For several hours drivers of supercars used Sloane Street as a racetrack...
Normal citizens would end up with being charged with dangerous or reckless driving but somehow the police treat these drivers as a protected species.
It is wrong.
with thanks to thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com
Monday 17 February 2020
THE POLICE ALLOW FLAGRANT LAWLESSNESS
What possible excuse can the police have for allowing supercar drivers to take over one of this global city's main retail streets causing fear and danger in the process?
For several hours drivers of supercars used Sloane Street as a racetrack...
Normal citizens would end up with being charged with dangerous or reckless driving but somehow the police treat these drivers as a protected species.
It is wrong.
For several hours drivers of supercars used Sloane Street as a racetrack...
Normal citizens would end up with being charged with dangerous or reckless driving but somehow the police treat these drivers as a protected species.
It is wrong.
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COUNCILLORS WHERE ARE YOU?
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise, no fatalities or smashed shop fronts!
MONEY - MONEY - MONEY - TALKS
This is nuts. Without the photo I would never have believed it. What on earth is self serving and self interested RBKC Cabinet and Leader doing to stop this? They should be taking the lead and making one hell of a fuss
ReplyDeleteI see it is the Gucci Shop. Cllr Campbell shops there
DeleteNothing will change unless the Council makes it a priority to change, and harnesses support from the Resident Associations. It is clear, after years of agitation from the Dame, that the Leader (dizzy Campbell) has no interest in this matter. There is nothing in it for her. She needs to see and experience a force of resident opinion that forces her out of her comfort zone of Sloane Square cocktail parties and lunches with "Wupert"
ReplyDeletePigs will fly
DeleteI wonder what Felicity Buchan MP has to say about such flagrant anti-social behaviour in her constituency?
ReplyDeleteFelicity Buchan MP is rapidly gaining the reputation with Resident Associations of being "awful" and/or "weird". This shoestring Parliamentarian with her majority of 127 needs to raise her game, connect up, and get some respect from residents. Scandals like the super car behaviour in busy London streets is an opportunity for her to shine. Is she bright enough to see the opportunity and grasp the nettle?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it
DeleteTory baggage in the Royal Borough (Dizzy Campbell and weird Buchan) is intolerable
ReplyDeleteThe Dame has been going on about this nuisance for years but no one takes any notice. I thought it was all over the top until one day I happened to be in the area and was horrified by the noise, wild driving and extremely ugly drivers from Middle East countries. A ghastly assault on the senses. It is unfortunate that our political Leaders take no interest in these matters.
ReplyDeleteIs the problem Cllr Tim Taylor-Smith of Stanley? He has long hair, rock star pretensions, and a Ferrari (red) which he likes to pose around in. Is he a supporter of this super car craze for making a nuisance in the Royal Borough?
ReplyDeleteI have not seen Tim racing around London in his Ferrari but he does like parking up in it outside dizzy's house in Sloane Square
DeleteWe have heard he drives his F - No. 11 round Goodwood Revival - very very slowly (to avoid damage!!) - so slowly, we hear he got booed by the crowd! Well of course, its a v v expensive piece of classic car machinery, not some Lambo with crystals. Vroom
ReplyDeleteI always said that this guy T Smith is the poor man's Georgie Best
DeleteMore rubbish in the Hornet. Why do they continue to waste time?
ReplyDeleteIt Kim!
DeleteCllr Taylor-Smith DOES NOT READ the Hornet. EVER.
ReplyDeleteSmith should get over his need for posing and travel by bus like the rest of us. Grenfell survivors need a different mind set in the Council
ReplyDeleteThe hyphenated Taylor-Smith has to be a joke. Two of the most common English names put together in a super common combination
ReplyDeleteCan we stop this mauling of Kim. He's actually a breath of fresh air in terms of housing. This jealous sniping is tedious
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if blogs like the Hornet drew more comment from all sides of opinion. Taylor-Smith surely has friends and supporters and more of them should make their views known. Even better, the Councillor himself should engage in dialogue so that there is less scope for misunderstanding and misrepresentation.
DeleteBut whether or not he and his band of supporters like it, not everyone respects Mr Smith. He rushes around the Borough where some of the poorest people live in his Ferrari and draws attention to himself with rock star long hair that looks ridiculous on a 70 year old man. And there is very little of the common touch in North Kensington from a privileged scion of the Sloane Square set. Perception is 99% of the game and practical politicians understand this. It makes it so much easier to change things and seem relevant if one looks and acts the part of concerned and connected up representative.
"Weird" Buchan also has these drawbacks in spades. There is something in the Tory selection process of RBKC that does not "get it".
Jealous? Of what??
DeleteWell said Scribe - keep scribbling, its good!
DeleteKTS is a multi-millionaire politician happy to shout people down, oh, with a property/accountancy background of course. Perfect RBKC leadership material!!!! AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteI asked for a meeting with Taylor-Smith as I was concerned to know what the Council could do about illegal subletting. The conversation drifted on to the subject of housing and it was clear that this particular councillor knew much about the subject and had some innovative ideas. I found Kim down to earth and rather self deprecating. The fact that he might be a multimillionaire with a passion for classic cars is neither here nor there: we should be pleased that a councillor has been elected with the time and experience to solve problems. To characterise Taylor-Smith as some arrogant rich man rushing around Chelsea in his classic Ferrari is just idiotic. As I said, having met him I found him serious in his attempt to deal with the huge pressures on housing a small borough like K&C has to contend with.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mr Downes
DeleteThe proof is in the pudding and Cllr. Taylor-Smith has prepared for us a rather unimpressive pudding.
DeleteIn a week's time it will be two years since the Council "took back" control of the day-to-day management of its housing stock. It did so on the 1st March 2018.
Have things improved radically? Let's see ...
The repairs service is still questionable. The Council claims significant improvements have been made but anecdotal accounts of poor repairs are ten a penny. Anecdotes are not data but there's a reason the TMO fiddled the figures - the service is so opaque that it's impossible for anyone outside the Council to know the truth. Communal repairs, which by their very nature are out in the open, have, by the Council's own admission, not improved at all. They will apparently be "focusing on them shortly", which does call into question what they've been doing for the last 24 months.
The Council inherited a veritable smorgasbord of contractors from the TMO, many of which has been performing appallingly for years. The vast majority of them are still with us, the Council's strategy being not to deal with poor performance whilst the contracts are current but to simply wait until the contracts lapse before employing someone else with hopefully better results. The monitoring of contracts and contractors is still poor. Many contractors are quite happily still taking the piss on a daily basis safe in the knowledge that there are no real repercussions for long standing and ongoing poor performance.
There has been a significant turnover in staff. Unfortunately many of the most appalling TMO staff are still with us. In many cases those that have decided to move on are those that weren't so totally useless or corrupt that they could actually find themselves another job. So we're still stuck with many of the dregs. To make matters worse some of the Council's new hires are typical of the mediocrity that plagues the social housing sector.
The simple truth is that you ask any random resident whether they have noticed a radical improvement in the manner in which their home is managed in the last two years the answer is inevitably "no". They simply can't tell the difference!
Two years is plenty of time for Kim to have made his "mark". His mark is not particular impressive. He may well mean well but it is very easy to sit at a meeting and make all sorts of promises. It's another thing to deliver. And sadly all mouth and no trousers pretty much sums it up.
Kim and many at the Council have acquired the skill of saying the right thing at the right time given the audience. Otherwise known as telling people what they want to hear. You can only do that for so long. And Kim's time is slowly running out ...
DeleteThank you, Needle
ReplyDeleteNeedle is spot on - residents and council property continue to suffer serious injustice and maladministration at the hand of RBKC. Meanwhile officers are paid handsomely for their 9-5.
ReplyDeleteNeedle at 17.36 and Same Shit at 21.51 have exposed one of the great lessons of our time. There is no place for public housing in modern society because it is administered by people who do not "care". Unlike the vocations (eg nursing) Council bureaucrats (and the crypto bureaucrats in organizations like TMO) come to work in order to collect a pay cheque at the end of the month. Nothing else interests them. These management teams are a breeding ground for inefficiency, disinterest and cynicism.
ReplyDeleteHousing should be left to:
(i) Ownership. Owners look after their homes efficiently
(ii) Private rental. Owners "care" about their profit from rental and will look after their properties efficiently. The market will cap rentals. Legislation prevents slum landlords
(iii) Foundation housing from Charity organisations like Peabody. These organisations are based on vocational values from Founders and employees and provide good quality, low cost housing. Safeguards are required to prevent developers from moving into these organisations and exploiting them. (Consider Sutton Dwellings!!)
Council tenants get low rents but they also get a dreadful quality of life because the public sector landlord is inefficient and does not care. This organisation model is a breeding ground for inefficiency, poor safety, alienation and Grenfell type events. Anyone who has bought a Council property knows how astronomical Service Charges are to cover basic services. This is not exploitation: it is a reflection of hopeless inefficiency.
What is needed is a wholesale transfer of public housing to the charity sector. There has never been more available money in the world looking for something to invest in and there have never been more billionaires looking for ways to give away their money. There is a deal to be done. Governments need to articulate the idea of a mass transfer of public housing and maybe encourage it with a Gong or two.
Mr Downes thinks that Councillor Taylor-Smith knows his stuff re housing. I would like to hear their response........
Could the Dame please forward this to Dominic Cummings?
DeleteYou missed nepotism. It was rampant at the TMO. It has made a come back of the Council. Some recent appointments are decidedly iffy.
DeleteHi Scribe
Deletefew questions for you, if you would be so kind:
1. Are you a council tenant or leaseholder?
2. Are you a private owner in a £1m+ property?
3. Do you have any experience of RBKC management?
4. Do you have any friends in the RBKC property system, either tenant or leaseholder?
5. Do you have any experience of housing trusts?
6. Are you aware of the protections afforded to council tenants and leaseholders by government preferential to housing trusts?
@Scribe.
DeleteYou are quite correct that the biggest issue with the Council's management of the properties it owns is that most of the staff simply do not care. Kim has not changed that and neither has Doug. And it is unlikely they ever will. If they even have the will or desire to do so.
Sadly I'm not sure your assessment of either the private rental sector or "charitable" housing is entirely accurate. My own experience with both the private rental sector and the "charitable" housing sector is that they are often no better, some times far worse.
The real problem is that housing in this country has become a spiv's game. There are spivs at the Council, spiv landlords and spiv charities. All abusing housing for their own ends. And I doubt that's going to change any time soon.
Dear 11.45
Delete(i) have been
(ii) yes
(iii) yes
(iv) yes
(v) no
(vi) no
Hope this helps!!
For all the failings of Councillor Taylor-Smith, we could have a lot worse. Just look at all the other councillors in RBKC and I think you will see what I mean.
ReplyDeleteKTS is approachable and engaging, from a middling, strong family background who has done well in business.
Long haired gent in his 70's
DeleteEveryone else is even worse it not what I'd call a ringing endorsement.
DeleteKim may well mean well. I have no idea. I can't see inside his head. But, as Needle pointed out, he's been doing this for two years and real improvements are scarce.
How much time do Kim and RBK&C need? The TMO was such a shit show it really shouldn't take anyone very long to noticeably improve matters but he has clearly failed to do so. Things are much the same as they were three years ago, before Grenfell, when Robert Black was still ruling the roost.
Kim appears to believe that he's delivering the RBK&C equivalent of the Marshall Plan. Although that delivered rather more quickly than RBK&C ever will.
Kim can deliver when he wants to.
DeleteJust ask the residents of the Cremorne Estate how long it took for him, Doug and all the ex-TMO staff working at the Council to have that stupid bench behind Hilda Keene's flat put back following the coup they pulled at the RA's AGM.
They can do all sorts of wonderful things and turn a blind eye to anything and everything. As long as you know the right people and scratch the right backs.
This borough is as rotten as it ever was.
Nice to know the Council have their priorities right.
DeleteKeeping Daniel Moylan's old housekeeper happy = extremely important.
Making sure your contractors do what they're supposed to and don't bugger up some of your fire safety improvements - not at all important.
Kim at work?
Definitely. Kim's well aware. As is Doug. The fact that neither of them has taken any action to stop Dominic Davies and his staff from putting a bench back in a garden where no one can actually use it just so that they can please one resident with whom they are particularly friendly and who appears to have the ear of at least one Chelsea Riverside Ward Councillor says much about the state of the Council. It is not a pretty picture and if either of them had a single ounce of integrity it wouldn't be happening.
DeleteThe TMO's questionable practices were always the Council's questionable practices. The mistake was in believing the guff that the Council were ignorant of what the TMO were up to. Not only did the Council know but they clearly were perfectly happy with it from 1996 to 2018. All they've done is carry on the farce from where the TMO left it.
DeleteResident misery is their bread and butter - it continues to keep them in employment - why change a thing!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Scribe for thought provoking ideas about housing. But that is all they are. Ideas. Cllr Taylor-Smith has to operate within the guidelines and constraints of the present structure.
ReplyDeleteMr Downes says that the Councillor is approachable and understands housing. A number of commentators (who seem to be speaking from direct experience) say that Taylor-Smith took over a mess but has made no difference after 2 years of being in charge. This is not an unusual situation - people in senior positions with a good grasp of the situation are often not "doers" and lack the skills to follow through.
I have no idea if the comments here are accurate. But assuming that they are, my annual staff report on Cllr Taylor-Smith would say something along the lines "needs to try harder" and "should hire a tough operations Director who does not take prisoners".
Tough Operations Directors are uncomfortable people to deploy. They are generally not nice people. And organisations can only tolerate them for short periods of time. But they make the changes and get the job done. Bureaucracies like the TMO are notoriously difficult to reform.
Retired Chief Executive, you have hit the nail on the head.
DeleteThe problem is precisely that the Council is, at best, simply trying to reform the TMO. It is not in any way shape or form trying to actually replace it.
That is not what Kim and Doug are telling everyone of course but it is what they are doing.
Actions speak louder than words and we can all see what they're up to - keeping hold of poor and underperforming staff and contractors alike, turning a blind eye to the kind of questionable and morally dubious behaviour that characterised the TMO and focusing on anything other than actually providing a half decent service.
Given this I don't rate the Council's chances of any success. I suspect that in another two years' time residents will be reporting how little the management of their homes has actually changed, let alone improved, since 1st March 2020 (and the 1st March 2018 before that).
Sounds like Cllr Taylor-Smith needs to hire ex Cllr Moylan to sort out the TMO
ReplyDeleteCllr. Moylan is part of the problem. See the shenanigans involving his housekeeper on the Cremorne Estate. Knowing Cllr. Moylan gets you special favours from Council staff.
DeleteKTS is a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor Jailhouse Rock but then again, who wouldn't be? But he still is not getting it.
ReplyDeleteIt is good that they want to get fire doors fitted in all flats but that is unrealistic and when are central alarm systems, fire extinguishers and sprinklers going to be provided in all large tower blocks?
Why has an unelected resident of Campden Houses who never comes here been somehow appointed as some sort of spokesman for residents?
Most of us in the north of the borough, outside Lancaster West might as well not exist as far as this council is concerned . Housing staff are only interested in collecting rent. Serious issues of both poor maintenance and antisocial behaviour in properties are still being ignored.
Goldring is a decent man with honourable intentions but he is not helped by poor and inadequate staff set in old TMO ways. Rachel Sharp must he on something if she imagines that RBKC have a good standard of resident engagement and communication.
As for Daniel Moylan, just like Rock FM he wanted to get rid of most council residents. Remember his meetings with Peter Bingle?
Goldring is not honourable. Goldring is in the habit of simply ignoring anything he doesn't like the look of. Goldring actually does a bloody good impression of an ostrich. And Goldring is being paid handsomely to do so. Honour doesn't get a look in.
Delete@02.23 Quite agree with your summary.
ReplyDeleteWith projected Housing Management staff costs projected at around £16M for 2019/2020 (300 staff) they are all laughing. How does that figure compare to past KCTMO annual staff cost?
Goldring no doubt has a 5 year plan and will coin it in until then. Bad news for leaseholders, while he puts up and passes off new additional charges to leaseholders.
Personal agendas and self promotion abound; the unelected resident from Campden Houses must only speak for himself, trouble is we hear Goldring listens to him. Similarly another unelected resident from Portobello pops up from time to time when it suits her agenda - supported by Head of Engagement Iago Griffith.
How low can this go?
Housing Management cost of £16 million and 300 staff is an important figure. The first thing I would do is some bench marking. Compare with some com-parables in private and charity estates like Peabody Trust. Needs a professional analysis to take account of factors like out sourcing and in house. But fundamental data for management to drive change. Maybe RBKC is average, good, or terrible. It would be nice to know.
DeleteAlways important to identify "best in class"
Doug and Kim appear to be following the TMO blueprint for resident engagement: surround yourself with residents that are so sycophantic that they will say the sky is green if you ask them to and ignore everyone else.
DeleteResidents simply want a half-decent housing service. They want their properties cleaned, repairs carried out, communal facilities maintained, anti-social behaviour dealt with. If the Council were able to provide any of that without repeated prompting/complaints there would be no need for the 10+ meetings a month that are achieving little or nothing at all.
@8:16.
DeleteThe TMO's management fee was typically about £12 million, although it had been cut down to about £10 million in recent years.
It's possible the housing department under Doug is doing more than the TMO, but a 60% difference (£16 million vs £10 million) is a bit hard to stomach whoever way you look at it. An explanation is definitely in order.
Iago Griffith is the perfect example of nepotism at work at RBK&C.
DeleteIago is clearly so out of his depth that it is hard to believe that he was the best candidate the Council found to replace that bloke from TPAS.
The Council went from employing someone with a long history of meaningful resident engagement working for one of the country's most prominent housing specialists to someone who's previous job appears to have been as a planning officer in Lambeth, directly involved in a notorious regeneration project and held in low regard by the residents affected.
Iago's employment can only be the result of someone at the Council doing a mate a favour. There's no other reasonable explanation.
RBK&C - first class nepotism at work.
RBKC - January 2020
ReplyDelete2020/21 ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE BUDGET
MANAGEMENT COST £16,795 MILLION (29%) OF TOTAL
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