POOTER? NOT 'IM AGAIN!

Why are the owners of the Holiday Inn in Cromwell Road using a little known and poorly regarded lobbying company to beat locals into submission?

Former cigarette salesman, Sir Pooter Cockell,  the disastrous ex-leader of the Council is the clue.

Pooter managed to garner so many sinecures that his income shot up to nearly £140,000 a year.

He also became the subject of massive national media interest for his gigantic expense claims.

Anyway, the gravy train finally hit the buffers and Pooter was left without the wherewithal to further indulge himself at our expense.

Then he found a berth at Cratus.....who now are working to crush resident opposition to the Holiday Inn development.

Beguiled by Pooter’s stories of his powerful contacts the owners made him chairman and a shareholder.

So why would the Chinese developers appoint Pooter?

The Dame, dressed as an elderly tea lady, was able to attend the presentation pitch to Queensgate Investments and here’s the inside track....

 

GREEDY POOTER 

“ Mr Yeung, my name is Sir Merrick Cockell and I  stand between your success and failure.

Appoint my company and you acquire influence of such potency that residents’ objections will be steamrollered and your Hong Kong family will reap the hundred of millions they so richly deserve.

I am proud to say that the current leadership of the Council are all ‘creatures’ of mine-except Cllr Taylor-Smith who is much brighter and richer than me.

Under my patronage and influence each one has prospered.

The leader, Cllr Campbell, owes all to me.

Cllr Pascal, who is particularly hopeless is now a member of the Executive Team.

Thanks to me Will and his wife collect £90k a year!

Cllr Hargreaves, too, owes his preferment to me.

When Cllr Weale lost her job she came to me for a shoulder to cry on and a juicy allowance.

As for the senior planning officers....no names; no pack drill but I think I can claim that some credit for Mr. Stallwood’s promotion.

So, no one knows the inner workings of this Council better than me.

Our fees of half a million, plus a success 'kicker' may seem expensive but are mere bagatelle compared to what we can offer.

I rest my case.....”

STOP THE HOLIDAY INN DEVELOPMENT NIGHTMARE! GO TO THE MEETING.

Being the height of the holiday season and wanting to bury bad news the Chinese developers of the Holiday Inn Forum caught residents 'on the hop' and slipped in their application while London slumbered. 
The Council Leader needs to tell Mr. Stallwood, our planning supremo, this sort of shabby trick will no longer be tolerated in the new era of openness.


The owners of the Holiday Inn Forum have applied to demolish the existing hotel and construct two massive towers sitting on a “podium”. 
This podium itself will span the length of the garden square and will be 6 floors high.
Each one of these three structures would normally require an application as a stand-alone. 

By any measure, this is a massive over-development.

Residents will end up with the tallest tower being the highest building in the borough- 10 metres taller than the existing hotel.
Even the lower of the two towers will be 10 m higher than the Grenfell Tower.
Ongoing construction chaos will last 8 years!  

The development will create massive traffic with chaos, dirt and dust, more than likely, asbestos, everywhere.


There will be a massive wall of buildings visible from Kensington Gardens to Battersea Bridge.

Local residents and businesses will be directly and adversely affected by this development so everybody needs to join together and fight to halt yet another offshore developer whose sole objective is to make hundreds of millions and blighting residents' assets and quality of life.

To fight the billionaire developers we need donations and residents' support.


PP/18/03461


Please email the Council at planning@rbkc.gov.uk quoting the planning application reference above and cc’ing philip.elliott@rbkc.gov.uk, cllr.gregory.hammond@rbkc.gov.ukand acgra@outlook.com, or send your objection through the RBKC website: LINK

Please include at least one of the following points in your letter of objection:

• The setting of nearby listed buildings and conservation areas would be affected, including important local views. It would result in substantial harm to these heritage assets.
• The towers will be seen from an area as wide as Kensington Gardens to Battersea Bridge, dominating the skyline. 
• The wall of buildings will force a sense of enclosure on nearby residents.
• The towers will reduce the hours of direct daylight to the neighbouring premises on either side. Residents have a right to light.
• The relative height and proximity of the buildings will result in overlooking of neighbouring properties. Residents have a right to privacy.
• The proposed construction is 50% larger than the existing building, and would cause an over-densification of what is already one of the most densely populated areas in Europe. This would add additional strain to an already overstretched infrastructure, such as the water supply and the sewage disposal.

See the justgiving page and website, links below, for a fuller list.

Donating:

We need to fund raise £5000 for legal and professional fees if we are to successfully oppose the proposal. 
We’d appreciate any contributions from the residents who will be seriously blighted for the next several years
Donations would be gratefully accepted by cheque, bank transfer or by credit card through the justgiving page:

www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stopthetwotowers


We are hosting a meeting on 8th August at St Mary The Boltons 6.30 - 8pm. We’d love to hear from you and have your input and participation.

Please share this email. If we have enough objections and points to counter this application, the council will refuse it.

With best regards,
The ACGRA Committee
www.stopthetowers.org.uk


ACGRA, Ashburn Courtfield Gardens Residents Association, with the support of The Kensington Society www.kensingtonsociety.org, and SK&QGRA http://www.southkenqueensgatera.com

DIMWITTED KHAN SHAMES THIS CITY

One Londoner has total control over the 95% of vehicles which create some of the highest levels of pollution by leaving their engines idling whilst stationary. 

Overnight, the feckless Mayor of this city could take a massive step to slash this pollution.

So, how could 'Khan't do anything right' deal with problem?

KHAN FANATICALLY DOING NOTHNG

Simple: he is responsible for the licencing of the 95% of offenders....taxis and private hire vehicles so has access to the address of every owner. 
He can even withdraw their licences.

Has the dimwit ever thought to write to each owner taxi and private hire car reminding them the Highway Code forbids the running of an engine when the vehicle is stationary "you must not leave a vehicle's engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road."

Has he laid down the law to drivers and owners?
Of course not. 
He just hasn't a clue.
It's shameful that the world's greatest city is run by a little nincompoop 

OUR BOROUGH COMMANDER LOVES BEING PERFORMANCE DRIVEN

The other day the Dame was driving the Armstrong Siddeley and went 34 MPH in a 30 MPH zone.
She had to attend a speed awareness course.

Being elderly, she gets confused and the main area of confusion is this.

On a daily basis, high-performance cars tear down Sloane Street, Pont Street and Brompton Road at speeds in excess of 80 MPH; some boast of hitting 100 MPH!
Are the police ever there to enforce these blatant examples of dangerous driving?
Never!
Why not? Because most of these high-performance cars have indecipherable Arabic number plates....or maybe they don't want to upset the rich visitors.

One of the most useless of Borough Commanders was the late and unlamented Ellie O' Connor, now retired at 55 on a vast, publically funded, pension.

In her place is the exotically named Detective Superintendent Raffaele D'Orsi.
Now, the Dame recognises that D'Orsi was exceptionally courageous in tackling a criminal with dire physical consequences to himself. 
However, he needs to get his officers to deal with the blatant dangerous driving that makes ordinary residents feel that there is one law for them and no law for rich Middle Easterners.

A MODEST AND UNASSUMING COPPER?

"I demonstrate exceptional leadership, organisational ability and intellectual capability. I bring an exceptional record of thriving in the most sensitive and high pressure environments, able to drive performance, inspire confidence and engage across diverse partnership settings. I consistently deliver the highest level of integrity, professionalism and personal responsibility."


Can he please deploy his 'intellectual capability' to stop our roads being race tracks for rich supercar drivers and stop publishing 'newspeak' nonsense like the above.

FORTUNE COOKIES AND THE FORUM HOTEL

The Chinese billionaires behind the hated proposed development of the Forum hotel opened their fortune cookie and gave a huge sigh of relief. 
Why?

Mr. Yeung loves
Mr. Elliot

It seems that the RBKC planning officer who gave them highly supportive pre-planning advice is to be their case officer!

Step forward, Phillip Elliot who has told the Chinese that he is all in favour of increasing the height of the new Tower by 20 meters and increasing massing by 50%.

Mr. Elliot lives far away from this proposed warzone on Cromwell Rd so it's a question of 'I'm alright, Jack'.

If planning officers were forced to live in the areas they plan to blight outcomes would be very different.

What is clearly wrong is this. 
Mr. Elliot has become very close to the developers during the pre-planning stage. It stands to reason he should not be the case officer making recommendations to the Planning Committee.....all far too cozy.

Cllr. Campbell, the council leader, tells us things have changed and residents will be not just heard but listened to.

Residents will be watching to see whether she is lying.

CLLR PALMER AND A VIOLATION OF CONDUCT CODE

Councillor Matthew Palmer will be appearing before the Audit & Transparency Committee this Thursday 19^th July on the charge of violating the Council’s Code of Conduct through his behaviour at a recent council meeting. The papers can now be accessed on the website.

Oafish Palmer

Cllr Palmer, following his normal oafish ways, is reported as telling a resident:  

"that if she didn’t like the noise from the terrace at BP House she should make ‘other arrangements’ when they held their parties and BBQ’s."

In the opinion of the investigator Cllr Palmer is guilty, however, it now falls upon the committee to make a judgment after the evaluation of the evidence presented. 

The public are welcome are welcome to attend.

ROCK ROCKWELL'S BOAT NOW!

A BLIGHT AREA ON OUR COMMUNITY

If you live behind the Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road and plan to move do it now!

If not, expect to face several years when your property will be blighted and unsaleable....all thanks to a Chinese gentleman called Mr. Yeung and an Irishman, Mr. Mulryan. 

Mulryan

Yeung

These two intend to make tens of millions redeveloping the hotel and no one is going to get in their way.

Once again, the residents of Kensington & Chelsea face years of disruption to their lives for the benefit of offshore investors.

Financing the development are the HK based Yeung family whilst the construction will be in the hands of Irish property developer, Donal Mulryan, owner of Rockwell, who had a few issues back in 2009.

And once again, we see foreign investors seeking to make short-term profits to the detriment of the long-term welfare of residents.

The proposed scheme will be an intensive redevelopment of a high-density residential area. 

Expect years of noise, pollution and traffic chaos: in other words, a long-term blight on homes with a considerable financial loss in already difficult times.

Any development should be restricted to the current area footprint, but that won't provide sort of greedy returns these offshore investors demand.

So tax paying residents will suffer so an already super rich HK family get even richer.

No doubt, sophisticated tax planning will ensure they pay minimal development tax.

The developers will try to 'turn' residents by using crafty and amoral public relations operators. 

Fight back...your interests and those of Queensgate Investments/Rockwell are massively misaligned. 

These gamblers don't give a damn about you or the health-financial, or otherwise of your family.

Residents need to understand the Queensgate Investments/Rockwell propaganda machine will spin every sort of lie to get what they want...you need to fight back.

DUCHESS OF CORNWALL'S NEPHEW KEEPS ROUGH COMPANY

Amigo Loans is so awful that even the capitalistic Daily Mail described the founder as a 'billionaire loan shark'. See LINK

Benamor

You would think that the founder, James Benamor, being the son of Tunisian immigrants, would feel empathy for the struggles of the newly arrived who can't get loans. 
Not a bit of it!
The kind soul is ready with his 49% APR loans and woe betide you if you fall behind.
So, what does this have to do with our Royal Borough? 
Well, two of its advisers, JP Morgan Cazenove and some PR outfit, Hawthorn, run by the Duchess of Cornwall's nephew, Ben Elliot, are busy polishing this excreta of a company: both live in the Borough and many in the North of the Borough are in hock to this vile firm.
The chap in charge of turning this unpleasant money lender into a billionaire is RBK&C resident, Edward Gibson-Watt, an executive director of JP Morgan Cazenove.
It's an irony that the City can raise multi-millions for what the Daily Mail described as a loan shark company, yet cannot help decent companies raise money.

In the old days Cazenove would never have allowed a filthy company through its door....how times change.

HARRODS-A MAGNET FOR SQUALOR

A TYPICAL HARRODS STREETSCAPE

When the Dame's dear friend, French thinker, Monsieur Sartre, said hell was other people he clearly had not been to Harrods recently.

The area has become an extension of Edgware Rd. 
Brompton Road is now a squalid replication of some Middle Eastern city. Prostitutes, pickpockets, and cardsharps have entirely taken over the area.
Beauchamp Place-a once charming backwater, is dominated by shisha cafes with waiters bustling around the pavements bearing red hot buckets of charcoal. Health & Safe has gone out of the window just because the Council does not wish to upset the Middle Eastern visitors.

Sloane Street is now a racetrack for their monstrous supercars as they race each other, with aircraft like noise, at speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. 
Do the police care? Seemingly not.

On the same subject of noise....
It seems the Council has at last taken heed of the thousands of complaints about busking and are considering a Borough-wide ban. 

AN IDIOT DRUMMER BY HARRODS

But why has it taken pressure from residents to halt the nuisance? LINK

Write to the Leader of the Council, Cllr Campbell and tell her you want an immediate ban on all buskers and the police to come down hard on racing supercars.

Cllr. E.Campbell@rbkc.gov.uk

PARKING SUSPENSIONS DONE AWAY WITH!

You thought commercial vehicles needed to apply for parking suspension notices? 

Think again......

RBK&C's parking team who work from Hammersmith & Fulham Council's offices has changed the rules (yes, very strange that this has been outsourced)

Now, if you are a removals firm, you will not be penalised if you decide not to bother with the fuss of obtaining and paying for a suspension permit.

One resident reported an incident of two vast Hedley Humper removal vehicles not just occupying 5 resident bays but parking alongside each other narrowing the road width and causing serious congestion.

2 Monsters blocking busy road

During the entire day, not one CEO bothered to investigate the matter.

Why would they?

After all, far more lucrative for CEO's to wander around ticketing overstays causing no congestion but adding huge revenues to council coffers!

When the resident reported the matter, Team Leader, Mr Nick Day weakly justified things by saying, “We do try to encourage removal vans to book suspensions prior to any removal work”

Mr. Day, your job is not to somewhat sweetly ‘encourage’; your job is to enforce the rules as they apply to every commercial operator.

Your sweet encouragement will quickly be interpreted by every company as, “ we can get away with it”

ANA DELGADO :THE DAME NAMES AND SHAMES AN AMBASSADORIAL LITTER BUG

Street cleaning in the Royal Borough is efficiently done. 

The cleaning teams are dedicated and hardworking.

A reader has just sent the Dame a picture of a vast pile of unsorted rubbish dumped on a Knightsbridge street.
It was on an incorrect day, with no attempt to properly bag it or recycle it.

Step forward Miss Ana Delgado, a Panamanian lawyer, and, until recently, her country's ambassador to the UK.
This was her very lame excuse considering it has happened previously.

This was her last excuse....

Dear Mr. *******

I have already took attention to the matter and spoke to the Council of Kensington and Chelsea 2 days ago. (No, she did not so it lends credence to ambassadors being sent abroad to lie on behalf of their country)

I apologize for inconvenience. I am currently outside London and it was a mistake made by new cleaner who was not aware of rules.

This won’t happen again,

Ana Irene Delgado

You would expect Miss Delgado to ensure her cleaner(if she did?) had instructions about when to put out rubbish..... but maybe, Her (Ex) Excellency doesn't believe the rules apply to her.

Having told the Council it wouldn't happen again she then dumped another load. 

Maybe she will claim diplomatic immunity!

Fortunately, a civic-minded fellow resident bought it back off the street and pushed it into the ex- ambassador's flat entrance.

Miss Delgado needs to understand what might be acceptable in Panama City is illegal and unacceptable in the Royal Borough of K&C
It's time neighbours and the Council had a few words with this selfish woman. 

For an ex-ambassador, to behave as she has is unforgivable.

Being a 'hot shot' lawyer she will probably try to sue the old Dame. Good luck with that one, dear!

HILL HOUSE ALLOWED TO PARK ON DOUBLE YELLOW LINES

HILL HOUSE SCHOOL BUS ON DOUBLE YELLOW LINES

The driver of this large bus parked for an hour on double yellow lines. 
He gave a unique excuse for breaking the law.


He explained that Mr. Richard Townend, the headmaster of Hill House had said it was ok to do so!
Double lines are there to prevent congestion and accidents-especially to vulnerable school children.

Mr. Townend clearly thinks double yellow lines don't apply to his school.
No wonder Ofsted were less than complimentary about school leadership!