DAVID...Royal Marsden |
Royal Marsden have consistently tried only to be rebuffed by the Council and Royal Brompton.
Royal Marsden desperately needs land to expand its cancer wards and other healthcare facilities.
But its attempts to engage with the Royal Brompton have come to nought.....doubtless the thought of all that filthy lucre from Chinese property billionaires has mesmerised Royal Brompton and the Royal Borough.
GOLIATH...Royal Brompton |
But Royal Brompton has an even more powerful ally: the planning 'dictatorship' at the Royal Borough.
The Planning Department has been blatantly partisan in supporting Royal Brompton.
But here is the odd thing.... Borough Core Strategy is emphatic in ensuring the continuance of D1...in other words....social and community use, ie: medical, so why is it upturning embedded planning policy?
Well, it seems that the council shares Royal Brompton Hospital's greedy pursuit of money.
Rather than supporting Royal Marsden's attempt to build more cancer wards, Mr Bore's planning dept has chosen, once more, to allow greedy overseas property developers to set the agenda.
Residents need to band together to support Royal Marsden.
K & C residents are currently being urged to waste their time commenting on a detailed new supplement to the Core Strategy for Notting Hill. Yet in practice RBKC Planning policies, including the Core Strategy, are meaningless.The Planning, Property and other departments routinely ignore all such policies. Particularly when there's money in it for someone.
ReplyDeleteRBKC Planning has always been scandalous. In general it's well hidden, but dig a little deeper and there's a vast, foetid swamp beneath. The problem goes beyond Mr Bore or any individual. The Town Hall literally stinks.
Occasionally its effects make headlines, as in this case. But nothing changes.
The sad thing is that many residents were taken in by all of this.
DeleteI am aware of a number of ordinary residents who gave up a significant amount of their own time to "help" the Council draw up the Core Strategy and other planning policies to see them ignored the very first time a clearly non-compliant proposal development turns up.
But these residents will not be fooled again. They now know these documents are worthless, that their Council is very clearly not on their side and will concentrate their effort on hindering any developments that might show up.
This story is indicative of how corrupt and immoral our previously respectable institutions have become. Pure greed and a lust for money rules. Even when and where it clearly shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteRBKC's true immorality will come forth in their fascist plans to "socially cleanse" wide ares of North Kensington of it's poor and vulnerable.
DeleteNo place for diversity in this very Rotten Borough where money is God.
The original 2005/6 LDF consultation created great public interest. At the time, the primary issues of concern to local people were the lack of public lavatory provision across the Borough and fears for the future of Portobello Market. The Council promptly scrapped its own consultation and started again a couple of years later. Second time round neither issue was highlighted. Democracy RBKC style.
ReplyDeleteHammersmith and Fulham is even worse.
Further to the 'social cleansing' of N. Kensington, at a very late stage in the renewed LDF so-called public consultation, the plan to drown North Ken's low income communities in a sea of affluence emerged in the documents. The plan to build 2,600 mostly so-called 'market price' new apartments was imposed on residents without valid debate. The flats are currently being built. There are virtually no transport links for the newcomers. This required a new Crossrail station,which will never be built.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one assumes someone has made a great deal of money.
Where are the pathetic RBKC Labour Group in all this and why are they not robustly resisting these immoral "social cleansing" policies?
DeleteMaybe it is because they are too busy making money (Dirty Dez), ignoring their electorate to pursue higher political aims ( Cllr Todd Foreman) or simply continuing to collude with the Ruling Party (Cllr Blakeman) to offer any real opposition.
Hopefully this will change when EDC takes over Leadership of this spineless bunch of poodles none of whom even live in social housing.!
That's happening across London and the political colour of the party in charge makes little or no difference. No one has a housing policy that isn't based on rampant property speculation and ever rising house prices.
DeleteWhether or not Councillors live in social housing is irrelevant. The question is whether they are able to grasp the issues and concerns of those who are.
DeleteWhy on earth does 5.37 want Labour councillors to live in social housing? It is supposed to be for homeless families and vulnerable people in need, like himself. Does he really want them as his neighbours?
DeleteThese two hospitals are community facilities. Required by the public and paid for by the public. It is called the NHS. Land is a basic asset and in this case needs to be ring fenced as a basic enabling facility for health. There is a great value in locating hospitals in population centers with easy access for patients and visitors. It is nuts to be having a dialogue about siphoning off any of this land into the hands of property speculators. The land is required for expansion/modernisation of the hospitals. Whether it is the Marsden or the Brompton is a secondary consideration. The population is aging and more facilities are required.
ReplyDeleteWake up Cllr Paget-Brown. Get some common sense into your head and start being an effective democrat. And get that useless MP Rifkind on board to help mobilise opinion. High time he started to earn his bread.
What is it with our Council? Always going along with the property speculators. When will they get the message and start to think and behave in a way that is designed to build a better society?
DeleteThe Council lost its way a very long time ago. Anyone unfortunate enough to have to deal with them realised that at the time. The penny now appears to be dropping among the wider resident population (and some Tory Councillors - and about bloody time too!)
DeleteWhat a muddle. An opportunity for some clear thinking and decisive Leadership. Over to you Nick - you should Go To Town on this one - "mothers and children". It is a no brainer
ReplyDeleteThe hospitals can "do a Holland Park School". Sell half the land, knock down the hospitals and build a ten story basement in the remaining land to replace the existing facilities. Building deep is expensive so the replacement facilities will cost three times the price of a new hospital. But so what?
ReplyDeleteOh I do wish that Mrs Thatcher was still around. None of this would be happening
ReplyDeleteWhat?!?!?
DeleteHave I accidentally slipped into a parallel universe overnight?
The NHS could make a huge killing by selling off all the central London hospitals for luxury housing and re locating them to Swindon where land is cheap and houses for the staff are also cheap.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, Mr Bore
Local paper's picked up on this scandelous story:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kensingtonandchelseatoday.co.uk/news/comment/pr76cg3zh6.html