CRATUS DIRECTORS GET CHINESE TORTURE OVER HOLIDAY INN DISASTER

Jason Kow of Queensgate Investments likes a lot of kowtowing so when he called in Lil' Bob Neill MP and Sir Pooter Cockell into his 295 storey penthouse office he made them crawl on hands and knees to his 20 sq. metre Quang dynasty desk.

Wobbling chins

" you couple of dimwits; you promised me that getting permission would be a walk in the park and that between you both you could fix anything".

Blubbing Pooter

By this time Pooter was blubbing copiously and Lil' Bob's many chins were wobbling with emotion as the bollocking continued.
It seems that Lil' Bob had boasted too much that his old job as a local government junior minister and Pooter's, as ex RBKC leader, would mean that the Planning Committee would wave it through and Cratus collect a fat fee.

" I pay you lying dogs nothing..... now get out of my office!"

RESIDENTS WIN AGAINST PLANNING TEAM AND THEIR CHINESE 'CLIENTS'

"Dear Dame, Just won... 6 hours to decide this building is big and ugly and would be horrible for the residents!!"

It should have taken 30 SECONDS to decide that the Planning Department's pet project was an abomination.

ANOTHER RUSE TO CONFUSE. YOUR TEAM ARE A DISGRACE, STALLWOOD!

The residents fighting hard to prevent the Holiday Inn monstrosity know that the planning officers are not on their side; after all, Messrs Stallwood, Elliott and team have had 24 months to bond and socialise with the Chinese developers!
So, when the resident's action group made an F.O.I. request  for "any and all documents, whether hand-written, in hard copy or electronically recorded" they expected that the documents would be delivered on the deadline date of the 14th September....not 16 days later on the Decision Day.

Mr. Stallwood and the Council Leader need to explain whether this was deliberate delaying-despite regular prompting-to prevent the resident's experts from having more than just a few hours to examine, in depth, complex documents dating back two years.
Tonight, Mr Stallwood needs to deal with this accusation of breach of good faith.

BE THERE TONIGHT....6.30PM IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Don't allow the Planning Department's crude attempt to confuse residents work.
The meeting is tonight....THURSDAY....Not as they state on the above TUESDAY

Come on, Mr. Stallwood...this is just not good enough.

CAPCO AND KHAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT

Dear Dame,

On Next Door in Earl's Court there is a post from local election Council candidate Bruno de Florence (Labour) saying that Emma Dent Coad was invited to the event this evening but has declined to go.  

Good for her!

Capco is a partner in London First and is sponsoring this big bash tonight at Labour Conference. 

So much for all change under Jeremy Corbyn: developers still come first. 

Keynote speaker is Sadiq Khan who as chair of TfL is in a JV partnership with Capco on the Earls Court Masterplan 22 acres in RBKC. 

Coming after Newcombe House and with the Holiday Inn redevelopment looming, as well as a revised Earls Court Masterplan coming in Spring 2019, Khan's direction of travel is pretty obvious. 

2,000 people's homes on the West Ken Gibbs Green estates are under threat of demolition. 

The Earl's Court site is a dust bowl, lying empty when it could be used to bring business and fun back to the area on a temporary basis. 

A FAIRY TALE IN RBKC

Dear Dame


Once upon a time there was a forbidding Fortress in Hornton Street, yet the portcullis stayed mostly open and the local peasants could get in at will. 

GO AWAY, YOU 'ORRIBLE RESIDENT

In comes an evil Lord of Darkness and up goes the drawbridge. 
This peasant has noticed some very unpleasant changes, particularly in the planning department of the Fortress. 
Once one could view plans and applications enlarged and in detail spread out on the viewing tables with the aid of two planning officers; this service has vanished. 
Equally, once where one could consult a bona fide planning officer on planning matters. Now there is a wait of an hour and a half  and a meeting in a cubicle with a jack of all trades expected to give advice on anything and everything from parking permits to social housing and Council Tax.

Magically also telephone connections to individual planning officers have disappeared in a puff of smoke. 
If you try to speak to one of the officers via the planning line  only applicants or their agents will be put through to the case officers. 
How can that be??? 
After all it' the peasants that bankroll the whole Council operation.
Not only are the peasants kept away from the premises as much as possible, and officers remain incommunicado, but even Freedom of Information rights are trampled upon and ignored. This must not continue.

No doubt the evil Lord of Darkness is casting an eye around to acquire a cloak of total invisibility. Seeing this about to happen, the peasants are up in arms and revolting.

Unless conditions at the Fortress change, there will be no happy ever after for the erstwhile "public servants" who have become "public tyrants".

Signed by a revolting peasant
(Until further notice The End)

SITTING ON HIS HANDS

Many of the elderly and vulnerable boost their income by renting out their homes. Tragically, many fall victim to a gang of Middle Eastern crooks who give the impression of being bona fide tenants then immediately start to sublet to all and sundry via sites like Booking.com. It's an epidemic in Chelsea and Kensington. 

Hands, after a mauling from the Dame's dear friend, Andrew Neil

The process of removing these gangsters is long-winded and hugely expensive. See the previous stuff by the Dame LINK
In one recent example the owner of a small, not especially high-value flat, paid £40,000 in legal fees and lost rent.
In the three months, it takes to evict these people rent cannot be taken and on the day possession is granted, plus costs and back rent, the shysters wind up the renting company whipping out the £1 million lodged there.
There are multiple losers....the local council who lose council tax and various utilities who don't get bills paid

Now, the Dame being a sensible old thing thought that this would be a matter of great interest to the members for Chelsea and Fulham and Kensington; after all, it's organised crime involving hundreds of homes.

She is asking Greg Hands and Emma Dent Coad to help. 

When she contacted Hands's office she was brushed off with, "you are not a constituent so bugger 'orf" ( well, not quite like that!)
Don't these political hacks know that every week over 2,000 constituents read the Dame's ponderings...more than the local rag!

Both MP's need to work together to persuade the Government to set up local tribunals able to issue immediate possession orders within forty-eight hours.
One of the Iraqi gangsters told a victim, "you won't win: the only winners will be the men in wigs"

CLLR CAMPBELL? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Every borough should do its utmost to ensure those in need of care remain local.
So why are the Council refusing to send those in need to the wonderful St. Wilfred's Care Home in Tite Street?

The Council has form for dispersing residents away from the area they know and the friends they love. 
Thamesbrook was one example of this type of 'cleansing' sold off to a mysterious company with links to Russian money.
In the case of St. Wilfred's it seems it will have to close in six months because the Council refuses to refer residents.
What an appalling way to treat residents and their families.

PRIVATE EYE!! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK SIR POOTER!

The Dame cannot abide purveyors of tittle-tattle especially when they feed stories to Private Eye.

If anyone knows who has been up to this mischief-making the Dame would like to know.

Pooter?
I ought to cut your greedy head off

Sir Pooter is a wonderful human being. His entire career(apart from selling fags to Africans) has been devoted to the public good....




.......and he loves mini dachshunds( a breed the Dame cannot abide) 

Click on image to enlarge
HORRIBLE PIECE ABOUT POOTER

KIM TAYLOR-SMITH? TALK TO SCHUMI

The Dame is getting quite a few messages from unlikely supporters suggesting that Cllr Taylor-Smith is beginning to stand out as a good chap who listens and wants to get things done.
One supposes that it might have something to do with having a business background and an impatience with the inefficient ways of local government.


If he carries on like this he might end up being nominated for the much treasured and lusted after, 'The Dame's Award for Integrity'. 





The only bar might be his haircut...or lack of it.
He knows the Dame disapproves for he has mentioned her rude comments about it. 

Come on, Kim...Mr. Schumi has promised to look after your locks on a pro bono basis. Give him a call!

Alternatively, for council meetings, the 'Man Bun': elegant and very King's Rd.

IS GREG HANDS GOING MAD?

The Dame is beginning to think so....

Hands talks of London as being one of the world's great cities and then proposes a mere boy who has done nothing in his life, apart from being a Yoof Worker,LINK to be its mayor!

Running the world's greatest city requires a varied set of skills and deep experience: Shaun Bailey has none.
It also requires someone who can appear with elan on the world stage..

THE FACE OF LONDON?

The Dame had the misfortune to spend an hour in his company; unbriefed he is mentally chaotic. 
How he ever got to be an Assembly Member is one of the great mysteries of our time. 
Should he ever become mayor it will be one of the great miracles of our time....as well as an absolute disaster of our times.
The Dame wrote to him about an important London issue....pollution. He never bothered to reply!

If the best candidate the Conservative Party can come up with is someone who has used 'disaffected youth" as his vehicle then it has no judgement....and the Dame wonders about Mr. Hands judgment in promoting this unqualified blowhard.
The Party is in a mess because no one has the common sense to see that the right candidate is a man or woman who has excelled in their chosen career....not some 'jumped on the bandwagon opportunist.'

RESIDENTS? IF YOU WANT TO HALT A DEVELOPMENT PERSUADE THE DEVELOPER TO USE CRATUS!

YEARS OF THIS!

Over 1000 residents have written to Graham Stallwood objecting to the Holiday Inn monster.



There has rarely been such an outpouring of anger: much of it is directed at Sir 'Pooter' Cockell, the boss of self-proclaimed 'community engagement' specialists, Cratus.

The Chinese developers are fuming....

Ex RBKC Leader Pooter, in his pitch, alluded to his huge array of contacts within the council 
What he didn't tell the Chinese was that he was universally loathed and would be a hindrance rather than a help.

Pooter and his gang also seem to be having issues with struggling developer, Andrew Moffat and his Cadogan Pier.
It seems Moffat fell victim to Pooter's pitch that he 'knew the right people'.
The Dame hears that Cadogan Pier is now refusing to pay Cratus!

The lesson is this...Cratus is not winning anyone's hearts and minds.

WHO READS THE DAME?

Greg Hands claims he doesn't bother to read the Dame's witterings. 
That is rather silly.
Even in the holiday period visitors averaged a daily 800-with a good % being those who voted for him.
As we all settle back into our normal lives viewings climb to 1800/2000 a day.

Visitors as at 07:50 today Click to enlarge

Why is the Dame showing off in this way? 
Because every MP and councillor should see the Hornet's Nest as an 'on the ground' intelligence source. 
Mr. Hands, being an ex spy, should know this better than anyone!

CATCH UP, MR STALLWOOD-TIMES HAVE CHANGED

Mr. Stallwood, our employee, is paid a considerable amount of money by council taxpayers.
We provide him with a platinum-plated pension-the stuff of envy by those working in the risk-prone private sector.
Why does the Dame raise this?

Simply because Mr. Stallwood seems to have forgotten that we employ him....not some dodgy developer in China.

The case in point is the ghastly Holiday Inn plan.
Mr. Phillip Elliott was the officer responsible for giving pre-planning advice to the Chinese. 
This must have involved many hours of meetings. 

The weird thing is that none of us have a clue as to what was discussed. 
It is not good enough. 

Every meeting should have been minuted and available to residents. 

Even stranger is that Mr. Stallwood allowed Elliott to then become the case officer; it all seems to use that ghastly modernism- 'inappropriate'.

The Dame is getting the sense that our leader is beginning to shift things so that residents are treated as partners.
Mr. Stallwood and team needs to understand and 'get with the programme' as her errant nephew, Ludo says.
Stallwood and team are out of step.....and out of sync.

SIR MERRICK? CLEAR THE AIR...PUT OUT A STATEMENT

Every councillor has to sign a declaration that he/she is qualified to stand. 
In other words, that they fulfill these requirements

The Council has stated Merrick Cockell signed a declaration that he was qualified. 
This blog has delved deeply into ex Cllr Cockell's nationality status. 
Why? Because there is confusion over his nationality during parts of his council career
It was only in 2014 that Merrick Cockell took British citizenship. 

Prior to that he was a South African citizen at a time when South Africa was not a Commonwealth member so was not qualified....unless of course, he knows something we don't.

Being very self-important, Cockell may not like impertinent questions but those who voted for him are entitled to know that he was qualified to stand.

CHAIRMAN

The Dame now intends to write to the Heads of Governance of the two bodies Cockell serves as chairman.

CHAIRMAN 

STILL TIME TO SAVE THE ODEON

GUY OLIVER

The Dame always welcomes contributions from Guy Oliver.

Also, she is beginning to hear that Cllr Campbell is finding her feet and growing into the job. 

She needs to show that she can be radical in pursuing what is good and right for all of us.

Ruination

Dear Dame,

It was ironic that we spoke about the Kensington Odeon last week, just as I was on my way to attend the funeral of Colin Amery, the journalist and activist who did so much to save our built heritage.

The Rev. Canon Nicholas Wheeler, who presided, said that Colin had gone on to a place where“there were no more property developers” and although I do not necessarily agree that a world without them would be a better place (one or two are good people), having 

observed the corrupt goings on in our capital over the past 20 years, I can certainly appreciate his sentiment.

The Evening Standard published images showing that the original 1926 interior had always existed, in its entirety, under modern shop fittings (just as campaigners had always maintained), exposed by the work

of the demolitions contractor who destroyed the cathedral-like auditorium in February last year. 

But, they stopped short of the grand marble staircases, tea rooms and the façade which still remain, dark and empty, as a monument to the arrogance of one man, Jamie Ritblat, who pushed through an immensely unpopular scheme, against the wishes of the local community. 

This is also a monument to the morally bankrupt former regime at RBKC and the, at best, willful negligence of Historic England who chose to hide behind their COI ( certificate of immunity from listing ) instead of investigating the building when they were presented with new evidence.

Now, because of a market shift, Delancey is reportedly  in the process of off-loading the site to an Indian development group LODHA, presumably able to pay a still inflated price because of a shift in the value of sterling which has adjusted by about 18% from its pre-Brexit days.

I went to see Mr. Ritblat at his offices in 2016 to discuss buying the site: he refused to give a figure. 

The next day, his agent called me to say that an offer of £135m would be acceptable, about £100m more than the site is worth. 

I told him in no uncertain terms that the people I represented were not fools.

In hindsight, it is blatantly obvious that Delancey had no intention of developing the site, they just continued

to push for ever bigger planning gains in order to achieve the maximum site value so they could sell to the highest bidder and it has backfired on them.

Our council were complicit in the cinema’s demise and the developer was actively aided and abetted by Daniel

Moylan who regularly accepted hospitality from Peter Bingle of Terrapin Communications who acted for Delancey.

It is absolutely outrageous that Moylan went on national television to call the cinema a “flea pit” and say that it“should be demolished” when so many in the borough (half the adult voting population) that he was supposed to represent, wanted to see it saved.

My message to LODHA would be "do not buy this site, don’t touch it with a barge pole". 

If you are intending to build out the permitted scheme it is unwanted by the local community and the market for this type of property has tanked, the site will bring them bad luck  This is a bad investment even at the reported (reduced) £80 m price tag.

There is an alternative, we have a scheme to build an arts centre which would house an orchestra (we have been talking to the Academy of St Martins in the Fields (who need a home) two theatres, rehearsal studios for professional and community theatre and 4 cinemas and there is room for social housing on the extended site ( not this insane definition of “affordable” housing which is based on 80% of market values (whatever they are in these uncertain times ).

...

People need to live in our borough, people from all walks of life, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, key workers and their families and we need animated high streets, not empty luxury flats.

Let’s all learn something post Grenfell, build for our community, not absentee property investors.

Sincerely,

Guy Oliver

The Friends of The Kensington (Odeon)

RESIDENTS DESERVE MORE THAN AN INSULTING 6 MINUTES!

DON'T JUST HEAR-LISTEN!

On 27th September, the planning committee will decide one of the most controversial planning applications ever to come before it.
If approval to the Holiday Inn application is given it will ride a coach and horses through the leader's claim the council now listens to residents. 

To be serious in her claim she can start by throwing out the ludicrous rule residents have just a few minutes to make their points: the restriction is a travesty of justice and an insult to the very people who put them in power.
The long-term impact this monstrous development will have on our lives means, at the very least, residents opposing the plan have at least fifteen minutes to articulate their views. 
So come on....Cllr Campbell....ignore our employee..Mr Stallwood and tell him that residents need 15 MINUTES

SHOULD POOTER BE INVESTIGATED?

'Pooter? My old chum, the Dame, says I should not be doing this'

Was Sir Pooter Cockell ever qualified to be a councillor? 
More intriguingly, being a South African citizen, should he not have just received an honorary knighthood-or none at all seeing as he got that for being a councillor.
Cockell states in this Companies House return that he has South African nationality.

The Dame's understanding is that to be to be a councillor one had to be resident and a Commonwealth citizen.
South Africa was between 1961 and 1994 excluded from membership so the question is this....

'Was Pooter Cockell a councillor in the period of exclusion and was he also a South African citizen'?

If the answer is yes then surely he was disqualified and should never have been a councillor and-consequentially, should never have been knighted?

The Council's legal team needs to give the Dame an answer or she will be contacting Miss Dick, our Met Commissioner.

THE DAME HAS HER BEJEWELLED KNUCKLES RAPPED OVER KENSINGTON SOCIETY

Contrary to what the resident below thinks the Dame has no 'pets' and thus is quite happy to publish this.

Dear Dame 

Some of your readers feel your relationship with the Kensington Society is rather too intense and 'matey' so it will be nothing short of a miracle if you publish this letter.

Many of my neighbours are very interested to see the Kensington Society getting involved in the Forum Hotel application although some of my neighbours have been complaining that in their typical high handed way Kensington Society has made little attempt actually to talk to local people and find out what the major local concerns are. 

What a contrast to Kensington Society’s quite amazing support for the ghastly and highly damaging development at Newcombe House. 

Chairman Amanda Frame was so proud of her part in that she took the awful developer, Richard Selby, to Kensington Palace to meet the Society’s patron, the Duke of Gloucester. 

So what has happened to Kensington Society, a group whose objective has always been to protect Kensington? Now it is gamekeeper turned poacher and promoting and encouraging developments that are damaging to Kensington and its unique and precious environment. 

Ms Frame seems to have lost her way. 

Ms Frame, time to move and let a less partisan chairman take over.

With Kind Regards, Dear Dame,

A Cromwell Road Resident