On Monday clouds of dust will roll over Chelsea
as the demolition of the beautiful and much loved Marlborough Primary School
begins.
Ironically, it will come within just days of the
same fate as that of the Art Deco Odeon Cinema in Kensington.
The beneficiaries of
both these acts of pure vandalism will be international developers and offshore
investors: for residents there will be no return.
Tim Coleridge, who is behind this shocking action, should hang his head in shame. He is no better than Nicholas Freeman who, quite illegally, destroyed the old Victorian Town Hall.
Tim Coleridge, who is behind this shocking action, should hang his head in shame. He is no better than Nicholas Freeman who, quite illegally, destroyed the old Victorian Town Hall.
We have a council, in
the main, made up of little people. Their lives have not been particularly
successful so
they revel in the power sitting on a local council gives them. More than that, like Pooter, they love to be courted by the powerful and the rich!
Truly pathetic.....
Truly pathetic.....
For those who forget, Cockell liked to equate his position as that of Prime Minister and Lightfoot, Chancellor of the Exchequer!
Talk about pretension!
Talk about pretension!
What particularly these types enjoy is knowing that they can pretty well ignore residents.
It would be the same
were the council to be dominated by Labour or Lib Dem.
There is a solution: we need to encourage independent candidates to stand: people with a true love of K&C and willing to vote for the good of our community....not the good of developers.
Ian Henderson, Andrew
Barshall and Heinz Schumi made a good showing standing in Stanley Ward.
Now we need a more
organised approach with proper funding in place to send a message to a deaf council.
It is a waste of time
residents whining....voting Independent locally, in no way precludes you from
voting for whom you wish at General Elections- and in the case of our MP we have someone we can be proud of.
You can at least express your disgust with those hypocrites, John Lewis HERE
You can at least express your disgust with those hypocrites, John Lewis HERE
Dogs!
ReplyDeleteWhy has neither MP Borwick or Greg Hands intervened here?
ReplyDeleteThis is another conspiracy against the history and culture of the Royal Borough. Instigated by determined and greedy developers. Complied with by dwarf councillors (aka Cllr Coleridge. Career _ Eton and RBKC). Fuelled by hot foreign money from China and Russia. Enabled by officers with paws out. And played out to the rage of residents.
ReplyDeleteThese abominations are becoming so regular in Kensington and Chelsea and the rage of residents is reaching such a level, that it cannot be long before something very fundamental and nasty takes place.
Democracy in the Borough is a veneer. Just below the surface is an apparatus of self interested and self important councillors and Officers who are completely out of control. And they are exploiting a system that was set up to serve residents in order to serve their own ends.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most blatant examples of the abuse of power that I witnessed was Cllr Moylan's recommendation to Cabinet to authorise the £30 million re development of Exhibition Road and import pink granite from China. "This will be a monument to the future" he said grandly. "We have consulted residents widely and now we need to prepare for two years of protest".
DeleteSays it all.
When organisations and institutions lose their way and get taken over by individuals and cliques in pursuit of private purposes it can be very difficult to change. At the extreme, history shows that unfortunately it sometimes takes revolution to make the change.
ReplyDeleteBritain has a history of stopping short of revolution. There is a deep instinct that when protest reaches a certain level the establishment opens its doors and allows the protesters in.
It is essential that protests continue and grow in the Royal Borough to oppose what is happening on the development front.
Our beloved Prime Minister has said he will take action against money launderers using property in boroughs like K and C. But when?
ReplyDeletePeter Jones needs to be shamed. They value their reputation which is at risk. The protests need to attract as much publicity as possible. Peter Jones will squirm but it will also be a warning to others who are contemplating mindless greed.
ReplyDeleteDevelopers know that the Council is a soft touch with a predilection for destruction of our historic building stock. Part of this is driven by the hubris of Leaders who pursue vanity projects. Cllr "boy" Freeman went to America on a tax paid educational visit and saw their modern City Halls. He returned to Kensington determined to knock down the old Town Hall and replace it with a Basil Spence frippery. Unfortunately English Heritage moved too slowly (of course). The building was due to be listed on a Monday. But crafty Freeman knocked it down on the Sunday before.
ReplyDeleteYou could not make it up.
In ancient Kensington where the buildings are an average of 200 years old, reptile Cllr Cockell argued that the 50 year old Holland Park School should be knocked down and rebuilt "because it is too old".
You could not make it up.
A collection of Malaysian spivs bought up 18 year old Lancer Square in Kensington Church Street for rebuilding as "buy to leave" luxury flats. At his presentation to the Planning Committee, architect Adrian Squires chirped "Lancer Square is too old and needs to be replaced by a modern building".
Pigeons always come home to roost.
Coleridge is a worm out of his depth. A life of consolation prizes
ReplyDeleteIt is quite unnecessary to attack my friend Cllr Tim "Putin" Coleridge. He is a fine fellow and we were at school together. Our families recently visited a ranch in Argentina together and we rode bareback on the ranch ponies (without our shirts) and had a very jolly time. All very manly.
DeleteAs I said. Tim is a fine fellow.
"Dim Tim" obviously has equally dim pals
DeleteDestroying schools and other publicly owned assets for the benefit of developers, is very obviously one of Hornton Street's many non-publicised policies.
ReplyDeleteResidents need to be crystal clear. This abomination happened on the Coleridge watch. He is the Cabinet Member for planning with overall responsibility for what goes on below him. Whatever tricks are got up to by Officers and the odious Cllr Warwick (Chairman of the Planning Committee), the buck stops with Coleridge.
ReplyDeleteThe inequity of our voting system is that Kensington (twinned with Pyongyang) ends up permanently controlled by grubby grey suits on the make (and senile bats) high on their own sense of entitlement and self-importance. Patsies in the paws of ruthless developers, they have no respect for the borough's heritage nor the taxpayers they purportedly represent. Independent candidates face the challenge of converting the Hyacinth Bucket brigade who would vote for a mange-ridden fox with a blue rosette pinned if it agreed to attend their tea party.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this describes our plight precisely
DeleteThis makes a joke of Cllr Paget-Brown's "listening" meetings. Either he is deaf or has fallen into the Cllr Weale school of democracy "we agreed to listen but not to hear".
ReplyDelete"Meet Nick" meetings are carefully controlled and managed by the Hornton Street PR team.
DeleteOwl is correct. If anyone asks an awkward question, they are immediately silenced by NPB's minders.
ReplyDeleteFor many years there has been a modus operandi in the Cabinet that residents can be ignored and will not make a fuss so long as the dustbins are cleared. Provided that the dustbins are cleared the councillors can get on and do what they want - dreaming up vanity projects, over taxing, and troughing. Officers are happy with this because it creates employment for them - and personal opportunities with the great game of the moment which is property development.
DeleteBut now the Dame has come along and is poking into all kinds of corners. The reptiles have not figured out to handle her nest of Hornets.
Why is it that our Council always favours the interests of the developers, money launderers and criminal using London, and never seem to be able to deliver for the residents of the borough. Do they have no shame?
ReplyDelete19.08 must be psychic. For the third time in recent years residents have objected to the council's accounts over the cost of clearing K & C dustbins.
ReplyDeleteThey call Coleridge "exceptionally dim Tim."
ReplyDelete