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DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
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MILLIONAIRE BASEMENT WARS....YOU CAN SEE IT HERE
Tonight the old Dame stayed up late, Horlicks in hand, watching BBC1's 'Millionaire Basement Wars'. You can see it HERE
It features some of the basement developments that have caused misery to residents and interviews some pretty ghastly basement developers.
Stopping these greedy, self interested amenity wreckers is a cause that the Council must continue to fight....even if the Goldman bankers and their builders go to the High Court.
This is a must-see. Massive disruption occurs during the digging out and building ghastly mega-basements for equally ghastly people. Neighbours suffer serious short, and long term damage to their properties. Such damage is often progressive.
ReplyDeleteAs well as adding to potential flood risks, there's incremental damage to natural hydrology. Ground water is forced into new areas and consequently into other people's previously dry basements.
Recently a massive hole appeared under Notting Hill Gate. The area was apparently once gravel pits. The gravel was replaced by concrete, which will sink and eventually cause far more serious damage.
Have just seen the programme. Excellent. Developers' greed knows no bounds. Residents have no rights.
ReplyDeleteHorrific catalogue of injustice and disruption to the lives of residents. Extraordinary that Councillors allowed this situation to develop
DeleteWhenever I approached my Ward Councillors to complain and ask for action I got the usual pathetic response "It is not our fault, it is central Government".
DeleteWimps
This was television at its best. Exposing a situation of evil that many only read about or hear about on the grapevine. The programme demonstrated what an absolutely useless and pathetic bunch of Councillors and Officers we have in K&C. Too little, too late. It took ten years before the Council did anything. Ten years during which basement digs in the Royal Borough grew from 4 basements per year to 450 basements per year. The whole expensive apparatus of Hornton Street failed to notice a single thing. If it was not for activist James Thomson from Chelsea who started to make a fuss and lobby Parliament, and the Kensington Society who took up the war cry, and the Dame who gave them publicity and support, the reptiles would have done nothing and continued with their puffing.
ReplyDeleteCllr Coleridge (Cabinet Member for Planning) was his usual charming, engaging and amusing self on the programme. Riding on the wave of success with his accustomed air of entitlement. What a waste of space this man is! He made not a jot of difference. Just claiming the hard work of others
Councillors need to understand that they have to live in the real world. They have to pick up the real needs and concerns of residents and fight for justice. They have to fight whoever stands in the way. Even central Government. If Councillors are not prepared to do this then they should stay out of politics and stop wasting our time.
ReplyDeleteBunch of puffers
Residents of the Royal Borough owe a great vote of thanks to James Thomson for forcing the Council to take note of what was going on to disrupt the lives of voters.
ReplyDeletePaget-Brown and Co. You have to engage! And engage with things that are important to residents. eg buy to leave, house prices, over development in Conservation Areas, Mansion Tax
ReplyDeleteStop wasting time and money on things like UFOs in Ladbroke Grove and Opera Holland Park.
Stop puffing
It is not only Councillors. The MPs have a job to do. Kensington suffered for many years with the absentee Sir Malcolm Rifkind - a free loader of spectacular dimensions. In three weeks time Victoria Borwick will be in the hot seat. Lets see what she does.
DeleteSick bunch of bloggers on the Hornet
ReplyDeleteOh do bugger off Palmer. You were given a kick up your gross arse when you tried to defame Borwick. You are tragic and useless
DeleteBorwick will be a useless MP
DeleteThat's not what the voters think when they give her a stunning majority
Deletelets wait and see. There ARE other candidates
Deleteshes been asleep on Boriswatch (and they both put personal political ambition ahead of loyalty to finishing a job) AND
she was present at the RBKC cabinet meeting that OKd DESTINATION WESTWAY - now no longer for the benefit of Kensington residents but to be the commercial milkcow for charities in ALL the surrounding boroughs
bye bye local nursery, stables ETC
Personally, I thought the programme did not go quite far enough. It was a bit of a missed opportunity. I fed in quite a bit of information to the producers about just about how bad these basements are. Most got left on the cutting room floor. In their effort to provide balance an entertainment, they barely scratched the surface of how much suffering is going on. It could have used less about how fancy these things are and more about the hell and suffering they cause. Poor editing in my view.
ReplyDeleteto say nothing of the long term incremental and environmental impacts
DeleteIt was an entertainment and therefore covered off all the angles - I was amused to see the Alice in Wonderland basements with 30 foot waterfalls and beauty parlours. Drives one to Socialism.
DeleteWould have preferred a hard hitting programme on the total failure of democracy in K&C (ie lazy Councillors) to attend to the needs of their residents until kicked in the backsides by local activists.
Kensington Tory protests in ignorance about a 30 foot waterfall in a new Kensington basement.
DeleteThe owner is a wealthy banker whose wife (who is also very rich) has bad nerves. Their Zen consultant recommended the sound of water to sooth her nerves and the architect was instructed to design a waterfall. Unfortunately the wife is averse to electricity and gets into a state of anxiety if she has to switch on the pump for the waterfall. The wealthy husband has carried out a survey and found a natural spring beneath the basement construction. He is considering digging deeper to access the spring so that it can provide a natural flow for the waterfall.
True story.
This pathetic couple should move to the country and buy some sheep.
DeleteIt's high time someone with very deep pockets took the developers to court.
ReplyDeleteI was saddened that the programme did not focus of some real RBKC failures. Chief amongst these was what a former mayor told some of us (maybe 3 years ago) was the “7+ year basement scandal": 5 Upper Phillimore Gardens (for some Scandinavian magnate). The story the mayor told was that, since the original planning permission in 2006, PP/06/1843, there were so many 'construction problems', it ultimately ended up as a complete rebuild. That was probably the original intention.
ReplyDeleteWorse, the developers excavated so close to the boundary that neighbouring number 3 began to collapse too. This resulted in several residents having to be evacuated in an emergency, and the whole building had to be shored-up extensively. Making virtue out of a disaster, suitable oligarch-ish investors were found to take the property off the evacuees. Next, in went another planning application (PP/11/02477) including, of course, the excavation of an extensive new 2/3 storey basement at number 3. I can well believe the neighbours' stories about the new developers’ lobbying techniques. The esteemed J Bore signed the consent February 2012.
Shame Cllr Coleridge didn’t conduct some of his interviews in front of these fiascos. Perhaps that would have been a little too close to home, being within 50 yards of Bore’s office.
It is not just the spineless PAC members' fault, it is just as much down to the officers of all levels, including the executive director and his scheduled successor.
The message is clear. Councillors need to start taking their responsibilities seriously, Cllr Paget-Brown (the Leader) needs to make sure that they do and tell them frequently about their responsibilities.
DeleteAbove all, the puffers like Coleridge need to be cast aside. They are worse than useless.
During the council meeting last night the Tories gave an exceptionally poor performance; barely bothering even to clap their own side. They are depressed. This is due to the widespread resident fury shown on the basements programme and being ridiculed over the well publicised story of the candy striped house in Kensington.
ReplyDeleteVisceral anger among the well heeled of S. Kensington and Chelsea augurs badly for the election. The Tories know that if Ms Borwick achieves anything less than the customarily overwhelming Tory vote, it will be a political disaster of national significance.
Meanwhile, Mr Bore brought in his own replacement. He pockets his customary £250,000 golden handshake and wanders off to a long and prosperous retirement. All so very Rotten Borough.
Has Bore been given £250k???? What for??????
DeleteThe Dame must make waves
There are growing murmurs about the suitability of Mr Stallwood, the replacement for Mr Bore.
DeleteWho is this man? He needs to embrace modern media and give some interviews to the Evening Standard and Kensington and Chelsea News. And prepare a resume of his "promise to residents". It is us who pay his salary.
Wise words, OWL
DeleteMr Stallwood is Mr Bore's long term colleague professional colleague. So these gentlemen are best placed to provide details. This matter must have been discussed during the appointment process for a new executive director of planning. The record of applications and interviews etc are doubtless available to councillors, if not residents.
ReplyDeleteAs for the £250,000 golden handshake, such payments are quite regularly provided by RBKC to departing senior officers. The reasons for doing so may well be to encourage a suitable degree of amnesia.
If Resident is mistaken, it's open to Mr Stallwood to set the record straight. An email to the Dame will suffice.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone enlighten me as to the name of one of the residents (Stanley) – he reminds me of an old-time actor
ReplyDeleteStanley Meadows
Delete