SAVE OUR SKYLINE! SIGN THE PETITION

This letter expresses precisely the problems residents have defending their community from rich developers.
Developers have millions to push their unwanted projects, plus unlimited access to officers: residents will have none of these things. They have to fight with their hands tied behind their back.

A MONSTROUS INTRUSION

Dear Dame
I wanted to bring this proposed development and the strong neighbourhood objection to your attention.  
We would appreciate it very much if you would highlight this in your column and for everybody to sign the petition by clicking HERE

Neighbours are hugely concerned about the threat to our skyline and the preservation of the character of this unique part of London.

Situated on the corner of Kensington Church Street and Notting Hill Gate, this  18-storey, 71m tower will rise 26 m (8 storeys) above the original slab block, setting a very dangerous precedent for either building other new tall buildings, or extending upwards, existing  tall buildings.

It is clear to everybody that the very unfortunate existing block on this prominent site is already completely out of scale with the architecture of surrounding streets, and very harmful to the character of the local conservation areas, some of London’s best.  A replacement could thus have been a wonderful opportunity to redress this imbalance by creating a new structure linking the old with the new while offering a major improvement to the local streetscape and public realm. The proposed Newcombe House will however just exacerbate the current situation, as, despite the numerous presentation drawings that accompany the planning application, it absolutely does not take into consideration the need to improve its relationship with the prevalent local low rise building typology, nor the wishes of the communities that live in the area.   The very insufficient visuals and CGIs clearly show the intrusive nature of the relationship between Newcombe house and the surrounding streets.

The planning application Design and Access Statement would like us to believe that the proposed building is replacing poor quality of architecture with a much better standard. In reality, the new development is equally nondescript and mediocre, the product of several decades of commercial architecture that uses decoration and bling to add “excitement” to what is really an exercise of maximising every square inch of the plot for the benefit of the developer.

While we support the redevelopment of the existing structure, we urge RBKC to insist on a far superior quality of architecture and a maximum height equal to that of the existing slab block.

Yours sincerely
*************

INSIDER VIEWS OF THE TRI-BOROUGH FIASCO

The Dame has focused on the two excellent comments....they would appear to have been written by 'one who knows'......

Anonymous26 February 2016 at 06:19

Bedlam doesn't begin to describe Hornton street, vast amounts of money is being spent on 'intermin' staff who are actually consultants paid £500 plus per day. There has been a culling of high quality operating departments only to be replaced by flailing bureaucrats who don't know what they are doing and costing more than the original departments. Officers who worked pre tri borough who tried to stay but question or challenge the mad decisions that are taking place are pushed out the door usually due to 'issues relating to their performance. Officers that did care eventually left either because they were intimated or saw the complete demolition of quality services they had developed with local residents and Councillors, by creatures who took over from neighbouring boroughs Hammersmith, Westminster, Camden. Anyone with good management experience would have stopped to question why so many senior competent staff who enabled this Borough to become a five star borough for its services were leaving, instead Councillors ignored it. The Tri Borough is costing a fortune, there are loud whispers that monies from Kensington have been used to 'support the transformation' in the other two utterly mismanaged boroughs. Hornton street is now run effectively by Thugs, whilst the Councillors are totally blinded by continual sales pitches, in the old days we used to say that Cockell was the naked emperor, we now have a cabinet of them who are selling out residents and ignoring their duties. The issue is that whilst this is happening someone is paying the price of it and that will be vulnerable residents such as the Major, the family from Colville Square, disabled children and their families (remember the school bus incompetence) and other vulnerable groups, it is a ticking timebomb that responsible Councillors will eventually be forced to face as it blows up in their face. But they cannot say they haven't been warned.

Reply

Replies

1. 
   Anonymous26 February 2016 at 13:20

   Tri-borough was an act of wanton vandalism by two vain men (Cockell and Myers) seeking glory. An expensive mistake, it has cost residents dearly in terms of services and many worthy officers (mostly K&C) their jobs.
   
   RBKC has been used to prop up the failing management and finances of the other two councils (particularly Hammersmith and Fulham which still manages to return a massive annual loss). In return, the influx of H&F officers to Hornton Street with their attendant poor standards and bullying culture has ‘transformed’ K&C council from five-star to second-rate.
   
   If only it had achieved attention in the national press.
   
   Too late now though. As we blog it’s being ushered out the back door quietly. Privately acknowledged as a disaster, the ‘T-word’ is now banned in most communications.

THE PLAYBOY MAYOR IN WAITING

Has the world gone mad.....
Are 'the people' seriously considering Zac Goldsmith to lead London?
The Dame remembers when Zac's father, the highly unpleasant Jimmy, was the most fervent advocate for European federalism-until he 'turned'.

Frank and Zac

Anyway, turning to his boy.....
Zac proudly boasts that he has never done a proper day's work in his life. 
Those who know him say when you strip away the affability and charm there is not much left.

Still, it shows lots of money and good connections take you a long way in politics.
Maybe, that's why politicians are so despised.

London needs a mayor who has actually done something in his life.....not a dilettante playboy.

WELL DONE, STALLWOOD:ANGRY MULTI BILLIONAIRE FRIEND OF CAMERON STALLED

Are there any English at Eton now? They all seem the offspring of mysterious international billionaires with colourful sounding names and even more colourful backgrounds?

Rocky's Place

No wonder the Dame's impoverished, idiot nephew, Ludo Ormerod-Maltravers was turned away.



One colourful Balkan OE and friend of Dave Cameron is Chris 'Rocky' Rokos. Rocky has made billions out of hedging his bets. Besides using his fortune to fund Dave, Rocky bought a £18 million hotel in Notting Hill. The plan was to convert it into a fifty bedroom 'superhome' with many, many basements. It's all HERE
Anyway, Mr Stallwood was having none of it and said, "NO"!
Undeterred, 'Rocky' applied to have the building converted to flats: again Stallwood said an even firmer, "NO".
Rocky pours millions into the Conservative Party and is a member of Dave's 'Leader's Forum'. He is not happy.....
Well done, the Council for blocking Rocky, but there may be a price to pay......

THE DAME'S 'BIG DEBATE': IS TRI-BOROUGH A FLOP?

A continuing complaint by residents is the abrupt decline in services after the lately departed, Sir 'Delboy' Myers, persuaded Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham to combine (certain) services.

When 'Delboy' pushed the idea on councillors he described it as BOLD MOVE

Bold, it may have been, but was it sensible? 

Has it delivered anything worthwhile in terms of cost saving or service improvement? 
Certainly, Social Services under the ghastly Stella Baillie has fallen into a shambolic state.

But what do we all think? 
Certainly, the better class of K&C officers tell the Dame it's a hopeless mess.

THE RISING IN THE NORTH

Dear Dame,

I know you are very grand and very Chelsea, but could you cast your astringent gaze to the north of the Borough from time to time? Especially at the sterling work of Henry Peterson of the St Helens Residents Assoc.The association has developed a neighbourhood plan, which we are voting on in a referendum to accept/reject on Thursday.

This referendum will hopefully keep the developers away from The Bowling Club and Nursery Lane site. LINK

The Legarde family who own the Nursery Lane Site have launched a Judicial review of the Councils decision to accept the adjudicators recommendations giving it Green space classification and stopping them building 20 luxury houses (at 3 million a pop) on the site.
You were talking about Decaux recently...well, they built that ugly illuminated advertising tower on Westway Trust land. The council promised residents they would rescind the planning permission after 5 years. But surprise, surprise, it is still there. I wonder why?.
Also, the Councils Parking Office has been caught with their pants down. Despite the policy of not giving new build residents parking permits, it seems that they have been giving them out and will have the cancel them, especially in regard to the development on the old Princess Louise site. Something like 120 have been given out by “mistake” .

Yours faithfully

D. Scrubber

SHOULD THE PLANNING DEPT BE HAVING SECRET TALKS WITH DEVELOPERS?

The Pre-Planning Advice service is a vehicle for planning officers to 'engage' with developers and, as one influential RA chairman said, "to help unscrupulous developers skirt around the difficult bits in planning rules, partnering them right up to the submission of the application. This cannot be in the interests of residents".

Another planning expert commented, "It's good for developers. Good for the council(extra income). Not good, as usual, for us, the unwashed masses"

The Dame says, " the council should not be taking money to help developers through the grey areas of planning: that is a job for the shady and avaricious Savills"

In future, all such pre-planning advice should be made public on the Council website. 

This will prevent conflicted interests.

THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE SNIFFS AROUND MARLBOROUGH PRIMARY SCHOOL

The Dame is about to break a major story involving Dixon Jones, the Council's favourite architects, John Lewis, and the Rotten Borough. 




This will be a major development on the story she wrote about HERE and may be a precursor to an investigation by Serious Fraud Office into the behaviour of certain officers and councillors- past and present

CARYL HARRIS AND AMANDA FRAME: TWO VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE

The comment made below needs addressing. 
No, nothing to do with the bizarre grammar and spelling(The Dame went to a Swiss finishing school where she was taught only to sew and make souffle, so she is no grammarian).
The Dame highlights the comment because the content is so far removed from reality one is forced to wonder who the author might be. 
No, it surely cannot be Cllr Palmer, though the spelling and grammar might point that way. 
So, who is this odd person? 
The only two RA's which ever get 100% plaudits are run by Amanda Frame and Caryl Harris.
These two must be major irritants to lazy councillors and opportunistic officers.
We are blessed to have them serving us.
Whoever wrote the weird rubbish below should hang his/her head in shame.....

What complete and utter rubbish. Kensington Society MAY help you if you pay a subscription, and then if they can be bothered.
Amanda Frame is too busy cosying up to the council.
As for Caryl Harris, if popping her head up above a parapet means her attendance at numerous council functions, and as she has said that the residednts association is their to support council officers, then she sure as hell does that.
They are a hindrance, and take the recognition that other people if they are successful.
If residents want to action, inevitably they have to fight for it for themselves, becauze Caryl will certainly not help them, and the Kensington Society, particularly Amanda Frame, are ineffect5ive.

A BATTLE WON

Good news!
The Holiday Inn owners have withdrawn their appeal, so there will be no Planning enquiry. No reason was given.  Maybe it was because there was a change of ownership in November of last year, or maybe it was because the residents had made a good case for the appeal to be dismissed. Either way, it is a result. The residents close by, have told the Dame they wish to express their thanks to all those who supported and assisted the opposition to this hideous development and in particular Friederike Maeda, Claudia Bronda, Michael Bach and Roy Burns as well as Councillors Marshall and Coates. Let us hope that they will get their garden square back and no further planning application is made. But if they make an unreasonable application, you can be sure that the residents will fight it,  tooth and nail.

HOW THE PLANNING COMMITTEE WORKS BY MR L. CARROLL(AUTHOR)

Sometimes a comment is of such wit the Dame has to put it on her 'front page'. Could this have anything to do with Mr Graham's plans for the Old Court House?

The Mad Hatter

‘But it must go somewhere,’ said Alice protesting again. ‘I am not a builder. But if all that stuff goes down a drain, it must go somewhere after. It doesn’t just disappear into space.’
The Mad Hatter was getting increasingly agitated. He took off his glasses so he could fix one of his frightening stares at Alice. “That’s just a technical question and we don’t need to bother with that,” he said dismissively. But in a flash he remembered that there was an expert in the room, and he turned towards the sound of heavy breathing from the far end of the table as the dormouse was once again falling asleep.
‘Perhaps you can answer this,’ he glared at the dormouse who was about to nod off. ‘You are the expert aren’t you.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t answer such a difficult question,’ yawned the dormouse. ‘And in any case someone much cleverer than me wrote lots of pages to show how all that stuff disappears. I could not possibly understand it.’
‘But these pages have been signed by you. See here,’ said Alice stubbornly. ‘See - it says, signed by the dormouse.’
‘But I can’t be expected to understand everything that I write,’ concluded the dormouse who promptly went back to sleep.
Alice was not about to give up.
‘The rules state that everything must be inside this line,’ she said, ‘and it’s not. You’re breaking the rules. See.’ She pointed to the illuminated plan shining from the projector. Everyone could see that she was right. Even the March Hare who was perched beside the Hatter began to look worried.
‘But the rule does not count here,’ argued the Hatter, ‘because some of the line is below ground. And a line is not a line if some of it is below ground.’
The March Hare decided it was time for him to speak. He had had enough of all this stuff and nonsense. Even a question of law had been raised. If they started to argue about that, this could go on for a long time – and it was getting late.
‘Look, we may not like this.’ He said, even though he already knew that his friend the Hatter did like it, and like it very much. ‘But I am a man of much experience. And I have dealt with many things like this. The fact that this project is enormous, that it will cause massive disruption, that it will make life a daily hell for all the residents and businesses in the area…..none of that matters. What matters is that it has happened before, so that makes it right.’
‘Time to vote,’ announced the Hatter triumphantly. ‘Those in favour?’ 
He raised one arm in anticipation of the others following suit – but none did.
What a strange meeting thought Alice. I didn’t think anyone was actually listening to me, but I’m glad they were.

DANNY BOYS MOYLAN AND BACON & EGGS WITH DECAUX'S M. JEAN JEAN

The Dame is all for social mobility: after all, despite her pretensions, she is as common as muck.
So how delighted she is to see fellow social climber, Cllr Danny Boys Moylan, clambering up the greasy social pole. 
The  Brumigen Boy has done well and how he lost his Irish Brum accent is a thing of mystery. His accent is now so cut glass it makes the Queen seem quite common.
But the Dame digresses.....

A VILE INTRUSION

She has just read the vandals from Paris, JD Decaux, have won a Rotten Borough major advertising contract for bus shelter advertising. 




Why we have to have this dreadful adverting polluting our streets is inexplicable.Someone must be getting a very large brown envelope.

Now, for the next fifteen years, Decaux can put up 80 new bus shelters, including 16 sites already approved, for 84 inch digital screens.

Once thing is for sure, the City of Paris would never allow this junk to pollute the boulevards of Paris.

So what's Danny Boys to do with Decaux? 
The Dame has no idea, so why would he have made us pay for a near £100 breakfast for their oddly named Mr Jean Jean at the Milestone Hotel?

KELTBRAY, EARLS COURT AND ASBESTOSIS

For Londoners, whether Earls Court residents, or cyclists, Kelbray are a menace. 
How often to we read of Kelbray lorries in fatal or near-fatal accidents with cyclists? 
Now we read they are they are making a misery of the lives of residents as they wreck the Exhibition Centre.
Clearly, Keltbray has friends in very high places....

Dear Dame
Last week on Wednesday Earls Court residents returning home from work found their cars, street, front porches and back gardens covered in a blanket of dust.  Residents homes of Philbeach Gardens and Eardley Crescent are the worst affected with a blanket of dust from Earls Court Exhibition Centre by the developer's demolishers Keltbray.  It is not clear what the dust is and many fear it is asbestos!

A DANGER TO
LIFE,LIMB AND
LUNG

After a week the dust has not dissipated even after heavy and remains on the road, pavement, on cars and residents' front doors and basements.


Residents were promised that their lives would not be oaffected by the demolishing of Earls Court, but this has not been so. From the 14th December 2014 residents have had their homes shaken by drilling and dropping of items from a great height as well as noise from 8 am till 6 pm Monday till Saturday.  The noise is so bad it can be heard in the Boltons, Collingham and even Gloucester road.  Debris dust has also hit the back of houses which back on to Earls Court Exhibition Centre.  Over the year work at the Exhibition Centre can also be heard at night.

Keltbray have offered a free car wash voucher to residents which is laughable as a large area of the Earls Court ward is blanketed in dust-which might even be asbestos.

Health and Safety Executive just did a report late last year on Earls Court but refuse to publish it to the public like English Heritage who refused to publish their report on Earls Court when taxpayers have paid for the reports. Why?

http://www.building.co.uk/hse-finds-no-asbestos-issues-at-earls-court/5077909.articleLondon Assembly members Nicky Gavron, Stephen Knight and Darren Johnson wrote to HSE’s Concern and Advisory team on behalf of residents living around Earls Court Exhibition Centre.  Their letter expressed concerns over Earls Court developer Capital & Counties (CapCo) handling of the removal of asbestos from the site as RBKC, Capco and the HSE have “neither published nor given access to the Asbestos Survey and Risk Register to local residents”.
Why are all reports on Earls Court being suppressed if there is nothing to hide?
Once again Cllr Wade has been the only official dealing with this and residents have not heard from HSE, the Council, Spalding or Auoane, why?
Already residents are in a high pollution area with the added dust and possible asbestos there will be a spike in ill health, but who will be held accountable in the end?

Yours faithfully

xxxxxxx

PLANNING COMMITTEE REJECT OLD COURT HOUSE MEGA BASEMENT PLAN

Tonight, a bit of history happened. The detail is HERE

The Planning Committee rejected the recommendations of the 'officer class' and stood shoulder to shoulder with residents.
The applicant, a Canadian billionaire, David Graham, was well aware that his plans would have created noise and disruption but didn't seem to give a damn.
Such men are difficult to understand. 

MANSION

Graham is in his late '70's, lives alone and spends very little time in his massive 9,000 square foot mansion. 





So why would he wish to inflict months of noise, dust and danger on his neighbours digging out a few more thousand square feet? 
God only knows!
Graham will, no doubt, come back again; it's the nature of the type: they just cannot bear to lose.

But well done the Committee. You did the right thing.....

CLLR WADE

We need more like her....pro resident!
Well done, Linda.
Now the Dame will be accused by the imbecile, Palmer, of running a Lib Dem blog. 
Can the old bird ever win?

A PLAUDIT FOR CLLR WADE

Dear Dame

You may have seen there has been a marked reduction in the number of tart cards in telephone boxes up and down the Old Brompton Road and general area. 


This is down to the police finally taking the time to catch the culprits, mainly Eastern European gangs.
Reduction of these cards is is solely down to RBKC residents and Cllr Wade.  
The Brompton ward Safer Neighbourhoods team has been contacted many times, over the years, whenever residents witness the gang putting up the cards, or are about to, so they could easily have been caught in the act.  Residents either have an answerphone message, or speak to an officer who then says they have no one there to apprehend the culprits 

Linda Wade has been dealing and liaising with police about the tart cards.  It would have taken one day to catch these men and destroy the gang and save money for the council, who had to keep cleaning up these Telephone boxes. It is the job of the police to catch the gangs and BT to clean them up.  The laziness and ineptitude of councillors, police and BT is reprehensible!

This is one reason that is not voiced in favour of Brexit.... the constant Eastern European crime, not only in the borough and capital, but across the country. 
Since 2004 Eastern European crime has been on the increase.

What is more concerning is that the Chelsea Police station was sold off by Stephen Greenhalgh, as well as Knightsbridge and Battersea, making police response times greater than they were before.  
This is best illustrated by the  robbery of Kings Road Post office and no one apprehended. 

Yours sincerely

xxxxxxx