Northcote E-Newsletter July 2022

Working hard for you in Northcote Ward

Dear neighbour,

As we head into the summer holidays, we wanted to share some local updates:

1.    Town Hall summer round-up: new committee positions, Emmeline’s maiden speech, and equal parental leave for councillors

2.    Community Roadwatch: how you can make your road safer

3.    Jubilee celebrations: and how to keep the street party going

4.    Northcote Fair: so glad to be back!

5.    Labour’s broken promise on Council Tax

6.    Civic award nominations

7.    Update on 78 Northcote Road application

8.    Update on EU citizens project

We hope you have a great August, whether you’re getting away or enjoying al fresco weekends on Northcote Road.

As ever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if we can be of help with anything local.

All the best,

Cllr Aled Richards-Jones

Cllr Emmeline Owens

Town Hall Summer Round Up

It’s been a busy first term on the new Wandsworth Council. Here’s a quick round-up of what we’ve been up to as your councillors.

In May, we robed up for the Annual Meeting of the Council, at which we were formally assigned to our new Committee roles. Emmeline sits on the Children’s Committee, Planning Committee, Wandsworth Conservative Area Advisory Committee, and the Corporate Parenting Panel which is responsible for4 looked after children in the borough. Aled sits on the Finance Committee, General Purposes Committee and Standards Committee, and is the Group Whip for the Conservative Opposition Group.

In June and July, we attended our meetings. Highlights included Emmeline making her maiden speech to the Full Council, in which she thanked Northcote for electing her as its newest councillor and praised the efforts of local community and parent groups in achieving positive change for the ward over the years. Aled moved an amendment at the Finance Committee to the councillors’ allowances scheme to ensure equal parental leave regardless of the new parent’s gender – the amendment was accepted by Full Council, which means councillors who are new parents will be able to make decisions around parental leave which best suit their circumstances without outdated, one-size-fits-all assumptions about which parent should take on most of the childcare duties.

The Council’s committees don’t meet during the summer. However, we will be kept busy with casework and community events around the Borough.

Community Roadwatch and speed enforcement trial

It was great to join the local police and neighbours at two Community Roadwatch sessions this month on Bolingbroke Grove and Thurleigh Road.

Community Roadwatch gives local residents the opportunity to work side by side with their local police teams, and use speed detection equipment to identify speeding vehicles in their communities. Warning letters will be issued where appropriate, and the information can help to inform the future activity of local police teams.

Would you like to see Community Roadwatch on your road? Community Roadwatch requests can be sent directly to the Police using the email address: CommunityRoadwatch.Wandsworth@met.pnn.police.uk - and please copy us in to your requests so we know where local concern lies.

We also welcomed the news this month that the new Labour Administration has committed to going ahead with the trial of the innovative 20mph enforcement scheme initiated under the last Conservative Administration.

This trial will see Wandsworth Council be the first council in the UK to directly enforce speeding limits on two residential roads in the Borough which are of particular concern by issuing fines to those caught speeding (outside of this unique trial, only the Police can issue speeding fines). The results of the trial will be analysed to see whether the scheme should be rolled out to other residential roads where speeding is known to be an issue, including in Northcote ward.

Jubilee celebrations in Northcote – and how you can keep the (street) party going

Is there anything we do better than a Jubilee Street Party?

There were 223 street parties in total in Wandsworth over the bank holiday weekend, with 20 in Northcote ward. There were some fabulous efforts – including the dog show and live music on Alfriston Road, and the incredible party of over 400 residents on Clapham Common West Side which raised over £3,000 for the Friends of Clapham Common! And Kelmscott Road’s party was so good it made it into the Washington Post!

Fancy another street party before the summer is over? During the weekend of the 24th-25th September, to coincide with Car Free Day, Wandsworth Council is supporting residents across the borough to close their road to create a “play street”, allowing children to play in the streets where they live. The usual £60 application fee will be waived for events during this weekend.

Find out more on the Council’s website here: https://wandsworth.gov.uk/apply-to-hold-a-street-party-for-car-free-day-2019/. And let us know if you’re planning a party!

Northcote Summer Festival: so good to be back!

How great was it to watch the Wimbledon Men’s Final on the big screen on Northcote Road for the first time in three years?

After a three year covid hiatus, we were so glad to see the return of the Northcote Road Summer Festival. As well as the tennis, there were children’s rides and entertainment, independent local stalls, and of course our usual brilliant retailers, restaurants and bars.

Thanks to the summer pedestrianisation scheme, we can now enjoy al fresco dining on Northcote Road throughout the summer, and not just one weekend a year. Still, nothing beats the summer festival!

Labour’s Council Tax broken promise

At Full Council this July, we were disappointed that the new Labour Administration’s first major vote was to backtrack on their commitment to cut Council Tax next year by 1%.

Council Tax was a key theme at the local elections, with Wandsworth being famous for having the lowest Council Tax in the country following 44 years of Conservative administration, and Conservative-run Wandsworth was the only London council last year to actually cut its share of Council Tax. Wandsworth Labour must have thought that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and pledged to cut Council Tax next year by 1% in their campaign. Wandsworth Conservative brought a motion to Council asking Labour to formally commit to this promise – but Labour voted against it. This is obviously bad news, not just in a cost of living crisis, but for trust in politics generally.

It's not the best start to the new Labour council, to say the least! We’ll continue to make the case for low tax and for local politicians to keep their promises to the electorate.

Civic award nominations

Nominations for the Wandsworth Civic Awards are open again for 2022. The awards shine the spotlight on people making a difference to the borough, yet whose efforts go unsung.

This could be people who have helped out a neighbour in need, coached a local sports team, gave up their free time to volunteer, organised a community event, or carried out an exceptional act of bravery.

This year, Wandsworth Council is adding four special awards:

·      For those who have shown leadership on the issue of climate change and the environment. This follows our declaration of a climate change emergency and pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030 which we made in 2019.

·      For a group and for an individual who have gone above and beyond to help those affected by the conflict in Ukraine or conflict in other parts of the world

·      For those who have contributed to individual and community recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic – this could include any of the following forms of recovery support: physical, social, emotional, educational, financial and employment

Nominees should be:

·      Nominated for their contribution in a voluntary (unpaid) capacity in the borough

·      Aged 19 or over (the Wandsworth Young Person awards celebrate our younger adults and children)

Northcote has a fantastic track record at the awards. Last year, there were three winners from the ward. We were pleased to nominate one of the winners - Jonny Dyson, chairman of the Northcote Road Business Network (pictured) - who’s given years of unpaid time to help make Northcote Road the thriving high street it is today, and most recently helped us implement the summer weekend pedestrianisation.

Richard and Julia, who founded the Friends of Wandsworth Common in 2018 and have done so much for the Common - from biodiversity initiatives, litter picks and plogging, and bringing in new water fountains – were also winners.

The Wandsworth Foodbank Volunteer Team also won a Group Civic Award for their incredible work delivering emergency food supplies all across Wandsworth.

Nominations will close at 5pm on Thursday 1 September 2022. If you’d like to nominate someone from the ward, please get in touch. You can also send any questions about the awards to civicawards@wandsworth.gov.uk.

Update on proposed redevelopment of 78 Northcote Road (Opa Opa)

Several of you have contacted us to express your concern about the proposed redevelopment of 78 Northcote Road, which is currently occupied by Opa Opa. Aled spoke against this application at the recent meeting of Wandsworth Council’s Planning Committee, and was pleased to have persuaded the Committee to reject the application. 

The developer proposed to demolish the entirety of the current 3-storey building and replace it with a bulkier, 4-storey building to provide an additional 1-bedroom and two 2-bedroom flats, with rear roof terraces at first and second floor levels, at the back. The Council’s planning officers recommended approval for this scheme.

Aled agreed with many residents that this scheme was not appropriate for this particular location on Northcote Road, and he spoke at the Planning Committee to make these concerns clear. Aled made two main points. First, the proposed design was generic, uninteresting and almost brutal, and not in keeping with the village feel of Northcote Road. It would have created a bulky bookend on this corner of Bennerley Road and Northcote Road. Second, the proposed total demolition of the old building was completely excessive and would have had unacceptable environmental consequences.

The Planning Committee voted 5-2 to refuse permission for this scheme. As is always the case after a refusal, the developer is free in principle to come back to the Committee with an alternative scheme that is more appropriate. Please be assured that we will scrutinise closely any revised scheme and ensure any residents’ concerns are heard.

Update on EU citizens project

Citizens Advice Wandsworth have published their EU progress report, which details the achievements of the Wandsworth Council-funded scheme to ensure EU citizens living in Wandsworth secured their rights to remain with us after Brexit.

Since 2017, Wandsworth Council have funded Citizens Advice Wandsworth to deliver an advice service for EU nationals who need help securing their status in the UK. This report is intended to showcase what the project has achieved, but also to let residents know that the EU Project still exists and will do so for as long as people in the borough need it.

Northcote councillors were proud to support this project at every turn, and were pleased that Wandsworth took the lead amongst Conservative-run councils in 2017 in setting up such a partnership. The report describes what can be accomplished when political will, resources, and partnerships are focussed together to address a problem, and how initiative, tenacity and kindness can make a difference to local people.