Dear neighbour,

Welcome to our councillors’ May 2023 e-newsletter.

The highlight of our month has been joining in the local Coronation celebrations and street parties. Across Wandsworth, there were 144 street parties, and we had a great time at the Kelmscott Road, Salcott Road and Alfriston Road street parties.

As ever, there have been lots of other things happening locally. Read on for:

1. Have you received an unfair parking fine recently, because your parking permit renewal reminder didn’t arrive as usual? If so, we can help
2. Wandsworth Council announces 10 week closure of Wandsworth Bridge
3. Inquiry into Lambeth Council’s application to host more Festival Republic events on Clapham Common opens on 13th June – you can have your say
4. Next Safer Neighbourhood Panel meeting set for 22nd June – come and discuss any concerns with our local policing team
5. Will there be a Northern Line extension to Clapham Junction?
6. Northcote Road petition hits 6,000 signatures, and is growing
7. Upcoming local events

Please help us spread the news about our local campaigns by forwarding this email to friends and family who live in Northcote ward – it really helps our work as local councillors. New subscribers can sign up to receive these emails regularly by clicking here.

And as ever, if there is anything we can be of help with locally, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best regards,

Cllr Aled Richards-Jones

Cllr Emmeline Owens 

Have you received an unfair parking fine recently because your parking permit renewal reminder didn’t arrive as usual? If so, we can help. 

This month, Wandsworth Council failed to send out its usual parking permit renewal reminders to many residents. This meant that residents were hit with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for parking as they usually would, unaware that their permit was due for renewal.

Council officials have not yet disclosed the full scale of the failure to send out renewal reminders, but it is clear that the issue has affected hundreds of residents.

We have made the case to officials that it is unfair to fine residents in these circumstances when residents have come to rely on regular reminders. As a result, officials have agreed to reconsider any fines levied as a result of a lapsed parking permit where a resident didn’t receive the usual reminder to renew.

We have taken up many individual cases with the Council. If you’d like us to take up yours, please email your full name, PCN number and vehicle registration number to northcote@wandsworthconservatives.co.uk. 

Wandsworth Council announces 10 week closure of Wandsworth Bridge

Wandsworth Council has announced that Wandsworth Bridge will close this summer to vehicles for 10 weeks to enable repairs to be carried out. Ongoing checks on the 83-year-old bridge have revealed that some weight-bearing parts need replacing for safety reasons.

The full closure for motorists will start on 24th July, although pedestrians and cyclists will still be allowed to cross for the duration of the works. For full details on the bridge closure and alternative routes that can be used by motorists, click here.

We understand, however unavoidable it is, that the closure of Wandsworth Bridge will badly inconvenience a number of residents. We have asked the Labour Administration about the measures that are in place to ensure the works will be completed by the 10 week deadline – and as part of this, we discovered that the Council’s contract for the works do not include a penalty clause for the works running over time. As such, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the progress of the repairs, demanding they run to time and cause minimum noise and disruption to the surrounding area. If you have any questions about the closure, please do let us know and we will do our best to answer them for you.

Inquiry into Lambeth Council’s application to host more Festival Republic events on Clapham Common opens on 13th June – you can have your say

Many of you will remember the campaign run by the Friends of Clapham Common against Lambeth Council’s previous planning application to fence off 20 acres of Clapham Common with over 1km of solid steel fencing for 18 days, all in order to host a summer event by Festival Republic of 4 days with 40,000 visitors each day. The Friends’ campaign was successful and, as a result, Festival Republic will not be staging major events in 2023. However, Lambeth Council has applied for a return of Festival Republic to the Common during the summer of 2024.

The last time Festival Republic was held on Clapham Common, we received a record number of complaints from our residents about the excessive noise from the events, as well as the environmental damage to the Common that resulted from this intensive use. In many areas on the Common, even today, the grass still hasn’t recovered. We wrote to Lambeth Council calling for a stop to these large-scale, environmentally damaging events and better consultation with local residents on any future proposed events. Disappointingly, Lambeth Council did not reply to us.

Clapham Common is one of our community’s treasured open green spaces, enjoyed by residents of both Lambeth and Wandsworth boroughs. We don’t object to the Common being home to a variety of uses by different parts of the community, including diverse and appropriately scaled events and activities throughout the year. Our concern has always been that these oversized events in previous years come at too high a cost to the Common and do not deliver sufficient benefits to the local community. In 2021, Lambeth Council claimed that the events would raise £300,000, but said that only £63,000 would be reinvested in the Common. In addition, the local economy saw little benefit from the events as festival goers bought food and drinks from festival stalls rather than local businesses.

Thanks to the campaigning efforts of the Friends, an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will hold an Inquiry into Lambeth’s Festival Republic application for 2024. The Inquiry will be held as a virtual Microsoft Teams event arranged by Lambeth Council and run by the Inspector. It will open on 13 June 2023 and continue on subsequent days as necessary. A copy of the application form and supporting documents may be viewed online at https://eventlambeth.co.uk/clapham-common-common-land-consent-application-2/

Wandsworth Conservatives will be represented at the hearings by a councillor who will put our concerns across.

Residents can also take part in the proceedings. To register an interest to speak, please contact Events@lambeth.gov.uk or call 0207 926 6207. Visit https://eventlambeth.co.uk/clapham-common-common-land-consent-application-2/ where full application and live streaming details will be posted.

Whether any particular person can speak at the Inquiry is within the discretion of the Inspector. If you wish to take an active part in the proceedings, please make this known ASAP, and make clear in your response whether you wish only to appear at the Inquiry and make a statement, or whether you would also wish to ask questions of those who are presenting an alternative view. The Inquiry will be live streamed for those who wish to watch but not take an active part. 

Next Safer Neighbourhood Panel meeting set for 22nd June – come and discuss local concerns with our local policing team

The next meeting of the Safer Neighbourhood Panel has been set for 22nd June between 5pm and 6pm at the new Northcote Library (150 Northcote Road). It will be available face to face and on Microsoft Teams. The Teams link can be obtained from the local police at northcote@met.police.uk.

The panel brings together local residents and the local policing team to discuss concerns relating to crime and anti-social behaviour and to set local policing priorities. There is also scope to become more involved by becoming a panel chair or secretary. We will be attending, and encourage as many residents as possible to come too, so that the police are made aware of concerns from across the community.

Is the Northern Line coming to Clapham Junction? It’s complicated…

In our last month’s e-newsletter, we mentioned our campaign for direct Northern Line trains between Clapham South and Battersea Power station, so that commuters would no longer need to change trains at Kennington. This prompted many residents to get in touch about widely-reported proposals by Wandsworth Council to investigate bringing the tube to Clapham Junction.

Long standing residents will know that talk of bringing the Northern line to Clapham Junction has existed for decades. And 10 years ago, Wandsworth’s Greater London Assembly Member, Dick Tracey, commented that an underground path running beneath Battersea Park had been reserved for such a move.

The difficulty – as ever – is who is going to pay for it. A paper which came to Wandsworth Council’s Transport Committee in February 2023 stated that “it is likely that the further extension would cost significantly more than £750m” and that the scheme is “highly unlikely” to be funded by TfL or the Government “in the short to medium term”. The paper did not identify any alternative sources of funding, other than noting that “the alternative funding mechanism would require very significant levels of development in and around Clapham Junction…It may be the case that difficult choices would be needed.”

What this all means is that a Northern Line extension to Clapham Junction would require either very large sums of money from Government or TfL, or Nine Elms-levels of development locally around Clapham Junction, or a combination of all that, to fund the extension. As ward councillors, we don't think Nine Elms-style development is at all appropriate or realistic for Clapham Junction, which is already well developed and does not have any of the characteristics of the open, former industrial landscape of pre-development Nine Elms. Wandsworth Council has many more questions to answer on this funding front before it can confidently say it can bring the Northern Line to Clapham Junction.

Northcote Road petition hits 6,000 signatures

and it is still growing

Thank you to all residents who have signed our petition to save the Northcote Road pedestrianisation scheme, which passed 6,000 signatures last week.

Unfortunately, the new Labour Council has confirmed their decision to scrap the scheme for this year. However, the Council is clearly taking notice of the petition, as they have recently commissioned consultants to work with businesses on potential options for the road in future years. We will watch this process carefully and keep you updated in future e-newsletters.

There’s still time to add your voice to the petition here.

Upcoming local events 

This year’s Wandsworth Heritage Festival runs from May 20 – 11 June and will explore the theme Educating Wandsworth. Particular local highlights are a talk on the life and career of Marjory Allen, whose name is given to The Lady Allen Adventure Playground for children with disabilities on Wandsworth Common which opened in the late 1970s, and a historical walking tour of Emanuel School and its Grounds.

The Wandsworth Arts Fringe returns this year from 9 – 25 June. Do check out its extensive programme this year.

The hugely popular Northcote Road Summer Festival returns on 16 July with the usual brilliant range of stalls and entertainment. The men’s Wimbledon Final match will be shown on the big screen in the afternoon. 

Published and promoted by Harry Todd on behalf of the Wandsworth Conservatives, all contactable at 1 Summerstown, SW17 0BQ.