Stephen
Bayley is a leading UK leading design authority.
When someone of his stature
lends his muscle to a campaign supported by in excess of a
thousand residents we should heed him....
You Tube
What has so angered residents of Chelsea and beyond?
According to the Dame's impeccable sources RBK&C's Planning
Committee has behaved in a quite disreputable and discreditable way.
Well
known Chelsea hairdresser Heinz Schumi has run his salon at 18,
Britton Street for twenty years.
 |
| A LOCAL CHELSEA BUSINESS GOING |
Two
years ago, a 'Middle Eastern investor' acquired the building for
£900,000.
It has two tenants on the upper floor on an unprotected
let-and Mr Schumi, on the ground and basement floors.
A
local and longstanding resident, Michael O'Brien described to the
Dame what made the little business so special....
"It
is a wonderful meeting place in the character of old Chelsea. There
are the hairdressers' own paintings on show, together with those of
some of his clientele. There is even a piano which anyone with any talent
is welcome to play."
Another,
David Cameron's aunt, Lady Dugdale, is quoted in the Independent.....
"I'm very upset by the treatment
Heinz is getting, he has become a good
friend. Whenever I go up to London I have my hair done there. He and
I always talk about painting, which we both do a little. He always
had an easel up in his salon, and we had fun talking. He'd cross the
road to help anyone. But it's not just that he offers a good,
straightforward haircut. It's a very social place, a real part of the
community. It's very unfair at a time when we should be helping small
businesses. The council are entitled not to give planning permission
if it will have an impact on the character of an individual area, and
this certainly will do that. It's terrible what the developers are
doing."
The Inde goes on... "Schumi's hairdressing
salon in Chelsea's Britten Street faces closure next month, because
the landlord has been granted permission to alter the building. Now,
customers including Jilly Cooper, Stephen Bayley and Jenny Agutter,
are calling for the council to repeal the permission. Austrian-born
Heinz Schumi opened his first salon in 1973, and tended to
high-profile barnets belonging to Diana Ross, Julie Christie and
members of The Who."
Having
bought the freehold our 'offshore investor' sought to enhance the value
of his 'punt': he applied for planning permission to alter the
ground floor.....
Now
RBK&C is a council which pretends to support small business so no
surprise to find in this case they have done all they can to
destroy Mr Schumi's business.
Not
one member of the Planning Committee had the common courtesy to carry
out a site visit: not quite true....one councillor did come to look.
Mr O'Brian
said, “ It is extraordinary that it took a Labour Councillor, Bob Mingay,
to lend support and vote against the application.”
We
need to know why no ward councillors got involved in assisting Mr Schumi.
So
now the Freeholder has been granted permission to make a staircase to
the basement in the only small area of the salon suitable for client
seating:this, despite over a thousand letters, emails and Petition
signatories all violently opposing the changes.
Mr
Schumi will now have to close if permission is not revoked and
another feature of old Chelsea will be lost forever.
The
Council has now enabled our Middle Eastern investor(who
doubtless does not live in the Borough) to serve a Section 25 Notice
on Mr.Schumi telling him to quit the premises.
So,
in just two years, the owner will have forced out a local business and made
himself £3 million in the process.
The
Planning Committee have made a very serious error of judgment: they
need to issue a Revocation-which they are legally entitled to do-without payment of compensation. There is a great mystery to this
which The Dame needs to investigate......more info needed please.
