THE CHAIRMAN OF PLANNING

The Dame raised the question of a paucity of declarations on the part of Cllr Husband. 

The councillor has assured the Dame that he is a sort of 'Jamie No Mates' and has never been entertained or given any gifts apart from a biro.

No freebies from DP 9 or Ballymore or the Middle Eastern developer behind M&S in Kings Rd.

However, 'one who knows' did make this observation...

"James is an excellent Chairman of Planning. He always does what the officers tell him. The officers do what the developers tell them. So everyone is happy.

There is a constant sensation amongst residents and associations that there is more than a grain of truth here.

Residents are handicapped by the long lead times that developers and their agents have in cosying up to planners and their huge budgets to 'buy' advice from officers.

That, combined with the miserable amount of time given to objectors, ensures that unwanted developments get steamrollered through.

The Council needs to stop this partisanship.

Residents have to fight with hands tied behind their back.

DANGEROUS OLD MEN

Xi...Biden...Trump....Erdogan...Modi...Putin: all dangerous old men thinking about their 'legacy'.

The Dame is in her '90's but her days of ruling the world are long past.

Maybe there should be a global rule that when you hit 50 you retire.

The interests of the young are not in the least congruent with these strange, aggressive old men with their 'legacies'.

OVER 4000 VIEWS YESTERDAY: A RECORD

 The Dame was raised to be modest and unassuming but she cannot resist showing off about record views yesterday of over 4000.

click to enlarge 

UNBRITISH BEHAVIOUR

 

The Dame never paid much heed to Rock Feilding Mellen.  

The fact that he was made deputy leader with bugger all business or life experience lies entirely at the door of Sir Pooter Cockell. 

Pooter is very middle class and thought Rock might open doors for him....weekend shoots and political salons.

And talking of doors....those idiots who thought it correct to invade Feilding Mellen's front door and terrify his family should have appeared in court. 

It's the sort of behaviour one expects from Trots and Fascists, not decent Brits.

ROYAL BLACKMAIL AND SECOND CLASS SERVICE

Dear Dame,

Why is it that so many public services now seem to be permanently at war with the public that they are supposed to serve?
Why is there no longer a proper ticket office or information desk at South Kensington Underground?  

Can London Underground take any satisfaction from the sight of foreign tourists or our 'country cousins ' milling around trying to find their way to the museums or to buy a ticket or day pass from the distinctly user-unfriendly ticket machines?
And, along with everyone else l must speak out against both Royal Mail and  Post Office Ltd. - everywhere post offices are being squeezed into corner shops unable to cope with demand at peak times thus causing us to queue for hours like  babushkas looking for onions in Brezhnev's Russia.

How many other people received a card from Royal Mail over the Christmas period informing them that they were holding a package for me with 'insufficient postage'. 

When l went to redeem my 'package ' l was disappointed to discover that it was just a Christmas card with a green stamp showing the late Queen's head. But what was intriguing was that it had been franked with a notice stating  ' forged stamp'. 

But to find out which of my friends was dealing in counterfeit stamps l was forced to pay  Royal Mail an additional charge of £5 !!.
My fury at this outrageous charge to an entirely innocent party was only slightly mollified by my amusement when l opened the card to discover that it was sent to me by a highly respectable Royal Borough Councillor and former Mayor !!! ( l always suspected that he got rich through his connections with developers with planning problems. 

Now l discover that he apparently also has a side line in dodgy stamps ! )

(Name and Shame, please...The Dame)

I have since come across 3 other examples from friends of people forced to pay £5 because of alleged 'counterfeit postage stamps' . I simply do not believe the stamps to be forgeries but far more likely that the Royal Mail franking machines have been adjusted prematurely to accept only King Charles stamps and to reject those, still legitimate, stamps of the late queen .

What exasperated me though was the lack of interest by sorting office staff in tracing the franking error (or even the possible existence of a skilled conspiracy to foist fake stamps on us ) Suffice to say that all the postal service staff at the Fulham Road Sorting Office were interested in was collecting the  £5 additional revenue from holding legitimate Christmas cards for ransom.    

If anyone else wants to join me in protesting about this daylight public service robbery please note that the service counter is now only open on weekdays between 8 & 10 am.
( l still have the envelope with the supposedly fake stamp & the printed allegation by Royal Mail that it is a forgery)

Ever yours, dear Dame

   

NO MORE NOISY SUPERCARS OR ALL NIGHT PARTIES

Dear Dame

I know you don’t 'do' product endorsement but please make an exception?

If you live as I do on a busy road or amongst anti-social neighbours this will change your life and help with your mental health and well-being.

saving my sanity

Kensington & Chelsea is one of the noisiest boroughs in the country. 

If it’s not racing supercars it’s inconsiderate neighbours partying at all hours: it drives me mad.

This is my solution and it works and doesn't require the Council's Noise team to intervene!

It’s a tiny piece of cleverness that I put in my ears.

Now, I wake up refreshed and calm as if I am in the middle of the countryside! 

I have tried every other solution but nothing works like these little gems. LITTLE GEMS

Ever yours, dear Dame

A DEVOTED READER

THE DAME RUMINATES

The death of Lord Saye and Sele at just past a century gave the Dame pause for thought.

with a Holocaust survivor

Lord Saye and Sele was one of the first people to enter Bergen Belsen. 

He was horrified at how the hatred of one race could lead to such killing on an industrial scale.

But there is more to this man than just the words of his obituary.

Lord S &S never attended the Lords and disapproved of parliamentary privilege for hereditary peers.

Oddly, despite his sensible stance, His Lordship would have been a superb member of the Upper House...

THE INSOLENCE OF CLLR MARSHALL: A SLACKER!

 

The Dame recalls her first interaction with Marshall. 

It took place at a residents' meeting chaired by Pooter Cockell and supported by the estimable Malcolm Rifkind(who we so miss).

Anyway, lightheartedly, the Dame asked 'the pleased with himself' Marshall how Pooter should be addressed. 

In reverential tones, Marshall advised,"Please address him as Leader".

The old thing had to 'hold her sides' as she told him to stop talking nonsense.

Courtfield residents are getting a raw deal from Marshall: one said, "he's invisible".

His co-ward councillor is Greg Hammond. 

It is said that Hammond was solely responsible for candidate selection. The cynic in the old Dame led her to think that interconnection might protect Marshall......

There are wonderful hardworking cllrs like Sarah Addenbroke, Sof McVeigh, Kim Taylor-Smith and Emma Will.... then there are slackers like Marshall and Mary Weale.

They have the temerity to claim allowances without showing up for work.

EDC...TROT OR NOT?

Honoured Dame,

Emma positions herself on the hard left politically.  She becomes very stroppy if anyone says she is a Marxist and, even stroppier if someone suggests that she is a Trot. The good people of Kensington recoil in horror at the prospect of a Trotskyite World Socialist Order and Proletarian Control.

Emma gave an interview which was published in The Guardian on the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire. 

It was not about the victims and survivors of the fire, it was all about Emma and how the fire affected her personally. 

In that interview, she said, “My socialism is Corbyn’s socialism.” We can all think it was stupid of her to brand her socialism in terms of Corbyn’s socialism. It is the sort of crass statement that one forgives if a sixteen-year-old GCSE Politics Student says it but to come from a former Member of Parliament was incredibly simple-minded of Dent Coad. I shall now unpack Corbyn’s socialism to get to the nub of Emma Dent Coad’s socialism.

1.    When Corbyn dropped out of his Trade Union Studies course at North London Poly, he espoused the virtues of Workers’ Control and a World Socialist Order. These Trotskyite virtues led to him taking up employment as a Trade Union official campaigning for Workers’ Control -  and the so called Workers’ Democracy.

2.    When the Labour Leader, Neil Kinnock, wanted to expel the Trotskyite factions in the Labour Party in the 1980s, Corbyn opposed Kinnock every step of the way. The Trotskyite Group, Militant, and those with Militant Tendencies were seen off but not without Jeremy Corbyn trying to save them.  Corbyn personally told me back then that, “Clause Four of the Labour Party’s Constitution says that the Labour Party is a socialist party.” Corbyn reminded me that, “As Trots are socialists, there is a place for them in the Labour Party,” 

This places Corbyn firmly in the Trotskyite camp and by default Emma Dent Coad with him - remember Emma Dent Coad said, “My socialism is Corbyn’s socialism.”

3.    If any of you are in any doubt about Corbyn’s Trotskyite sympathies, and by default Emma Dent Coad’s endorsement of them, did you know that Corbyn proposed the following unequivocal Early Day Motion in the House of Commons calling for Trotsky’s Complete Rehabilitation –

......That this House, in the light of the special conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in one week's time, and of the judicial rehabilitation of Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek and Pyatakov, demands that the Russian Government goes further and gives complete rehabilitation to Leon Trotsky, Leon Sedov the chief defendants in the Moscow frame-up Trials.

It is possible to argue that Trotsky would want to overthrow our Parliamentary democracy but Emma Dent Coad and Jeremy Corbyn both know there is no money in doing that so they are Trotskyites with a bit of fine-tuning for a world eighty years after Trotsky’s death.    

I suggest that the foregoing puts Emma in the running as a modern day Rosa Luxemburg.  

Miss Trotwood

DENT COAD AND DENTED HOPES

to the barricades, comrades!

An undecided voter from North Kensington writes to the Dame.... 

If  Emma Dent Coad hopes to return to Kensington as the MP, is it too much to ask for more than a ranting leaflet with no policies? Perhaps it is. 

These are pictures from her campaign launch.

Read the room? Obviously, Ms Dent Coad didn't.  

That empty hall looks like it has all of about ten people in it

There also appear to be a lot of her supporters who don't actually live in the constituency pictured there. 

A few of them are from  Hammersmith and Fulham or Brent and don't actually have a vote in Kensington! 

It might be even more of a struggle for Ms Dent Coad to get disaffected left-wing votes as an independent now.  

Because the word on the street is that Golborne councillor Mona Adam who defected to the Green Party from Labour at the end of last year will be their PPC in Kensington.  

As the Green party have actual policies and more to offer than revolving entirely around one person, the likely outcome will be that the Greens will pick up the disaffected left-wing Labour votes that Team EDC is desperately seeking. 

So much for Ms Dent Coad making her "return". 

With no campaign, no policies, hardly any local base of support (outside Hammersmith and Fulham Socialist Workers Party) and now a more credible alternative for her voter base Ms  Dent Coad will be lucky to hold onto her deposit!

name redacted

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT CLLR JAMES HUSBAND

 

with thanks to THINK

This is Cllr Husband, the omnipotent chair of the planning committee. 

One dear reader has wittily...with tongue in cheek... succinctly defended Husband.

"James is an excellent Chairman of Planning. He always does what the officers tell him. The officers do what the developers tell them. So everyone is happy.
Flick has other interests."

The overall perception is that he sits in the pocket of officers. The Dame has looked at his declaration of interests but they seem only to refer to 2013. Is the Dame going mad or is she looking in the wrong place?

The Dame has written to the councillor asking for an update....

Residents feel that Cllr Husband should step aside. 

Views, please. If you prefer utter discretion email the old thing 

TALKING THE TALK: NOT WALKING THE WALK

 

The Dame was astonished to see a vast vending machine( not unlike this one) in the waiting room of the Royal Brompton.

It was stuffed with sugar rich sweets and junk food.

The Government and NHS are supposed to trying to reduce obesity: this seems to encourage it.

THE MAN WHO TRIED TO DOWN THE DAME AND HIS LEGAL EAGLES

Scott Dylan has a colourful legal team.These chaps are head honchos from his scouser lawyer, Glenville Walker. The one on the right...Mr Howard, looks like he would be good with physical defence!

When Mr Dylan felt his reputation for integrity & honesty was being impugned he was able to call on the services of Chester based, Mark Manley. Mr Manley is no longer working for Dylan.

Mr Manley claims to be known in the piano bars of the Costa del Sol  as 'the Singing Judge'. He also boasts minor royalty as clients on his website

This from the Daily Mail...

"But it's far from the only tribute on his firm's website, which is festooned with words of praise from former I'm A Celebrity winner Vicky Pattison, Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy, former soap stars Claire Sweeney and Ricky Whittle – and thrice-married, one-time Atomic Kitten, Kerry Katona.

Zara Tindall and her husband and brother decline to comment on their bond with Manleys – as does the firm.

But there's no doubting the broad appeal of 'The Singing Judge', as Manley says he is affectionately known in piano bars on the Costa Del Sol. He is now, I'm told, acting for businessmen Scott Dylan and Jack Mason, who have acquired Maker&Son, the furniture firm founded by Sir Terence Conran's son-in-law, Alex Willcock, and his grandson, Felix Conran.

As I disclosed last month, the firm has been subjected to a torrent of complaints from customers claiming to have been left empty-handed despite handing over thousands of pounds."

 

STOP DEVELOPERS TRAMPLING ON OUR RESIDENTIAL AREA: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

We often stray from our patch when we see residents fighting for a good idea one which takes on greedy developers.

This is the Royal Masonic Hospital site in Ravenscourt Square: it's MASSIVE and when development starts it will cause congestion, pollution, noise and hell for residents. 

But the residents say this is not just about them but the thousands of children who use the wonderful facilities of Ravenscourt Park every week. They are at huge risk from developer traffic.

If the developers have their way heavy construction traffic will constantly grind its way through Ravenscourt Square despite there being a very good alternative route. 

No to developer traffic

Residents have banded together to protect the environment and stop developer traffic from ruining their lives and those of park users.

You don't have to live there to support them. We should all band together to protect ourselves from developers.

Please click BACK UP FELLOW RESIDENTS and sign the petition.

 

JOE POWELL TACKLES THE DAME!

The Dame gave Joe a ticking off for not making more of the earning part of his plans rather than just the spending.

Immediately, Joe answered the Dame correcting her.

She is delighted to publish his response here.

This blog and THINK are important to the community.... something Joe understands. However, if the Dame thinks he is backsliding she will say so.

This is Joe's response....and there are some good ideas.

Dame, we have launched an ambitious plan to support small businesses which I hope is of interest:

1. Legislate to tackle late payments: Unlocking £20 billion in unpaid invoices
2. Scrap business rates: And replace it with a system that is fairer for bricks and mortar businesses
3. Revitalise our high streets: Tackling anti-social behaviour and powers to take over empty shops
4. Boosting small business exports: Removing the barriers to export with clear information and support
5. A new direction for skills: With Technical Excellence Colleges connected to local economic needs
6. Get Britain building again: By speeding up the planning system and unblocking the grid
7. Make Britain a clean energy super power: For cheaper bills and greater energy security
8. The best place to start up and scale up: With better access to finance and more spinouts from universities
9. A fair chance at public contracts: With guaranteed shortlisting for smaller firms

All the best,

Joe Powell

Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington & Bayswater

07878914122

Sign up to my newsletter and visit: www.joepowell.org.uk

RESIDENTS SAY NO: COUNCIL OFFICERS SAY YES!

The Dame often ponders on the point of local democracy. Residents of Hillgate Village and Notting Hill Gate have been vociferous in objecting to this monster tower looming over their cottage homes.  Officers(who doubtless live miles away) supported by the developer-fawning planning chair, James Husband, decided to ignore their objections.

At the next election, residents need to consider whether their councillor is of any use. Resident associations need to stop being poodles and put up their own candidates. 

Newcombe House Planning Committee:

Tomorrow 18th January at 6:30pm in the Town Hall

 

Dear Members and Supporters,

 

With apologies for short notice – explained below – this is to alert you to the Planning 

Committee hearing of the revised Newcombe House application 

at the Town Hall tomorrow evening, starting at 6:30 pm.  

The officer’s report recommends consent. The committee agenda 

and report can be seen here: 

LINK

We were given five working days' notice, with 260 pages of documents to read.  

Despite strongly protesting at the short notice, HVRA have been informed 

that the council is not prepared to defer the meeting. 

We have liaised with the other objectors, which include the Kensington Society 

and the Pembridge Association, to divide up the 10 minutes 

allocated for objectors to speak.

We maintain our strong objections to the height and massing of the 

proposals and to the impact of this development on 

Hillgate Village and Notting Hill Gate.  

We had hoped to see a proposal and architectural vision deserving of 

this iconic location; sadly the scheme before the committee tomorrow 

is a missed opportunity.

It would be good if some of you can come along to 

show your support for our submissions.  

Please be aware that you will need to come early as places are limited. 

THE BOOK THROWN AT CHELSEA SOCIETY PRESIDENT, JOHN SIMPSON

 

The Chelsea Society is a local force for good....and much admired by the Dame.

But the Dame was shocked to read this  BBC 'vieux beau' had been having a torrid affair with a Czech spy! She's no prude and what John got up to in foreign 5 star hotels at the taxpayer's expense is his business. 

When the Dame was a young person in the City her roguish boss gave this sound advice..."there are times to lie low and times to lie loudly"

This is advice John should follow....

The Dame really does not want to read in her Daily Telegraph that philandering John had been seduced by some Femme Fatale spy.

"She met Simpson at the Tory Party conference in Brighton in 1980, where Margaret Thatcher gave her famous “the lady’s not for turning” speech. He was then the BBC’s political editor.

They began a relationship which proved stormy - she would, Simpson said, throw books at his head - and split up in 1982. Simpson said they never met again, but he heard of her “stellar progress” through the BBC ranks. “Teresa’s brilliance and good looks made her a figure of note in the BBC’s overseas service,” 

Time John was put out to grass!

An ideal replacement would Guy Oliver. Guy led the campaign to save the Kensington Odeon. 

Guy has the credentials...A trustee of SAVE; patron of the Sir John Soane Museum and many other community benefit organisations.

DAME WATCHES BALLYMORE 'HORROR' FILM

This is Sean Mulryan's Kildare Estate . It sits in tranquillity surrounded by verdant acres. Mulryan owns Ballymore.

Massive new town in Kensal Green

Mulryan and his family have made their billions by building horrific high-rise developments in already densely populated urban areas. It is doubtful he would ever want his family living on one of his 'horror-scapes'

RBKC needs to chuck out this scheme. Ballymore drives a coach and horses through the Council's pretence at 'Green Ambitions.'

But don't listen to the Dame. Watch this video which should terrify all residents HORROR FILM

THE DUKE, SHEEP STEALING AND SOUTH KENSINGTON STATION

The Duke of Buccleuch is massively rich but is determined to further enrich his family at the expense of  Kensington residents. 

He owns a chunk of Native Land.

Despite 2000 objections and rejection from RBK&C the Planning Inspectorate sided with the Duke and Qatari-backed Native Land.

Duke? You should feel utter shame.

The  Scott family fortune derives from Border sheep stealing....

SAY NO NOW TO TOWERING TOWER BLOCKS:

 

Greedy developers Ballymore, in collusion with Sainsbury's, have put forward plans to build over 2,450 homes on the Kensal Canalside side in North Kensington. 

The  development proposals consist of several tower blocks around the same height as Trellick Tower.

Most of the homes  Ballymore intends to build are  of a "buy to leave" type,  (only 19% affordable) There is no new train station provided, leading to  Ladbroke Grove and most of the area being clogged up with traffic for the foreseeable future  if RBKC gives this hated scheme the go ahead.

Today is the  last day for residents to  object. Please ensure  that local voices are heard!

People before profits....

Please object HERE time is running out