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| Plus ca change |
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| INVESTEC BOSS.... LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO HIS BANK |
The Opera also pays nothing for the opera site in Holland Park which is closed to the public for nine months of the year.
Inspection of comparable data suggests that the current subsidy of £500k per year for the free use of these facilities. The Belvedere Restaurant, next door to the Opera site and occupying a similar area, pays £85k per year rates and £170k per year rent to the Council.
A 2000 sq foot office in Kensington costs £200k per year in rent and rates.
The Opera is branded “Investec Opera”.
This rich peoples' bank operates three hospitality tents at the venue and wines and dines clients on a grand scale.
Council Tax should not be wasted on the commercial interests of a South African bank.
This is not believable. Four years ago the Council took a decision to stop all spending on this Opera. WHAT IS GOING ON?
ReplyDeleteResidents have had a long campaign in the Council to stop this spending. Complaints to the Leader, Cllr dizzy Campbell are ignored, fobbed off, or obfuscated. For example, "Officers are considering charging rent for the office". They have been considering for four years......
DeleteThe Leadership is determined to continue support for the opera. Two years ago, AFTER the decision to stop spending Council Tax, the Council spent £1 million to build a new foundation for the opera site and passed this off as a "Sitting Out Area" for residents in front of Holland House. What was not declared was that the sitting out area would only be available in the four months of deep winter. When residents do not "sit out"
ReplyDeleteWhere is the Labour opposition on this? Keeping quiet because they like their free tickets. At least EDC never took advantage of freebie sops
ReplyDeleteIndeed. You can all imagine how I and my sett suffer from the ghastly noise the 4th rate operatic venue generates. There have been many complaints. Not only Dizzy Liz, but others have completely ignored the plight of residents. It can be alleged that those on the Board of the Opera enjoy the candle lit supper parties thrown by the geriatric Sloane Ranger - Dizz Lizzy. Do those responsible, including Quirky DR Quirk, benefit from this utter waste of money. Whilst CHILDREN and the ELDERLY, continue to suffer. Shame on all those in the Operatic Cabal.
ReplyDeleteOh,for those who do jot know, I and my sett have lived in Holland Park for many years. Our dues are paid by Badger charity
ReplyDeleteA thorough investigation of what is going on is required. Last year the whole stretch of lawn in front of the opera site (previously used by visitors as a picnic area in the summer months) was torn out and replaced by an expensive flower bed to tart up the opera site. Council funded again. And visitors denied the facility of a lawn picnic area.
ReplyDeleteThis lawn previously included new, expensive benches (Council tax funded) that were specially commissioned with the Holland House logo. The benches now reside in the middle of the flower beds.
The Council takes residents for granted, treats Council Tax as a piggy bank for Councillors to indulge wealthy opera goers, and the Pooter tradition of "our Glyndbourne in the park" continues unabated
Peace needs to be restored to Holland Park. Opera buffs can take a short bus ride to the Royal Opera at Covent Garden or the English National Opera at Trafalgar Square. Better productions, better singers, better orchestra, cheaper seats, and a more varied programme for 12 months of the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's time to boycott the Council tax and withhold till we receive an explanation. Nobody signed a contract with the Council re: Council tax so theoretically you are paying it with our own volition and supporting Investec by paying your Council tax. So don't complain. Council Tax payer should receive a refund.
ReplyDeleteNothing will change until Labour starts to do its job and goes after the Tories for this travesty. Whoever the Labour Leader is should start a press campaign.
DeleteWho is the Labour Leader these days?
Is EDC the Labour Leader? She used to be against the opera. Maybe she now has a free seat.
DeleteThe Labour Leader is Cllr Keith Cunningham
DeleteYou are years out of date 20.55. The current Labour Leader is Cllr Atkinson
DeleteBadgers in the news today. Let's call it the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDelete"Badger cull to be replaced by vaccines in bovine TB fight"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51753393
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletexactly! The "scientists" have now came to their senses and realised that indefinite culling will solve nothing. There is NO prove that we were responsible for spread of the TB. Happy to hear the news, as you would imagine..:-)
Delete'They' will use fear against us. Previously badgers were the victims. With this Covid-19, there are many flaws in the story. They are ramping up on fear by showing scary images on the news and death toll. Yet they release people from quarantine after 14 days when in fact the virus could be active up to 40 days. Doews it make sense to you? And let's not get to the test quality. Some people showed -ve results up to 5 times only the 6th one being +ve. This is like HIV test. If you test in country A you become -ve and if you test it in Country B you are -ve. This is because each country uses different test kit. Back to the Corona story, who is to say those that have died would have died with 'ordinary' winter flu anyway?
DeleteInterestingly, many people seem to believe that this is a population control programme.
There is some kind of handshake operating in the Town Hall. Masons? Volpe, the Director of the Opera, used to be a Council employee with an Office in the Library for him and staff to run the opera. After extensive resident protests about the £10 million of Council Tax that had been shelled out on Pooter's indulgence, the Council decided to stop funding the opera. Or so we thought. A new secret programme of subsidy is underway. In spite of democratic protests, in spite of democratic decisions to stop supporting the opera, Holland Street continues regardless.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reason for this?
The Council is in the habit of saying one thing and doing another. Otherwise known as lying.
DeleteIt clearly doesn't matter who the leader of the Council is. It's pathological. Or endemic to the culture. Take your pick.
That's certainly true of the housing department. We've gone from being lied to by the TMO to being lied to by the Council. In many cases by the very same people.
DeleteWhat we've ended up with are people who will happily say one thing, often whatever they believe what the audience want to hear, before promptly doing whatever the hell they like irrespective of what they said five minutes ago.
One can only assume that this is the "culture" we were promised. The one where Council officers and Councillors say one thing and do another. No doubt with their fingers crossed behind their back.
Foxy Volpe has just taken a very generous early retirement package so this is the last summer any of us will have to tolerate him. Good riddance!
DeleteRIP Volve.. Obviously, there must be an underlying reason for him to do so. Most probably, to avoid being an "employee", when the "shit hits the fan"- anytime soon. However, this is a very erroneous thinking, as the law will have access to Volpe whether employed or not. Same applied to ghastly not-so-stella Stella Bailey (remember this awful soul, who was responsible for many cuts to Adult Social Services).
DeleteMore likely it's a disciplinary matter. Nasty bully of a man.
DeleteThe Hornet estimates £200k for rent and rates for a 2000 sq foot office. This is incorrect. The figure should be £200k for rent plus £18k for rates. This is the value of the office that is currently made available to the opera, gratis, by the Council
ReplyDeleteGreat for those who know how to get it
The Tories have a naturally selecting clique of the "I'm all right Jack" brigade. They sense what makes a comfortable life for them and organise accordingly. Council Tax is a piggy bank for pet projects like Holland Park Opera and the new Holland Park School. They make no financial sense, and do not provide something that is not already there. However it is nice fro the in crowd to stroll across the lawn from their Holland Park mansions for a bit of culture. And it is wonderful for the upwardly mobile headmaster to blow £3k per year on fragrant candles to delight his pupils.
DeleteYou're a bit behind the curve here I'm afraid dear Dame. Investec don't sponsor then anymore. You'll see their name has been dropped off the website.
ReplyDeleteI also get the feeling you've not attended yourself? Only one hospitality area was branded Investec. All the others have always been picnicking areas for the rest of the audience.
Point taken that the vulnerable of this borough are being criminally underserved by the council, but giving free office space to a charity isn't the problem. It's not like the opera are taking up space that would otherwise be rented by a commercial company.
ReplyDeleteThat building is nowhere near occupancy anyway. If anything I'd welcome RBKC throwing their doors open to more local organisations, whether they be arts, sports, mental health, whatever.
You must be deluded... Who with the proper mind would like to be next door to any of the "regular" RBKC employees... Like Coronavirus, the virus of indifference and belligerence is highly infectious
DeleteRegular RBKC employees? Hoho!
DeleteThe building they're in is where they keep the bin lorries round the back. It's also the base for the traffic wardens.
This is a most informative blog. Three major news stories:
ReplyDelete(i) Volpe has taken a package and is leaving the opera
(ii) Investec has dropped out and no longer sponsors the opera (maybe something to do with their forthcoming floatation and public scrutiny on tax expense claims for the opera)
(iii) empty Council property, funded by Council Tax, should be made freely available to Charities. This, of course, is bonkers Socialism
Presumably the opera will now collapse and the £4.5m council tax bung given to them when "the subsidy stopped" is blown to smithereens. A nice little earner for Investec corporate entertainment
Of course none of this may be true. All speculation and diversion.
But maybe there is the prospect of park visitors getting their sitting out area back
Very true and a nice comment - for all to read. You see, those in the Hornets' Nest can shuffle funds in whatever direction they feel fit. You see, since Cameron's abolition of the "Audit Commission", which was not much cop anyway, the situation has gotten cosier for the Hornets. Although the AC was replaced by the National Audit Office, this is only as an "umbrella". RBKC still APPOINTS their own AUDITORS, who agree a brief with the Hornets. It may be that the Auditors are owned/controlled by Councillor(s). So, it is a open playing field. The ONLY was to achieve anything, should be by a formal complaint to National Audit Office, the financial Rottweilers....who have teeth and often use them.
DeleteThis whole opera episode was a disastrous adventure by socially ambitious Pooter Cockle, funded by the Council Tax piggy bank
ReplyDeleteHear, hear and use by the Opera Ignoraty...Ghastly din, disturbing us little lot. Hope the predicted demise is correct.
Delete£10 million subsidy and £4.5 million to send them away. All from Council Tax.
ReplyDeletePlus an extra £1 million for the new concrete foundation in 2018 for the tent and entertainment areas - passed off by Councillors and Officers as a "sitting out area" for residents and visitors
DeleteHornton Street dishonesty and hypocrisy by Leader dizzy Lizzie
The Council is now making the budget expenditure for next year. This will be finalised next month. Would the Dame please inspect the figures and tell us how much subsidy has been voted for the opera next year?
ReplyDeleteDirect and indirect subsidy?
Yes, indeed... She, as a respected citizen of the Borough has the right to do so....
DeleteRe Budget: I understand that £Millions were spent in the acquisition of "housing stock". It should be VERY interesting who were the Agents, facilitating the purchase? Savills, maybe? This also suggests that the "wide boys" got on the bandwagon, bought vacant properties at one price and promptly sold them to RBKC at a higher price, assumedly generating a hefty profit. Thorough audit might be the answer....
Sounds as though the opera may close down next year
ReplyDeleteI shall invite selected few to celebrate the event at the Belvedere, who - after the closure of the Opera should be glad of the income. I think, that a fair portion of their revenue came "pre" or "post" Opera candle-lit supers
DeleteOnce again the Dame has exposed wrong doing in our Town Hall. She is a treasure
ReplyDelete