This comment from Hornbill should be read by all who love Chelsea.
Maybe it will pass, as OWL says. But for those who don't want to see Chelsea decimated for 15 years and then end up as just another suburban high street, there is still plenty of fight left.
Take the battle to Greg Hands. He doesn't want a station in King's Road, he wants it at Imperial Wharf or Fulham Broadway where the local need is manifestly greater. But that it seems is an engineering impossibility and would add to both the cost and the journey times on the line so is hardly going to be a big attraction for people living in Surrey and Essex.
Take the battle to TfL. They said that a Chelsea station would unlock 1,000 new homes. But ask them where those homes will be built and they haven't a clue. Timothy Coleridge said at the 3 November meeting at Chelsea Town Hall that new homes would be needed over the next 30years to replace old buildings at the end of their useful lives in West Chelsea. But what's that got to do with Crossrail 2?
As for the cost-benefit analysis that started this string, my recollection of the 3 November meeting was that Michele Dix said that the cost benefit analysis was undertaken for the line as a whole, ie 200,000 new homes and 200,000 new jobs. When someone else asked how the 50-50 funding of the line would work in Chelsea, she said that the 50-50 split would work for the line as a whole, and not for every separate component of it. Now that's a great story for Boris and any other London politician - "commercial development in the outer reaches will fund a station for the poor deprived people of Chelsea". Pull the other one.
So the answer for Coleville Resident is you should fill in the TFL survey question 20 with the simple sentence "no Crossrail 2 station in Chelsea" and, as the Dame wrote in her earlier post, explain why in your words. And write to Greg Hands saying the same thing.
The convention is that a Tory MP will not get involved where there is a Tory local Council. So forget Greg Hands.
ReplyDeleteThe Tfl consultation is a job creation exercise for Officers. So forget the questionnaire.
The Council has decided that it wants a Crossrail station in the Kings Road (see the Leaders blog). So do not waste time writing to Hornton Street.
The only thing that stands a chance of overturning the decision is media pressure. Raise the profile and embarrass the Kensington Town Hall and Mayor Boris. Organise a delegation and get the press to observe a meeting with Cllr Paget-Brown and the Mayor of London. Brief the press beforehand. Cultivate one or two sympathetic journalists.
Otherwise, accept reality. "We have consulted widely and no one wants it. So we prepare ourselves for years of protest". (The world according to the Deputy Leader of Kensington and Chelsea).
There are many residents who want Crossrail in the Kings Rd. Starting with Nick Paget-Brown. And Tim Coleridge. And eight other residents who also serve in the Hornton Street Cabinet.
ReplyDeleteA force to be reckoned with. They already made up their minds
This is a very tough battle. Much bigger than Moylan and his bonnet bee of Sloane Square. The big guns are lined up.
ReplyDeleteThe objectors should take tea with James Thomson.
TfL don't actually want it.
ReplyDeleteReally? Then it is only the Council that wants it....
DeleteYes - and the impoverished residents of West Chelsea who have to use buses in heavily congested and polluted streets to take ages to get to their place of work.
Delete11:16 you obviously do not live in the area as those impoverished you speak of in West Chelsea do not want HS2 either we already have plenty of Buses and walking distance from tube. And some of those impoverished have their own cars and vans and drive to work. Please do not speak on our beahalf. Anyway HS2 was suppossed to be on Cremorne and Worlds End Estates which meant knocking down the estates. Not a vote winner. Are you Dix by any chance?
DeleteThe determination of the Council to defeat nuisance residents should not be underestimated.
ReplyDeleteNot so many years ago my Ward Councillor told me that a Conservative Councillor (Cllr Phelps) called me a liar in a speech at a main Council Meeting. This was, of course, a public meeting.
I wrote to the Leader (Cllr Cockell) to complain that this was an abuse of office and brought the Conservative Party and the Council into disrepute and asked him to demand a retraction. He refused to do this.
I wrote to the Council and asked for the official record of the statement. The Council replied and said that there was no such thing.
I made a Freedom of Information request that established that there was indeed a record of the speech.
I wrote again to the Council who sent a record of the speech but the part referring to me as liar was redacted because it was "privileged information".
I wrote to the Local Government Ombudsman who instructed the Council to release the information.
I made a complaint to the Standards Committee which was upheld.
Since then the Standards Committee has been abolished and the Council has stopped keeping a record of Council meetings "in order to save money"
Officers and the Leader were surprised and irritated that I persisted. There is a tendency in Hornton Street to stonewall in the belief that residents will get fed up and go away.
Who was the WARD councillor who passed this information? At least he/she had some decency
DeleteWhat this means is a proper sit down with the Leader Paget Boring not just about HS2 but everything that is going on through the borough. Dame maybe you would like to host this?
ReplyDelete