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Thursday 26 January 2017

THE BILLIONAIRE; BASE LIES AND BASEMENTS

Is David Graham, the reclusive eighty-year-old  Canadian billionaire going mad.......or just a series of 'senior moments'?
Dave owns a massive mansion in Walton Street. For years he has been bothering neighbours saying he doesn't have enough space; most odd considering Dave is rarely there....lives on his own and forgets the 12,000 square foot Old Court House already has a basement!
Savills are the ones behind this: boycott the firm: they are going to blight local property.
'WHERE'S MY BASEMENT?'
The sad part is that Dave is never in London so no one told him The Old Court House already has a huge subterranean basement complex.

It even has a lift going down to the complex with its Olympic-sized swimming pool and various other 'household offices'.
RESIDENT DANGER ZONE
Dave also boasts that he has become very pally with Mr.Stallwood's planning team. Have they been invited to stay at his spread in St Tropez? The Dame asks because Dave implies they are ecstatic about his plans to cause massive disruption to residents living in the area on the left.



For the next two years, 20/30 lorries daily, may be thundering around nearby streets causing: 

  • noise
  • dust, 
  • danger 
  • and even more pollution.


But this is the fundamental question.... 
The Old Court House already has a basement so why are planners giving Dave the impression he can build yet another?
The Council needs to ready itself for the 2,000 or so residents in the area going into 'Revolt Mode'. 
They have had enough of this very selfish man thinking he can turn their lives upside down.




21 comments:

  1. I got a letter from Mr Graham and it gave the strong impression that the planners were 'on board'. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
    What are our local councillors doing to support us against Mr Graham?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it goes ahead, remember 2018 vote out Coleridge, Weale & Paget Brown. Send the message we as a borough have had enough!

      Delete
    2. Only a person with an advanced case of Hubris could boast that he has the Hornton Street planners in his pocket.

      Delete
    3. Is Cllr Weale still taking up space in Hornton Street?

      Delete
  2. It would appear that some people do not know what time of the day it is, let alone that there is already a basement.... Who is Suffering form amnesia? Dave or RBKC?

    ReplyDelete
  3. If this scheme goes ahead the shops opposite and next to Mr Grahams residence will close. The dust, noise and traffic mayham will ensure this. Mr Graham who clearly likes to get his own way will be very gratified by this since along with the residents they have thus managed to thwart his repeated applications. Two years minimum of 20 movements of 30ft lorries entetering and leaving Walton Street via Pont Street. The engineering required to build another basement will be disastrous for the neigbourhood. Not just those living adjacent , Ovington Street, Lennox Garden Mews but the surrounding streets .
    Stalwarts of Walton Street such as Scalini's restaurant (even if they manage to "ride the storm" ) will be deserted. All so that one 80 year old man who spends less than 90 days a year in his house (more like 20) can build a "media room", replace the swimming pool built in the last decade and build what we understand to be a third kitchen . Moreover the children from at least two schools nearby walk who to and from their activities will need to esposed to road danger and even more pollution. This scheme is based on greed which will harm the area enormously and residents lives will be blighted just as they were when he renovated the house under 2000 consent.There are two ways the residents can express their frustration and objection ;-
    The first to to write to RBKC ;- DEPT PLANNING APPLICATION - 1A WALTON STREET - PP/17/00133 - OBJECTION - FOR THE ATTENTION OF CASE OFFICER SIMON WESTMORELAND
    The second is to boycot selling your property through Savills who are promoring this scheme on behalf of Mr Graham to the detriment of residents and buisness

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are available for all of the aspirants NEST Application Form 2017. Apply Online as soon as possible for the NEST Application Form.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It appears RBKC are against basement developments if you are a normal person, but have oodles of cash and they bend over backwards for you as we saw with Ms Flight and Capco, and the same way Saturday working is banned for building sites in the borough but Capco are allowed to work . It is all about who you are and how much you have, to my mind it is about time the fraud squad had a good look at RBKC, the councillors are not much better , the only one I have any time for is Linda Wade and I am not a Liberal voter but at least she has some principles which is why the council don't like her. RBKC corrupt from top to bottom.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's absolutely correct. RBKC has always run a 2 tier planning system. One for the super wealthy and another for the rest of us. As for expecting councillors to intervene on behalf of residents, certain councillors have made successful careers by 'assisting' the agents of certain parties to reach the necessary agreements with planning officers. Other residents can go hang.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When is a basement NOT a basement?
    PS – this is a catch question
    Is it:
    1. When a multi-millionaire from Canada decides that when he occasionally visits his 12,000 square foot mansion in central London, it is inadequate living space for himself?
    OR
    2. When Savill’s, who act on behalf of multi-millionaires, see several fat fees coming down the line by trying to re-define a perfectly normal and common sense word that everyone understands?
    OR
    3. When RBKC ignore the blindingly obvious and disastrous effects on hundreds of local businesses and residents by ignoring the existence of a previously built basement in order to satisfy the whims of a single multi millionaire?
    The answer is – all three are correct. I told you it was a catch question!

    However you will see from the above, there is one unsavoury common trait in all three - the stink of money. Right now it is a mere whiff. But I can assure you, that if the monster plan to build a second basement beneath Mr Graham’s already existing basement at 1A Walton Street is granted, the smell will become unbearable - and the stink will not just permeate down cute little Walton Street or picture postcard Lennox Gardens Mews. Oh no. A thick fog of putrid fumes from stalled traffic trying to escape down Ovington Street and Milner Street will inevitably follow as 30 foot long lorries gorge and disgorge thousands of tons of concrete and earth and pound their way down lucky old Pont Street. The whole area will slowly suffocate. It will become a wasteland.
    I note with somewhere in the small print of this outrageous Planning Application, there will be the comforting provision of “a temporary walkway” in Walton Street during the daily 3hour 20minute disposal of concrete and collection of waste. Save your money - if the Application is approved, the walkway will not be needed. No-one will go near this street for at least two years, more likely three. Everyone nearby will have gone. At least RBKC, Graham and Savill’s will be happy – because there will be no-one around to complain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whoever wrote this should be a scriptwriter...brilliant.
      I hope Mr G is reading and enjoying the Dame!!

      Delete
  8. If it looks like a Brown Envelope, rustles like a Brown Envelope, and is stuffed like a Brown Envelope, then it is a Brown Envelope

    ReplyDelete
  9. bitter and twisted Hornet and purile Dame

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Councillor Palmer
      We know spelling is not your forte( the Dame often wonders what your forte could be.)
      Anyway, let's hope you are never put on the Education Committee.
      Its PUERILE, you chump, not PURILE

      Delete
    2. Conservative funded personal telephone calls to Australia are less of a challenge for Cllr Palmer

      Delete
  10. Perhap's whoever wrote " bitter and twisted Hornet and purile Dame" might be bettter advised to look at this abhorrant scheme on RBKC web site as i have just done.
    Rather than name calling why not make a constructive argument as to why the neighbourhood should be blighted for at least two years for the finiancial gain of one "non dom ?" ownwer who wants to replace an existing swimming pool and create a media room. Thank heavens for the hornets nest it gives normal people (by which i mean those who do not have the finiancial resource of a "supposed" billionaire) a voice. I can only concurr with other's, has anyone in the planning dept challenged Graham's experts on the traffic management plan ? Or the pollution aspect ?
    30 foot lorries turning around by Scalini's ? . The carnage this will cause. If whoever wrote the remarks above is a current Councillor they should be ashamed of themselves. If no longer in the post then Thank Heavens. Maybe he or she in the future would be better advised to not rise to quips about "brown envelope's". It smacks of " "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
    If readers live or work in Walton Street , Lennox Garden Mews , Beauchamp Place , Pont Street or any of the other Streets close by, then please look carefully at the planning application 1A Walton Street-PP/17/00133 YOU CAN THEN OBJECT BY SENDING EMAIL TO
    Planning@rbkc.gov.uk-1A WALTON STREET-PP/17/00133-OBJECTION

    ReplyDelete
  11. OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR OF LONDON AND KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA PLANNERS -

    Day after day the newspapers and the tv news bombard us with the facts that central London - and Kensington
    and Chelsea are often specifically mentioned - has now reached dangerous levels of pollution on a daily basis.
    Levels that exceed the limits specified by World health and by cities world wide.
    Asthma rates are rising and doctors are warning that this is a huge health hazard - in particular to school children going
    to and from school and on various trips around the area.

    Yet Kensington and Chelsea and happily going ahead and proposing a massive 90 week excavation and developement of a super
    under basement bunker for the owner - a Canadian - who now desires an enormous underbasement under his 7 bedroomed enormous and beautiful home - one of the
    largest in the area. There will be excavations - there will be endless large transporting trucks removing all the rubble - there will be huge machinery being
    driven in to do all this massive work over 90 weeks in an area where I have alrady discovered 7 PREPARATORY SCHOOLS!!!!!!!

    The traffic congestion alone will incur more and more pollution as these huge vehicles will have to reverse out of the work site into Walton Street, Point Street
    and then I know not where, and this will of course mean more and more traffic hold ups with engines idling.

    The owner of the property (seldom in London) - the Kensington and chelsea planning officer and Savilles the agent invovled seem oblivious to the pollution -
    distress on a daily basis - huge traffic hold ups in already difficult areas - the hardship to shop owners in Walton Street and Beauchamp Place - the nightmare
    of residents living there not te mention the fact that this is now against government policy.

    Their arguement is - this is not a sub basement - as what ecists already is a lower ground floor. And the debate now is - what is the definition of a basement? I
    thought in my ignorance it was a lower ground floor.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Hornet's Nest must be thanked for expressing in clear English the puzzling matter of a second basement for Number 1A Walton Street. The truth is, that a legion of concern about this proposed development has been stated clearly and fervently by many. Mr Graham, the rarely sighted Citizen Kane, of Walton Street is submitting an application that every person in the surrounding streets is up in arms about. The council must not be pusillanimous in dealing with this matter. We expect them to consider the real anxieties of thousands of residents and businesses rather than the whimsy of one grasping entrepreneur."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Already it is impossible to get through Walton street with one end nearly always an obstacle; skip, cement, HGVs. It will have to become one way if G get his way.

    We residents expect more pot holes created by these dreaded HGVs in the immediate area and borough.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just discovered that Savills are behind the Graham scheme and encouraging it because of course their fees if and when Graham "cashes in" will be even bigger.What do Welcome trust think of this ? Savills are managing agents for the leasehold apartment I rent on the same side of the road as the 12000 sq ft Graham rescidence. IS THIS NOT A HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST ?. Who do we as tenants of flats complain to about this scheme that will be very damaging for us living immediatelty next to this site but for other neighbours who work from home. Is there any point in approaching Savills when a different dept within Savills is promoting this scheme to the detriment of we as tenants and the Welcome trust who they represent . Anyone know someone with integrity at the Welcome Trust we could speak to ?.This smells. One thing's for sure as someone commented earlier I wont be selling or buying through Savills and nor should anyone else in the area.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Finally objection letters and emails started to appear on RBKC web site.This "vanity project" as one objector described this scheme will now go before Committe and RBKC should probably reserve the main town hall meeting room for this. This is exactly the type of scheme that should be refused based on the new rules . How has it even got this far ?.

    ReplyDelete

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