This one is excellent.
Did Alan know that Ang put through the alteration in the objects of WT last year when it decided to stop using the land it was given to provide amenities for the local community as originally intended and to become a property development business with no regard for local needs? Not only was there no public consultation beforehand, but they didn’t even hold the community engagement event that they had told the RBKC they’d hold! I expect they held some little private event as a fig leaf but I know they never told the community about it, let alone engaged with the community to explain their intentions.
The meeting at the Tab would have been the first real community engagement event by the WT executive and it was disgraceful that Ang said she’d come then pulled out on a spurious reason. (Alan Brown will soon realise she has a track record of agreeing to things when it suits her and then doing a U-turn a few days later….) What a lost opportunity!!!
If Alan Brown is going to come away from his time with the WT with his reputation intact, he needs to stand up and act now, introducing transparency and proper governance from today. He needs to make contact with the North Kensington community immediately to agree a way forward that includes reinstating the amenities Ang has closed or is closing down and improving the 23 acres in partnership with them (everyone agrees the area needs improvement, just it doesn’t want the good things there swept away and replaced with Ang’s sterile vision). Another meeting at the Tab would be a good start. Meanwhile, he should scrap the “Destination Westway” idea which offers nothing to meet North Kensington’s needs, and (in the views of professional property developers, as opposed to the WT jokers) will not succeed so close to Westfield (currently being extended) and the Old Oak Common development.
How about it, Alan?
Bankers do not like publicity. And suddenly this guy is a celebrity on the Dame's website. Can he handle it?
ReplyDeleteAlan's wife like wearing skin tight leather trousers.......
DeleteThere is a hornets nest around the Westway Trust that has been swarming for far too long. The bees have been buzzing and stinging and it is not clear what has stirred them up except for the ridiculous McConville woman who has failed fundamentally in the Leadership role that she loves to puff about.
ReplyDeleteIt would help if someone could pen a simple paragraph showing
(i) what the locals want
(ii) what the Trust is striving for
(i) Not to be deported; not to be robbed; to be respected; to be listened to; to be served and not to be insulted etc.
ReplyDelete(ii) TfL owns the Westway. RBKC has the head lease from TfL and the Westway Trust leases 23 acres of land under the roadway from RBKC. The Trust is a thinly disguised branch of the council. Without public consultation, last year the Trust secretly altered it's aims from providing services to local people in compensation for their loss of amenity due to the building of the Westway. Instead the Trust's focus is to benefit all nearby boroughs. RBKC approved these changes and the Charity Commission rubber stamped them. The Trust now has directors as well as trustees. It's effectively run by developers supported by the council.
Every year hundreds of low income locals in social housing are being deported to Essex etc. It's a classic land grab from already deprived people. For instance, the local library and nearby info centre will be given to the Notting Hill Prep School, which has already has the Isaac Newton Centre. The local children's centre has closed. The stables under the Westway have been given notice to quit. A local amateur sports group has been kicked out. Makan's restaurant can't find out if their lease will be renewed. There's far more.
The Trust enforces silence on its own members. A community trustee has resigned because she was forbidden to discuss issues with Trust directors without McConville & Co's prior permission.
The Hammersmith flyover and Westway are structurally doomed. Both will eventually be demolished and replaced with tunnels. The freed up land will be worth billions, hence the secrecy. Those controlling that land will make their fortunes. And McConville has a habit of insulting the local community.
This is a great help.
DeleteHas any group of local residents written down what they would like to see in the 23 acres controlled by the Westway Trust? And a development path of how to get from "now" to the desired future?
Or do residents want "no change"?
There are four Wards in the Westway area (St Helens, Golborne, Notting Dale, Colville) and eleven Councillors (Allison, Bakhtir, Dent Coad, Mason, Powell, Atkinson, Blakemore, Lasharie, Press, Lomass, Littler).
DeleteThis is an all Party group of Councillors. Why on earth are they invisible?? This is a classic opportunity for them to work out what their residents want and come together to represent their needs. And to bury their differences and come together as a single issue pressure group. Democracy in action....
Why are these Turkey councillors hiding behind the bushes?
"Not to be deported" "To be respected" 18.46 says it all.
DeleteAre these the kind of people that we want in the Royal Borough? Absolutely not.
Angel of The North starts to get to the heart of the matter. The Westway community is a source of low cost labour for the rest of Kensington and Chelsea. "Township" North Kensington.
DeleteIt should be preserved and treasured - appropriate facilities and basic support (ie electricity and water) plus health services. And relevant apprentice training for the youth. And zero tolerance law and order.
Hornton Street needs to develop and implement policies that can reverse the current culture of 75% of homes on benefits and move towards a target of no more than 10% of homes on benefits.
Now that is a challenge for the local Councillors in Delgano, St Helens, Colville, Golborne and Notting Dale.
Our shops and homes NEED a source of locally available low cost labour.
Town Planner is on the button. Hornton Street should not be implementing policies to gentrify North Kensington
DeleteTown Planner is correct. The problem is that the Tories have just woken up to the fact that their voters and successor generation cannot afford to live in Chelsea or Kensington. So the only place for them to go is North Kensington, which means pushing out the working poor. Read Rock FM's plea for the "poor" young man in his 20s working in financial services and only earning £20,000 per year in the Guardian. Where else can he go to live? Rock FM is now the gracious patron of the Tory yuppie.
DeleteThe idea of Fielding-Mellen being a patron of anything is ridiculous. In fact, worse than ridiculous.
DeleteYes it is a great comment! Sterile, what a great word to describe what is happening across London and especially in the Royal borough! The area does need improvement but not for personal profit at public loss. No thank you Ang.
ReplyDeleteWestway Need to provide to community for Land Streets taken by motorway .As was in beginning to provide for small local people to rent Buissiness space LOCAL people make up a Community They are many fabulous projects in cities around the world. That could help vision through consultation With local people Change is Needed May it Start with Why How Were And Who is gaining From westway plans This is Not A plastic area it's alive full of ideas with character heritage History that many want to keep and improve .Fundraisers not property developers is needed to maintain and improve before sterile lifeless projects without creativity Appear
ReplyDeleteExactly. Low cost housing, clean and efficient housing, no frills housing, apprentice schemes for young people, local businesses, and good transport links to job centres in the rest of Kensington and Chelsea.
DeleteAnd preserve one of the richest and diverse cultures in London.
This is a million miles away from the current policies to "regenerate" the area by clearing social and community housing to be replaced by high end "buy to leave" properties favoured by developers and Town Hall planners and councillors "on the take"