NOT SO ANGELIC

 

mmm...part time capitalist

A disastrous Thatcher policy was the sale of council houses. 

5 million tenants took up the right to buy. 

It radically diminished the housing stock and allowed tenants to make a massive capital gain off the the back of taxpayers...the rightful owners.

Whether Angela Rayner owes capital gains is a moot point.

What is not is why a diehard left wing politician (who likes to throw 'mate' about in parliament) so cynically abused right to buy.

The Labour opposition at that time was rightly furious about the sale of social housing stock.

The Dame brands Rayner a hypocrite.

ABOLITION NOT SILLY AWARDS

 

If the Council was serious about helping businesses it would come clean about the 10% it gets from Business Rates.

These stupid awards(one is for demonstrating diversity!) do nothing to assist struggling small businesses.

Business Rates strangle enterprise. 

The Conservatives have had years to make reforms but have done nothing. Joe Powell tells the Dame Labour will urgently review this pernicious and unfair tax.

Let's hope it does. 

The Dame knows of one well-known and highly regarded jewellery retailer paying £77,000 a year in Business Rates.

POPULAR KENSINGTON PRIEST PROMOTED

 

You don't need to be Catholic to feel great affection for Monsignor Jim Curry. 

Since 2008 Father Jim has been Parish Priest of Our Lady of Victories in Kensington. 

In all those years he has gained a reputation for his wisdom, kindness and Irish good humour. 

Pope Francis has now appointed Father Jim as an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Westminster.

The Dame sends congratulations to Father Jim and hopes he won't be completely deserting Kensington.

NO STYLE:NO SUBSTANCE

 

The Dame is of a generation when leaders of Great Britain looked the part. 

This trio look as if they are on the way to one of Grant Shapps's 'Get Rich Quick' symposiums in Las Vegas.

It's all so sad...

BRING DOWN STEPHEN WATSON!

 

Common touch

This is Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. 

In short order, he moved GMC out of special measures.

He may not have a degree in criminology but he does have a high degree of leadership quality.

He comes from a service family used to the leadership of men.

Very different from the incumbent here in London, Mark Rowley...a genuine product of leftist and useless Common Purpose.

        Common Purpose

RISHI'S BOLD MOVE!

 

Mr Gove has encouraged Mr Sunak to make a 'bold move' on housing. 

The result? 

The autumn statement will include a proposal to increase the stamp duty level from £250,000 to £300,000....what a puny effort to inject energy into the housing market.

This is all he can afford. Had he been a bit more careful in splashing out £70 billion during COVID and £70 billion on HS2 link there might be greater scope for real tax cuts.

This government revels in wasting our money.

The Dame plans to move from her 15-bedroom penthouse in the poorer part of Holland Park to a more compact bijou residence in Knightsbridge: she can't. The stamp duty would hit her too hard. Maybe the Dame's example is too extreme but a proper cut in stamp duty would encourage sensible downsizing.

Another initiative which will blow back in all our faces is the move to drive out non-doms.

Non-doms contribute a huge amount to the dynamism of the UK economy. 

Driving them into the arms of competitor economies sounds even more daft.

MET OFFICERS TELLS BRITISH JEWISH PERSON NOT TO UPSET DEMONSTRATORS!

 

This is the most extraordinary and unpleasant interaction between a not-very-bright Met officer and a British citizen. 

This British citizen has just left his synagogue and is trying to go home. 

In his way is a Palestinian supporting demonstration with various banners with anti-Jewish slogans.

The policeman tells the British citizen that if he continues to try to cross the road he will be arrested for potentially upsetting the demonstrators.

 Mr Falter said: “I was identifiable as a Jew but was otherwise like any other Londoner.

I was not part of any demonstration and was not wearing any stickers or carrying any signs, flags or the like.

“I was exercising my right to walk around my home city as a Jewish Londoner. A year ago, that would not have been controversial. But now, it is.

“Despite being told repeatedly that London is safe for Jews when these marches are taking place, my interactions with police officers last Saturday show that the Met believes that being openly Jewish will antagonise the anti-Israel marchers and that Jews need protection, which the police cannot guarantee."

The Dame has commented about lousy Met leadership: this is an example. It makes one ashamed to be British.

THE FLEETWOOD MAC TRIBUTE BAND

 

These are Emma Dent Coad's 'Inde's': not the Fleetwood Mac tribute band. The one on the left thinks he's in Hamas

One doesn't want to be rude but they look really rather sinister. Is the one right known to readers?

TOP GUY GETS RECOGNISED

 Well done, Ian. 

It is not just the present residents of Sutton who are grateful to you but those who come after. 

Without you, a prime piece of our community would have fallen prey to developers.

 

 

IN PRAISE OF OUR STREET CLEANERS

unceasing commitment  

Here's a public service team out and about on our streets whatever the weather might throw at them.

The Council's street cleaners are an example to all. 

They are dedicated and hardworking.

Their job is made horrible by those who allow their dogs to foul the roads and who dump rubbish everywhere.

Whenever the Dame sees one of our street cleaners she will always stop and thank them. 

We could make their lives easier if we showed them some consideration...

GROW UP POLICE NOT GROW TREES

This was sent to the Hornet's Nest. 

People in the Borough are living fear of being attacked on the streets or their homes broken into.

The continual complaint is that local police are rarely seen on the streets. One reason could be that they are busy learning how to plant trees.....

If crime was at a low level this sort of community relations nonsense could be considered harmless: that is not the case. This sort of publicity gives a very wrong impression...an impression of levity in the performance of duties. 

Chief Constable Watson of Great Manchester Police would come down heavily on this sort police pr: it really is unfunny.

The Met really does have some serious issues not least of which is that serious leadership is lacking.

DARK FORCES CAPTURE KENSINGTON LABOUR: THE LIES OF THE EXTREMIST FACTION

This comment has been escalated due to its pertinence. As usual, THINK has written a forensic piece about the KLP people behind the smearing and lies. It's an important read if you want a deep analysis.

THINK

? KEAR?

Some recent comments about both the planning situation of the Chelsea Sutton Estate and the character of Ian Henderson himself are so off-beam that it is difficult to know where to start :

1. The vast majority of the Sutton Estate was NOT listed before Ian's campaign began. All the rest of Chelsea was already safe with 'Conservation Area' status but the Council had colluded with 'social' landlord Clarion to neglect & then knock down the estate, built originally to house the poor of Chelsea. If you look at the plans submitted & recommended by officers, it was intended to build a nasty new development FOR SALE  (marketed to overseas Eurotrash with no links to the area) 

Clarion would then have been free to spend the millions it received from the development in modernising its estates elsewhere in the country and rewarding its overpaid executives for sacrificing the working-class community of Chelsea for their own gain. What few replacement 'social housing units which were to be provided to give cover for the sell-off of the historic Sutton Estate were all pokey and North facing ( so poor that they could not have been sold on the open market). 

In saving the historic and architecturally significant Sutton Estate , Ian Henderson performed a huge public service for which future generations should thank him ( lt is a crying shame that the only recognition that Ian has received was a third rate BEM gong- when actually a knighthood would not have been more appropriate )
2/ As for the unfounded slurs about Ian's character that have now once again been stirred up by 'the forces of darkness' in North Kensington,these are from the same source that spread rumours that former Cllr Judith Blakeman was an alcoholic,  former Cllr. Atkinson enjoyed cocaine during Council meetings and former Cllr. Healy was not only housebound but senile. There is not, and never has been, an ounce of truth in those colourful allegations but they served to break up the effective Labour Group and local branches of North Kensington Labour Party that served the borough for decades.
Luckily, led by Joe Powell & Monica Press, the Kensington Labour Party had been saved from itself. The 'Forces of Darkness' have been comprehensively defeated and, except for a few pathetic and ineffective Councillors who will cling to office till the next round of Councillor selections, been driven out of the Party and public life.
At the General Election, both Kensington and Chelsea stand poised to elect sane, effective and conscientious Labour Members of Parliament who will at last give the whole of the Borough a political leadership worthy of our magnificent Royal Borough.

ST LUKE'S FOOTBALL PITCHES FOR OUR KIDS: IAN HENDERSON

Ian Henderson is a community activist and local resident. 

Before becoming a councillor Ian spearheaded the campaign to stop Sutton Estate from being destroyed by Affinity Sutton.

Dear Dame 

There has been a gross abuse of the pitches at St Luke’s. 

I notice comments referring to the £250k a year salary paid to Peter Bundey, the CEO of GLL. 

GLL manages our leisure facilities and is a charity. I was very surprised a charity could reward its boss so lavishly!

The assets GLL manages on our behalf are not there to provide high salaries for Mr Bundey and colleagues. 

The cynic might say that tennis and other corporate bookings are favoured by GLL because they provide a lush income stream….something that kids from local social housing like Sutton, Guinness and Lewis, Flood St and Worlds End cannot. 

It is good to see a start has been made by Cllr Will and team to return St Luke’s for free use by local children. 

This is what the Church,who own the land, and the local community want.

I often visit St Luke’s. 

Most times it seems to be booked by corporates. There is nothing sadder than seeing kids with footballs looking sadly through the fences as they wait for a rare space to become available.

Back in 2016 I was very involved with Kings United. This was a team of locals who had been struggling to get some funds and practice pitches. 

Fortunately, Ed Cadogan came along and supported us with a £5,000 donation. Even in those days, the only bookings offered were at 10.00 pm at night! On the one occasion they did get on the St Luke’s pitches one player was spotted by Chelsea and signed for them. To improve his game he moved to the Dutch League, Volendan.

from Sloane Square magazine

What was brilliant was the older players coached the younger players.

Cllr Will and the Parks Team seem to have made a start but with Spring and Summer on the horizon, she needs to lay down the law to GLL about ensuring our kids get priority over money-making corporates abusing our scarce resources. 

Tennis coaching companies should not be allowed to book the pitches at peak times when kids need space to play football: it's very simple...our community assets are for our kids not money grabbing corporates.

Best wishes

Ian Henderson

WHAT A TOE WRAGG!

Toe Wragg

This is William Wragg, a deputy chairman of the all powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

William decided to give a Grindr friend the contact details of certain parliamentary colleagues. That friend then sent salacious images to those 'certain' MPs. 

What were Wragg and friend hoping for? 

Some wiser MPs saw the danger: the thicker ones got caught dripping in Wragg's honey.

Why would Wragg do this? He sounds an absolute shit. Now he plays the victim but the Dame suspects his motives were far murkier and devious.

True to form Rishi has decided to let him retain the whip: others think he needs a bloody good whipping.

RUNNING SCARED?

 NOTE: This has been a crude comment about the outstanding Ian Henderson. If the extremists on KLP cannot comment without the use of F***K they cannot expect their rants to be published: the Dame adheres to high standards in political debate and expects others to follow her example.

THis Is North Kensington

 

North Kensington residents campaigning for positive social change – in our community, nearby and beyond

How the Stalinist clique hate From the Hornets Nest and This is North Kensington.

The nasty, personal attacks on THINK come from those who claim nobody reads it yet they seem to be compulsive readers!

How they must be boiling with rage and fury at the return of Monica Press. THINK

We need to forgive them. 

They know that their plot to take over Kensington Labour has been an abject failure: mind you, when you come across the dimwits now running KLP it's no great surprise. 

The extreme Left has been consigned to the dustbin of history and they hate it.

Can you imagine this incompetent lot running/ruining our lives?

The Dame is ever modest. 

THINK does something that separates it from FTHN....it campaigns intelligently and forensically.

When THINK comes under this sort of attack it must know it is being taken very seriously indeed.

LONG LIVE THIS IS NORTH KENSINGTON!

RBKC 'CONSULTANTS' PLAN DEATH OF PORTOBELLO MARKET

Portobello Market is a unique economic ecosystem that has, over many decades, become a world-leading visitor destination.

A 2009 Report into RBKC’s Visitor Economy was conducted by Acorn Consulting Partnership.  

It found that - of specifically named destinations in the Borough, Portobello Road Market was by far the best-liked among Londoners! 

Harrods beat it only among visitors from elsewhere in the UK and overseas. Portobello Market performed better among all audiences than any named Museum in the Borough - such as the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

In its list of “Key Issues” identified by its Visitor Strategy analysis, the same Report states that “There are also concerns that large numbers of tourists to areas such as Portobello Market cause the decline of good quality local services in favour of souvenir shops.” 

PLEASE READ

These issues were key in 2009; so why are they now entirely absent from the current Report?  Subjectively; there’s an impression that the numbers of visitors continue to grow. So where are comparable, updated statistics on visitor attitudes available now - 15 years later?

The Culture Plan published in 2020 makes little specific mention of Portobello Market and makes no similarly quantified analysis of its cultural value. However, it does state as an outcome: (B8) RBKC’s intention “To promote Market trading on Portobello and Golbourne Roads, as well as other market sites throughout the Borough. 

Similarly, it is no coincidence that other than an image of Portobello Road to the south; so without Market stalls) on its front cover, RBKC’s new Local Economic Strategy “Live, Work and Learn” makes no mention at all of Portobello Market as an integral part of the Portobello economic unit. 

The sole exception is a generic reference to “Support the development of street markets through partnership with Traders’ Associations; seeking to maintain a diverse and vibrant offer to attract visitors and continue the success of these unique parts of the Borough.”

The above contrasts sharply with the Council’s Report on Kensington High Street . Action 37 of this Report specifies that it’s “Place-shaping programme and Action Plan support the delivery of Economic Strategy Objectives; balancing different uses with the needs of residents; jobseekers; businesses and visitors. Why do the scope and recommendations of the Portobello place-shaping programme not lead with similar economically driven objectives? 

You can request a link to this report by emailing business@rbkc.gov.uk

What analysis has been done by the teams overseeing Economic Development; Strategy and Visitor Strategy to ensure any proposed changes to Portobello Road align with those Strategies? …."

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY

 

Well done, Cllr Emma Will and her Parks Team! 

The transformation of the St Luke's Play area in Chelsea is complete.....a credit to Cllr Will and her excellent Parks Team. 

The area surrounding St Luke's is densely populated with housing lacking outside play space.....that is why St Luke's is such a vital community asset.

Cllr Will and the team are now addressing how the courts/pitches can be used in such a way as to maximise football play space at key times. 

A good start has been made.

Getting children and teens off their screens and into the open air is a must. 

Football is a sport that maximises the space and teaches young people teamwork

Good work, Cllr Will and her very dedicated Parks Team.

THAMES WATER: THE THIEVING AND UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF CAPITALISM

Year in, year out, shareholders led by Chinese, Middle Eastern and Canadian investors, sucked the life out of Thames Water all done through a tax dodging Cayman Isle company creating a zero liability for corporation tax.

Not just shareholders feasted off a captive customer audience: the grossly incompetent TW board joined in snouts firmly in the trough.

The banks and brokers advising TW knew exactly what was going on. 

They created the structure that allowed this legalised corporate rape. No monopoly utility should ever have been allowed to go private.

We are all victims, especially the residents inundated by raw sewage just a few years ago.

The big bloodsucking foreign funds now want customers to pay 40% more in bills. They need to be told to bugger off. 

The government should put the company into administration now. The banks and brokers who floated TW need to be named and shamed.

Crucial Stats

£1.16bn Dividends paid by the utility from 2006 to 2015

 £10.2bn Borrowings by March 2016. 

In 2007 they were £3.6bn £260m Pensions deficit by March 2016

A POMPOUS COUCILLOR MOVES ON

There are hard-working Conservative councillors who take their role very seriously...Cllrs Will, McVeigh, Addenbrooke, Thallasites, Kemahli, Taylor-Smith and Lindsay spring to mind but there are many others.

A LOCAL VIEW ON LOCAL MANAGING AGENTS

Sometimes a Hornet comments so succinctly about a topic the Dame is forced to elevate it.

Here is on such....

Grist to their greed money making mill!

Dear Dame,

Congratulations on all the hits that your blog is now getting. 

This increase in your website's traffic should put the wind-up all the parliamentary hopefuls in Kensington.

Felicity Buchan MP has a circle to square that will prove impossible.

The Tory Party is in reality, and has always been, on the side of the wealthy, greedy Freeholder (known in Law as the Lessor) and their Managing Agents. 

The last vestiges of feudalism resides in the psyche of every Tory politician. These Tories pay lip service to their constituents about the morality of greedy Freeholders, and their even greedier Managing Agents, fleecing Leaseholders with onerous service charge bills and extortionately high percentage management and supervision fees on top.

There is nothing that a Managing Agent loves more than a building being neglected by its Freeholder. When major works can be put off no longer, these Managing Agents can recover from Leaseholders the costs of the works which need to be done which, in the case of neglected buildings is always expensive. Managing Agents then make their money by levying Management Fees, Surveyors' Fees and Works' Supervision Fees as a percentage of the total major works' bill. The more that a building is neglected the greater the cost to the Leaseholder to put things right and the greater the profit for the Managing Agent. The hypocrisy of property mismanagement.

These Managing Agents are Past Masters at keeping a close on eye on Tribunal decisions about the "reasonableness" of management fees. They rub their grasping hands with glee if they find a Tribunal decision declares a higher than usual percentage management fee as "reasonable." Accordingly, Managing Agents increase the Leaseholders' Management Fee contribution for major works and point out to any Leaseholder who complains that the Tribunal has held that percentage uplift to be a "reasonable" one. These Managing Agents know that most Leaseholders do not want to go anywhere near a Court or a Tribunal and impose these charges in a morally corrupt way.

Joe Powell's Labour Party does not escape unscathed. Between 1997 and 2010, the Labour Party paid lip service to this situation and introduced "Commonhold." This was not a decent solution to the plight of Leaseholders. It was more about protecting the Freeholders' interests. By the time Labour was shafted in 2010, only one or two blocks of flats had taken advantage of the so called Commonhold reforms. Why did Labour shaft Leaseholders at the expense of Freeholders? Many Freeholders in Kensington are landed gentry.

In Scotland, the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004 created a framework for each leaseholder to own their flat freehold with a share of the common parts of the building being collectively owned (including a share of the airspace on any tenement's roof.) Any landlord wishing to be compensated for loss of the freehold interest was entitled to twenty times the yearly ground rent and had a limited amount of time to make that claim from flat owners. Most landlords were untraceable and very few Leaseholders in Scotland had to pay anything. As a result of these reforms the owners of many flats in Scotland have carried out major works and have had some control over costs, programming of works and outcomes.

Respectfully, My Dear Dame,

A victim

THE DAME MARCHES ON: MARCH=140,000 VIEWS AND HITS OUT AT MANAGING AGENTS

 

 click to enlarge

Every reader has a story to tell about a K&C managing agent. 

Some are lazy....some work hard and are honest... many are downright corrupt.

'we hear but we don't listen'!

The Dame wants to hear your story about your Kensington & Chelsea managing agent. 

When she has all the evidence she will be submitting it to Felicity Buchan MP and Joe Powell, the Labour challenger.

It's tough enough being a leaseholder without having a low-quality managing agent ruining your life and your bank balance.

For too long leaseholders have been prey for the greedy and dishonest.

Labour says they will overhaul the system...let's see....

COUNCIL SPONSORED VANDALISM OF A PIECE OF HISTORIC LONDON

 

This magnificent example of Art Deco style and architecture made the Odeon in High St Ken outstanding and quite unique.

Below is what happened when New Delhi based Lodha got its greedy hands on the building.

So much for the redevelopment respecting and retaining the facade of the original building. 

What we have actually ended up with is a half-hearted pastiche.

The Council has a Conservation team. 

The Dame's experience with the team is a tedious obsession with the minute internal details of a development. 

Yet it allowed developers to tear down wonderful internal features like this.

It would have been more honest had the Council agreed demolition of the building rather than pretending to residents it would be preserved....what an insult to us all.

THE GREATEST QUESTION OF ALL

As we move towards Easter the Dame thought she would address a question of greater import to our lives than Cllr Isse’s switch from Corbynism to Toryism in a New York Minute.

Tom Vaughan is a Kensington resident and co-founder of Juliana’s. 

He is also a descendant of Cardinal Vaughan, founder of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

It is unusual for a businessman to write a book that makes you stop and think: Tom has done so in Hope and the Hedgehog.

It’s a small book packing a big punch and it certainly got the Dame thinking.

Is Hope and the Hedgehog about religion? 

Tom says it’s not…”First, there is a fundamental question, a primary choice facing all of humanity  -  without exception  -  before religion of any persuasion comes into the frame. 

This choice is a binary one separating faith from religion. Put simply it is this: either there is a creator (for some, God by another name) which would arguably give life a purpose, or there is not, and our existence is nothing more than a random cosmic accident with no discernible purpose. 

It is one or other of these two choices, there is nowhere else to go.’

 

The Dame really recommends Hope and the Hedgehog to readers. It is rare for the Dame to stray away from mundane matters of local life but this book by a local resident is worth buying.

It is stocked by Amazon LINK TO BUY and Blackwells and Waterstones

IN DEFENCE OF LAMMY

 

Corbyn's people soon savaged David Lammy for his sane and sensible assessment of Thatcher. She had something else lacking in today's leaders.....courage.

As a 'young thing' many years ago the Dame was ordered to go to Birmingham New St and collect Mrs Thatcher. She was then 12 years away from becoming PM.

Arriving in  Coventry Mrs T was greeted by a horde of  Socialist Workers Group 'activists'.

They swore and cursed at her.  The Dame tried to commiserate saying how awful the experience was. 

Her reply and look are forever etched on the Dame's mind. "My dear, when they shout and scream at me it means they are frightened of me."

Leaders of today want to be loved by all: it just doesn't work.

WHY COUNCILS ARE GOING BUST

 

laughing all the way to the bank

The Dame has been looking at Judge Khan's WEIRD JUDGMENT which has enriched Mrs Wright-Turner to the tune of £4.6 million...tax free

The press has been guided to believe she suffered PTSD as a result of working on the post-impact of Grenfell: but that is not the case.

This man below will have suffered. 

Mrs Wright-Turner was clearly a nightmare employee who should never have been given the £125,000 a year job in the first place. So, Human Resources has two questions to answer. 

*Why Wright-Turner ever got appointed

*Why so they buggered up the dismissal process. 

The result is that every H&F resident will have to chip in £25 so Mrs Wright-Turner can lead a life of luxury. 

No doubt she retains a platinum plated pension.

COMMUNICATIONS DEPT 'FORGETS' ANOTHER MEETING!

 

Click on image 

This is North Kensington always has a humorous touch which the Dame appreciates. 

Here's another important meeting that got 'overlooked'!

Read THINK  HERE

LEAVE PORTOBELLO MARKET ALONE! CRITICAL MEETING TONIGHT

 

IT''S TONIGHT

Dame,

This tale is long. The Dame’s readers will remember that, despite strong public support for it, RBKC has repeatedly tried to destroy Portobello Market, 

Shortly before COVID-19, an RBKC Culture officer appeared. Efforts were made to advise her on local culture. A draft Culture Report duly appeared. It lacked an explanation of culture. No more was heard of it. The officer remains in post.

Consultants appeared and consulted; discovering that almost everyone loves Portobello Market. It must be supported and otherwise left alone. The consultants disappeared.

Meanwhile; one summer Saturday, a self-professed estate agent emerged from the market Gin Palace to tell a market trader: that he’d soon be gone. There was an agreement with RBKC to put restaurant and pub tables & chairs on the street. The trader said it wouldn’t happen because he was a legally protected, licensed, Street Trader. (See the London Local Authorities Act 1990 etc.). The estate agent fled and the trader advised his colleagues.

No one was surprised. For years, local commercial property owners have met to plot higher rental incomes from ridding Portobello of street trading. A 1.5km long string of restaurants & bars is the answer. Like the Highland Clearances, the poor will be evicted; so the already wealthy will become richer. This appeals to RBKC.

In the summer of 2022, FTHN reported that: under the auspices of Cllr Faulks, a rash of table & chairs licence applications appeared; each on a market pitch. Each met strong objections; each was ultimately rejected. Cllr Faulks disappeared.

Then for a year, Cllr Kemahli trooped around Portobello trying to find ways of improving the Market into oblivion. He gave up.

In late January 2023, a resident spotted notices of 3 Market public meetings in a single day - on RBKC’s website. RBKC had forgotten to inform the public of the meetings. FTHN reported the details. Within days, 300+ people appeared. At the morning meeting an officer declared the ‘improvements were imminent. After lunch, the traders rejected the plan. By the evening, Cllr Rendell rambled. Then Cllr Kemahli rowed back at speed. Nothing would happen without public consultation.

Meanwhile, a few more applications for tables & chairs licences in the market appeared. One was even granted.

Hence a far more extensive & expensive public consultation. Guess what? Residents; business owners and market traders all agree that the Market must stay! Just renew the fabric and support it. A citizens' Oversight Panel was created - worth £200 per attendee. In practice, members were excluded from all but a a couple of hours from each group meeting. Consequently there was no oversight!

Recently, Cllr Kim Taylor Smith -Deputy RBKC Leader and ‘fixer,' took over. He was reminded that RBKC cannot legally, unilaterally double traders’ rent. Having failed to price the traders out, an alternative is being considered. The consultation findings will be ‘reviewed' by RBKC till May. During that period, the so-called Oversight Panel will not see them! So is it possible that the consultation results will be amended to suit RBKC’s agenda? At a traders’ meeting last week, KTS announced RBKC's intention to ‘investigate' one of the primary results of the unpublished consultation. The road design is the issue. Significant change is likely to benefit restaurants & bars. That’s RBKC public consultation. That’s the plan and it won’t work!

This final point will sound familiar. On Friday, the Market Office invited locals to the Market Streets Action Group, on Tues. 19th March. Attendees will have had just 1 working day’s notice of the last RBKC meeting before election ‘purdah’. Purdah will prevent any discussion of the future of the Market till 2nd May; allowing RBKC 6 weeks to manipulate the public consultation results. As ever, the aim is the destruction of the Market for private profit!

Further updates to follow. In the meantime, perhaps the Dame’s many readers will be kind enough to pass on their views on the above to their respective Councillors. 

Yours faithfully
A. Witness