Dear neighbour,

Welcome to our December e-newsletter. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so read on for:

• Countdown to Christmas – festive events happening locally
• Wandsworth Council services over Christmas – including Christmas tree recycling
• What we’ve been up to recently – petitioning for better streets and pavements, and a new bike port for St Michael’s

Please help us spread the news about our local campaigns by forwarding this email to friends and family who live in the Northcote ward – it really helps our work as local councillors. 

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

And if we don’t see you out and about beforehand, have a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Best regards,

Cllr Aled Richards-Jones

Cllr Emmeline Owens 

Countdown to Christmas

Festive events happening locally

November was jam-packed with festive events – from the Battersea Ball, Northcote Road Christmas Market, and all our wonderful school and church fairs. There’s still plenty on as we approach the big day.

Santa’s Grotto is open at Battersea Arts Centre all weekends until Christmas Eve. It’s a great opportunity to take the little ones to our own local mini-North Pole, with the experience including a small gift and the opportunity to have their picture taken with Santa. However, Santa is very busy at this time of year, so parents should book in advance on the Battersea Arts Centre website.

On Thursday 14th December at 6.30pm, St Luke’s Church on Ramsden Road will be hosting a Carol Concert in aid of BeyondAutism. Back for its second year, the Celestial Christmas carol concert promises to be an extraordinary evening of beautiful carols, choral music and festive readings, with music by the Choir of Celestia Music and Hornsby House Chamber Choir, and a world première of a new carol by Peter Gritton. Tickets can be purchased here.

Also on Thursday 14th December, starting at 7pm, is Carols at Christmas with Royal Trinity Hospice. Everyone is warmly invited to join the choirs and string quartet at this an evening of festive feel-good sing-alongs and readings, hosted by Royal Trinity Hospice. Mince pies and refreshments will be available. Advance registration is encouraged but not essential. It’s free to attend, with donations welcomed in support of Trinity’s long standing free care for Londoners and their loved ones.

Looking for a unique Christmas present (and couldn’t find what you were looking for at the Northcote Road Christmas Fair)? The Curated Makers Christmas Market is running from Saturday 9th December until Friday 22nd December 2023 at Battersea Power Station. It’s a chance to discover one-of-a-kind gifts, from candles freshly hand-poured from home studios to unique handcrafted statement jewellery, or locally baked tempting treats - whilst getting the chance to meet the maker behind them.

And it wouldn’t be Christmas without a panto. This December, the Civic Suite at Wandsworth Town Hall transforms to bring you the Peter Pan Panto! Filled with heart-warming tales of courage and friendship, the show is designed to be enjoyed by kids, parents, and grandparents alike. Join Peter Pan and friends as they look for hidden treasure on the high seas. Performances run from Saturday 16 December to Saturday 23 December. 

Wandsworth Council services over Christmas

Household rubbish and recycling dates will be a day later than your usual day from Christmas Day until Monday 8 January 2024. Full details can be found here. 

Christmas trees will be recycled from Monday 8 January 2024. After last year’s repeatedly late collections, we have persuaded the Council to put on extra Christmas tree collections this year to avoid a repeat of last year’s pavement assault course. Full instructions are here, but the key points are:

• If you have a front garden - put your tree out for collection next to your rubbish and recycling bags, on your usual collection day - not on the street. 
• If you do not have a front garden - put your tree just outside your front door on the pavement taking care not to block where people walk. 
• If you live in a block of flats - leave your tree near to your rubbish or recycling bin store, making sure you do not block access to the bins. 

For information on parking, libraries and sports facilities, please see the Council’s dedicated page here. 

What we’ve been up to recently

At the last Council meeting before Christmas, we presented petitions on behalf of residents in Wroughton Road (asking for resurfacing of the pavement between Chatto Road and Broomwood Road), and on behalf of residents in Leathwaite Road (asking for the resurfacing of the carriageway between Chatto Road and Wakehurst Road). The Council will have to formally respond to the petitions sometime in the new year, and we will include an update on a future e-newsletter when they do.

We also presented our petition calling for extended opening hours at Northcote Library. We are starting to see some encouraging signs on this campaign. As we’ve reported previously, we’re not asking for special treatment for Northcote Library – we’re just asking the Council to extend it opening hours here as it has done for libraries recently in other parts of the borough. We also want the Council to deliver on the promise of the new building, which the previous Conservative Administration designed deliberately with costs-saving features in mind, such as energy efficiency, to enable longer opening hours. After we presented our petition at the Council meeting, the Administration announced it was undertaking a full review of libraries across the borough – and now our petition with feature in that review. We’ll report back when we know more!

We’re also doing our bit to help make walking and cycling easier locally. As well as lobbying for more bike hangars in Northcote ward, we recently secured a new bike port for St Michael’s Church on Bolingbroke Grove – encouraging more visitors to the church to cycle there. 

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