Meeting Report – Page 5 – Wandsworth Society

Leonie Cooper speaks to the Society about control of vehicle emmissions

A lively meeting which started with an interesting presentation by our elected London Assembly Member for Wandsworth & Merton. It moved to debating the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed local ULEZ due to be launched in October 2021 for all areas within the North & South Circular roads. There was some clear dissent about the fairness of the scheme on those owning older cars but the consensus view is that we will all benefit from cleaner air particularly those living on heavily trafficked roads.

To see how bad the air is around your home go to the website www.Addresspollution.org. Even homes 200 meters from heavily trafficked roads like East Hill only just meet just under the WHO’s annual legal limit of 40mcg/m3 – so what is the impact on those living closer?.

The Restoration of Fulham Palace

Alexis Haslam, Community archaeologist at Fulham Palace give a very interesting and informative presentation on the restoration of the palace to some 40 members and guests on 13 June. The talk was about the £3.8 million restoration including a new museum, restored rooms and re-planted garden which was launched in May . There will be an informal group visit by Society members on Monday 15 July (see events).

AGM 2019

A strong turn out was present to re-elect the Chair and Executive who all agreed to stand again. The Treasurer was please to tell us that there had been an annual surplus in the 2018/19 year of £1,299 and that reserves stand at some £16,000. The AGM was followed by a fascinating illustrated talk by Iain Gray on follies.

Meeting Report: Battersea Power Station

Jeanne Rathbone & Alex Baker gave a fascinating presentation to an audience of 65 (a record for January). Jeanne galloped through 300 years of history of the site culminating in the story of on-off re-development plans since the power station stopped operation in 1983. Alex then gave us an update on current plans for this giant mixed use scheme of apartments, office development for Apple and others, small work spaces, leisure, a shopping mall and more including public open spaces. A fuller report will be in the February 2019 Newsletter.

Society Christmas Party 2018

This year’s party in St Anne’s Church Hall was as usual well attended, with musical entertainment from Chris Beaumont on the xylophone and Derek Carden on piano. Chris Beaumont keeps alive the music of Patrick Moore and recounted anecdotes about this fascinating man between numbers. As ever, excellent food and a glass of wine was included in the £15 ticket.