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| UNHAPPINESS IN BOTH ENDS OF THE BOROUGH |
In the last few weeks we have seen two disparate groups of residents taking to the streets protesting at how their ways of life are being degraded by a council hell bent on destroying the character of the Borough.
And why?
So a few favoured property developers can line their pockets.
There will always be the odd bore who will trumpet 'but, Dent Coad is Labour so she is bound to dislike developers'.
Well, the conjoining of the affluent south with the less than affluent north is telling a very different story and Emma Dent Coad tells it well.
We should all read it, irrespective of our politics. Dent Coad is talking rare common sense for a politician. HER BLOG
The communities in the North and South need to put pressure on their Ward councillors. These are the insiders - they know how to fight. If they will not fight they should be turfed out and replaced by others who are prepared to represent their resdidents
ReplyDeleteWe will never know who amongst officers or elected members is taking 'soft inducements' from the rich and powerful who make billions out of developing in one of the world's richest borough....but the temptations are great and the historic allegations of corruption amongst officers and members manifold.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for journalists to look at the assets of Senior Planning Officers and Planning Committee councillors in Hornton Street. And compare these assets with declared earnings.
DeleteA pattern of systemic corruption is in place.
When a councillor reports that he is "poor" and relies on his State Pension and Council allowance for a living, and when a Resident Association hires an investigator who finds that this same councillor has three offshore bank accounts, nineteen credit cards, two properties in the Royal Borough and a country house (all hidden in an British Virgin Islands Trust), and when this Councillor is an ex Chairman of the Planning Committee, then residents are right to be alarmed.
And questions need to be asked. And the Leader needs to be seen to be at the forefront of the questioning.
EDC has captured a powerful moment in the absurdity that is known as Hornton Street and the ruling Tory group. Not so long ago there was a similar twinned battle over Sloane Square and Holland Park School. The high command at the time (Cockell, Moylan and the stooge Weale) carried out extensive bogus consultations, briefed against objectors as being "unsound", "biased", "bearing grudges" and "trouble makers". In the case of Holland Park School promises were made in order to "buy off the opposition" - a condition precedent of the planning approval was that residents would have access to the new £100 million sports facilities at the school. Four years after the new school opened, residents are still waiting. The Chairman of the Campden Hill Residents Association is regularly shafted by the Council and the Headmaster.
ReplyDeleteWorthy councillors who stood up for residents were punished by the Leader, Pooter Cockell. Cllr Coleridge was denied the Office of Mayor which he coveted and it had been promised. Cllr Borwick was sent to Coventry. Cllr Freeman was cold shouldered and whispered against by his peers.
Stooge Cllr Weale went to meetings with residents and chirped "we agreed to listen but not to hear".
A system that is corrupt at its very core
That's interesting that the "Westway Trust did not show up, citing their need to ‘safeguard staff’. Apparently the £100,000pa chief executive of Westway Trust fears the community she is employed to serve." if there was any real concern the Police should have been asked to attend if they were that fearful.
ReplyDeleteReminds us of Earls Court councillor "Inane" Aouane asking last year for police protection for her home when there was an Exhibition on at Earls Court. Although residents in the immediate area of the Exhibition centre never received any such police presence from urinating and drug taking revellers.
The issue is that very few of the Councillors have expertise in the areas they hold responsibility for and can therefore be hoodwinked and blinded by these officers. There are very few officers left who cared about the borough in Hortnon Street, they have been replaced by incompetent, nasty bureaucrats whose only misson is to destroy the Borough. Where is the leader? What is he leading, the residents have had enough.
ReplyDeleteThis just goes to show that we are made up in the borough of them and us.
ReplyDeleteResidents against the council, luckily there are more of us than them.
These days Hornton Street is overrun with Hammersmith & Fulham officers. Their motives are even less appealing than those of the few remaining home grown examples. Money grabbing and bullying of the remaining local staff are rife. Bi-borough is an unmitigated disaster, except for the rapacious. Councillors turn a blind eye to corruption or worse, take their "commissions" and ignore the rights of both public and staff.
ReplyDeleteIn N. Kensington the issue is the council's collusion with the forthcoming theft of previously publicly owned land on which the elevated roadway stands, as well as Hammersmith flyover and elevated section of the M4. Eventually the three roads will be demolished and replaced by tunnels. The newly vacant land will be up for grabs. The campaigners should engage independent surveyors to discover the value of the cleared land. However, knowing the rotten borough, finding people willing to do the work will prove impossible. The stench from Hornton Street and Thorpe Close grows by the day.
Indeed, it all stinks....'Rotten Borough' title applies....
ReplyDeleteBi Borough may be a disaster and the Royal Borough Officers may have lost out to the Hammersmith thugs.
ReplyDeleteBut please be clear that Planning is not part of the bi Borough. This function was retained by Kensington and Chelsea alone. Same people (Councillors and Offices), same practices, undisturbed relationships with the developers, vintage Hornton Street
The Westway residents need to round up their Ward Councillors and create a pressure group out of them. There are some firecrackers who should be sparking eg EDC and Cllr Eve Allison
DeleteCllr Allison does not know her a*** from her elbow
DeleteEDC was a brilliant Labour group leader, so her colleagues demoted her. Certain Labour councillors are as keen to keep their noses in the trough as their Tory opposite numbers. EDC objected to such collaboration. While still fairly new, EA shows considerable promise.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same with the Tories. Councillors who devote themselves to their residents are excluded from the inner circle and the extra money that goes with it. This is so damaging, residents both north and south of Ken High Street are beginning to rattle the council's cage. Grassroots protests will gather strength, till one of RBKC's many half-hidden scandals finally breaks and brings down Horton Street.
Don't forget that the half hidden scandals in Hornton Street pale in to insignificance when compared against all of the scandals at KCTMO. If Council corruption is ever exposed, the Tory Group will sacrifice KCTMO as a diversionary ruse to take the heat off the Council and refocus it on KCTMO.
DeleteThe Westway is surrounded by the Labour High Command and ex High Command (Cllrs Blakeman and Dent-Coade), plus the new blood Labour councillors. I would have thought that this group of Labour councillors could/should join together on their own doorstep and mount an imaginative and powerful campaign on behalf of their residents.
DeleteLess socialist muttering about knocking down the Westway and building tunnels would be appreciated. This is rabble rousing. It will not happen for at least 50 years, if ever.
Lets concentrate on preserving and improving a township in North Kensington of low cost labour for the rest of the Borough with good transport links to Kensington Central and Chelsea. And good schools for the high achieving and ambitious locals who want to "escape" to Belgravia and the misery of £12 million town houses and 120 hour a week banking jobs to pay the interest on the mortgages - plus the bored, frustrated and high spending wives and £50k a year school fees to keep up with the neighbours.
Preserving and improving a working class neighbourhood in North Kensington would be a balanced approach to Borough planning. And I am sure that the residents would support this.....
Here, here!
DeleteObserver's vision for North Kensington is entirely possible and feasible. The biggest land owner in the area is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
DeleteA local supply of skilled artisan labour is a better description than low cost labour. What a benefit to London if we had a supply of nurses, firemen, teachers, shop workers, decorators, plumbers, policemen, electricians and plumbers on the doorstep
Delete...........don't forget the hospitality industry
DeleteFor the record the 'demolition of the Westway, replace with a tunnel' line is NOT a socialist muttering it is coming from one person who won't accept that TfL has indeed a 50-year plan for the 'sustainability' of Westway. Though let's hope it will have turned into a High-Line park by then.
Delete