this committee and don’t know the detail but, between us, my colleagues, Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and I, have nominated and supported the second highest number of successful grant applications in the Borough. The range of plans and suggestions are amazing. This round included grants to aid the teaching and learning of IT skills at the Mercy Foundation, Falcon Road; a food waste project, the brainchild of Providence House youth club and the Venue in Park Court; and, most excitingly, the teaching of circus skills!
The February meeting of the Planning Applications Committee was on the 22^nd and, unlike last month, it was a fairly low-key affair, with no application of anything other than very local significance. However, it was announced, at the same time, that Peabody Housing Association have gone into partnership with Battersea Power Station to provide 386 socially rented homes in Nine Elms. This is nowhere near the number of “affordable” houses that should be delivered on site but it is good news that such a reputable Association as Peabody has been selected to deliver the ones that do come.
Twice during the month, I had meetings about the developments in the so-called Winstanley Regeneration project, the second being with the Design Review Panel on 23^rd February. This was strictly about the project from a design and architectural point of view and I was simply an observer as the “independent” review panel quizzed the architects/designers. It was instructive to hear experts talking about designing and delivering a major new development. The other meeting was more generally about the shape and form of the plans as they develop and I am becoming a little concerned about it. There appears to be a kind of “mission creep” going on, with the towers on York Road getting higher and higher and the density in other parts of the estate rising but without sufficient social gain. After the May 3^rd election, this project may need a thorough review.
I was back to the Vaudeville theatre on the evening of 23^rd to see Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan. It was typical Wilde, a brilliantly funny comedy about the English upper class; but, if you stop and think about his plays, he is also very much a feminist. His men are usually hopelessly feckless, rather silly, not exactly evil but more than a little irresponsible. His women know the score and understand the inevitable ironies and tragedies of life. I now realise that Wilde’s plays are rather more serious than I had thought.
On 25^th February I led a history walk from the Latchmere pub, round the Latchmere estate to Battersea Square and along the riverfront to Battersea Park. It was for my partner’s group of Japanese students in an Anglo-Japanese exchange visit. Here is a frozen group of students on the steps of St. Mary’s and, what I consider to be, a simply beautiful and brilliant picture of the church in the setting sun, from the Square
On the 27th, I went to a memorial service for Mary Turner (1938-2017). She was born in Tipperary, Ireland; came to Britain as a young woman; worked her way up from being a “dinner lady” to being President of the GMB and, in 2004, appointed Chair of the Labour Party. I had had only a very brief acquaintanceship with Mary at the Party Conference, but her warmth and enthusiasm, which is obvious from this picture, was utterly charming.
But let’s be honest, it was also a great opportunity to go to St. Paul’s and take in the grandeur of the surroundings, not as a tourist but as a participant in a service.
Finally, on the 28^th I was crazy enough to go to Wembley to see my team, Spurs, beat Rochdale 6:1. Of itself that is hardly worth a mention but for two things: first the game was played in a snow-storm (and that was why it was crazy) and secondly it involved the highly contentious use of the VAR (video assisted referee) system. For what it’s worth my own view is that VAR is here to stay, that it has to get better and faster than it was on Wednesday, but, also that soccer will lose something as a result: VAR depends upon review and re-consideration, when soccer is about pace and non-stop action. Rugby is well suited to VAR, but soccer, I am afraid, is not. I was obviously pleased with the result and look forward to further victories in 2018!

My Programme for March

The Conservation Area Advisory Committee meets on 6^th March. The applications being considered are not of wide significance but it is interesting to note that they include three Victorian pubs, all under threat. They are the Prince of Wales in Battersea Bridge Road, the Queen Arms in St. Philip Street and the Bedford, on Bedford Hill.
On 7^th March there is the Council Tax setting Council Meeting. It will also be the last Council meeting before the May 3^rd Borough Election and hence there is bound to be much boisterous and largely juvenile party sledging – but it won’t do any harm and “boyz will be boyz” as they say.On the 8^th there will be a Wandsworth Business Forum at the Grand in Clapham Junction.
On the 9^th there will be Gordon Passmore’s funeral at St. Ann’s Church, St. Ann’s Hill. Gordon was a Tory councillor, largely for Putney ward from 1964-1971 and for Northcote ward from 1974-2006. Unlike many Tory councillors, he was not a hard-line Thatcherite but from an older more community-based tradition. I will be going.
On 15^th Harris Academy, previously Battersea Park School, are holding a “First Give” award for students, where they are competing to win a prize for the best presentations in support of favourite charities. The school has asked me to be one of the panel of judges – sounds fun.
On that evening there is also the police’s Special Neighbourhood Team. I have missed this panel recently, because of clashing commitments, and so must make a big effort to be there.
The Planning Applications Committee will meet on the 22^nd.

Do you know?

Last month, I used this picture and asked:

Where? When? How?
How many things can you name that are still there and what are they?
And can you name what is there now?

Many of you replied – correctly. It was after all fairly easy but the answers are:-

St. Mary’s Church is at the bottom and Battersea Church Road runs from the bottom to about 2 o’clock. I am not sure of the date but judging by the kind of traffic that one can see I would guess it was taken between 1945-1960 from a helicopter.
Well, the church obviously but also the houseboats on the river. And, of course, the roads. It is also possible that a couple of the old houses on Battersea Church Road might be there above Bolingbroke Walk.
And now there is the Montevetro building, the Morgan’s Walk development and in the bottom right the Somerset estate.

And this month’s question:

Britain’s greatest engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 – 1859), who built the Rotherhithe Thames Tunnel, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, most of the Great Western railway and the first iron ship, has a little-known connection with Battersea. As it happens, the connection might just have appeared right at the top of this picture. Does anyone know what the connection might be?

August 2, 2016

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere August, 2016, Newsletter (# 87)

I received one criticism of my last newsletter, which said that I spent too much time talking about planning applications and the elections of the last couple of months. My critic also said that I failed to cover some Council matters. I think a quick defence is due. Firstly I have always said that this blog is a diary, my diary, of being a councillor. I have never claimed to cover everything and nor could I. Perhaps not everyone realises that Wandsworth Council’s turnover is only just less than £1 billion, yes billion and not just a million a year; that its rental income alone amounts to more than £110 million; that the property assets of the Council (remember many thousands of council flats and houses, swimming pools, offices, etc.) are worth £2billions; and that, if the Council were measured in the same way as private companies, it would be about 160 in the Footsie 250.
Secondly, if an elected councillor didn’t mention elections in the two months when we had a Mayoral election, the Referendum and a Parliamentary by-election in the Borough, perhaps some would make criticisms – the other way. So to my critic, I note your comments and will try to take the spirit of them on board but I don’t totally agree!
I wrote last month of the flooding that affected Sendall Court and its neighbours Shaw and Clark Lawrence Courts. The floods messed up the lifts in the three blocks but Sendall Court’s lifts were out of action for the best part of a week and, what is worse, the staircase, which has no natural light, was in total darkness. So, I asked a Council Question (like Prime Minister’s Question Time but not quite!) at the Council Meeting on 20^th July and at last got an answer on 28^th July.
It was a bureaucratic answer, like one expects from insurance companies, https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s44848/Council%20Questions%20and%20Answers%2020th%20July%202016%20final.pdf, Question 31, page 33/60), and not at all what the residents deserve. I will be putting the case throughout the summer. I will be arguing that those living on the 5^th to 10^th floor young or old, fit or not so fit, should get at least a £50 goodwill cut from their rent or service charges.
While I am writing about very, specific local issues, I would like to announce that I won an argument for a tenant living in one of the very rare private flats in the area bounded by the railway, Falcon, Plough and York Roads, and who has zero access to parking facilities – neither a residents’ nor a tenants’ nor a leaseholders’ parking permit. The Council have agreed that he should be able to buy a council parking permit to use in one of the very much under-used council carparks, such as the ones in Grant Road. There are a few other people similarly living with this problem, for example in St. Luke’s Court, Falcon Road or the flats at 105 Meyrick Road. I would be pleased to hear from any of you if you think you need the same facility.
Meanwhile on the 1^st July, my niece and her husband took me and t’other half to the Hammersmith Apollo to see Bill Bailey, the comedian. It was a very amusing and very cleverly crafted show and he is clearly brilliant at very shaggy dog stories. One I remember was about taking his extended family into the forested depths of Finland, about dog sleds and getting snowed in, about grandmas falling off sleds, and all in order to see the Northern Lights. It had all the elements of a good shaggy dog, with endless details before the punchline, which effectively was that it was total cloud cover that night in June in the depths of the Finnish forests. Instead, the best place to see the Northern Lights that night was Dagenham!
On Monday, 4^th July, I took High View School’s Council on a visit to meet the Mayor of Wandsworth and to see the Council Chamber. The Mayor, with some of the staff and me, gave a “lesson” about what your council does. I think the picture of the School Council standing round and behind the Mayor’s chair shows that they enjoyed the visit.
On the 5^th I had the Community Services Committee, where amongst the items for discussion were the extension/rejection of CPZ (controlled parking zones or meters) schemes in the Eltringham/Petergate and Holgate/Maysoule areas. There was agreement to introduce Saturday restrictions in Eltringham and Petergate but to refuse the petition for a CPZ in Holgate/Maysoule. The reasons are given in two Committee papers, which can be seen at https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s44394/16-269%20Eltringham%20Road%20CPZ%202nd%20review.pdf and https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s44398/16-270%20Holgate-outcome%20consultation-June2016%20v2.pdf. However, I think there may be scope to resolve the problems some Holgate residents have in much the same way as I referred to in Paragraph 5 above. So if you are interested then please contact me.
On the 9^th July, I went, as I do most years, to the Triangle (Poyntz, Knowles, Shellwood roads) Street party. It was as enjoyable as ever with the Mayor and the Fire Brigade putting in guest appearances. But I am afraid that there were fewer people there than usual. Maybe this was because it was a cool, July evening, of which there have been rather too many this summer!
I was lobbied during the month by residents wanting to know what might happen in Falcon Park. There is, as many will know, a plan for a new artificial pitch, but I was asked whether there was any chance of the artificial football pitch at the neighbouring Sacred Heart school site being expanded. I made enquiries at the Town Hall and got the kind of bureaucratic, negative response that I expected. It is too long to repeat here but, if you are interested, you can access both question and answer at https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s44848/Council%20Questions%20and%20Answers%2020th%20July%202016%20final.pdf, Question 39, page 40/60.
I went to the Battersea Society’s annual summer party at St. Mary’s Church on the riverside on 14^th July and that too did not seem as well attended as usual. I wonder why? Could it be that this cool summer has dampened much enthusiasm.
I was in Battersea Park on Saturday, 16^th, and went to The Bandstand Party. I guess that a number of Latchmere residents might have been there – I certainly met a few old friends. It was, of course, centred on the old Victorian bandstand and featured jazz and country/folk music. The Park was looking great and lots of people were out there playing cricket, softball, rounders, soccer and other sports from all over the world. It’s always fun being in the Park on a nice day and, if the Bandstand Party becomes an annual event, then I recommend it.
On the 18^th I dropped in on Colette Morris, the Head of Christ Church Primary school, to learn about the school’s gardening expertise and their award for open air learning. Christ Church is the only urban school in the country to have this award. The school also has the benefit of being right next to Falcon Park, where they have a daily mile run for all. No obesity at Christ Church!
The Council Meeting on 20^th July was totally focused on the Referendum Result and the reaction to it of the Council and of councillors. We unanimously agreed a motion pledging to do our best to maintain the best possible community relations here in Wandsworth and to show solidarity with all current immigrant populations resident locally. It was generally a civilised and reasonable debate, but it still strikes me as odd that Tory councillors blamed the result, and hence the resignation of PM, Cameron, on Labour for not getting the “Remain” vote out. This despite the fact that of 19 Labour councillors probably 17 voted Remain and only 2 perhaps voted Brexit, whereas of the 41 Tory councillors at least a dozen were proud of their Brexit vote – a vote that in its Labour:Tory split seemed to be reflected across the country.
On the 21^st July I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC), about which my critic will be delighted to hear I have nothing to say – there was nothing on the agenda, which would have much interested the neighbours let alone any casual reader!
On Saturday, 23^rd I rather sadly went to my first Hindu funeral. This, the public funeral, was on the tenth day after the death; the preferred dress for both men and women was white, although I noticed many of the younger men were wearing smart black suits; the standard food, a must I was told in Gujerat, was a comparatively mild, vegetarian curry. The private funeral, for relatives only, took place two days later on the twelfth and marks the release of the soul from the body, and the thirteenth day marks samskara (reincarnation). As I understood it, it is not fit and proper to mourn after that, since by now the soul will be re-incarnated in another form. So rest in peace, Mayuri (Mary) Kotecha, my neighbourhood friend.
Returning from the funeral, I dropped into the York Gardens Active party and the consultations in the Library about the estate regeneration. I must say that I was very disappointed about the consultation. It seemed far too vague to encourage almost any popular response. I left with a certain feeling of dis-satisfaction, which ironically was shared by the potential developers. The Council has to improve on that. My good humour was, however, restored by meeting this charming cool cat on the way out!
Finally, have you seen the story about the £65,000 funding for improvements to Latchmere Recreation Ground. I must confess that I know nothing much about this but it is announced in a July 31^st press release from Wandsworth Guardian and includes the following online address http://enablelc.org/parkssurvey. residents are encouraged to give their views in the very first week of August – and I recommend those of you, local to the Rec, to do so.

My Programme for August

1. I am helping to review Battersea Society’s suggested list of buildings of local historic and/or architectural significance on Tuesday, 2^nd August.

2. I have my Council surgery in Battersea Reference Library from 10 am on Saturday, 6^th August. Do come and see me if you have any particular concern.

3. I am at the Planning Applications Committee on the 15^th.

4. And have yet another by-election in Tooting ward on 18^th.

5. And then on 22^nd, I am off for a three-week holiday to Florence and then on to the Croatian coast.

Do you know?

Last month I asked which anniversary of Christ Church School was being celebrated at the recent Falcon Festival. It was, of course, as a few of you replied, the school’s 150^th anniversary.

At the same Festival we also celebrated a 150th anniversary at the Este Road Fire Station, but it was not the 150^th anniversary of that building so what was it that happened in 1866? And secondly the fire station is said to be a “cut-price” miniature of another fire station elsewhere. Do you know which?

July 8, 2015

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere July Newsletter (# 74)

June highlights

On June 4th Penny and I went for a long weekend to the Dorset coast, with the grandchildren (and their parents). If you don’t know it then let me recommend it to you – Dorset is a really beautiful county. We didn’t do anything in particular but visited Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, the largest swannery in the UK (600 swans), a beautiful garden and spent a day on Weymouth’s great sandy beach. Here is a picture of them at Durdle Door, with from the left Scarlet, Melissa, Penny, Jeremy and Jamie.
On the 9^th June there was the Housing and Regeneration Committee, which I am not on this year, but I thought I would mention because the Committee had another long paper about the Winstanley regeneration project. It is very complex and entangled and becomes more confused, not less so every time it is discussed. The new complication is that a planning blight has been put on the area of the Falcon/Grant Road bus-stand, because of the possibility of Crossrail 2 being built. If Crossrail 2 goes ahead there will be a new, large combined tube and railway station – or there might be. This means that nothing can be done at that end of Grant Road until the Government has made up its mind about whether and when Crossrail 2 is built.
The result is that many of the benefits that the Council hoped to gain from high rise developments near to the station will not happen for a decade at least. And so the Council planners have come up with the idea of building higher blocks of flats along the York Road boundary of York Gardens. It is all in a complete state of flux but what has not changed at present is the basic plan for the York Road estate and the closure of Battersea Sports Centre and the consequential installation of an astro-turf pitch in Falcon:Banana Park. I’ll keep you posted on this long-running saga.
I had the Education and Children’s Services Committee on 11^th June. I find this a difficult Committee. It is quite clear that the Government has a pretty low opinion of local education authorities and really wants to abolish them, but finds it a bit tricky running all England’s schools from Whitehall (Scotland, Wales and N Ireland are different). But this means that the Education Committee is struggling for a role. However, one interesting thing arose and that was the Borough’s need to find/build a new secondary school by 2019/20. Given the harsh funding environment local government faces, there is little chance of that being a totally state-funded school – Wandsworth will inevitably look for a big sponsor for a new privately funded academy. Where and when remains to be seen.
The Planning Applications Committee was held on June 18^th. There was yet another very high block approved in Wandsworth Town Centre, near to the cinema. Unlike many such blocks, this one looked like quite a sensible development. Moreover 63, of the 88 flats to be provided will be, so called, affordable – you still need a salary about twice the national average to be able to afford them. We approved it. There was also a significant development in Cabul Road, Latchmere, backing on to Rowena Crescent. It is an important application but not a huge one and will hardly be noticed outside of those two roads. Local residents will know all about the plans and, if they want to ask about it, then please send me an email and we’ll discuss.
Penny, my partner in the picture above, is organising a conference in Edinburgh in 2019 and needed to go there to discuss plans. So I joined her from 23^rd June to 26^th in St. Andrews and the capital. It is the first time I have been to the city for a very long time but, my word, it is a very attractive city. Whilst in St. Andrews we went for a walk around the most famous golf course in the world. You will see it on TV in July hosting the Open. Here is a picture of us on Swilcan Burn Bridge on the 18^th hole. I know it is a very cheesy picture but you can’t go there and not get snapped on Swilcan Burn Bridge.
On Sunday 28^th June I went to Battersea Park to see the Formula E race. It was an interesting afternoon, though not particularly for the racing. As others have said, the views of the race were not good – there are just too many trees in the Park to allow a good view of anything more than a couple of hundred yards of race track. The lack of noise didn’t bother me, although it obviously did some of my correspondents. Strange as it seems the fact that over-taking was difficult doesn’t seem to matter that much in motor racing – as far as I can see no one ever over-takes at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
However, it was a nice friendly atmosphere with plenty of families of all shapes and sizes. The price certainly brought it within range of many local residents and so it was not, as some of my correspondents have claimed, an exclusive occasion for big money sport – let’s face it, it was far cheaper than watching big time soccer, rugby or cricket. Again, it also attracted far bigger crowds than the average week-end in Battersea Park.
I also don’t believe that the week-end did any real long-term damage to the Park or the wildlife in the Park. I would guess that the noise and disturbance of the Fireworks display in November is far more disruptive.
On the other hand, the Park was effectively closed to the public, as a free park, for 4 days and considerably limited for just under three weeks. One of the local residents wrote to me saying, “The intrusive ‘gulag’ fencing and concrete was incredibly disruptive” and she then went on to complain, as many others did, about the helicopter noise, which was obviously intrusive. The Council claims that it did, or will over the next five years, bring in money, which the Council desperately needs given this Government’s cuts in local government grant. But the trouble with this argument is that we don’t know how much money is coming in.
In the next few months I will be one of 60 councillors voting on whether we think the Formula E contract will be extended for five years. I don’t see how the majority party can expect me to vote for the extension unless I know what the financial return might be. However, I would be really interested to hear your views and whatever they are I promise to ensure that they are conveyed to my fellow councillors.
On the 30^th June I heard left-wing firebrand Owen Jones speaking at a Battersea Labour Party Meeting. I don’t usually talk about party meetings in this newsletter – usually pretty boring and irrelevant, but you may have seen Owen Jones on programmes like Question Time. Anyway I just thought I’d mention that it was a stunning tour de force, articulate, fast-firing, lively speech, followed by a series of questions and answers. I don’t suppose many of you will have a chance to see and hear him but if you do – Go.

My Programme for July

On 2nd July I had a meeting of the Academies & Free School Commission, of which more next month, and on the 14th the Planning Applications Committee.
On July 2nd I also went to the Grand to see a performance of Gershwin’s Crazy for You performed by Latchmere’s Thames Christian College – again more next month.
On the 8^th July, we have the Council Meeting and on 11^th I will be at the Councillors’ surgery at Battersea Library.
On 16^th July Battersea Society will be having its summer party at St. Mary’s Church on the riverfront. On the next day I am going to visit friends in South Wales and, with any luck, will go up in a glider above the Brecon Beacons mountains – I am looking forward to that.

Did you know?

Last month’s question about the contestants in the Battersea Park duel of 1828 was obviously too easy for some of you. Yes, it was the Duke of Wellington, the hero of this month’s double anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo – the one that kept the French in their place and made UK top dog (sorry if that is not PC for any French readers – just a joke). His adversary was the P1000200 Earl of Winchelsea, who was objecting to Wellington removing legal barriers to Roman Catholics in this country.

So if that was too easy, let me try you out on another couple of Wandsworth duels. In the generation before 1828 another Prime Minister fought a duel in Wandsworth and, what is more, two other “gentlemen” both of whom also became Prime Minister later on, also did so. I will be very impressed if anyone can tell me who the three of them were, who the fourth man was, where the duels took place and what were they about.

Finally this lion lives in Battersea, just outside the Latchmere ward boundary. Does anyone know where he lives?

October 4, 2014

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere October Newsletter (# 65)

September highlights

I had a Big Local lunch on 11^th September – not real business I know, but it does help to keep in touch. Here is a picture of us in Fish in a Tie in Falcon Road, which by the way, if you have never been there, is just about the nicest, cheapest food of its style that you can get in Battersea. Stephen Holsgrove the head of Thames Christian College is on the left and then Sandra Munoz, me, Senia Dedic, my councillor colleague Wendy Speck, Providence House youth club boss Robert Musgrave and Pennethorne resident Andy Beech.
In my new role as Labour’s Speaker on education I have had several meetings with senior education staff in an attempt to catch up with the current issues. And one in particular came up at the Education and Children’s Services Committee on 17^th September and that was the subject of admissions to primary schools. At the moment admissions are based on proximity to the school but also on siblings, that is whether a child already has a brother or sister at the relevant school. In essence the Council is wondering whether the so-called siblings rule should be scrapped and admissions solely based on proximity to the school. The Council is going out to consultation on the matter. What do you think? Do you think that if a child has a brother or sister at a school s/he should have priority in a schools’ admissions policy or should it just be based on proximity to the school. Let me know what you think!
I went to GCSE Success’s Annual General Meeting on 20^th September. It was held at York Gardens Library. I do think this is a fascinating voluntary organisation. Set up by a resident of Pennethorne House, Ella Spencer, it is devoted to helping kids on the local estates fulfil their potential at GCSEs and get the best possible exam results. If anyone has a son/daughter who needs volunteer specialist assistance to get through examinations I recommend that you get them to York Gardens Library on a Saturday morning at 10 am!
On the 25^th I went to the Tooting Labour Party’s fund raising dinner, where the guest speaker was Jack Straw. Here is a picture of him giving his after dinner speech. He made a robust defence of the Labour Government’s actions in Iraq, including the current bombing campaign against Isis. I am afraid that I am not convinced and am rather inclined to the view that the west cannot resolve what is clearly a Middle Eastern Civil War. I have seen it compared with Europe’s seventeenth century Thirty Years War between Protestant and Catholic – I rather fear that it is an apt comparison.
I did not this year go to the Labour Party Conference, which seems not to have been a very exciting occasion! But I rather suspect that the confidence that the Tory Party showed at their conference last week is going to turn out to be misplaced.
I went on a tour of Wayford Street and Este Road estates on 30^th. It was pretty uneventful but we came across this piece of graffiti on the wall at the junction between Wayford Street and Candahar Road. Take a careful look. It is a picture of a dove of peace, I guess, holding under its left wing a knife, a pistol, a hand grenade and an AK 47. Is it a cry of pain against the barbarities going on in the Middle East? It certainly is very political.
On 17^th September the weather was so beautiful that I decided to take the day off and take the train from CJ to Brighton for the day. I came across the Western Pavilion, which I had never seen before. It was built in 1827 by Amon Henry Wilds, an architect who had worked on the famous Pavilion, for a rich client. Below is a picture of it and I am sure many of you can see the similarities between it and the Royal Pavilion. Whilst I was there I also took a picture of the rather sad sight of the West Pier rotting and crumbling into the sea.

My Programme for October.

I have meetings about the New Covent Garden development on 2^nd and 6^th
I am visiting the Holy Ghost primary school in Nightingale Square on 14^th.
There is the now only quarterly Council meeting on 15^th October and Planning Applications Committee on 16^th.
I hope to be at the Caius House youth club on the 27^th.

Did you see Christ Church in the Guardian on 1^st October?

The picture is by photographer David Levene and is of Christ Church School’s vegetable garden. I don’t know why it found its way into the Guardian’s centre spread but it is a great picture of the children in the garden, which is behind a fence on Fownes Road, squeezed in between the estate and the main railway lines out of Clapham Junction. I was there when the school first took over this spare plot and it is just amazing to see the transformation they have made to what was an overgrown site. Well done, Christ Church.

Western Pavilion, Western Terrace, and West Pier

April 12, 2014

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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!

March 5, 2014

Councillor Tony Belton’s Latchmere March Newsletter (# 58)

February highlights

1. For many of you, February’s Council Tax decision will be the most important news of the month. It will not be officially confirmed until the Council Meeting on 5th March but the decision has been taken to freeze it at the current level. Actually many of you will know that this is the third year in a row that it has been frozen. Actually this is no great surprise as Government nowadays gives a grant of the equivalent of 1% of Council Tax receipts, if your Tax is frozen, whilst, if it were increased by 2%, then the Council would have to go to a referendum to levy it! I don’t think that many will do that although Brighton Borough Council is debating increasing it by 4.75% and triggering a referendum – bet they don’t! But good luck if they try it!

2. Of course freezing Council Tax comes at a price! With Government grant falling by £18.5 million this coming year and, according to the Director of Finances estimates, over £20 million next we are going to see plenty of cuts, a continuing increase in Council fees (the ones that many will be familiar with are parking fees and fines) and redundancies at the Town Hall. In February, for example, over 60 Town Hall staff have been made redundant. Clearly some services are likely to suffer and we will no doubt see by how much.

3. One thing that will not be affected, however, is progress on the so-called regeneration of the Winstanley and York Road estates. The general strategy was agreed at the Housing Committee on 25th February. In the coming months the Council’s housing people will be talking to everyone in the main blocks due for demolition, namely Pennethorne, Scholey and Holcroft about their re-housing requirements. But don’t expect immediate signs of demolition! The residents need to be re-housed in new flats designed to be built around York Gardens itself and along Grant Road, but they are not yet on the drawing board, let alone started, so it will be quite a while yet. If you are one of these residents and are concerned about your prospects then do get in touch with me and I’ll see what I can do to help.

The news is better for Penge and Inkster Houses. These two blocks all needed re-furbishment, which had been put on hold until the overall plan had been agreed. Now that can go ahead but, again, don’t expect work on site tomorrow. Specifications have to be drawn up and tenders received before that happens.

The future of Gagarin and Sheppard Houses, and of Ganley Court, along with many of the smaller blocks on the estates is still to be resolved.

4. Many of you will have seen the scaffolding up on Sporle Court, previous page After many years of campaigning and lobbying by residents the Council has at last got round to double glazing the whole block (along with some external decorations and new floor coverings) and not before time. If any of you think that is a big luxury, then let me tell you that life in the top floors of Sporle Court was very noisy and amazingly draughty before – I know I have experienced it. The work is due for completion in June, 2014.

5. On a very different but equally important scale Harling Court, opposite the Latchmere Baths, had security doors fitted some months back. Unusually this work was paid for by Barratt’s the builders of the new Rutherford on the left and Chadwick Houses, which have just been completed on the Travis Perkins site opposite Dovedale Cottages. New residents have moved in and I have written a welcome letter to them. I know some of the Harling Court residents were very unhappy about the building of these new blocks. If you were one of them, then I’d be interested to know what you think now that the work has been completed.

6. I went to the WoW (Women of Wandsworth) organised inter-generational launch and dinner marking the Chinese New Year at Haven Lodge. The point of this lunch was to encourage the meeting and being together of children, mothers and the much older generation of pensioners living in Haven Lodge sheltered accommodation. Here am I with a Chinese resident of the Winstanley.

7. Simon Hogg, Wendy Speck and I, your three Labour councillors, held a surgery in Battersea Fields residents’ hall and if you have any particular issues you would like to talk about then I am doing the regular Council surgery in Battersea Library on 22nd March. But if you are reading this then why bother to wait until then – send me an email now.

8. Moving on to other matters, some of you may have been surprised by the demolition and construction work starting to take place at the Falcon Road Mosque. You may have remembered that the mosque’s last application for extension and growth was refused but forgotten that the mosque had already an approval for a different extension. It is the scheme, as earlier approved, that is now being built.

9. The Strategic Planning & Transport Committee on 18th February was really dull and there wasn’t much on at the Planning Committee, certainly as far as Latchmere was concerned, although some of you will be able to see one scheme, which was approved and that was adding a storey to Falcon Wharf development.

10. Last month I talked about GCSE Success. Well this month I am delighted to announce that this great scheme is getting a £1,885 Big Society Grant and meanwhile the Mercy Foundation at 64 Falcon Road is receiving £2,780. Led by Ella Spencer, GCSE Success is designed to improve Maths and English results at GCSE level for students at secondary school in the Latchmere area. Victoria Rodney’s Mercy Foundation grant is aimed at increasing digital literacy (i.e. IT and internet skills) amongst the residents on the York Road and surrounding estates.

11. And finally a worrying report from London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) shows that air pollution in parts of Latchmere is at levels 5 and 6 times higher than European Union targets. The worst spots are at Battersea Park Road junctions with Albert and Battersea Bridge Roads and, worst of all, under the Falcon Road railway bridge. The levels of pollution are of course also high just outside the boundaries of the ward in, for example, Clapham Junction. I will be using this research to press for early improvements to the Bridge! LSx is, by the way, run by Samantha Heath, who many of you will remember was a Latchmere councillor 1994-98.

My Programme for March

1. There is a Council meeting on 5th March and the Planning Applications Committee on the 18th. However, Council activity is winding down in the period prior to the May 22nd Council and European Elections. The theory is that all of us councillors will be out on the doorstep pestering you residents with personal questions about your political tastes. Actually given my health situation I will be doing it mostly on the phone. Don’t be too hard on us and please don’t slam the door in our face or put the phone back on the receiver. If we do canvass you we will, of course, arrive at an inconvenient time and if we don’t, then we get accused of never talking to anyone. We canvassers can never win! Oh, and most of all don’t tell us we are all the same. To be likened to one of “them” is the biggest insult of them all. So if I call on you remember, that it is just part of the job!

Did you know about Christ Church, Battersea?

The picture on the right is of the modern church in Christ Church Gardens, which was consecrated in 1959. I wouldn’t mind betting that most of you have never noticed this modest self-effacing 1950s building in its very prominent place at the junction of Battersea Park Road and Candahar Road. Indeed given its prime setting it really is rather too modest.

Well its Victorian predecessor, which was consecrated on 27 July 1849, was very different and full of all the confidence I associate with Victorian times. According to ‘Parish Churches of London’, Basil
F L Clarke, Batsford, 1966, it was a cruciform
Middle-Pointed building with a spire.

There is actually a rather splendid photograph of it and the hustle and bustle of Battersea Park Road in the 1930s in a Wandsworth Town Hall Committee Room, which I will try to get a reproduction of for next month. But in the meantime here is an artist’s representation of it sometime in the late Victorian years.

Unfortunately, the old Christ Church was a casualty of war being obliterated on 21 November 1944 by a V2 rocket, which destroyed both it and the neighbouring vicarage. Christ Church Gardens alongside it now has a little known memorial to the dead of the Second World War and note the magnificent London Pplane tree by the Cabul Road entrance to the church, which must have had a very close escape from the bomb!

Yours sincerely
Tony Belton, Latchmere Labour Councillor
Tony Belton
99 Salcott Road | Battersea | London SW11 6DF
Home +44 20 7223 1736 | Mobile +44 7778 405235 | Skype (TBC)
Blog: https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/

Tony Belton

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea July 2021, Newsletter (# 145)