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Sunday 29 July 2012

COMMONSENSE ADVICE FROM THE BELGRAVIA ASSOCIATION ON HARRODS

Dear Local Residents,
 
We, in the BRA wholly agree with your stance over this current licencing issue. Sadly Harrods and many other "large isolated named organisations  in Central London have no longer any community liason function and apopt the mantra of "Minimum input for maximum output ". Disregard for local residents has been evident in Harrods applications for several years but they were not always so callous in years gone by.
 
As the Chairman of the Belgravia Residents Association,and thus a seasoned campaigner, I would like to offer you all the following advice.
 
The BRA saw off the Lord Rogers and Candy brothers plans for Chelsea Barracks most recently and prior to that orchestrated the Save Sloane Square campaign to stop RBKC turning it into a crossroads. Other notable victories against the status quo have also been achieved in the last 15 years locally, but I will not bore you with trophies !!
 
Suffice to say I would suggest the following.
 
Rather than rally and e mail each other, and all and sundry, you need to arrange to meet collectively as a united group. I would suggest you attack on two fronts.
 
1. Certain of you find out who actually owns Harrods and seek an audience with them. If not the owners who may be overseas, then the MD of the store itself. Invite him/her to come to see you on your own territory and not go up to some gilded office in the store itself. Simply tell them the truth that living next to the  store has its advantages but it also has some serius negative impact and invite hiom to come and see for himself and discuss the matter. If he or she refuses then a little publicity in the Evenijng standard would do them no good at all and yourselves no harm. I am sure you could get the likes of Mira bar Hillel at the Standard involved should that set of cuircumstances arise.    
 
2. Collectively get your ward councillors on board to support your objections and obtain  the support of the Knightsbridge Association.your local regognized amenity group.
 
The local amenity society holds far more sway than a group of residents not linked to the registered amenity association.
These two  functions should in themselves sort out the immediate problem of the licencing and also you then have some good direct contacts at the store itself.
 
These tactics we adopt time and time again and they have never failed us.
 
In the case of Chelsea Barracks we even met with the Emir of Qatar and he sent his Prime Minister to meet Randa Hanna who heads our Planning sub committee. These measures saw the entire scheme being scrapped and the arrogance of The Rogers Partnership and all the PR of the Candy brothers go up in flames. Local common sense won the day but targeted planning needs to be executed to vensure you win.
I wish you luck but by simply sending e mails all in protest will NOT win the day and you leave yourselves open to there being a possibility such an capplication will succeed.
 Do as I suggest and the outcome of the licensing meeting will be a foregone conclusion for you all and you will WIN .
Good luck
 
 

JAMES WRIGHT
Chairman
Belgravia Residents Association
Mob/cell 07973 700525
Office 020 7700 2834/1896
Fax 020 7700 2744
web: http://www.belgraviaresidents.org.uk/
e mail: james@jameswright.org.uk
Skype: james.wright43

11 comments:

  1. Donald Cameron29 July 2012 at 20:08

    James Wright is s seasoned local Leader and these are wise words. Not rocket science, just common sense. Thank you James for an excellent "do it yourself" kit.

    One additional thought. Harvey Nichols is a prestige Department Store, a few hundred yards away from Harrods. It knows how to behave. An excellent example for Harrods protesters to point to.

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  2. Nice to see these wise words from a seasoned campaigner

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  3. Cllrs Marshall, Mosley and the new guy should study this carefully

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  4. The name of the "new guy" is Cllr Abbas

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  5. What a pity that James Wright is a resident of Belgravia and not K&C!

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  6. The Harrods campaign needs a "James Wright" to rally the troops and lead the charge. Could this be a baptism for Cllr Abbas?

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  7. The name of "the new guy" is Cllr Barkhordar, Abbas is his first name. Calling him Cllr Abbas is either (a) cute; or (b) disrespectful.

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  8. 8:12
    It is 100% certain that 20:13 was not being either cute or disrespectful. If you have nothing better to do that write tripe like that it is rather sad.Grow up and stop being so damned defensive.

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  9. Thank you 8.12. This is an opportunity for Cllr Abbas Barkhorder to show his worth. No disrespect was intended. There is a brilliant campaign plan from James Wright - gold dust for the new Councillor to pick up.

    Cllr Abbas Barkhorder is of course a mouthful. Something more memorable like "Bark" might be in order. I still struggle to remember "Caruhana" when I try to picture the Liberal.......

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  10. Very unfortunate when these complicated and impossible names enter the world of showbiz. Showbiz found out long ago the wisdom of adopting something more catchy.

    One time Tory MP and now MEP, Nirj Diva, entered Parliament as Niranjan Deva Aditya, MP. The good citizens of Hammersmith could not cope with that mouthful and "Nirj Diva" was born

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  11. 8.42 is being economical with the truth. Nirj Diva entered Parliament as Niranjan Deva Additya Bandranyaka. To his inner circle he was known as "Fluff"

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