This excellent letter from Katie Segal should make Angela McConville cringe with shame.
Inferring the audience might physically assault her team McConville traduces the reputation of outstanding members of the community. She should, without delay, apologise profusely.
You can watch HERE the video showing the police firing tear gas at the rioting audience of OAP's and councillors!
You can watch HERE the video showing the police firing tear gas at the rioting audience of OAP's and councillors!
If the chairman of a PLC refused to meet shareholders he/she would be pilloried in the press: McConville has done just that.....she refused to meet stakeholders.
She obviously has something to hide and cannot face reasoned criticism.
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| QUIVERING WITH FEAR! |
Dear Ms McConville
I attended a public meeting in The Tabernacle, Powis Square, on the evening of Wednesday 11th November. I have been concerned about, and interested in Westway Trust’s plans for their ‘Portobello Village’ development since the first day of the ‘public consultation period’ in March, and was very much looking forward to at last hearing your and other directors’ perspectives, first hand, as panel members at this event.
I was extremely disappointed to hear, on the day of the meeting, that you had recently cancelled plans to attend, and had advised other directors to do the same. I was also most perplexed to hear that your expressed reason was concern for the ‘safety of your staff’. It has since struck me how easy it can be to cast aspersions on others by suggestion of behaviour for which they have no record or inclination.
We are the people who wish to meet you, who are extending an invitation to you, as opposed to the other way around – perhaps this does not sit well with you.
In the audience and on the remaining panel were
- octogenarians
- small children,
- those with OBEs,
- local councillors
- parliamentary candidates
I am curious as to which of us you thought might cause you physical harm.
The meeting went ahead despite your absence, but it would have been informative to have your input.
The Westway Trust clearly cites the needs of the local community as their primary focus for grant applications, and have won a great deal of financial support on this basis, so it concerns me deeply that you do not appear to have a desire to directly engage with these very people.
Regards
K. Segal
This woman has a column in the Kensington and Chelsea Post. And she loves to puff.
ReplyDeleteAll about being Chairman of the Westway Trust and self promoted VIP.
But it seems that vapour head has been found out. Not up to the job. Cant face her public. People like this need to be moved on.
Ballast.
RBKC and friends seem to be spinning that residents are going to threaten them, witness comments by RBKC Head of Security at Chelsea Town Hall on November 3. Democracy is about debate, even if you don't like what the other person has to say. Public office is about listening to and debating with stakeholders and electors. If this ends we are in a one party state in RBKC.
DeleteMs Segals letter restores the seriousness of the debate around this crucial local issue.
ReplyDeleteWell done.
I know the Dame is wont to use her feminine wiles, so no intention to offend, but McConville is all boobs and blusher, ill fitted to serve our diverse North Ken community who are looking for serious engagement. Sincerity is far more attractive.
ReplyDeleteShe should return to the world of development, whence she came, where she can flirt her way into the pockets of big business.
The trouble is that this type of meeting often descends into a shouting match, which is then a waste of time. And men tend to dominate these meetings. The video is fine - but if the Trust had been there would there not have been too much shouting for a positive discussion to take place?
ReplyDeletea "positive" discussion is hardly possible in such a frustratingly negative response BY THE TRUST to the communitys positive invitation to a dialogue.
DeleteNot surprising that a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the Trust was passed...They brought it on themselves.
The debate was no more heated than the Crossrail2 one at Chelsea Old Town Hall the week before. There were more pearls and suits than at the Tab, but the words and the frustration and the anger were just the same.
DeleteNot much consolation I know, but Chelsea residents are treated just as poorly by developers and the Council as North Ken residents.
The council has the head lease from TfL for the 23 acres of land under and near the elevated roadway. The Trust has a lease from the council. Effectively, there is no difference between the Council and the Trust. Therefore RBKC's desire to appear at arms length from the Trust is deceitful. Nothing new there then.
ReplyDeleteIt must be remembered that the terms of the Trust have been secretly changed from benefiting local people, to benefiting all the nearby boroughs. This includes H &F, WCC and Brent. All this has been duly approved by the Council and rubber stamped by the Charity Commission. Yet again Hornton Street has grabbed public assets to hive them off - eventually to the highest bidder. The land will end up in private hands, for private benefit. Substantial commissions will be earned by those in the right places at the right time. McConville simply isn't up to slipping this project past the public unnoticed, as she was expected to do. It's time for her to go and take her minions with her. This will be no loss to anyone.
Residents are used to the trust's failures, but why does it's new chairman tolerate such an appalling performance from McConville and her team? He's been a senior businessman for years. He knows that in the city, staff who repeatedly fail to perform like this, are shown the door. It's unlikely he became chairman to ensure that he will be held up to endless public ridicule and anger.
ReplyDeleteRather than tacitly defending McConville's disrespectful behaviour, Mr Brown's time would be better spent addressing the appalling levels of air pollution near the Westway and the lung disease it causes residents. He would benefit both his reputation and public health.
Rumour has it that hes a friend of her husband.
DeleteTo be fair, I don't see how the Trust has any control over the Westway air pollution - which is a strategic Central Government issue. The man at the meeting who said everyone at the meeting would be dead in 3 years from the pollution was clearly wrong.
DeleteThere was a "greening the westway" project put to the trust a while ago - ad never referred to. The pollution remains an ongoing reason to uphold the original charitable purpose of the Trust - to compensate the inhabitants of North Kensington for tne Impact of the Westway. The have been disgracefully disenfranchised.
DeleteFYI: The man at the meeting was being allegorical when he said that everyone at the meeting would be dead; he was using the numbers of people in the audience to represent the numbers of people who would be dead, not actually suggesting that those specific people would all be dead.
DeleteThe new Chairman, Alan Brown, wrote quite an impressive column in the Kensington News. In it he wrote about the need to listen more and to engage with the wider community. He also wrote about his time living in the area and visiting his favourite restaurant which closed down many years ago, L'artiste Assoiffe - where an infamous angry parrot always sat in the window. As a result of Alan Brown's article, just days before the public meeting of 11th November, a resident donated a tail feather from that said angry parrot to be presented to Alan Brown as a goodwill gesture on behalf of the community (She had kept the tail feather for over 25 years). That tail feather was delivered to the offices of the Westway Trust - neither the Trust, nor Alan Brown had the decency to even say thank you. Such is lofty contempt with which they view this community!
ReplyDeleteThe man at the meeting quoted from official air pollution sources. The air round the Westway contains 2.5 times the EU's permitted limit for airborne poisons. The pollution is so severe, it kills about 75 people a year living near the Westway. This figure probably refers to the whole of the Westway, including Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster.
ReplyDeleteAttendee numbers at the meeting were unknown till after it finished; a little over 300. The poisoned air of the Westway will kill 300 locals in 4 years and will cause far more to suffer long term ill health. This last figure will include local babies born with smaller than normal lungs.
Even if it means campaigning against central government, the Trust's duty is to try to protect local people, not grab their meagre assets to hand over to developers.
Sorry 10.47, but 75 is the number just in K&C who die prematurely from the direct effects of air pollution. Total disgrace, and totally avoidable.
DeleteThanks for the correction. Locals should hold a corpse pile for the press. On the spot where the Trust intends to build luxury flats.
ReplyDeleteThe council plans to let the notting hill prep school take over the north north kensington library and the information centre under the west way. Then rich people's kids will suffer the polluted air. It's obvious this will not be allowed, It's further evidence of the plan to knock down the west way and build luxury flats. The A40 will go into a tunnel and low income workers will be bused in through it from zone 6.
Al....if you are after a K you won't do it hanging around with McConville. You will get it by clearing out Augean stables....not the Stables
ReplyDeleteThe land under the Westway was originally given to the Trust so that the Trust could be the voice of the local community and use the land to provide amenities for the local community in North Kensington which was so affected by the massive building works and resulting barrier of the Westway. Around a year ago, the Trust - with no local consultation whatsoever - changed the objects of the Trust enabling it to redevelop our land (they fancifully talk of turning it into a 'Top 10' destination in London) and give any profits to anyone in RBKC or the surrounding boroughs.
ReplyDeleteANGELA MCCONVILE agreed to come to the public meeting at the Tab.IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF THIS FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE IN THE DIRECTION OF THE TRUST. HER BEHAVIOUR (AND THE BOARD'S ) IS DISGRACEFUL. Angela has a long track record of saying she'd do one thing and then going back on her word, and this is further proof that she can't be trusted.
The sooner she resigns (or is booted out) the better it will be for the people of North Kensington.
Well said. McConville is a liability to any organisation. One wonders if the Trust's AGM will actually take place next Monday. Perhaps she and her team will repeat the insult they directed towards the public over the Tab meeting, by chickening out of their own. It's time Alan Brown resolved her concerns over the safety of her staff by showing them the red card.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe st Helens is a decoy venue as nothing we are told is how it is
ReplyDelete