Dear Dame
Welcome to streamlined RKBC 2023. Without public consultation, RBKC intends to condemn Portobello and Golbourne Markets to oblivion. Think the once thriving Covent Garden Market; now culturally dead; fit only for Dior and Jo Malone stores.Before Covid, RBKC’s heroic Cllr Cem Kemahli tried in vain to “sell” his brilliant market modernisation plans to stupid, local communities. He was naturally irritated by peasants' awkward questions and stubbornness. Poor Cem withdrew. The fragrant Cllr Catherine Faulks took on his burden. She too was foiled. The Dame’s loyal readers may remember that her plans to replace licensed market traders with restaurant tables and chairs, fell at the first - legal - hurdle.No matter. RBKC now has a new plan. Portobello and Golbourne will be “modernised” without the distraction of public engagement! In six weeks time, by late January with Christmas intervening, RBKC will have formally adopted an unpublished, market development policy! A group of designers will compete for a £3 million preliminary contract to repair and renew basic market infrastructure; neglected by RBKC for the last 50 years! What genius?There’s a parallel plan to “consult” local businesses to vote for a BIDS development; as has been adopted to upgrade Kings Road and Knightsbridge. RBKC has yet to explain whether 250 licensed market businesses will have 250 votes; or just one!Yesterday, a handful of locals were invited to a meeting. No RBKC Councillors attended; just 4 officers. They confirmed that once the unpublished policy is agreed by RBKC and designers selected, consultations will follow and work will start within a year! Job done. Brilliant!So who will benefit? Answer: Cllrs Kemahli and Fragrant plus a handful of large, commercial property owners. Rents will immediately quadruple and the untidy street markets will disappear. Portobello will become another Westbourne “Grave" - a place of eye watering rents; where retailers go to die. Cllr Kemahli will be widely praised and no doubt ultimately become Leader of the Council. More of the poor will disappear. A win/win.Residents foolish enough not to appreciate RBKC’s plan, please immediately write to their Councillors and neighbours - particularly journalists. Please copy in <governance@rbkc.gov.uk>.
If we are to save the Markets, there’s no time to lose!
ReplyDeleteThis is simply outrageous. What would encourage 3 million, or even 1 million people a year to visit yet another boring, big name, Central London shopping street? RBKC Is actively colluding with big institutional property owners to rid itself and them of one of the few, genuine, London institutions that year round, attracts people of every background from all over the world.
It’s more than possible that RBKC’s secretive behaviour over this is illegal. The Council seems to think that if it succeeds in acting in secret; no one will notice. Once the vote is taken, the markets will simply slide into disuse over a brief period of time. No one will even care.
Unless local residents tell their councillors and the Press that they do care; RBKC will get its way and there will be nothing left. We must write - NOW!
The reason why the RBK&C want to modernise and wreck the markets is so that they can transform the markets into a hideous Covent Garden full of shops able to pay massive Business Tax that the Council can waste.
ReplyDeleteDon’t we have a planning and housing ‘expert’ in North Kensington who has a lot of free time to do the scrutiny ….?
ReplyDeleteThis is shocking. Why the secrecy? What a they up to? How can local government vote through policy and spending without due process?
DeleteIt seems this is all part of the creeping gentrification that’s been going on in K & C for decades. Unlike the rest of the UK, every year, the population of this borough diminishes. There will soon be no room at all for anyone except non-doms and money launderers.
Assuming this story is true, Cllr Kemahli has a lot to answer for. The Market people must have understood what’s going on; there’s surely a law protecting residents rights; if not traders’ rights.
ReplyDeleteOne might have thought that in 2022, the mere idea that any council thinks it can get away with such underhand behaviour, is absurd. Don’t they know that the public has agency these days; much of it via the internet?
However, nothing is impossible from this council. One notes the timing, a couple of weeks before Christmas. No agenda; no public consultation; no publicity; no rules of engagement; no councillors; no democracy. One could go on forever.
The cynicism displayed here is reminiscent of any one of dozens of sketchy countries and businesses large and small. Reality is manipulated and distorted till there’s nothing left. As ever, the motivation is money. A very few people and their lackeys will gain great wealth at the expense of a neglected minority. Public assets and cultural treasure will disappear into corporate pockets.
The prospect of losing our chaotic, but life-enhancing markets is truly sickening. Those responsible must be held to account.
Oh where is former Councillor Press when we need her ? Amongst her multiple talents Monica kept her finger on the pulse with anything connected to the markets. These plans would never have been attempted in her day. What are her successors going to do about it ?
DeleteKicked off by Dent Coad
DeleteEDC did Councillor Press down. She was complicit in the shafting of Councillor Henderson but denies it. Well she would, wouldn't she?
DeleteMy name is Ellis Jenkins and have been a street trader for over 35 years and attended the PGMC meet on Tuesday the 13th.
ReplyDeleteNow I wouldn't consider myself educated and I do stand in the gutter to get my living but to be treated like a mushroom at the PGMC was quite frankly an insult, there was so much B/S being spoken I couldn`t work out to sweep it up or shovel it up. It seemed to me drawings had already been drafted and they were going to use the guise of a competition, here we have a winner ! to rubber stamp them in under six weeks.
Portobello Rd doesn`t need a major redesign of street works it only requires a bit of TLC.
To disturb the natural patina of Portobello Rd would be crime to humanity we need more bed knobs and broomsticks not Westfield and lakeside.
RBK&C asked us for our input as to what we would like from the them so here goes
just generally fix what needs fixing
new pavement`s where needed
Fix the CCTV
New and improved street lighting
A new road surface there is far to much reinstatement
electricity bollards U/S
Public conveniences need updating just to work as they should would be fine
These are the kind of improvements that the market requires.
any spare cash spend it where it is really needed
We do not require under any circumstances
The Market to be pedestrianised or the removal of parking bays adjacent to our pitches these are red lines which must not be crossed.
These are just some of our thoughts
Lisa & Ellis Jenkins
Portobello Road is a complete mess. There should be high quality new pavements, new road surface, new greenery & plants installed, public seating, better lighting and CCTV along the whole street from Pembridge Road all the way up to Golborne Road, long term & well built stalls rather than the shabby 1950s style market stalls we have at the moment. And all of it should be funded by the council but they need to do things properly. Imagine the sort of market we could have with all of this implemented. They always get things wrong and never do things properly. Such a shit council we have
DeletePlanters? Sound so naff
DeleteDoesn’t need to be planters. Just something green (or purple or other colours) to liven the road up a bit. It’s stuck in the past. Very good quality stuff available if the council pulled their heads out of their arses and actually made an effort to make the area look good. It’s always been a dump and in need of refreshment
DeleteThere are issues here way beyond the future of the local street markets. Surely a councillor has a legal duty to the public and the public purse. Once he or she ceases to act for the public good, their position becomes questionable. When MPs are found to have behaved in this way, they have to resign their seats. Surely the same is true of local councillors.
ReplyDeleteIt’s clear that, as well as street traders, no local residents will benefit from this secret plan. The potential beneficiaries are limited to those owning and running higher end, bricks and mortar businesses. The landlords of such businesses have a vested interest in artificially raising the rental values of their properties. However, this doesn’t necessarily work. In Portobello Road near Sainsbury, a group of retail units were modernised during lockdown. Yet, they remain empty. If there was huge local demand for large, smart, modern retail spaces, big name companies would have snapped up the leases. After all; on summer Saturdays 60,000 people walk past these shop units.
Oxford Street and it’s shopping is some 5km away. Westfield is even nearer. Then there’s Kensington High Street. None of these well known shopping centres are currently booming with retail activity. So why do apparently experienced property people wish to create more of the same? The obvious answer is that property owners have no interest in ensuring the long-term future of their tenants. Their business model is to extract maximum rents for as long as it lasts. No matter if the retailer ultimately goes broke. They have served their purpose. Another victim will soon appear on the scene; anxious to prove they can buck the market.
This is the high end property business in a nutshell. Greed conquers all. So what has this to do with RBKC or RBKC councillors? Something is seriously amiss. RBKC Governance should investigate the matter.
The whole area is a shithole and should be flattened
ReplyDeletesays Lord Moylan
DeleteThe Kensington Markets are a mess & our undemocratic Council seems tp be pretty clueless at working out what to do about it ( other than provide opportunities for their developer friends) . And where are our Labour Councillors in all of this ? What RBKC simply needs to do is to take a look at the excellent job that Hammersmith & Fulham Council are doing to restore and update North End Road Market - flower beds , new pitches , appropriate paving etc . A real treat for shoppers and residents alike & a market going from strength to strength . Who would have thought that artisan cheese & 'grand cru' coffee would find a home in Fulham alongside the traditional market traders .Just look, marvel & learn at what a well led Labour Council can do ( even a council with no money). Do l hear the tumbrils starting to rumble over the cobbles of Portobello & Golborne Markets ? Time to sweep away our tired & useless council .
ReplyDeleteRemember the last time they tried to 'Covent Garden' Portobello? Granite cobbles sets in the road that were such a disaster that they were covered over in a short time. Banning the buskers was a major idiotic scheme. Portobello does not need a makeover. Just some tender loving care which has seemed in short supply recently.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very odd. This story has apparently appeared out of nowhere; but those in the know are clearly convinced that they understand what’s going on.
ReplyDeleteIf they have misunderstood the situation, nothing would be simpler than a senior councillor making a statement to the effect that the public has misunderstood RBKC’s plans and intentions. A development, or even market officer might have been asked to do this. But the silence is deafening. It’s clear that no one in Hornton Street or the market office is prepared to “correct” what’s being said.
Therefore, one is forced to conclude that the gist of the current stories about the threats to the markets are true. RBKC has decided to collude with the large commercial property owners in and around Portobello and Golbourne Roads; against the very evident public interest.
In doing so, RBKC runs considerable risks. As well as the worldwide public affection for these famous institutions, many thousands of RBKC and WCC residents and voters have chosen to live near them.
On the issue of potential lawfulness, RBKC is equally silent. One might well conclude that it wishes to disassociate itselffrom the matter. Perhaps, as well as the public, the Council has been excluded from this process. If so; it’s not too great a stretch to think in terms of the subversion of the democratic process.
Doesn’t K & C already have enough dead shopping centres? The list is endless; rows of big name empty shops desperate to attract the same, deeply bored, international clientele. Sterile streets in beautifully packaged and presented neighbourhoods. We all know them. No one lives there. Magnificent, empty homes for money laundering.
ReplyDeleteThen there’s Portobello and Golbourne markets. Very different from each other; chaotic, but both buzzing with energy; and dare one say - life? Creativity and spontaneity are what our great cities need.
Her Late Majesty chose to engage with a Peruvian bear to be found in Portobello; not Sloane Street.
ReplyDeleteEvery few years, RBKC dreams up a new scheme to make the public accept what they neither want nor need; i.e. tarting up the markets. It’s always done on the sly and the public always forces RBKC to change it’s alleged mind!
If the Council was properly run, this shouldn’t be necessary. Council officers would play strictly by the rules and more importantly, councillors would know their duty to the public!
There’s been too much of this kind of thing over the years. Who now remembers the day about 50 years ago, when K & C literally took a wrecking ball to its handsome Victorian Town Hall; the very day before it was to be Listed and therefore protected? The event was televised!
RBKC doesn’t change. It was always been a dodgy organisation and remains dodgy.
Long in the Tooth
ReplyDeleteThere is growing evidence that this story is making waves across the borough. And so it should. It’s nothing less than a conspiracy to circumvent democratic processes, at the cost of well established public benefits on multiple levels, for the benefit of a very few commercial property interests.
Hornton Street remains silent on the potential for illegal conduct by the Council and/or members and officers.
We need investigative journalists to get to the bottom of this steaming pile of ****.
I should be surprised that this atrocious council is yet again trying to impose decisions on its residents. But sadly I am not. How many so called developers are the council seeking to please this time. Portobello market attracts people from all over the world because it has evolved naturally. If RBKC and it’s partners in crime have nothing to hide why have all the proper procedures been kept secret and in such haste. Sadly Grenfell has taught this council nothing and the sooner they are replaced the better. I hope that residents rise up together against this sanitisation of Portobello Market.
ReplyDelete"Replacing" the dreadful Council. You have a point. But who will replace them. You don't mean that dreadful Emma Dent Coad et al, do you? With her form, the Council wopuld be just as bad.
DeleteIt is not much of a choice. Emma "Marxist" Dent Coad versus the Tory "Monetarists."
DeleteSeen how bad the Tories are at running the Council and also remember how Emma failed to get in touch when I contacted her.
I shall try the Lib Dems at the next Council and Westminster elections.
I agree. Coad is awful.
DeleteDear Dame,
DeleteWould you please do an article in time for Christmas so we may probe Emma Dent's Coad morality?
Never mind her racism, doing down Henderson, her endorsement of an antisemitic social media feed or covering up homophobia in Kensington Labour. That has all been done before.
Points:-
Emma Dent Coad's failure to tell us if she unconditionally supports President Zelensky and the Ukranian People against the oppressive genocidal maniac Putin?
If she condemns Putin for deploying nerve poisons in this Country resulting the in deaths of Alexander Litvinenko and Dawn Sturgiss?
OR if she supports her Marxist mate Jeremy Corbyn MP who claims that the existence of NATO is responsible for Soviet Imperialist Aggression?