with thanks to thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com

Comments

DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
send the Dame your information, discretion assured.
Comments are welcome but do not necessarily reflect the view of the Dame.
Offensive/inappropriate comments will be deleted and the poster banned.

Wednesday 21 February 2018

A RESIDENT INPUTS

The Dame at work on her Macbook




Dear Demsoc and CfPS,

Being abroad I was unable to attend your workshop.
I have been a resident of RBKC for more than 50 years and in the last 10 years or so have been a vocal critic of the failure of the ruling Party to connect up with residents. This is in spite of an elaborate expenditure on processes and procedures intended to “consult”.

All too often these procedures are abused in order to broadcast decisions instead of to consult. And opportunities to listen to residents are frequently suppressed or bypassed. For example, the three minutes given to objectors to make their case at Planning Meetings.

The ruling Party (I am a Conservative by the way) also suffers from a weak opposition and the perils of monopoly, which has existed for more than 50 years. All too often resident opinion is ignored and the Leadership deludes itself with hubris and Opinion Polls that show high resident satisfaction ratings. Much of this delusion was brought tumbling down by the Grenfell Tower disaster which laid bare the gulf between Hornton Street and the people.

There is a high degree of voter disillusion with the Council and democracy in Kensington and Chelsea. I hope that your work will not result in another self serving study. There have been too many.

We are now in the internet age and local blogs are a rich source of data mining regarding “issues” and “opinion”. I do not know how expert MCS10 is in analysing such information and extracting relevant input and perspectives. But I would recommend one such blog to you-now in its eighth year


(the blog is published in the Royal Borough - the .co.za address above merely reflects that this is where I currently am)

We established TheHornetsNest blog to expose “The everyday workings of RBKC and those who claim to represent it”. The initiative resulted from resident frustration and anger over certain planning decisions and developed into the exposure of corrupt and improper behaviour in the Council.

The blog was set up after a meeting with the Tax Payers Alliance  to brainstorm our frustrations.

Their Chairman suggested the initiative.  To date, we have had more than 2.4 million unique visitors.

I am quite certain in my mind that the blog has had a profound impact on the climate of opinion in Hornton Street and has produced a number of important changes. We know that it is widely read by the majority of Councillors and is frequently referred to in Council debates.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

Yours faithfully

Donald Cameron

11 comments:

  1. The comments are helpful but probably won't reach the Centre for Public Scrutiny. These "consultations" (carried out by the Conservative-run Democratic Society, not the CfPS), in true Royal Borough tradition, appear to have taken place in conditions of the utmost secrecy and there is no intention to publish who was consulted, or why, or when. The report frankly is already completely discredited.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is worrying. It seems that "consultations" by the consultants are focused on Resident Associations and Kensington Society. Mostly dead wood and a collection of irrelevant people. They will get the same message as the Council's resident satisfaction surveys - everythong is fine. Brilliant Council.

      Unfortunately everyone knows that everything is not fine. The consultants would do well to attend some "live situations" and find out what a disaster of engagement exists in the Royal Borough. For example, the consultants should attend some of the Grenfell hearings. And a few planning committee meetings. Thye should also probe to find out what the current live issues and controversies are and talk to those affected.

      Delete
  2. Evidently, the Leader was very annoyed by this

    ReplyDelete
  3. God bless the Dame in the HornetsNest and its contributors.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Да, Бог да благослови Дамата.

    God bless the Dame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. и майка ви благодари много
      The Dame wonders how this dear reader knew of her Bulgarian origins

      Delete
  5. Mr Cameron....I know where you live....and we Campbell's know how to deal with you Cameron's och aye

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cameron of Locheil22 February 2018 at 05:40

      Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheible sibh feoil

      (Cameron Clan war cry)

      sons of hounds come here and get flesh

      Delete
  6. Mr Cameron. Be careful. Remember the massacre of Glencoe. That is why the Campbells are hated.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Time for dizzy to pack up her M&S twin set and the costume jewelry

    ReplyDelete
  8. I really appreciate your post. Thanks for sharing such useful information. Thanks for sharing amazing information!!!!!!
    [url= https://www.wordsdoctorate.com/services/phd/] Phd Thesis Writing Services [/url]

    ReplyDelete

Comments are your responsibility. Anyone posting inappropriate comments shall have their comment removed and will be banned from posting in future. Your IP address may also be recorded and reported. Persistent abuse shall mean comments will be severely restricted in future.