STRIDER AND RIDER WELCOMED BY MAYOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR

Last Thursday the Deputy Mayor was delighted to welcome over 80 guests to a reception at the Town Hall. Next week the Dame will be publishing pictures from that excellent evening!

 Earlier in the Summer: William and Strider

The event was to promote the good work of Family Holiday Association. Guests listened to a moving speech by John McDonald of the FHA which has sent over 130,000 deprived families on simple seaside holidays since it started in 1975 and this year a further 2,000 families will be able to go away for a life- changing break.

The purpose of the reception was not just to introduce the FHA to the local community, but to showcase an epic 2,500 mile charity horseback ride, which will raise money for both the FHA and Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre. William Reddaway and his horse Strider, who enjoyed the reception from the Council courtyard, will set out on this most ambitious adventure in May 2013; he expects it to take six months. The duo will travel to all four corners of England via thirty Cathedrals to raise awareness for the two charities.

It was also a bit different to the usual more formal events hosted by the Mayor, including people who had never stepped foot in the Mayor's Parlour such as Sister Mary-Joy from Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre, who gave an excellent speech explaining the work of the Centre using tackle as metaphors!

There was a good turnout of Councillors including Tim Ahern, Nick Paget-Brown, Tim Coleridge as well as Judith Blakeman and Emma Dent Coad all busy making sure the guests felt relaxed and cared for.

FHA Patrons present included Prunella Scales and the founder of the FHA, the 92 year old Joan Lawrence as well as guests from the Grocers Company and Lorimers Company.

Cllr Dent Coad said: 'I hope the Dame and her followers will support this amazing adventure and the target of raising £250,000. The website of rideroundengland.org will be up soon to accept donations.'

BOUNDARY CHANGES

The Boundary Commission wants your views on this important local government representation issue. The below has been sent out by the good Mr Sheppard to all Resident Associations.

It is an opportunity to make a serious contribution to the debate...so although it might be tempting to be sarcastic or ironic comments should try to be constructive....

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING BOROUGH COMMANDER

When Kensingon & Chelsea residents are asked what Jason Gwillim achieved in his short stint as Borough Commander the consensus view is that he started to rebuild community relations...prior to his arrival at an all time low. 
Police insiders say he eradicated the police on police bullying that had become prevalent. In themselves these are substantive achievements:but better still he had started to get a grip on crime reduction.

SAD LOSS TO BOROUGH

So what does the Met do with such an outstanding senior police officer? They send him off to do a non job at Empress State Building!

What a waste of a highly talented senior officer....but it begs the question WHY? 

Clearly it does not help if your superior feels that another favoured officer should have got the job. He tends to make them and others brief against you.....

It had not been an easy time for Jason. He had the double sadness of his mother becoming seriously ill and his father dying within days: something that would knock the wind out of most peoples' sails. He also had to deal with his key officers being taken from him to manage Olympics security.

Big decisions such as the closing of the Notting Hill Custody Centre and the opening of a major detention centre in Wandsworth were taken out of his hands and it now appears that the new centre turns out to be unfit for purpose!

Good men do not get the plaudits that have come Gwillim's way. As one community activist said, “He is a decent man and not given the time to do the job properly. Crime figures, were actually starting to improve and Jason should have been given the opportunity to implement his action plan.”

Another said, “ His  departure been been subject to swirling rumours and a raft of innuendo: he has been very unfairly treated and residents have a right to know why."

It is rare to find a senior community police officer enjoying such well deserved local popularity. 

We need him back-not wasting his talents in some humdrum admin job.

BOROUGH COMMANDER GWILLIM

It is no exaggeration to say the Dame's postbox has been inundated by residents and community activists upset at the loss of Jason Gwillim, until very recently our Borough Commander.

A POPULAR BOROUGH FIGURE

 Jason was an effective and highly popular figure in the community and losing him is a blow to community policing.

The Dame has put her ear to the ground and will soon be in a position to tell all. 

It is wrong that good men like Gwillim are pushed aside in this way. It is not just RBK&C that is suffering: Westminster has also seen popular officers moved from proper policing duties into dead end and undemanding roles.

More to follow........

PLEASE HELP THE MAYOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be hosting an important reception in the Mayor's Parlour on Wednesday, 7^th November.

The Mayor , Cllr Buckmaster

Between 6.00-7.30pm they will be greeting residents whose hard work and enterprise this summer drove the success of the many Diamond Jubilee street parties and celebrations held in K&C.
The Mayor and Deputy want to personally thank those residents who gave up their time so the many could enjoy themselves.

The Deputy Mayor Cllr Lady Borwick

The Dame knows these public spirited individuals are often shy about coming forward to get the recognition they deserve. If you can think of residents who deserve a commemorative award why not send their names to the Mayor’s Office.
You can email: mayor@rbkc.gov.uk
or write to....

The Mayor’s Office

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London, W8 7NX

GETTING HARRODS OFF THE BOOZE

A message from the excellent Licensing Department at RBK&C. 
The Dame is pleased to bestow praise on hardworking Maggie Elsdon of the Knightsbridge Association and Farih Tabbah, a resident activist. Without them rallying residents to oppose this unwelcome application we could move towards the horrors in the image below. 
However, we must be ever vigilant....it could easily come back to haunt us.... for the moment the Qatari owners are feeling nervy.....

HARRODS NIGHTMARES 

The Dame has no praise for Brompton Ward Cllrs Marshall, Mosley and Barkhordar.....once more asleep on the Watch

"We have been advised by Harrods solicitors that this application is to be withdrawn, with immediate effect.  We have been advised that the applicants will review their licensing requirements, with a view to submitting a new application in the near future.  If a new application is received, and after consideration you decide to make representation, you would need to write in again to this department, outlining your grounds for your representation based on the application and one or more of the licensing objectives."

LIB DEM CLLRS AND £1 MILLION MANSION TAX

The Liberal Democrat councillors have proven to be a huge disappointment to residents. There was a misplaced belief they would actively engage in the struggle to impose checks and balances on Pooter Cockell and crew. Instead they have kept their heads below the parapet refusing to do anything which might compromise their relationship with their patron, Pooter.
When the Dame denounced the disgusting Phelps for his vile emails she created an opportunity for the Lib Dems to win in Earls Court. She had hoped that Linda Wade would have used that opportunity to help clean up the Rotten Borough: she and her lacklustre colleagues have done nothing. They are a complete waste of space.
It is interesting to refer back to the Dame when she mentioned Cllr Caruana's attempt to wrest a Special Responsibility Allowance for being Leader of her flock of two! Here it is......

"A little bird has been squawking that the Leader of the LibDem group has been putting it about that she deserves a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for being Group Leader and Chief Whip of their little velour wearing band!

A group of three is hardly demanding, and lets face it the positions "Group Leader" and "Chief Whip" are not Ward related, they are political positions albeit ones that do attract allowances in the other groups. Must be hard work keeping those two other LibDems sitting squarely on that fence.
Maybe the new found coalition spirit between the ruling Conservatives and their junior partner will see their dreams come true and they will be given a special allowance ticket onto the gravy train. Or perhaps our LibDem readers can explain what is going on..."

LOW PROFILE

It will also be interesting to hear their views on their silly leader's attempts to tax anyone with a home in the Borough worth in excess of £1million. Do our councillors believe the tax should be implemented across the board, or should it be means test driven? If the resident has a mortgage should that be taken into account?

They had better start thinking about the answers.... a considerable percentage of those they so fecklessly represent may have a property asset in excess of  £1million, but don't have surplus income to pay yet another tax. Here is a link to a singing Clegg

NO PROFILE

CALLING MR HOLGATE

An ex RBK&C employee has written to the Dame highlighting the possible fraudulent claiming of car travel allowance. 
The Dame has great respect for Mr Holgate and hopes he will rectify this unsatisfactory state of affairs...

I worked for RBK&C for 20 years in a very humble capacity - I had no management responsibilities and never interacted with the public; but occasionally I had to attend meetings in far flung places. Generally these could easily be reached by train, but sometimes this was irksome.
I was aware that some council jobs carried a 'car user allowance' as part of the job specification, but I wondered if one-off casual use could be reimbursed. Finance confirmed that it could, if authorised by my Team Leader, and sent me a form.
Buried in the small print on page two I was required to confirm that I had insurance for using my car for work purposes, and at the end I had to sign that everything I had said was true.
Well, getting special temporary cover for non-private use was clearly a non-starter, so I enquired around of people I knew who had car user allowances (both as part of their job and casual). 'Oh, I've never bothered about that, just sign' was the general response.
Now I have a natural reluctance to sign I am telling the truth when I am not, so I became curious as to how the system was policed. I contacted the Finance officer who dealt with the claims and asked if they required proof that claimants had in fact the requisite insurance. 'No, we trust them;  if they want to take the chance of their insurance company not paying out if they have an accident it's their choice' was the reply.I thought about this, discovered that the allowance was based on the AA estimate of how much it cost to run a car for work - which included an amount to cover the necessarily greater insurance required for non-domestic use.  I contacted Finance again and pointed out that a part of the allowance was to cover this extra cost, and if the recipient wasn't in fact paying it but saying he was, then it was fraud, not just taking a voluntary risk.

I never had a reply. Clearly the 'car allowance' system was so universally and deeply embedded as a perk, for both Officers and Councillors, that nobody was going to rock the boat. Valuing my job I gave up (and didn't claim the allowance).
Still, lying is lying; and taking money for something you claim to be doing but are not is not only lying but probably criminal.  This was some time ago, but I expect it is still going on.