YOU, THE RBKC TAXPAYER ARE PAYING FOR A MIDDLE EASTERN FESTIVAL....WHY?

Never has this Council been under greater financial pressure so what gives it the right to waste money on an event with little connection to the lives of residents. 

It's pure waste.....

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IN THE SIGHTS OF THE DAME....WEALE AND CAMPBELL

Council officers are like wolves who smell blood. 
When they sense a Cabinet member is not up to the job they circle around snapping, snarling and generally making clear to the hapless and hopeless councillor who runs the show.

Two cabinet members fall into this category: Cllrs Weale and Elizabeth Campbell. 



Both are are no  match for their departmental officers so happily sit back taking their £40,000 a year allowance letting officers run the show.
Though Daniel Moylan may be tyrannical no officer would dare to step out of line as they do with Campbell and Weale.

The Dame will be airing both these numpty's dirty linen soon.

Was Weale given a Cabinet position because she lost her City insurance job? It seems likely.
As for Elizabeth Campbell, her record is a disgrace.

THE DAME....A PET FREE ZONE

The Dame is often the butt of cruel and malicious nonsense. Fortunately, she has a thick skin and can bear the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' with equanimity: to quote 'Warwickshire Willie'.
She reproduces this unfair email from one of her cantankerous readers, safe in the knowledge that her other, less censorious readers, will know how unfair the imputations are. The Dame has NO pets!

For a start, the Dame never censors comments, unless, of course, they are defamatory or vulgar.


To suggest Cadogan gets an easy ride is nonsense. 
In fact, the poor old thing was severely rebuked for publishing what one reader described as MISARA's over long criticism of the scheme.HERE
What, in the past, the Dame has said about Cadogan is that it is better that a local family own the estate rather than some greedy hedge fund or the Qatari's. She stands by that.



Dear Dame,

The other day a reader accused the Dame of having her 'pets'. I have to say, I tend to agree.
The Hornet seems rarely to criticise our sainted MP, or indeed, Cllr Dent Coad. As for Cllr Coleridge, she seems to have deleted quite a few comments that criticise him, yet never reacts to unpleasant comments about Cllr Feilding Mellen.
I turn now to Cadogan's plans for Sloane Street. 
Why has the Hornet not roundly condemned them? 

With the kindest and most respectful regards, dear Dame,

A long term K&C Resident

RBKC AND THE RATBLATS....JOINED AT THE HIP?

FINE BRONZEWORK

If you want to make minor changes to your Edwardian Conservation Area flat expect to be pestered by a little group of busybodies from Hornton St, risibly described as the Conservation Dept. 

FINE PLASTERWORK
CEILINGS 

But demolish one of the last surviving Art Deco cinema's,replete with wondrous examples of Art Deco fittings and architectural features, and the Council will actually encourage you! 


Thus, no surprise the greedy Ritblat duo behind this act of vandalism so loves our Council.
If you have the money everything and anything is possible in the Rotten Borough.      
Since 1926 the vast Art Deco masterpiece has withstood wartime bombs and economic downturns. 
This Monday, the Ritblats will send in the JCB's and a piece of Royal Borough history will become a pile of dust.

PEACH MARBLE STAIRWAY

The Ritblat family are determined to establish themselves as English gentry. Part of the ploy involves sponsoring the LAPDA antiques fair. 
Incongruous, then, they would do so whilst simultaneously destroying a unique and much-loved piece of 1930's Art Deco history.

Can one ever imagine the French turning down the chance to recreate, within this fine building, a community asset of real value?
In K&C big money does not just talk.....it screams.
Cleverly, Ritblat Junior has boarded up the facade of the cinema but this is how it could be.

HIDDEN FACADE

The question has to be asked....why does Tim Coleridge adamantly refuse to order the building be made an asset of Community Value. 
There is talk of an Independent Conservative group forming to challenge certain wards; it's driven by a council that hears but refuses to listen.
The Friends of the Odeon have an email list of twenty-eight thousand residents who oppose this demolition. 
Could it be used to stimulate a real opposition? 
We shall have to see......

ROCKY AND THE LOBBYIST

Still on the subject of Rocky....the Dame sees his new best friend is an obese looking property pr man by the name of Mr Bingle. Bingle likes to boast that he advises clients how to 'engage' with central and local government.

Uggh!...multi-chin man

Why on earth would Rocky need to 'engage' over lunch with this gross looking fatso and..... who paid?

Bungle is also a mate of Danny Boys Moylan......

The point is this.....
What possible reason could Bungle have for wishing to meet young Rocky? 
It is absolutely wrong for a Cabinet member, handling sensitive RBKC property issues, to be meeting the likes of Bungle.
If such meets take place a senior council officer should be present and a record of the meeting put on the record-just as would happen were it a government minister.
After all, funny biz could have been discussed.....

THE DAME PUTS FEILDING MELLEN TO THE QUESTION/S

In March, young Rocky Feilding Mellen took himself off to Cannes.
Nothing wrong with that. 
In the 'old days' the Dame herself was a frequent visitor to that den of depravity and Russian 'ladies of the night'.

Every year, in March all the international property big shots descend on Cannes for a few days of cocaine and Dom Perignon fuelled debauchery plus shadowy property deals in dark corners.
Yes, it all sounds quite squalid.

But, the old Dame's simple mind wanders. What she wants to know is this. 

• Did Rocky's visit to Cannes coincide with MPIM
• If he went to the shindig did he go under his own steam,
• If he didn't who paid
• Who did he meet and was Royal Borough business discussed

LIES, LIES AND NOTHING BUT LIES

Dear Dame

IS your Council LYING to you? CAN you trust RBKC?
This building has a propaganda poster beneath it entitled "The New Marlborough Primary School" and describing benefits such as "60 new pupils" -  a twist of the truth, since it's the same increase in intake the old school was scheduled for.
But what you may not know is that the building you are looking at IS NOT the new school! 
It is the commercial building that RBKC Council did not tell you about. 

• The one that they are building on the pupils' playground. 
• The one for which they FAILED to apply for disposal of playground, in so doing BREAKING AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT, until campaigners contacted the Dept for Education who insisted they apply.

This building is the reason why Marlborough school children will now be forced to play on the roof of the new school!

When the Council finally put in their application for permission to dispose of the playground, there was a public outcry and 158 objections were received.
The Playing Fields Advisory Panel rejected the Council's application to dispose of the playground in a damning report, advising the Secretary of State NOT to grant permission. However, the loss of playground was, in the Playing Fields Advisory Panel's own words a “fait accompli,” since planning permission had already been secured and building site works had already commenced, and as a result the then Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan did indeed grant permission to the Council.

Yours 

A Resident and Parent

MR STALLWOOD VISITS THE DAME FOR AFTERNOON TEA

So why has Mr Stallwood, our boyish director of planning, agreed to join the Dame for tea and fancies with some of her lavender scented friends:dames d'un certain âge.

Well, every last Tuesday of the month, the Dame has a famous clairvoyant over to her vast Ennismore Gardens triplex to tell her ladies what the month has in store.

‘But, why young Stallwood?...Well, the truth is that our planning supremo can look forty years into the future and make astonishing revelations! 

The Dame's Seance

In fact, so accomplished is young Graham one wonders he doesn’t go on the telly and make a fortune-or even work full time for the awful Ratblats.

All sorts of miraculous events are being claimed for Crossrail 2. 
Most involve totally spurious claims about how the station will accelerate housing stock in the vicinity.
For example, Mr Stallwood claimed Crossrail 2 would ‘generate’ 3,500 new homes over a forty-four year period.

The Dame’s team of experts looked at the claims and found them deeply wanting...actually they were thoroughly mendacious.

When challenged Mr Stallwood reversed fast instead saying the station would ‘support’ 3,500: a world of difference!

He drew no distinction between whether these new homes would have occurred anyway even without the station. 
But, in any case, were it even true it would mean an addition of just a derisory 79 new homes annually over the 44 year period.

And where would the land for the 3,500 homes be found? 

Certainly not within 2k radius of the proposed station unless you demolish the social housing dominating the area.

The Dame’s expert also questions Mr Stallwood’s claim to be able to forecast 44 years into the future. 

Take, for example, the 44 year period since 1971. 
In that period we have had:

•       The oil price shock,
•       The 1990 property crash,
•       The rise of China,
•       The huge growth in international demand for property in up-market locations in a few cities where Anglo-Saxon conventions of property law prevail

So young Graham says the station will “support the delivery” of 3500 high-end properties whilst claiming the proposal would not reduce social housing!

All this when the GLA forecasts for population growth for RBKC, as a whole, are an increase of just over 10,000 people in the period to 2040. 

What are RBKC up to? 

Why claim 3500 new homes and lot's of stamp duty yet, when challenged saying it won’t affect social housing on the sites identified? 

Is this smoke and mirrors or do they have plans for all this social housing and if so why not be honest and transparent about it?

TFL has no cost benefit analysis of the station to justify it and RBKC, as its primary advocate, makes claims which, on closer examination, do not distinguish between normal housing development and that generated by the station itself.

TMO ACTION THIS THURSDAY: CHELSEA THEATRE

Chelsea Theatre

The Pre-AGM Meeting is being held at the Chelsea Theatre on Thursday 15th September commencing at 19:45 and finishing at 20:30.




One of the key components of a campaign to clean up the TMO is an urgent need to change ipolicy on answering FoI questions.  All other departments and organisations of RBKC answer FoI questions even though they don't have to.
With the policy changed many more embarrassing facts, figures and general incompetence will come tumbling out of the rotting TMO woodwork. 
Lobby your councillor to make this happen, and, as importantly, come to the vital pre-meeting on Thursday.
Dark glasses may be worn!

OLD ETONIAN ATTACKS CONSERVATIVE COUNCIL

When an Old Etonian racehorse trainer attacks a Conservative council over its duplicitous ways something must be seriously wrong...

A BROADSIDE

In this trenchant letter, Charles Egerton lambasts the Council.

Dear Mr Noble,

Thank you for your email of 19^th August and details of the construction programme. I’m extremely disconcerted  that you and your fellow councillors/ council employees  are oblivious to the fragilities of the majority of the businesses in the street and the risk that even minimum disruption  will pose to their survival.  If you weren’t, you would have listened to  and respected their concerns over the past  couple of years.

I got involved in the consultation process in the first place after talking to a few local people who brought to my attention the history of the council’s behaviour and what they believed the council’s intentions were for the area.  A number of them had been involved in preventing previous attempts by the council to change the street and they asked me if I would help them try to protect the future of the community and local businesses.

I was surprised that the first consultation took place in July and August, coinciding first with Ramadan, and then with a large proportion of the community being away on holiday. It seemed to me that this indicated either ignorance on the part of the council as to the number of Moroccans in our community or a desire to involve as few as possible of those who would be detrimentally affected by the council’s plans. My suspicions were fuelled after talking to people in the street and finding that the majority of them were unaware that there was a consultation taking place , as they had not received any consultation papers. 

Because of this , we started the Golborne Association to unite people in order to get their wishes across to the council. We discovered that many who were council tenants were afraid of the potential consequences of speaking out.

The rest is history, and out of this process I have learnt a lot. Coming from a Conservative background, having  run the West Berkshire Benefactors Club and membership / fundraising for a number of years, I was shocked and dismayed to find that  a Conservative council  could behave  so underhandedly and with no regard for genuine localism.

I am aware that the Golborne regeneration scheme was also supported by our Labour councillors, which was certainly bewildering as they were betraying their constituents, like turkeys voting for Christmas.

I found it staggering that at our first meeting Tim Coleridge, the councillor in charge of consultation, did not know what the budget was for the expenditure on the street.  This should have warned us that there was no sincere intention to respect the views of our local group. It was certainly patronising to have come so woefully unprepared.

At the time, I did not think it very democratic that the working party that was set up by Coleridge had a strong pro-council bias – subsequently, I have been shown examples by activists in other boroughs that this is standard practice.

In our naivety, we also were unaware – nor was it ever made clear to us – that the consultation was in no regard a referendum, i.e., we had no power to reject the proposed works.  As Southwark community activists have pointed out, ‘‘Participatory consultation’ without participatory decision-making is not only pointless but harmful to democratic planning processes.’  It is also an abuse of public money to fund a consultation exercise that is nothing but a sham.  It also poses the question as to why the photocopied consultation papers we distributed to those who had not received papers from the council were not counted. They were not ballots; they were simply expressing the views of local people – it seems clear that the council intended to suppress these views to further an appearance of consent. Stupidly, we gave them the opportunity to do so. If the community has no power to do anything but acquiesce, the consultation exercise is a waste of local people’s time and energy.

Due to the policies of the council and successive governments over a period of many years, genuine communities have all but vanished from RBKC.   RBKC should be proud of a diverse community such as Golborne Road and use it as a template to be emulated by local authorities across the country. RBKC have the resources that they have no need to be a corporate property development company, basically feeding a bloated Town Hall and their pensions, and serving private interests  instead of the public they are there to serve. As Peter Oborne has pointed out in the Telegraph, communities are where people learn and practice civic virtue: they are essential to a good society.

I hope that rents and rates will not go up as soon as the Golborne Road is ‘sanitised’. However, having read the report on the consultation from the council, I see that a paragraph has already been slipped in which can only be taken as a warning that they will. Small traders will be unable to survive – which is precisely why we tried quixotically to oppose the council’s plans.

I urge you to be sensitive to these businesses and the community they serve over the coming year, and to listen to the  people you work for.

With love

Charles Egerton

JUDGMENT AND EXPERIENCE? NOT ACCORDING TO INVESTORS, MR MOYLAN....

The Friends of the Odeon cinema, supported by twenty-eight thousand residents, as well as luminaries from the world of cinema and the dramatic arts, have slaved to save one of the most impressive of Art Deco cinemas.
Supported by billionaire funders, the Friends thought the Council would take account of the wishes of residents and ensure its survival by making it an Asset of Community Value.
Tragically, our Council is in awe of its barbarian property developer friends and refuses
This twitter feed is interesting. It tells us much about the unfortunate and crude, Daniel Moylan.
One might have thought that having been out of Birmingham for many years his bad taste and common behaviour would have left him; it seems not.
Moylan's attempts at a serious political career have eluded him and led to no glittering prizes. Even his attempt to become a council leader was thwarted by sixteen-year-old Rocky Feilding Mellen....how embarrassing!  
Daniel, it's time to stand back and take stock of yourself. 
There is ample reason why good people won't work with you.
People don't like crude bullies with an over inflated opinion of themselves.
What might work on Birmingham City Council does not work here.
You may have ridden yourself of a Brummie accent, but have failed to adapt to refined ways of the Royal Borough.
You claim to have 'judgment and experience...well, that has been of no help to investors. 
They have lost many millions invested in the two property funds you are/were a director of.
So, zip it up....

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DANNY 'BOYS' MOYLAN...YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF BRUM.....

The Dame's high-powered tech team are preparing to publish a twitter feed featuring our 'death's head" lookalike councillor, Danny 'Boys' Moylan.   

Death warmed up

People often ask the old Dame what 'Boys' problem is. Well, the Dame is many things, but not a psychiatrist. However, her old friend, the late Doc Jung, would have said that Danny harbours great fury at having been raised in humble working class circumstances in the less than salubrious suburbs of Brum. 

It's all a bit sad...
What could have been a glittering career has ended in mediocrity. 
Why? Because no sane person can work with him.
Next year, Danny 'Boys' will be the Mayor of the Royal Borough. 
Let's hope his discreet Japanese partner will encourage Danny to 'zip it up' .....as the Dame's vile nephew, Ludo, would say.

THE CHELSEA SOCIETY GETS AGGRESSIVE....

The Dame's old walker, nice Mr Betjeman, once observed,"when in Peter Jones I feel nothing awful will ever happen to me"

One gets the same feeling of security during Chelsea Society meetings.

So what on earth is going on to disturb the cosy world of the Chelsea Society and why is it trying to copy the fearsome Kensington Society run by the non-prisoner taking Amanda Frame?
The Dame has received the below..... 

My Dear Dame

A little bird tells me all is not well at the Chelsea Society . Whispers indicate that newish chairman, Michael Stephen is looking to move the Society to being more of a campaigning group: this has not sat  at all well with some of the Society  'ladies'.

There have been several resignations recently in reaction to  'Cuckoo ' Stephen and his brash plans.

I have no opinion on this merely passing along the news . 

I will send a more detailed report from my source when I get it .

Your obedient servant

Lord xxxxxxx

THE DAME REBUKED!

Dear Dame

No one appreciates more the role you play in promoting the interests of residents but I feel you have been less than resolute, in calling out Cllr Coleridge, over the mysterious circumstances surrounding the non-award of Asset of Community Value to the Odeon, Kensington High St.




Why so quiet, Dame?

These are the circumstances...

• Having mishandled the first ACV application the Council agreed to decide on a second ACV application by October 1st.
  
  
• During the month of August discussions took place with two planning officers, Mr. Wade and Mr. Preece who agreed to a meeting with the Friends of the Odeon and their financial supporters BEFORE a decision was to be taken on the ACV
• The Council KNEW on August 15th that Ritblat intended to demolish the building so why did they go through the charade of pretending to consider the grant of an ACV?

The final, damning question is this...

At a meeting with Bruce Guthrie, Guy Oliver and Cllrs Addenbrooke and Cllr Cyron, Cllr Coleridge made clear that the ultimate decision for the grant of a ACV rested with him. But, despite the ACV not being legally binding on Ritblat,Cllr Coleridge refused to do the very thing that twenty-eight thousand residents had petitioned for.

This leaves a very large ? hanging in the air.....

An admiring follower of the Dame

  

IT SHOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS;.....

For too long the Council has sided with 'Big Money' and ignored residents.

In this case, the "Big Money' is the Ritblat family and a little known mysterious New York dealer in distressed assets, Ares.
Today, at just a day's notice, many residents turned up to denounce the Council for once again colluding with 'Big Money' at their expense.

'Big Money' does not always have to antipathetic to the community; in fact, in the case of the Odeon, a well-known and very rich developer had come forward with a plan which would align the interests of investors with those of the twenty-eight thousand residents who called for the halting of next week's demolition.

Interestingly, the Council was informed of the demolition plans on the 15th August but still pretended ignorance of Ritblat's demolition plan.

They even went ahead with trying to set up a meeting with the potential saviour of the cinema knowing that the demolition was imminent. 

PROTEST TODAY; THE ODEON, KENSINGTON HIGH ST: 2:00pm

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THE KENSINGTON ODEON TO BE RAZED TO THE GROUND THIS MONDAY

MONEY OBSESSED RATBLAT

You have to hand it to the Ritblat family; they really know how to twist the Rotten Borough around their fingers…… 

For months, the Friends of the Odeon Cinema worked tirelessly to persuade the Council to list the wonderful Art Deco building as an asset of community value. 

Yesterday, Ritblat Junior informed a less than surprised Council that he was going to send in the JCB's this Monday.
So, what's the 'back story'?

Well, here goes and it's no credit to the Council……

The Friends had a plan: one which had the support of local associations and amenity groups ( The BFI; ESSA; The Cinema Theatre Association;The Kensington Society; The Theatres Trust; The 20thC Society; SAVE Britain’s Heritage; Opera Holland Park; The Portobello Café Society ;The Curzon Cinema Group and The Hitchcock Foundation and  
....27,000 RESIDENTS http://bit.ly/1N73qeO  ( HELLO COUNCILLORS WE VOTE FOR YOU ! ) and, more importantly, one of Denmark's most successful entrepreneurs with a global record in funding developments and restoring and finding new uses for historic buildings.

In other words, aligning community interest with that of the funder. Not ignoring them……

The Ritblat family, whose only interest is in money ( Young Jamie is quoted in an interview saying “it starts and finishes with the money”) could only dream of the reputation of this man. 
Indeed, the Dame herself overheard a certain European monarch extolling the virtues of Troels Holch Povlsen http://bit.ly/1RrvGel

So enthused was Troels that he wrote in support of the Friends' plan when they applied for the cinema to be designated as an Asset of Community Value in May.

PUBLIC SPIRITED BILLIONARE

On 25th May the Council gave unanimous support for the designation IF financial support could be demonstrated by 31st May....To the shock and horror of Cllr Coleridge the Friends were able to do so and provided letters of support from three billionaire philanthropists.

Despite all of this, and in the most mysterious of circumstances, a letter was issued by the Planning Dept rejecting the Friend's application. 
So, who is responsible for these decisions? 
Step forward Cllr Coleridge.... who has the final say in all applications for Assets of Community Value.

So scandalous was the behaviour of Cllr Coleridge even Cllr Moylan protested the Council had behaved badly.

As a result, the Council invited the Friends to apply again for the cinema to become an Asset of Community Value. 
Now, with all their evidence in place, a decision was

due to be made by October 1st.

Troels and other financial heavyweights were happy to show their support by meeting the Council and discussing how to make the Odeon an asset of community value.

So far, so good. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it seems that somehow a 'deep throat' in Hornton Street leaked information alerting the Ritblats to the support of Troels Holch Povlsen et al.

The result?
This Monday Ritblat will order in the bulldozers and another piece of Kensington history will be razed to the ground. 
Those with long memories will see parallels

with the odious Cllr Nicholas Freeman's quasi-illegal destruction of the old Town Hall the weekend before listing.

So, which officer or member went behind the back of the Friends and told Ritblat to get a move on ( TC ? ) …..

And, what a spectacular own goal for the Rotten Borough where instead of a fantastic new arts centre and cinema to be named “The Hitchcock” after Britain’s most famous

film director and probably Kensington’s most famous former resident a demolition which will further deaden an already dreary High Street. 
With nineteen empty premises and a string of budget stores the High Street is far from what it once was……

What to do ? Sign this petition and protest outside the cinema on Sunday afternoon from 2 pm ……… http://chn.ge/1WRrV2N

Finally, and ominously, the Odeon, Kensington, is filled with asbestos. If the demolition goes ahead this weekend residents should buy facemasks...