HARD LESSONS FROM MIDDLE EAST BACKED HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL

Residents in that quiet backwater, Mallord Street, are in for an unpleasant shock

Hampshire School is proposing to convert 19 Mallord Street, the old Chelsea Telephone Exchange, into a school with upwards of one thousand pupils. Hampshire School claims to be the world's largest private education provider and is heading for an IPO. 
The big mystery is who is financing it....

A SCHOOL? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING!

It seems the freeholder is more enamoured with the idea than residents. They are furious with Sloane Stanley for even considering leasing the building for such inappropriate use-especially as the development will have a hugely detrimental impact of property values in the area.
A school of this size will create massive traffic movements per week causing chaos in a residential street.
The only way this can be stopped is for Sloane Stanley to act in the interests of Chelsea and find a more suitable use.
Richard Everett, the manager of Sloane Stanley, is a decent fellow and one hopes he will have a re-think....

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

MATES!

This lovely picture shows the leader of the political wing of the terrorist  Provisional IRA, Sinn Fein, having a cosy chat with Pooter Corbyn.
Pooter does seem to revel in the company of terrorist organisations.
It seems difficult to believe sane and sensible, Cllr Atkinson, sees much to admire in Corbyn.

NO ANSWER CAME THE STERN REPLY....

Recently, a resident businessman posed a question to Cllrs Atkinson and Dent Coad, our MP.
There has been a deafening silence...
Come on, you two...answer the question!

And, on the same subject, the Dame expects an answer to the issue of the inept noise nuisance team. 
A resident has taken the Dame and the Council to task so come on Leader, can we have an answer, please?

Dear Dame

You appear to be ignorant of the antics of the noise nuisance team in recent years - inefficiency and lack of funding is not the problem, ignorance and incompetence is!

Take for example the squandering of hundreds of thousands of pounds of our RBKC taxpayers’ money attempting to ban two school children from playing the piano in after school hours on behalf of one well-connected multimillionaire resident (complaining about 1.5 hours per day of piano playing!). The children’s other neighbours said there was no problem! 

Also, take for example the experience of Mr Mustafa Karim and his neighbours in the north of the borough - Mr Karim spoke at the Full Council Meeting on the 23rd January (available to view on the RBKC webcast of this meeting), and explained that for the past four years, he and his neighbours have made hundreds of complaints to the RBKC noise team about Tesco Express trolleys crashing into the walls of his home every day from 6am until 11pm. Mr Karim and his neighbours were told that the noise nuisance officers could not / would not take any action on residents’ behalf because, “Tesco is a giant company and the council cannot fight giant companies”! 

You are wrong and misguided to think that even more taxpayers’ funds should be diverted into an incompetent, poorly trained, unreasonable and unaccountable noise team who consider that it is worth spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on attempting to ban school children’s piano-playing. Unsurprisingly, they failed! AND had to pay all legal costs at taxpayer expense!

Noise nuisance officers have the option to direct residents to take private action as they did in the recent high profile “El Kerrami vs Fouladi” dispute. It begs the question why they did not take this approach with the well-connected Mr Baptista and his now ex-wife Ms Allen who were complaining about 1.5 hours of piano-playing per day! As for the poor residents in the north of the borough with genuine noise nuisance complaints, they are victims of an ill-equipped noise nuisance team with a perverted misunderstanding of their duties and the law on statutory nuisance.

This department has become totally useless. If the best they can do is target piano-playing children on behalf of wealthy residents, whilst ignoring genuine serious complaints about real nuisances, then all funding should be withdrawn.

Amazing that John McDonnell had nothing to say about this killing of an innocent. He has always been ambivalent about condemning Republican terrorist outrages.

New IRA said: "On Thursday night following an incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British crown forces which provoked rioting, the IRA deployed our volunteers to engage.

"We have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy, and put in place measures to help ensure this.

"In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces.

"The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death."

THE WRONG SORT OF NOISE

The Dame writes to the Leader...

Dear Elizabeth,

Politics is about priorities.

Noisy neighbours make life hell for all of us. 

Once there was a time when the noise nuisance team was relatively efficient....sadly, no longer.

Even before cutbacks, it was at best desultory.
You are spending hundreds of thousands of £'s on the noise producing Opera Holland Park for the benefit of just a few. 

Residents are fed up with this misappropriation of their money.

Stop the subsidies and divert the savings into a truly efficient Royal Borough focused 24 hour/7 days a week team with proper powers to deal with a problem that drives people suicidal. 

End all this keeping of logs and cut to the chase by having a 'no tolerance' strategy so that offenders are hit hard with punitive fines.

There are many things the Council does well; sadly protecting law-abiding residents from hellish neighbours is not one.

With best wishes,

The Dame

JEREMY'S GRANDPA REVEALED BY THE DAME

LABOUR LEADER'S GRANDPA REVEALED!

Dear Dame,
Your bullying of our leader is reprehensible however I will reveal that JC does have theatrical connections.

I am very politically engaged and as such, have followed Jeremy’s exploits for over two decades.

I am a huge fan of television comedies from the golden age of British broadcasting.

So while I am not a fan of Jeremy’s bizarre neo-Marxist worldview, his staggeringly infantile grasp of economics, his genuinely cringe-worthy self-loathing, or his utter ignorance of history, he has one talent that nobody can deny.

I hugely appreciate his consummate skill when it comes to looking like Albert Steptoe’s stunt-double.

LEADERS IN WAITING!

MR. POOTER AND HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND!

If the Tories are hopeless( which they are) what hope have we with this couple of weirdos? 

Abbott is lined up to be Home Secretary yet the dimwit sets an example to us all by drinking banned alcohol on public transport...incredible!

Hair of the Dog?

The Dame is embarrassed by our current leader but dreads to think what her mondaine friends will say when she has to admit that her country is now in the hands of a couple of Marxist nincompoops and a Provo supporting Irishman.

ATKINSON AND DENT COAD 'PUT TO THE QUESTION"

Dame,

I occasionally read your stuff with varying degrees of amusement.

Here is a question for Cllr Atkinson and Mrs. Dent Coad, MP.

I have a business in the Royal Borough. I employ 18 people at different locations and have built up a portfolio of property from which several of the business operates.
Through intense hard work and self-sacrifice, I have made myself financially independent.

A Labour Government in waiting is proposing to tax my assets at a rate of 20% annually.

I am not a masochist so I propose to wind my business down and lay off my staff. 
At the same time, I will liquidate my assets and move abroad.

I would not be making this plan if the Labour Party was led by the fiscally sane but it is not: it seems to be led by a bunch of ideologues with no idea about how business works or provides employment.

How would you, Cllr Atkinson and you Mrs. Dent Coad go about persuading me to continue to run my business and maintain the security of my employees?
I will be interested in what you have to say.

Regards

A local small business owner

DUMB POLICING

The clowning around by the police whilst Central London was paralysed by demonstrators is what happens the policing of London is in the hands of a couple of dunderheads like Cressida Dick and 'Khan't Do Anything Right'

Dancing Dimwits

Dick says the Government doesn't give enough money to properly police London yet in plain view of frustrated Londoners police officers-in a pathetic attempt to ingratiate themselves with lawbreakers-dance and skateboard

Skateboarding whilst London
grinds to a halt

VOLPE EMPLOYS VERDE

Not long ago the Council leadership were toying with the idea of asking taxpayers to make donations to help underwrite council services. 

Why should they when they see the Council frittering money on Opera Holland Park?

Dear Dame,

What hold does Mike 'Foxy' Volpe have over the Council?
Another bout of blowing hard earned Council Tax on Opera Holland Park is underway. In spite of repeated calls by this blog to stop the scandalous spending. The centre of our Park is once again a mess as the three month annual building period for the tent  gets underway. And once again the Council is spending to “beautify” the site.

The lawn in front of the elevated platform, for its entire length, has been removed and is being planted up with expensive shrubs. Top class gardening company idVerde “creating and maintaining landscapes” has been hired to reconfigure the site and create a new whoosh for the millionaire Investec patrons and the Borough's well off opera buffs.

What is it with this Council? This bunch of addicted Tories. There seems to be a relentless compulsion to spend tax payers money  on this opera.

The Labour hierarchy, Opposition Leader Cllr Atkinson and Borough MP Emma Dent Coad, need to make one hell of a stink about this terrible waste when schools are scrabbling around to pay for basic needs.

MOYLAN'S "FOLLY"

The rank stupidity of mixing fast moving traffic with walkers was never made more obvious in the planning and execution of the £30 million Exhibition Road 'white elephant'.

The man responsible for this outrageous waste of taxpayer's money was arrogant and quite unqualified Daniel Moylan.
For years Doctor Gordon Taylor, a traffic management expert, warned that this was a costly and dangerous experiment. 
Sadly, his advice has now been taken and the 'experiment' is being suspended. 

In planning the scheme allowance was made with (possibly ducts under the road) for the installation of a light controlled crossing situated at the entrance to the Science Museum.

This would allow a safe crossing of the road at this point.

This would be helpful for school parties that presently have to dodge through the traffic. 

The Council now needs to install the crossing which would in itself have some effect in slowing traffic down.

BEHIND EVERY GREAT FORTUNE.......

Behind every great self-made fortune, there is a generally a total disregard for the comfort of others.
Nowhere is this better exemplified than Nick Candy's arrogant dismissal of the needs of others....it's all ME.ME.ME

Candy has taken the lease of Providence House(ex Gordon House) and over the past few years has ploughed on with its garish redevelopment with no regard for the comfort of his neighbours in Embankment Gardens. 
Because they are not as rich as him they are just minor irritants to be ignored.

Candy has embarked on a tree planting project bang up against the boundary of the Embankment Gardens flats with the result that what used to be light-filled rooms are now dark and barely useable.
The residents have constantly lobbied the Council but to no avail.
Can anyone appeal to Candy's sense of honour? 
He has totally reversed back on his promise not to interfere with his neighbours' rights of light

GUY OLIVER....LOCAL HERO

Guy Oliver is a man of many parts and the energy of a nuclear reactor

LOCAL HERO

He's the local resident who spearheaded the campaign to save the Art Deco Odeon in High St, Ken.
One of his other excellent ideas was to demolish the ugly, self-indulgent Town Hall complex and build mixed housing in its place.


Anyway, the Dame was pleased to hear that one of Guy's day jobs was featured on BBC World Service. 
You can hear the extraordinary story of the re-birth of a '30's superyacht here  BBC WORLD SERVICE

THE DAME TAKEN TO TASK

The Dame is fair to all so is happy to publish all sides of the debate.
She does tend to think that a stronger candidate than young Rory could have given Farage a thrashing. 
Young Rory still thinks he's playing the Great Game!

Honourable and Fairminded Dame,

We all know that you are a committed Remainer but please  ask your readers to look at this YouTube Oxford Union DEBATE between government minister, Rory Stewart, and Nigel Farage.

Stewart of Afghanistan

Then ask yourself and readers who is the fitter to lead this great country of ours.
Stewart was feeble, foppish and affected with a dinner jacket built in the '30's..... Farage....fiery, agile and with every stat at his fingertips left Stewart reeling!

No wonder our country is in a mess if we have to scrape the barrel to find ministers as weak as Stewart.

Incidentally, there should be scrutiny as to his exact role in Afghanistan. 
Methinks that he rather embellished his CV....as well as nicking the wife of one of his charity's workers. 
No wonder he wore the suit of a cad!

Yours faithfully,
A Leave Resident

PARKIN G A FORTUNE

PURE GREED

According to the Tax Payers Alliance this smug looking fellow, Roger Parkin is costing the taxpayers of Slough in the region of £600,000 a year.
He is not alone....if you click on this link COINING IT you will see that there are a multitude of other councils whose executive officers are ripping off residents whilst increasing council tax or dipping into budgets to make up shortfall.

The only way for this greed to stop is for council taxpayers to go on strike.

LAURA MURRAY SETS STRAIGHT THE RECORD

The Dame gets many odd missives: most she discards. However, in the interests of fair play, the Dame decided to publish this plaintive cry from the heart. 

Here's a picture of Laura Drummond-Murray of this Ilk looking stunning!

With all her money she would pair well with the Dame's hopelessly criminal nephew, Ludo.....

Pouting Stalinist Aristo

My name is Laura Murray and I have seen the references made in this blog to myself and my family.

I hope that this blog will allow me to put the record straight.

For a start, my FB comment suggesting ‘ bourgeoisie need not apply to be a friend’ was tongue in cheek.

Sadly, because of the press coverage I have been forced to step aside from my very important Labour Party role of rooting out Anti Semitism in this great Party of ours.

To say I got the role through my father, Andrew Murray is just not true. I was appointed on my merits and not for who I am.

And my father used to be a communist but changed his views.

As for my family background....I cannot help the fact that I am the great grandchild of Lord Aberconway: I wish I wasn’t.

His company built ships to enforce British imperial dominance and war mongering and I wish that I descended from good, proletariat coalminers but the fact is that I cannot change circumstances.

There have been some truly horrible comments about my father and the fact that he decided to shorten his name. It was done for no other reason than to show solidarity with British working people. It is quite irrelevant that his family were landowners or that his great grandfather was a governor in India.

Finally, can I put to rest the biggest lie of all about the proceeds from the sale of £50 million Picasso. This money is all in trust and I have no access to it.

I hope that this puts the record straight and thank you.

Laura

HELD TOGETHER BY F&B PAINT

Colin Hall's predilection for the finer things of life is not just confined to Jo Malone scented candles and Farrow and Ball; the Home Counties favourite paint.
Colin also likes to use Mishcon de Reya, the £800 an hour soliciting firm.

Mishcon's offices
Vulgar, Vulgar, Vulgar

Colin claims that his £80 million school is falling apart and refuses to sign up to a 125 year lease until RBK&C fund all the repairs. 
To fight the Council our Colin has bought the Labour Party' favourite lawyer, Mishcon, on board

It looks as if it goes to be bonanza time for the men in wigs and who will end up picking the bill? 
Yep...the poor bloody taxpayer!
Read all about it HERE

RAISING A STINK IN HOLLAND PARK ACADEMY

Colin Hall, the headmaster or Executive Head(!) is a man of delicate and refined taste. 
Not for Colin common old Dulux paint or Waitrose scented candles: Colin has spent thousands of pounds on Farrow and Ball paint and Jo Malone candles!
His extravagance has caught the attention of Lord Agnew, Academies Minister, who is enraged by Colin's profligacy when schools are supposed to be bumping along the financial bottom £15,000!
One of the F & B paints is called Sulking Room Pink which might reflect how £260,000 a year Colin is feeling.

Click to enlarge

Sadly the candles and paint have done little for academic outcomes..., "government data shows Progress 8 dropped last year from being “well above average” to “average”.

The score fell from 0.82 in 2017 to -0.14 last year, putting it below the -0.02 average for state-funded schools."

Interestingly, the school has, as trustee, the ghastly Sally Bercow. 
Her hubby is equally well known for extravagance at the expense of the taxpayer.