Wandsworth 2008 year in review: March (From Your Local Guardian)

Wandsworth 2008 year in review: March

3:33pm Monday 29th December 2008 in

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The makeover of Balham’s iconic Duke of Devonshire pub was met with a backlash from punters, who branded the revamp a “vile, tacky disgrace”.

Young’s has ploughed £700,000 into modernising the Victorian tavern in Balham High Road.

But many regulars reacted with horror, lamenting the loss of one of few remaining traditional boozers in the area.

• Review of the Year in full

Forty-year-old Thomas Hughes was found guilty of murdering pregnant Krystal Hart neighbour following a doorstep row in south London.

Hughes, of Stonells Road, Battersea, shot the 22-year-old twice in the head on Good Friday, 2007.

The court heard how Hughes, a gun enthusiast, was besotted with Miss Hart's neighbour, Angela Brewer.

The jury was told Miss Brewer, who lived in the flat below Miss Hart in Belleville Road, Battersea, had often argued with the victim over noise from her home.

Desperate Wandsworth parents were giving false addresses and even moving house to get their children into the secondary school of their choice.

Wandsworth Council said it caught between 10 and 20 parents cheating on their applications every year, and now used the electoral roll and primary schools to make sure their details were genuine.

Just 51 per cent of children in Wandsworth got a place at their first choice of school this year - the lowest rate in the country, and compared with areas such as Leicestershire, where 97.9 per cent of children got their first choice.

Wandsworth’s two Labour MPs, who campaigned side by side with residents to save local post offices, have been labelled hypocrites, after they backed the Government’s plans to close branches.

Tooting’s Sadiq Khan and Battersea’s Martin Linton were accused of betraying communities last week after they voted against a motion to stop the closures.

A Conservative motion to suspend the post office closure programme was narrowly lost by 288 votes to 268 on Wednesday night, with 19 Labour MPs revolting.

Both MPs claimed they did not back the Tory motion because it was flawed and said they would continue working to save branches in Battersea and Tooting.