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He and Jonathan Bore have put a price of £78,000 on the trunks of the beautiful trees in the pic above.
If they get away with it De Grey, developer friends of the Planning Dept, can grub loads more money.
As disgraced, one time former planning chairman ex Cllr Barry Phelps, was prone to say, "you couldn't make it up".
No one ever explained why Barry, kicked out as a result of the Dame discovering his vile emails, needed to have so many off shore accounts....
The Dame has a long memory.....
Anyway, read all about new planning scandal HERE
After all, they're only trees. This is a story of the endless dodgy antics of RBKC's unaccountable planning department and its equally dubious planning committee. It warrants a colour photo and half a page of text on p.26 of tonight's Evening Standard.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile on p.13 is another illustrated story of the digging of an unauthorised basement under a S. Kensington house. Surrounding properties are being damaged and lives made a misery; but after all, they're only neighbours.The editorial of the same issue of the ES and again on p.38 are stories of massive international money laundering. Yesterday Alex Lebvedev, part owner of the ES, told the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime that half the world's GDP is siphoned off in illicit payments.
Historically UK homes have cost roughly 3 times average wages. Yesterday's newspapers stated that homes in K & C were the most expensive in the country at 30 times the average wage. In another story author Ian McEwan reminds us that Amazon pays virtually no tax.
These stories are in fact a single story. They describe the Rotten Borough. After all, they're only trees.
Quite right Blueberry, you have joined the dots; it is 'a single story'. The Royal Borough is sleepwalking to disaster. Our heritage and our trees and our communities are under threat, and all we are doing is taking our cut. The lack of vision and of any actual sense of oversight or care is more evident by the day.
DeleteWake up. The nightmare is real.
So what are RBKC Labour actually doing to oppose this?
DeleteThey have opposed all this year after year after year at every Council Tax budget meeting, but guess what, residents of the Borough consistently vote back a Tory Council and funnily enough Labour doesn't have enough councillors to out-vote them on all these very dubious matters!
DeleteThere's yet another report reflecting RBKC's stratospheric property values. Yesterday's Evening Standard carried a brief story that Prince Harry will shortly inherit £10 million from the estate of his late mother. According to the article, these days £10 million buys little more than a 3 bedroom Knightsbridge flat. This may be something of an exaggeration, but is true enough. Long term such ludicrous values cannot last. It looks like a bubble and smells like a bubble.
ReplyDeleteCopy of my e-mail to K&C
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Bore
Re felling Pembridge Rd trees
I was dismayed but not surprised to read this report in yesterday’s Standard.
see http://tinyurl.com/lkvue3j As Albert Bridge Properties’ spokesman rightly says
" “This proposed deal to sell off tree preservation orders for cash is a new and disturbing development.”Is K&C's role to accommodate developers’ demands…at a price…while selling out our trees? Not the real point, but £79 k is peanuts to a developer. if the developer simply felled 5 trees without permission, the maximum fine according to K&C’s website would be £100,000 ( plus costs, I imagine) WIN WIN for them .Doubtless this fiasco will be justified by a few plantings elsewhere. Again, not the point! The point is that K&C’s mature trees are not a commodity to be bartered. Please do not approve their, or any other’s, felling unless their is a more compelling argument than they are interfering with a developer’s plans.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that while the Dame's correspondents are willing to post comments on the failings of individual councillors, the occasional senior officer or policy, the bigger picture attracts few statements. In reality the rotten borough's woes reflect a London wide malaise, that's largely centred in SW1 and W11 etc. These issues cannot be ignored and will not go away till the's a worldwide demand for action. This has to start somewhere. So how about Knightsbridge?
ReplyDelete