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Sunday 3 May 2015

CREATE STREETS ON SUTTON DWELLINGS

Writes well....
Flora Neville has written a perceptive article for that excellent organisation Create Streets 

She is to be congratulated for so sensitively explaining the background to the impending destruction of one the UK's outstanding examples of social housing.

You can read Flora's EXCELLENT ARTICLE here

The old Dame is very jealous.....

33 comments:

  1. At last . Common sense !

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  2. An excellent article by Ms Neville.

    Aided by RBKC's Planning Dept, Affinity Sutton is party to the Council's long term aim of 'cleansing' K & C of all it's less affluent residents. There's so much money to be made, as long as the poor are excluded!

    RBKC is already the only borough in southern England with a declining population.
    This has already caused the recent constituency boundary change. The once super safe parliamentary seat of Kensington & Chelsea is split. Ms Borwick finds herself needing the votes of N. Kensington residents - many of whom are themselves subject to RBKC social 'cleansing.' The shock of this harsh reality may well have contributed to the lady's recent sickness. RBKC promptly cancelled four previously organised hustings. Another reason to cancel may be that at a recent social services hustings, a voiceless Ms Borwick asked two RBKC councillors to speak for her. She passed them notes on what to say, but both councillors managed to attack the audience. This did not go down well with the audience.

    Unless things change, RBKC will be satisfied only when the last poor person is removed. Most local social housing organisations have been taken over by those keen to ensure this happens. Substantial commissions continue to grease the wheels.

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    Replies
    1. Emma. We all know this and Tired Tory Councillor is you. Complete twaddle and we know you are running scared with your useless candidate. Just try to get real.

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    2. Cynical Voter4 May 2015 at 22:06

      If 21:03 is correct in identifying Emma Dent Coad as attacking Miss Borwick then she is out order. Of all the councillors-and that includes Labour and Lib Dem, Borwick is the one who goes the extra mile for residents whatever their political allegiances. Let's be fair and not be bitchy

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    3. I've approach Miss Coad for help and did not get any. Whilst Lady Borwick was unable to help me because I did not live in her Ward, she took an interest in my problem and asked to be kept informed.

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    4. I asked Ms Coad for help - and she was fantastic. I'm a Tory - but as usual the ward councillors were asleep, listening to the Archers - or in the case of Terry Thomas lookalike Paul Warwick - playing Monopoly with The streets of RBKC.

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    5. I haven't looked at Hornet for a few days, as the Dame has decided not to cover the election, and have not posted a word for some weeks. In fact at 3pm on Monday I was doing what I should be doing - out canvassing with a large crowd.

      I have no idea who 'Resident' is but it seems we have a lot in common.

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  3. Flora Neville is correct.

    Chelsea was a very different place until realitively recently. In days past, it was very poor behind the grand houses which lined The Thames. This is the reason why there are still so many social housing buildings put up by Victorian benefactors, including the Cadogan family.

    Flora Neville is correct in welcoming the introduction of public roads. In the Seventies too many estates were built without them, so making them closed. Daniel Moylan was absolutely right to insist on through roads on the new Wornington Green Estate, thus opening up the area to a flow of people, as is now being built.

    Incidentally, I remember, during the Second War, being caught in the Sutton estate during an air-raid and having to take shelter from the shrapnel pattering down.

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    Replies
    1. The estate is an oasis of calm , even at Schooltime ! - a road through the estate is not needed . We have enough traffic in the surrounding streets, a road through the middle will split the Community and lead to an increase in traffic fumes and pedestrian accidents.

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  4. Borwick is very quiet about what is going on at Earls Court; all Kensington candidates are against demolishing Earls Court Exhibition Centre but Borwick has not uttered one word for against it. Borwick and Conservatives do not represent Earls Court Ward residents. Ironically she was pictured in 2012 in Olympic garb but when it comes to saving an Olympic venue she is nowhere to be seen.

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  5. Borwick is very , very quiet about demolition of estates in Kensington, Rock's conflict of interest, and indeed she is very , very quiet about sad reality of Kensington where hundreds of local families will face the eviction from their homes in order to make the space for the developers, and wealthy investors on a land owned by us, residents of RBK&C . However she was very vocal about m.tax...

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  6. Lady Borwick’s election address says that she will support “better social housing for the most vulnerable”. What this means is that she supports regeneration and the iniquities the Council has visited on Wornington Green (and will visit on Affinity Sutton residents in Chelsea in Greg Hands’s constituency). She does not support increasing the provision of social housing, because new Council policies aim to reduce social housing within the borough.

    The new Private Rented Sector Offer (PRSO) will be applied to every new homeless household for whom the Council becomes responsible. This means paying private rented sector landlords to offer temporary accommodation to these households outside the borough, for a period of two years (including very probably a “sweetener” on top of the rent). After two years the household can be evicted into homelessness – but will then be the responsibility of the borough where they are living. This policy explicitly states that “eventually the majority of households owed the full duty will have that duty ended with a PRS offer”.

    Furthermore, the Council has instructed its agent the TMO not to bring empty properties up to standard for re-letting on the estates that are ear-marked for imminent “regeneration” plans. These include Balfour Burleigh, parts of Silchester Estate and the “finger blocks” on Lancaster West. All other Council-owned properties that become void will either be sold on the open market or let at a market rent and won’t be allocated to homeless families.

    Any TMO tenant or leaseholder should therefore think very carefully indeed before they vote Conservative.

    Lady Borwick’s manifesto is silent about her alleged support for the redevelopment of Maxilla Children’s Centre at its present site – so residents must put her on the spot on this once she is elected.

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  7. North Kensington Resident5 May 2015 at 13:34

    I question, 10:11 the advice that you are giving our friends and neighbours. The Labour Candidate seems very pleasant, even harmless, but he has been parachuted in from Pinner, I believe. He is a lecturer and spends a lot of time in the US. From the answers he has given, he has little understanding of the way that Kensington, north and south, works. What hope is there that he will be able to act as your advocate and deal with your concerns? I am sure he will do his best from his home in Pinner or from the lecture circuit. But is that good enough for you? I doubt it.

    Councillor Borwick on the other hand has spent all her life in Kensington and has always been there to fight for the most vulnerable. Ask the many people she has helped. Of course Labour will try to deny it, but the facts are there. If you want someone who will be there for you, who will listen to your problems and concerns and will fight for you, then you should vote for Victoria Borwick. Ignore the party labels and vote for the person.

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  8. Councillor Borwick has a perfect opportunity to demonstrate her good intentions within her own ward: the Pembroke Road Estate

    And sadly up to now she hasn't demonstrated a willingness to do much beyond believing, and repeating in public, everything her colleagues in the Council cabinet spout, much of which is demonstrably wrong, bordering on intentionally misleading.

    Her track record in helping people may be considered good by some, but her track record in helping her ward constituents living on the Pembroke Road estate is poor.

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    Replies
    1. Agree , she was very quiet / invisible , re social cleansing of her Abingdon Ward constituents, which is a very ambitious project of Kensington "social cleanser" failed ex developer Rock FM ,eviction of 116 families form the spacious and well designed existing homes on the award winning Pemroke Rd Estate ( Warwick Rd Estate W8 ).

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  9. Thought proviking article but the solution of smaller flats is not exactly ideal when the ones we currently live in are like shoe boxes, also the bit about adequate lighting, really?? not in the middle blocks facing inwards.
    If there were money around to renovate the Estate then it would be the ideal but it would still need some areas being demolished if they wanted all flats to have adequate lighting and size.
    Oh and the Decant is a bit misleading as well, it isn't as if the decant means tenants are leaving the Estate, they will remain on it.

    Still I can't see this not happening to be honest as it isn't overall a bad scheme and a lot worse (in the case of shafting the tenants) have got through.

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  10. ANNIE REDMILE5 May 2015 at 20:29

    Annie Redmile, Writer and Community Campaigner says:

    'Victoria Borwick is a very decent human being and I think and hope she will come into her own as an MP.
    I have made a direct appeal to her to see if she can persuade her RBK & C colleagues to think again about the Warwick Road Estate - only full demolition and lots of 'luxury homes' will do for Rock F-M.
    Politics has become amazingly complex but I shall be voting for her. Tactical voting will be a wasted x in Kensington and Chelsea - although interestingly I see that Labour is sounding confident!
    Victoria has understood the importance of community - something that is under threat here along with our homes. She has listened to us and although she has not had the opportunity to do anything so far as a ward councillor (her fellow ward councillors have taken 'the party line') I believe she is working behind the scenes to persuade political colleagues to look again at the Warwick Road Estate project. I wish her well.
    'Go girl'.

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    Replies
    1. Annie, with all due respect this is wishful thinking. Victoria is not a member of the Cabinet. She is under no obligation to follow the Cabinet's lead on this issue. You gave her and the rest of your Ward Councillors the opportunity to support you. If they have not done so by now, two years after the regeneration of your estate was first proposed, they never will. You are being sold down the river and you do yourself and your neighbours no favours by going quietly in the hope that some Conservative Councillors will take pity and act humanely.

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    2. Anyone living in public housing voting Conservative is like a turkey voting for Christmas.

      The national Conservative party have openly declared their intention to do away with public housing and members of the local party have referred to it as a "ghetto" or a concrete jungle" on more than one occasion.

      By all means vote for those who mean to destroy your community if you want to but at least take off the political blinkers and realise that your are being mauled by a lion not caressed by a pussycat.

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    3. Annie is a lovely person but she lives in a dream world where people - even Conservatives - are actually nice. they aren't.

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    4. What a very stupid and patronising remark to make. Since when have the Labour Party done anything about the appalling behaviour of Westway Trust? Victoria Borwick never got any senior job on the Council not because she was untalented but because she never toe'd the line. Stop attacking one of the few Tory councillors with a conscience. You make me sick.

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    5. Fairminded, I'm not sure which comment you're referring to. However pointing out that a Ward Councillor who has sat on the fence for two yeas is unlikely to get off it any time soon isn't patronising, it's stating the obvious.

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    6. Ref the snide remark about Annie Redmile...a great fighter for Warwick Rd

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  11. I was shocked to read in the Create Streets article that Keith Exford was making personal attacks against the Chelsea campaigners trying to save the Sutton Estate. Is this now considered acceptable behaviour, for the very well paid head of a charity to bully people who have concerns about their plans.
    Someone should speak to the trustees and the Charity Commission to get this unpleasant bully under control.

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    Replies
    1. Get you facts straight please, the article doesn't say Keith Exford was making personal attacks, it says a senior spokesman made allegations about one of the Save our Sutton leaders......In my experience as a Sutton Estate tenant, neither Keith Exford nor anyone else in Affinity Sutton is guilty of bullying, unless of course your definition of bullying is a Landlord willing to invest in providing all estate tenants with brand new affordable flats built for 21st century life styles.

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    2. In their dreams .......

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    3. Anonymous 20:42 talks about affordable flats. I thought that Affinity Sutton had guaranteed that all the new flats would be rented out at social rents?
      Could you please clarify. I have been undecided about the demolition of the estate, but I am now very worried about this change from social housing to affordable housing.

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    4. as a resident of the estate, it has been guaranteed that it is social rents not affordable as mentioned above.

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  12. Its always the same . Residents are encouraged to give their opinions , if the opinions don't concur with the developer - then they are immediately given a derogatory title by the developer .Keith Exford has a history of being heavy handed https://secure.gn.apc.org/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6547

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  13. Should I vote for Mrs Browick tomorrow? I don't know much about politics but if someone says she has done a lot for the North of the borough, where I live, perhaps I should. Please could someone make a list of what she's done here?

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  14. Nothing very much, don't bother your head about it.

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  15. if you live north of the borough where she is supposed to have done a lot and you haven't heard of her... then she obviously hasn't done very much!!

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  16. As a resident of the Sutton Dwellings I am concerned about Affinity Suttons new tack. They have cherry picked a handful of residents and created a pro revelopment group. this group of tenants are now acting on behalf of Affinity Sutton writing to MP so and newspapers explaining they are pro the redevelopment. the majority of the residents on the estate were not invited to this group. Our own Tenants committee requires votes and a constitution and an AGM to be operarional. How can this latest group of tenants be representing the tenants interests and not the interests of Affinity Sutton?

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