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Not, at first sight, the greatest news for Nine Elms that the banks have called in the administrators at Battersea Power Station. My reaction on hearing the news yesterday was not one I would readily repeat. Could the site be cursed?

In fact, the outlook for Nine Elms remains good.

For a start, the Government is now backing the Northern Line Extension. This is a linchpin for development, making the ambitious targets of creating 16,000 homes and 25,000 jobs possible.

Even the bad news of Treasury being put into administration has some positives. The financial status of Treasury had increasingly become an issue, and this at least bring that to a head.

And, most importantly, Nine Elms is a different place to the last time something like this happened, and Treasury bought the power station site from Parkview. Preparatory work has begun at Battersea Power Station and the first phases of the development could be started quickly, even if later phases change.

Meanwhile, other parts of Nine Elms are already moving forward. Work has started at Riverlight, the US Embassy has committed to the area and other developers continue with their plans.

So, not great news for Treasury. But that doesn’t mean Nine Elms future is any less bright.

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Union Jack at WandsworthThe Union Jack now flies over Wandsworth Town Hall every day.  Not the greatest picture, but I’m rather pleased with the result from a phone camera.

The council had previously taken a ‘high days and holidays’ approach to flag flying, but recently changed this to keeping the Union Jack flying every day and to be replaced with special flags as required (e.g. the Armed Forces Day flag, or the council flag on full council days).  I’m pleased with the decision.  Flag flying is a small thing, but makes an enormous difference – there’s certainly something uplifting about seeing the two flags flying when you are coming down East Hill.

Meeting the Chamber of Commerce
The Leader and I had one of our regular meetings with the Chamber of Commerce this week. The meetings serve a ‘keeping in touch’ purpose as much an anything, and allow both sides to raise issues, concerns or just share information. Of course, one of the key topics over recent months has been the recession and the impact it is having. While the mood hasn’t changed dramatically I think it can now be best described as a ‘weary optimism’ – there’s still a feeling that it’s hard, and will continue to be hard, but a sense that we can weather the storm fairly well – along with the knowledge that there are a lot of bright lights on the horizon in Wandsworth.

Regeneration and Community Safety OSC
I attended the Regeneration and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night. I have to say these meetings are usually fun, but last night’s was a little flat. While the items on the agenda were all interesting and useful, they weren’t the type to spark off some of the debates and discussions that can make council meetings incredibly interesting.

Perhaps the closest we came to a disagreement was over the US Embassy. Tony Belton (who is also the Labour leader) suggested the embassy’s move to Wandsworth might not be unalloyed good news. His argument was that the security cordon might leave an isolated and sterile building, while little or no employment would be created because staff would move from Grosvenor Square. While he was putting a potential point of view – I think he was acting more as a devil’s advocate than putting across his own views – I would not claim the arguments are entirely without merit, but there are huge positives to the embassy move.

Employment benefits may not be immediate, but embassies everywhere employ a lot of local staff – and as current US Embassy staff retire and resign they will need to be replaced. There are also indirect benefits, from the businesses that will develop nearby to serve the staff there (cafes and even shops) to the people who will now move to Wandsworth in order to be closer to the embassy. Perhaps more important is how it will serve as a catalyst to kick start the development of the area.

You can’t put a value on is the kudos such a development brings. While a large parcel of industrial land in Battersea may be attractive, I think that providing the home to one of the United States premier embassies, makes makes it even more attractive – it proves that it is a viable destination and base for investment, and highlights the area’s potential as an international centre. While it might bring some disadvantages, I think these will be massively outweighed by the advantages.

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Not a stock photo, but MiniMe's first digger

Being a new man
Actually a fairly quiet week this week.  Partly because it’s still summer, and consequently everything is just a bit quieter, and partly because I started my new man duties this week – which effectively limited me to half-days consisting of an hour’s work during the morning nap and a few hours after bedtime.  It also provides me with the photo of the week:  The Digger.  I rather like the photo for some reason, the lighting and aperture worked far better than it normally does for me.  Indeed, I like it so much it’s now my wallpaper (though that was a close run thing against the man in the nappy).

Chugging
I am incredibly hesitant to raise this again. Not because it’s an issue that has gone away, or because I think I was wrong (feedback has been overwhelmingly in favour of the council’s position) but largely because the majority of the discussions on here were negative circular and, in one case at least, borderline offensive. While I’ve no problem with allowing and responding to the comments (which a few people have suggested I would have been better deleting or at least ignoring) I recognise it all gets rather dull for the reader.

[Within a few hours of writing this I have temporarily (and possibly permanently) removed several comments which appear to be from sock-puppets supporting chugging.  I’m a little sad since  this is the first time I’ve had to do this on the blog. I’ve no issue with publishing comments disagreeing with, or in outright opposition to, my views – and there are many comments like this scattered through the blog – and I don’t have any issue with comments being anonymous but feel it’s perfectly reasonable to remove comments purporting to be from multiple people when there’s some evidence it’s all the same person.]

Having said all that we are continuing to monitor the situation (one trader reported counting 11 – that’s eleven – chuggers operating the Tooting Broadway piazza area earlier this week, most using aggressive tactics) and are taking up the issues with the charities directly, since the PFRA are unwilling or unable to deal with the problems themselves.

New Covent Garden Market and Nine Elms
Perhaps one of the most interested meetings I had this week was with New Covent Garden Market (NCGM) to get an update on their progress towards redevelopment. It really brings home the scale and scope of development that is taking place in Nine Elms when you go there. It is a massive site.

It also brings home the complexities involved in redeveloping the whole area – since it won’t just be NCGM developing the area, but also the new US Embassy and the Power Station alongside a number of smaller developments. Moving beyond our borough boundary Lambeth are ambitious to redevelop Vauxhall. None of these developments will exist in isolation, and making sure the whole area ‘works’ instead of just creating a series of individual developments will not be easy, but will definitely be worth it.

Bank Holiday Weekend and crime maps
I will, as I usually do, be taking a blogging break for the bank holiday (unless there’s something so amazingly urgent I can’t wait) – so the crime maps will appear on Tuesday rather than Monday. In the meantime have a great bank holiday weekend.

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One event I’m going to miss is the the launch of our promotion of Nine Elms tonight.

Nine Elms is central London’s largest regeneration area – anchored by the Power Station to the west and New Covent Garden Market in the east there are about 450 acres on the Thames riverside, at one point just a mile from the Houses of Parliament.

The event will launch Nine Elms, Wandsworth – Regeneration in the heart of London which forms part of Wandsworth’s recession fighting programme.

Nine Elms has already got a major boost with the decision of the US Embassy to move to land around the Ponton Road area.  Not only will this generate direct employment (most embassy staff are locally employed, and the embassy is likely to twice the size of the current Grosevenor Square) but it is likely to attract other businesses associated with the embassy to the area.

The recession will not last forever, and the council, through events like this, is seeking to ensure Wandsworth not only fights the effects of recession, but comes out strong on the other side.