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
Thursday, 18 February 2016
THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE SNIFFS AROUND MARLBOROUGH PRIMARY SCHOOL
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
Well done Dame. It's high time for this story.
ReplyDeleteRBKC's Property department has played fast and loose with publicly owned assets for decades. Every time it comes across a state school or similar, it seeks a way of hiving it off into private hands. Preferably quietly. Doubtless lucrative commissions have been trousered all round. Over the years the list of such transactions is long.
Many of these dubious deals seem to have concerned less affluent areas of the rotten borough, so had a lower profile. Maybe with Marlborough School those responsible have bitten off rather more than they can chew.
It is said that the wheels of justice turn slow, but turn they do.
When corruption is practiced on the scale that it is in the K&C Planning Department, Officers and certain Councillors become careless. They forget to cover their tracks.
ReplyDeleteAt some stage, with pests like the Dame shining bright lights, the reptiles will get caught out.
Strange how the funny business seems to be concentrated around schools. The Campden Hill Residents Association discovered some mighty strange bank accounts, offshore trusts, properties and multiple credit cards amassed by a disgraced ex Councillor and Chairman of the Planning Committee. Who was, of course, "very poor".
Now we hear that the SFO is sniffing around Marlborough School.
Another controversial school development is Fox Primary in Kensington Place. How long will it be before stuff spills out of here?
What school project was the Camden Residents group investigating?
DeleteCampden Residents found some some dirty business going on with the Holland Park School development. Playground sold to developers for $160 million to build luxury flats.
DeleteFox School probably corruption free. No land or buildings sold of for development
Fox may have been saved by vigilant local residents.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, there was once an attempt to sell half of Colville School to a private nursery.The nursery needed a new home because eviction loomed. In fact it's owner was to evict his business from his house. Planning permission was speedily obtained, largely by not bothering Colville parents or local residents. Scandal ensued and RBKC declared itself against the plan. At that time the chair of school governors was a male person named Weale. Happy days.
Weale, Councillor, she who "listens but does not hear".
DeleteLow life person
RBKC leaves no crumbs for the poor. A former school called the Isaac Newton Centre recently seemed to turn into a prep school overnight. Nearby, a public library has followed suit. RBKC has also granted a lease for private school facilities under the Westway elevated road. The three developments are within about one hundred metres of each other in north Kensington.
ReplyDeleteNorth Ken Library building has been sold off.
ReplyDeleteWell done our dear Dame.... should get a gong....
ReplyDeleteIs this why the Head of Property is rushing off to a new job in Sydney, Australia? But we do have an extradition treaty.
ReplyDeleteIt is high summer in Sydney, silly billy
DeleteHornton Street is a Masonic stronghold. Very common in local Government (and the police) but overwhelming in our council (Officers and Councillors).
ReplyDeleteThis is a bedrock network with tentacles that spread out to architects and developers. All scratching each others backs, and brown envelopes when required - after all, the odd "non Mason" needs to be encouraged.
Rats nest
SFO investigating? Mason on Mason??
DeleteProperty and Planning, hand in glove.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the parasites in the RBKC Housing Dept.....
DeleteSo Nick P-B....how do you think it looks when Alison Long gets up and congratulates the Capco team for getting their planning permission through?
ReplyDeleteNot very clever.....
https://rbkcleadersblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/credit-to-our-planners-who-do-a-difficult-job/
CapCo managed to get English Heritage to delist Earls Court by using their Architect Richard Coleman his clients were Dp9 and CapCo; no due diligence done and report buried.
ReplyDeleteDelisting expired in 2014 January and English Heritage just allowed the delisting to carry over. So SFO when you have a moment take a look at English Ehritage, corruption inmpublic office.
Gary Yardley of CapCo very chummy with Boris Johnson!
Nick Paget-Brown makes a stout defence of the Planning Department and the Dame tends to agree that the Department is corruption free.
ReplyDeleteThat was not the case in days gone by.
Officers and councillors need to be sensitive to perception: it is not sensible, for example, for councillors to have private meetings with developers.
The Dame remembers well one ex leader who was prone to tete a tete's with major landowners. In his case, his forays were innocent enough: he just enjoyed the feeling of playing with the big boys. But, there should always be an officer present when
these meetings take place. And the reverse should apply.
Officers and councillors need to maintain a healthy distance between developers and their advisors. Failure to do so leads to misunderstanding.
Cllr Paget-Brown is right. There is very little evidence of corruption around. Trouble is that it is difficult to find. This could mean that there is nothing to find or it could mean that the deviants have covered their tracks or transacted in private - a sensible approach.
DeleteJust occasionally funny business is found. An investigator uncovered an ex Chairman of the Planning Committee with three properties hidden in offshore trusts, three overseas bank accounts and seventeen credit cards. All belonging to a self professed pauper. Not evidence of wrong doing, of course. But mighty strange.
As the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck. But some complicated or simple souls choose to see something else. Usually a choir boy.
Well PB would say that. RBKC Planning is riddled with corruption just like the TMO. A Met Police investigation of either organisation would revel some very dodgy dealings.
DeleteRBKC seem to think that they are above the Law but just like the Tory Councillor found guilty of child pornography, Andrew Lamont, their day or reckoning will come. Be warned!
Why is the RBKC Labour Group so totally spineless?
ReplyDeleteFor a while it looked like Dent Coad going to put up some resistance to the likes of Cllr's Coleridge and Feilding Mellen but after she was stabbed in the back by Blakeman and her poodles the Opposition has returned to being entirely invisible. Sad, very sad indeed!
18.24, you hit the nail on the head. The Labour Group were putting up resistance and EDC was just too darn good at it. She had no 'respect' for how matters are settled. But no worries things are back to normal and tinkering deals are now done in the Mayor's Parlour over food and drink paid for by your Council tax.
DeleteEDC is Labour's planning spokesperson and gets an allowance for that. So she is still in prime position to reveal all this corruption.
Delete14:07- yes, it appears that years of Cllr Blakeman colluding with her friends in the Ruling Party has reduced the RBKC Labour opposition to a mere laughingstock and painful joke.
DeleteRemember no-one is allowed to "rock the boat" at the Hornton St Private Members Club.
When the Opposition then get a Leader who actually stands up for residents they get shot of her and replace her with another poodle. And, hey presto, opposition in the Rotten Borough evaporates overnight!
In the absence of any meaningful way of being held to account the RBKC Tory's think that they are invincible and behave like they are the "master race".
The inability of RBKC Labour to stand up to these monsters is a disgrace and through their shameful inaction they have much to answer for.
Although I am a strong supporter of Dame and her website, I have to disagree with the Dame on whether the Planning Department is corruption free. I am afraid that not only is there some corruption, but also an overall bias in favour of developers. As noted by other comments, the difficulty is establishing the proof and it is far too easy to get away with. Someone will eventually get careless and this will become known.
ReplyDeleteThe bias of the Planning Department towards developers is well known. Even a Cabinet Member, Cllr Ahern, campaigned that Planning in the Royal Borough needs to be made more "resident friendly". Needless to say, he was ignored by his colleagues and Officers.
DeleteThis dire state of affairs is made worse by a box ticking culture. Officers tick boxes and shuffle paper. They never stop to think what impact their actions will have on residents. They are so insensitive that they even write in reports, when residents object to noise, pollution and collateral damage that "we cannot consider such things".
Paget-Brown is in his Ivory Tower. Obviously the Dame is getting to him because he wrote that stupid piece of shit designed to cuddle up to his Officers in Planning who desperately need some leadership. Try thinking about your residents instead, Nick. Go on, try.......
00.56 is spot on. RBKC Planning always has been and remains, riddled with corruption. Not every officer or councillor is involved, but overall the department addresses individual applicants rather than their applications. To those familiar with the situation, the reasons behind this are abundantly clear.
ReplyDeleteIs the new exec director of Planning up to the job of dealing with it? The problem is so deeply ingrained, he doubtless prefers to leave it to his successor. Telling NPB that residents are being unfair to his team, is far easier.
As for NPB's newspaper column, methinks the gentleman doth protest too much. Publicly attacking justifiably angry residents is unlikely to go down well with residents. Not at all clever.
yes very true... not too many listen to him nowadays...
ReplyDelete