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DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
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Wednesday 20 May 2020

CINEMA NON VERITE!

Dear Dame,

Yesterday RBKC held its second Microsoft Teams major planning committee meeting.

This was to rubber-stamp the developer’s latest amendments to the controversial Kensington Odeon site.

It seems strange to me that this is being sold as some kind of victory for the greater good.
AND it feels disingenuous for the developer to spin that what is to be built is somehow the result of genuinely listening  to the local community and to a campaign led by local activists, amenity groups and residents to Save the 1926 Kensington Odeon (of which all that remains
is the façade)

Certainly, A new cinema is being built (the latest variant is 1000 M2 less than previously agreed) and not on the site of the original (despite misleading images in the press and on the hoardings outside the site for over a year) but next door under the former post office.


Misleading Imagery On Building Hoarding
for over a year
Now, we are told that this space will be a brasserie or restaurant (although this is not conditioned) and I suspect that the developer will use this as the entrance foyer to the luxury apartments as per imagery in the Savills property brochure below which looks distinctly like an apartment lobby to me......


Savills Brochure Image


There are socially rented units in this scheme, but 30 instead of the 70 + recommended in RBKC and GLA guidelines and the council has granted additional height and square footage to the developer in order to achieve this.

We should not forget that our council has been complicit in the demise of what was a much-loved community asset and a significant landmark building.

One former councillor who deserves a special mention here is Daniel Moylan who accepted regular hospitality from Peter Bingle of Terrapin Communications (the former head of PR for the previous developer) and then went on BBC television to call for the cinema to be demolished.


He ignored the wishes and petition of close to 30,000 residents and every relevant amenity society including \\

  • the Kensington Society, 
  • ESSA, 
  • The Cinema Theatre Association, 
  • The BFI; 
  • SAVE Britain’s Heritage 
  • The 20C Society 
  • The Hitchcock Foundation and 
  • Opera Holland Park, amongst others

Even before a final decision was reached yesterday there were already articles in the press saying architect's Squire and Partners are finally able to build out the scheme that they designed 15 years ago LINK a scheme which is totally out of step with demand, will add yet more empty luxury flats to an already overcrowded Kensington market place whilst
simultaneously undermining the character of our community.

This was the local cinema of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Michael Powell and Richard Curtis.

The campaign to save it was supported by Royalty and celebrities including Dame Kristin Scott
Thomas, Jeremy Irons, Sir Ian McKellen, Zoe Wannamaker, Sir Patrick Stewart, David Suchet,
Brian May, Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Grant, Lord Putnam and Benedict Cumberbatch

And a  constellation of stars including Madonna, Emily Blunt, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon,Ewan McGregor, Jonny Depp, Elizabeth Hurley, Kate Winslett and Dustin Hoffman attended premieres and watched movies here privately…….


None of the aforementioned support what was pushed through yesterday.


6 comments:

  1. A tale of a council out of touch with the community it is supposed to represent...... just what we need more empty luxury flats across the road from...... empty luxury flats

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  2. Sad that the council couldn’t work to save Hitchcock’s Cinema

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  3. Extraordinary that despite their lengthy trail of unhealthy developer alliances and disastrous decisions, the council can declare victory on the Odeon Kensington!

    RBK&C should be ashamed of the way in which they have failed to protect this important Art Deco cinema from the wrecking ball and the opportunity they have missed for it to become a valued community and arts centre.

    The acceptance of well below the recommended social housing unit level - despite permitting additional development bulk - demonstrates the extent to which the council has leant in the direction of the developers, away from the wishes and benefit of the community which elected them.

    This is not a victory; it is a tragedy

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  4. How many seats will the new cinema have?

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  5. So the Labour Member of the Planning Committee ( Cllr. Mohammed Bakhtiar) also voted for the latest 'revision' of the Odeon Planning permission . Bought off by the increase of Social Housing Units on the development from 20 to 25 perhaps ? Though if Kensington Planning Policy was, for once, applied there should actually be 70 Social Housing units. And doesn't Labour policy call for Social Housing to be provided 'on site' and not in an 'outer arrondissement' ?

    One wonders if Bakhtiar discussed his 'sell out' with his de facto boss Emma Dent Coad ? For although he gets the Responsibility Allowance it is she who makes the decisions . And, as in most other areas ,the Labour Moderates have been purged from Planning as well.
    So it will be interesting to see if any of the other 'Emmaites' seek to get Mayor Khan to call in the 'Revision' Probably not - Emma & Sina are not close to the moderate Labour Mayor of London and far more interested in the views of their friends in Edwardes Square than in the homeless of RBKC.

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  6. Ain't got a clue has he ?

    ReplyDelete

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