Norland By-Election: The runners and riders – or sort of (Plus a note from us on voting ID changes)

Tomorrow, Thursday May the 2nd, is decision day for Norland.

So, for this blog post , we decided had to put out a largely impartial article with information on all four candidates (provided by them and their party in their words) for Norland Ward residents, with information at the end about the voting changes.

Or that’s what it was supposed to be until the Conservatives declined to respond to us…

Yes, THINK have been “empty chaired”!! It’s far from the first time that North Kensington residents have been empty chaired by local Conservatives….

Here’s a couple of our old posts about hustings and local Conservatives. LINK and LINK

Or maybe the local party formerly known as KCFC “chickened out?”

https://thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/hustings-victoria-does-a-theresa-may-and-so-do-most-of-her-colleagues/

Oh well. Here is a bit of information about all the candidates, in theirs and their party’s own words ( with a “copy and paste” job of Stehoanie Petit’s profile from the Conservative website having to suffice for her part).

Finlay Dargan – Liberal Democrat candidate.

“I was born in London to an Irish father and American mother. I’ve lived in Kensington most of my life, and attended Norland Place Primary School. I Studied Business and Economics at Trinity College Dublin, then International Business at the HEC, Paris, before moving back to London to work in Finance and Strategy. I have since founded my own veterinary software company with my brother, which now provides software around the world. 

Ever since Brexit, I’ve been more and more unsatisfied with the state of our political leadership and the continual bending of the facts that has recently become outright lying. I feel voters deserve to vote for change – not simple tweaks to taxes and spending, but more serious reform of all aspects of our politics, national and local. I want to restore trust that politics can deliver change in our lives.

Interests:
History books
Economics and business
Sports (Rugby above all, but also Football and Formula 1)

Priorities for Norland:
My main mission: Stop Norland being taken for granted.

The Conservatives clearly view Norland as a safe seat – and so they take it for granted. The former councillor stood down after attending very few council meetings and nearly all residents I’ve spoken to have never met him.

I’ve been working to prove that an alternative is possible. When I knock on doors here, I speak to so many lifelong Conservative voters who are tired of being taken for granted and are giving me their support. And I speak to so many Labour voters who recognise that they can’t win here – and are lending me their support so we can finally beat the Conservatives.

As your next Councillor, I will…

Stop the selling off of council property, particularly social housing
Too often Housing Associations in our area sell off their stock because of the skyrocketing costs of refurbishment. Once these properties are sold it is very unlikely the council will ever be able to buy such stock back. These are short term decisions that accelerate the housing crisis in our area.

Bring back community policing

With the closure of 3 of the 4 police stations in the Borough, residents are feeling less safe and dedicated ward officer numbers keep falling. It seems incredibly rare to see the police on the beat anymore. We need to create Community Police Hubs to bring the police back to our area, reduce crime and provide safety and security to residents.

Fight for Holland Park Tube Station
Holland Park Tube Station is too often closed because of staff shortages. When it rains buckets have to be put out to collect water from leaks. For a tube station that not only serves our community, but serves a vital part of West London that is tragic and unacceptable.

We need a Councillor who will fight for the tube station to be kept open and be properly maintained. I will be that Councillor.

Focus as councillor
As your hard-working Liberal Democrat councillor for Norland, I would do what Liberal Democrats do best – fight for our area.

I would bring my financial background and experience to the table, scrutinising council spending and asking the right questions – with an independence that yet another Conservative councillor cannot offer.

I will keep residents updated with regular progress reports (not just at election time!), canvass all year round, and run annual surveys and weekly canvassing to identify and address local issues as soon as possible.

I’ll do all of this because I want to restore trust that politics can work for all of us – that it can bring local people together and solve the problems we face.”

Heloise Hunter – Green Party candidate

I am very glad to have been chosen as the Green Party’s candidate for Norland Ward at the coming by-election on the 2nd of May.

Having been born in Norland and lived here for much of my life, this community holds a special place in my heart. I am standing to be councillor because I am committed to ensuring every corner of Norland gets the support and care it needs to thrive. Whether you’re a longtime Green voter or looking for a new direction, you can be certain I will be advocating for all of Norland.

Priorities for Norland & what I’d focus on:

POLLUTION
Addressing air pollution to create cleaner and healthier spaces within Norland, especially near our residential and school areas.

HOLLAND PARK ROUNDABOUT
Making streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Crucially, engaging with residents and Transport for London to create the best possible version of the Holland Park roundabout.

TRANSPORT
Improving our public transport, including ensuring Holland Park tube is reliable and remains open for residents and locals.

GREEN SPACES
Preserving and improving our precious green spaces, including our nearby parks which are so important for residents.

DEVELOPMENTS
Working with the council to ensure new developments engage with local residents and support an inclusive community.

FLOOD PROTECTION
Collaborating with the council to ensure proper flood defences, especially in the lower areas of Norland.

Norland requires work, strategic investment, and care to flourish. I have been listening to your concerns, including flooding, air quality, community services, and transport. I’m sure you have further opinions, and I am very keen to hear all your suggestions and ensure Norland is improved for every resident.”

Monica Press – Labour Party candidate

I’m Monica Press and standing to be your Labour councillor and a strong local champion for Norland.

I have lived in Kensington for 30 years. I was Councillor for Colville Ward from 2014 to 2022 and chaired the Housing & Property Scrutiny Committee (SC) the first Labour Cllr to do so. I currently chair the Colville Community Forum and Police Panel. I previously worked with the UN, the EU and international development NGOs on good governance programmes overseas.

I have an MSc in Comparative Development and International Policy with a distinction from Bristol University where I studied with Prof. Peter Townsend – the Labour activist and academic who redefined poverty in the 1970s from income per day to the wider concept of “relative deprivation” and marginalisation, and which we see today in the UK.  I worked for 20 years as a programme planner, Country Director and Regional Adviser in the Middle East and 6 years in Eastern Europe. 

During my tenure as Chair of the Housing & Property Scrutiny Committee I ensured I brought issues of priority for residents to the Scrutiny Committee,such as Major Works in ALL council estates(quality, safety and building regulations) – there was a separate Grenfell Scrutiny Committee- the % of social and affordable housing in the New Homes programme and the tenures, the acceptance of GLA funding and conditions for the New Homes, and encouraged the direct participation of local residents and RAs in SC meetings.  I also set up key Working Groups specifically on Trellick Tower/high-rise refurbishments, and between planning & housing to identify all areas of potential new affordable homes in the borough including in private developments. I believe my influence helped bring about RBKC’s new focus on not just social housing (brought about sadly by Grenfell) but also affordable key worker housing and its commitment to keeping the tenure of all new housing as rental whether social, “affordable” or market in order that these tenures can be changed as required and property is not lost to the private sector.

This is very relevant to Norland residents as a healthy community is a diverse community.  Norland’s residents in social housing are being let down and neglected.  Healthy thriving communities need key workers such a health workers, teachers, community police that live in the community, know the community and live in affordable, healthy and well-maintained housing.  This benefits the whole community of Norland and will be a key focus of my work as a Cllr.  Cllrs need to represent their residents not just at Council but with Housing Association senior staff and private landlords. 

I will always put Norland first and fight for the issues that matter to Norland residents.  I have extensive experience representing residents on the issues that matter to them: anti-social behaviour, policing, the cost of living, the environment, planning and housing. 

I live in a council owned and managed estate and with others established a Residents’ Association and became Chair in 1998. As Chair I was an active member of the RBKC Tenants’ Consultative Committee (TCC) until it was disbanded prior to the Grenfell fire in 2017. I led the group lobbying for its re-instatement and with more powers post-Grenfell and chaired the initial launch meeting between the Lead Member for RBKC and Council officials and RA leads and was directly involved in drawing up its new constitution. 

I have been Chair of the Colville Ward Forum since 2009 and in 2010 planned and oversaw the process of it becoming a community led forum run as a not-for-profit community group, this Forum brings senior council officers and Cabinet members to meet residents and answer Qs, hear views and lobbies on local issues.

Norland deserves a 2nd Councillor who does the casework and represents your interests at Council. I will be an active and committed voice for Norland that you can trust.

I was trustee and now act as an adviser, co-optee to the Westway Trust on their charitable purposes committee.  I am a qualified Citizens Advice (CAB) Welfare Rights adviser and when I returned from working in the Middle-East and Eastern Europe in 2009 I re-trained and worked with Kensington CAB on a voluntary basis from 2010 – 2015 offering generalist advice to local residents – benefits, housing, debt etc -across North Kensington. This greatly assisted my work and success as a Councillor in K&C from 2014 – 2022.  

On May 2nd Norland voters will have a real chance to vote for change. It’s a straight choice between Labour and the Tories in Norland – no one else can win.

As your Councillor and a Labour Cllr I will engage directly with TFL and the Mayor’s office when new plans for Holland Park Avenue are initiated and ensure that residents voices are part of that direct engagement: and not wait until the plans are published and then initiate a petition. This will also be the way that step-free access to Ladbroke Grove station and less closures of Holland Park Station can and should be achieved.    

In late 2024 with a Labour government, a Labour Mayor and a Labour Cllr in Norland real progress can be made through co-operation not political point scoring and cuts to GLA Police and TFL budgets.
So on May 2nd Send the Council and Government a strong message.  Use ALL of your votes for Labour

Stéphanie Petit – Conservative Party Candidate

We’re very disappointed with the Conservatives over not getting back to us, and also over hardly bothering to campaign in this By-Election, especially considering their last councillor Stuart Graham was absent from the most of the ward, casework, correspondence, engaging with residents in the community, local events, Town Hall meetings, Council Committees…… let’s just say it doesn’t inspire much confidence than if elected, their candidate Stéphanie Petit, will be much of a change.

We have to say that during the election campaign we have met all the other candidates, but bar David Lindsay (leafleting on his own) and a few coming up from South Kensington (!) They haven’t exactly been much of a presence outside the safe blue parts of the ward which makes us conclude this is more of the same and the Tories are being smug and self satisfied assuming a victory is in the bag and so are only bothering to get their supporters out, or they’re chickening out of properly campaigning the whole ward and ending up meeting residents who don’t usually vote for them (some of whom may have outstanding casework) because it’s too much of an ordeal

Never mind, THINK will have to make do what the “KBCFC” Chickens 🐔 – oh sorry Kensington, Bayswater, Fulham and Chelsea Conservatives (KBFCC?) – website says about Stéphanie then:

Stephanie is standing as the Conservative candidate in the Norland Ward by-election, being held on 2nd May 2024. Stéphanie has resided in London for over 25 years, having lived in Kensington with her husband and children since 2008. Her community work has included supporting local food banks, fundraising for school scholarships, and serving as a Kensington resident liaison with the Independent Advisory Group at the MET. Stéphanie has played a key role in advocating for police presence across the Borough, and vitally, a continued police presence at Notting Hill Police Station. She has also been actively campaigning to keep Holland Park tube station operational and to oppose the current form of the Holland Park Roundabout project. 

Our blog wasn’t exactly giving candidates a  grilling; all we asked for were profiles of the candidates in their own words  featuring  

– Background

–  Interests

-Priorities for Norland

– What they would focus on if elected as Councillor

You know , just basic questions , but maybe the Conservative candidate doesn’t quite cut the “Norland mustard” in terms of being much of a political heavyweight, because when we looked up Stephanie’s profile (written by her/her party) on the website Who Can I Vote For? , besides the bit from the Tory website that we copied and pasted, this was all we found:

That’s Stéphanie – always able to answer the difficult questions that matter most to Norland residents!! 😄 

We really should point a few things out here . The  campaign for a Police presence at Notting Hill Police Station is CROSS PARTY and ISN’T OPPOSED BY THE OTHER PARTIES. Furthermore the campaign and plans were started up and plans were made by the KENSINGTON SOCIETY (two of whom are Labour members and former candidates ) see this – LINK. And NOT FELICITY BUCHAN AND HER PARTY – who are making out that it is their campaign – for political point scoring purposes. Yes RBKC deserve credit for supporting it but it is NOT actually a CONSERVATIVE PARTY campaign, but some people really do like to stretch the boundaries of truth and mislead voters into wrongly believing it is.

( That is not as far fetched as it sounds. Here for a bit of reference is another bit of dishonesty and claiming false credit for saving Wornington College on the part of our Kensington Tory MP on their leaflets – LINK )

If they really are serious about policing and the Mayor funding our Police properly , then the Tories cannot exactly get away from the hardly very small fact that the funds for the Mayor of London’s policing come from GOVERNMENT – oh and the Consetvatives have only been in power for THIRTEEN YEARS!

Ditto TfL and transport.

By the way, step-free access at Ladbroke Grove is something that most residents on all political sides strongly support and it was first called for by North Kensington residents and Labour councillors long before our blog was going. However that doesn’t seem to stop Felicity amd her supporters pretending it’s a Conservative campaign! Maybe they wouldn’t like to be reminded that the initial plans for step free access at Ladbroke Grove tube station didn’t go ahead because the last Tory Mayor – one Boris Johnson – removed the funding for it. – and of course he only ended up as Prime Minister later and in a position to fund this – which he didn’t (We’ll stop ourselves here before we end up going into a whole other blog post!), but readers, you get the point.

Voting and changes

Now a few words about voting and changes to voting.

In order to vote in person you are now required to present an official photo ID whe you go to vote. That means one of the following:

– PASSPORT (UK EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or a Commonwealth country)

– DRIVING LICENCE ( Full or provisional – UK, EU,Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands)

– PASS CARD (National Proof of Age Standards Scheme)

– A BLUE BADGE

– BRP (BIOMETRIC RESIDENTS PERMIT)

– A DEFENCE IDENTITY CARD (MOD)

– NATIONAL IDENTITY CARD ISSUED BY EU COUNTRY, NORWAY, ICELAND OR LIECHTENSTEIN

– VOTER AUTHORITY CERTIFICATE

– 60 PLUS LONDON OYSTER PHOTOCARD

– FREEDOM PASS

– OLDER PERSONS BUS PASS (funded by UK Government)

– DISABLED PERSONS BUS PASS (funded by UK Government)

– ANONYMOUS ELECTORS DOCUMENT

– NORTHERN IRELAND ELECTORAL IDENTITY CARD

You will need to present just one of these – and the original and not a photocopy.

If you are a resident with a postal vote and haven’t sent it off yet, then please don’t leave it sitting around and lose your vote! You can hand it in to your local Polling Station on the day, or you can hand it into the main desk at Kensington Town Hall where there is a special ballot box for residents to post their votes.

As if anyone needed reminding (but we’ll do it anyway), the London Mayor and GLA Elections are also on the same day Thursday May 2nd.

Please use your vote and don’t lose it!

We wiill end by thanking three of the four Norland candidates who contributed to this blog post by positively answering our queries and sending in their profiles . THINK wishes Finlay Dargan, Heloise Hunter and Monica Press the very best of luck!

Block booking deprives local kids of sports and leisure facilities

We hope our readers are enjoying the Easter Holidays .

Those of you with children might be interested in a few things to do, so here are a few activities going on locally:

Of course our borough is also home to many parks and a few sports and leisure facilities . But there is a long-standing problem and it isn’t something that has been going on for quite some time

Back when Judith Blakeman was a  Notting Dale councillor, she highlighted the problem of  private schools block booking the swimming and depriving local state school children of swimming lessons.

So what did RBKC do about it?

Nothing that’s what.

One of the present Notting Dale councillors Cllr Claire Simmons has brought this up on Twitter:

 

It’s not just the swimming. Also the football pitches.  

Here’s  a short video of  RBKC Lead Member for Property, Parks and Leisure, Cllr Emma Will at the Westway pitches.

As commendable it is that RBKC have  teamed up with Westway Trust and Everyone Active, (who operate Westway Sports & Fitness Centre),  and provided funding to open pitches 11 and 12 to members of the community,here’s the thing, the pitches, as Cllr Will says, are “free when they’re not booked”

But heres the thing, Cllr Will, the pitches are ALWAYS BOOKED.

We’ve also  had emails from residents about this.

This issue is borough-wide.  This is a problem in Chelsea too.  Over to FTHN and  Ian Henderson: 

Ian Henderson

Ian Henderson is a community activist and local resident and former Labour councillor.

“I often visit St Luke’s. 

Most times it seems to be booked by corporates. There is nothing sadder than seeing kids with footballs looking sadly through the fences as they wait for a rare space to become available.

Back in 2016 I was very involved with Kings United. This was a team of locals who had been struggling to get some funds and practice pitches. 

Fortunately, Ed Cadogan came along and supported us with a £5,000 donation. Even in those days, the only bookings offered were at 10.00 pm at night! On the one occasion they did get on the St Luke’s pitches one player was spotted by Chelsea and signed for them. To improve his game he moved to the Dutch League, Volendan.

What was brilliant was the older players coached the younger players.

Cllr Will and the Parks Team seem to have made a start but with Spring and Summer on the horizon, she needs to lay down the law to GLL about ensuring our kids get priority over money-making corporates abusing our scarce resources. 

Tennis coaching companies should not be allowed to book the pitches at peak times when kids need space to play football: it’s very simple…our community assets are for our kids not money grabbing corporates.

Best wishes

Ian Henderson

We think it’s about time for RBKC to come down hard on their sports and leisure contractors and make them prioritise local children and when it comes to group bookings, to prioritise state schools and community groups over private schools.

Private schools, private tennis coaches and swimming coaches have the resources to go elsewhere. State schools, community organisations and low income families do not.

We wouldn’t want to think that RBKC didn’t care about the wellbeing of local children, but what little the council has done about this isn’t good enough and doesn’t go far enough.

If the contractors do not want to play ball (and being private contractors their primary interests will understandably be their profit margins so unlikely), then perhaps it is time for RBKC to take all our sports and leisure facilities back in-house?

The needs, wellbeing and health of our borough’s children cannot and must not be ignored. RBKC has been sticking ther heads in the sand over this for long enough already and the problem still continues.

CHILDREN BEFORE PROFIT!

Campaigning, commenting, bullying, trolling and standards

Some might say : “Don’t feed the trolls” . And maybe we should listen, or maybe, givem where this is coming from, a bit of exposure might be the right way to go on this.

Sometimes tensions rise during election campaigns and (certainly around North Kensington) feelings run strong.

Our blog has been going since May 2017 amd over that time, despite the various ordeals our community (as well as some of us personally – especially with Grenfell and housing), has gone through, and the angry and outraged nature, or in other cases, the satirical comical (but with serious points) nature of some of our blog posts, we have always made an effort to keep things civilised on here.

Our comments section is open, for the purposes of residents having their say. We do usually check and vet comments, we try to make sure that nothing too unpleasant is published here whilst respecring the different opinions of others and certainly nothing outright offensive is published and we do avoid being abusive to people or provoking trouble

Being a topical blog that doesn’t hold back with criticism of others and can be acerbic or , we do expect to get something back. But there are limits.

Let’s start with this:

Apart from naming our Editor, there is a LOT wrong with this comment. First of all we are obviously not “The Dame” and we are also have no responsibility at all for the content of any other blogs (but if they choose to repost our articles that is a matter of choice for them – our blogs are freely and publicly available to share).

Now where on THINK are any postings of racist abuse, false antisemitism and homophobia allegations,accusations of alcoholism and domestic abuse? Oh that’s right – there aren’t any.

Then this:

Another nasty and uncalled for personal attack – this time on our Editor

Since the troll is so prome to confusing THINK with FTHN so much, we decided to have a look at their reporting each our last blog on Wednesday – which was actually about the Norland By-election and Monica Press – LINK – to see what else was on there.

We do not approve or agree with all the comments on there and we will also not be posting anything about  very nasty defamatory and false allegations about  another former councillor Ian Henderson; (we have  heard that those who do might be hearing from  his lawyers).   But we will show  this (another separate comment which we agree with):

Yes that took us back. Actually it was former councillor Robert Thompson and not Robert Atkinson who the false cocaine rumours were about. It took us back to when then Chair of Kensington Labour David Kear told THINKers amd others that Thompson was on cocaine amd that he had “popped to the toilets halfway in meetings to snort coke and came back a lot more animated” this was around 2017/18 but we remember it well. Some of us were rather naive at the time, we were also friends with Kear (or supposed friends- very badly misjudged on our part) and believed it then (sorry Robert) , trying to look up his nostrils and watching him carefully in meetings to see if there was anything in what David Kear said. There wasn’t. We also remember Kear claiming Judith Blakeman was an alcoholic and that he had a photograph of her swigging from a bottle (which he never did show to anyone) and him saying that Pat Healy was senile, “past it” and housebound as well as an alcoholic who drinks in the daytime. Again more lies.

The rumours, which had gone all over North Kensington, were all complete  lies and  absolute nonsense of course, but  it did  really cause hurt to these now-former councillors. There was also bullying of another former councillor instigated by Mr Kear as well as rumours about party members and residents doing the rounds. All from Mr Kear.  He is the troll and “poison pen” .

David Kear

And there’s more.

We remembered this, that now-infamous email from Mr Kear to a resident unhappy with Kensington Labour’s poor performance in the 2022 Local Elections.

7The names were blocked out for the public sharing of the email by the resident who was very unhappy with Kear’s response, but we can reveal two of the names. Tia our Editor (colour coded purple) , and former councillor Pat Healy (colour coded red). Now putting thst together with the rumours, his comments about Pat Healy, the Hornet comment and also the trolling comments we received on our blog above, the pieces all fit together.

Not forgetting this from when we put up this blog – LINK about the Labour Group on RBKC:

“when we sent that back to the former chair earlier , he did say that he had his doubts about the pool of available candidates and their abilities and that “several potentially good candidates did not get through the London Regional selection process”

Very shortly a week or so before that blog post, our Editor had been contacted by him via WhatsApp. That was completely out of the blue considering she had barely talked to him for a few years. At the time our Editor thought it right to ask for his side over the Councillors post, so we did. David Kear had been on some local campaign groups alongside her so her view of him wasn’t an entirely negative one and she had (rather too optimistically) hoped tthat the trouble, the fallings out, rows and everything would all be “water under the bridge” by now.

Unfortunately not, because yesterday we received these :

Now putting aside his fictional and completely ludicrous picture of our Editor going around her neighbourhood completely drunk all the time and begging people and shops to buy her bottles of vodka, as well as seeing that he obviously doesn’t visit Norland Ward very often because if he did he would see that the streets are not exactly lined with convenience stores and off licences (!!) receiving this sort of thing is very distressing indeed.

It is also the sort of thing that can get Mr Kear in trouble with the Police for verbal abuse and harassment online.

And there is rather a continuous theme here; his rumours about Judith Blakeman, about Pat Healy as well as comments on other residents from a very long time ago falsely accusing them of being alcoholics (amd some that have been attributed to others) so this is something that has gone on for many years, and likely much longer than we have been going as a blog. .

No wonder that they struggled to find people motivated enough to want to go canvassing for them and why their pool of potential council candidates was so small.

Regardless of how long it has been going on, this vile behaviour ought to stop now .

David Kear (who has worked in further education when he’s not beem too busy trolling people) may be able to hold his head up about being one of the core team on the Save Wornington College campaign that saved the College and successfully kept it in North Kensington – he helps our community on one hand but then he goes goes upsets divides and bullies our community on the other on the other. Also he can do the Grenfell Silent Walk as much as he likes, but as shown by his comments towards our Editor (visitors please view our archives) that hasn’t stopped him from bullying and trolling this traumatised resident (used to live right around the corner and in the immediate vicinity) affected by Grenfell.

Needless to say he is blocked and we will never be speaking to or having anything to do with him ever again.

Since David Kear resigned (or rather was forced out by party members) as Kensington Labour Chair, he resigned from Labour Party, but that is not quite the end of this matter.

………………………………

Kensington and Bayswater Constituency is a very marginal seat with incumbent Conservative MP Felicity Buchan on a wafer-thin majority of 150, so this seat will be closely fought and we are more than aware that with a General Election expected later this year, tensions between parties and candidates will arise and things are set to get very heated. However that is no excuse for bad and malicious behaviour.

Emma Dent Coad

Emma Dent Coad especially when she was our MP, did receive a huge catalogue of hate mail and nasty disgusting verbal abuse and trolling.

We have to say that this blog thoroughly deplores and utterly condemns this sort of horrendous, vile and abhorrent behaviour. We also urge all others to think carefully about their behaviour and actions towards Cllr Dent Coad as well as towards any other candidate standing.

We were encouraged to see that Emma Dent Coad had commendably signed the Compassion in Politics – LINK draft code last year.

We also connnend her for signing the Jo Cox Foundation civility pledge- LINK

However this does sit very much at odds with the fact that she has put a man responsible for trolling, bullying and verbal abuse in charge ot her campaign.

Yes, since David Kear left the Labour Party, he now runs Emma Dent Coad’s campaign.

So we ask Emma if she is aware if his behaviour, if she thinks such behaviour is acceptable or even remotely tolerable and if she will act to remove Mr Kear from his position and ensure that her campaign is free of such behaviour.

For the record, and just in case anyone misinterprets this as cheap political point scoring , we expect civil, decent, responsible and respectable standards and behaviour from EVERYONE standing as well as their campaign teams, so that means Kensington Conservative MP Felicity Buchan and her team, Labour candidate Joe Powell and his team, Liberal Democrat candidate William Houngbo and his team and Green Party candidate Mona Adam and her team – as well as any other candidates/parties who stand.

Some might say “you can dish it out so you might as well take it” but there is only so much people can take. We expect criticism and we expect ridicule to an extent; but there are limits.

We do hope for positive social change for our North Kensington community and of course  various different people and parties will have their own ideas of how to go about that; not everyone will agree and that’s perfectly acceptable.

What is not acceptable is the extents that some people will go to in order to express their disagreements and also what an unpleasant atmosphere caused by , bullying and unnecessary  hostilities does for the morale and wellbeing of North Kensington as a whole. Also   how it affects others that they didn’t intend to hurt . We’re disappoiningly far from convinced that they do.

Oh – and since we’ve been going back years for this blog to the present, it’s time to be a bit more “Old Skool THINK ” and end with a suitable song. .Anyone who refers to residents as “workshy” without having concrete  and valid reasons, obviously   looks down on North Kensington’s poorest residents and stinks of an extreme right wing Tory view that the unemployed are all contemptuous layabouts .

Plus the picking on of women. Nasty. Most of the former councillors on the receiving end of the gossip, and then the trolling of our blog. Others have wriiten and published far more strongly critical things than we ever have – yet female topical bloggers are the only ones who receive the abuse.

Whose side are some people really on? Not ours.

A rat in the kitchen of Nortb Kensington indeed

Norland By-Election: The return of Monica Press!

Right, this will be the last we will be posting on the Norland By-election for this week (we know some local Conservatives might be breathing a sigh of relief!)

But we couldn’t resist just getting in one more today.

In his resignation letter which omitted (or photoshopped out) the date, Tory now-former Norland councillor Stuart Graham said “it is vitally important to me that the residents of our wonderful part of Notting Hill”  (Another Tory who’s allergic to calling it North Kensington? 🤔) “have a local champion who can give them the attention amd support they deserve” . Well on that Stuart, we couldn’t agree more! So we’re  absolutely delighted to see that the Labour Party (who came second in Norland last time)  has now  selected Monica Press to be  their candidate here.

Monica has  lived in North Kensington for over 30 years and has represented residents particularly well over  anti-social behaviour, policing, the environment, planning and housing. She  was Councillor for Colville Ward from 2014 to 2022, chaired the Housing & Property Scrutiny Committee and she currently chairs the Colville ward community  forum and Police Panel.

Those of us living in the Ladbroke end of Norland will of course also be familiar with Monica standing up for our community over Portobello Market as well as giving support to and working with residents and small businesses affected by flooding.

You really can’t get more of a “Local champion” than that!

So we’re very proud to be backing Monica Press to be our next  Norland Ward Councillor and we urge our fellow Norlanders to please vote for her on the 2nd of May.

This time round (all  thanks to the Conservatives’ vote changes)  voters will need to bring photo ID such as a passport or a driving licence with them to vote. If you do not happen to have photo ID you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate at this link here – LINK

The 2nd of May also happens to be the same date for voting for Mayoral Elections and the GLA

The deadline for registration  is 5pm on the 24th of April.

We have other matters to blog on next  but we will be back to Norland early next week with further updates and some (positive!) information about the other candidates in this race. It really does get better and better.

 

It’s time to make a difference, and to  keep Norland honest. No more absenteeism, no more pretending the entire ward consists of Norland Square plus a few picturesque big houses, no more thinking that attending a few garden square parties equates to doing casework and no more ignoring the less well off , the elderly and the vulnerable.

Monica Press for us is the best choice for Norland councillor, a real local champion and someone who works tremendously hard and deeply cares about the needs of our community. A vote for Monica Press is a vote for a fairer, more inclusive Norland.

Norland By-Election: Letters, posters, postings and post-scripts

Pictured above is a photoshop of  now-former Conservative councillor for Norland, Stuart Graham. Infantile perhaps, but maybe some people are deserving of that response.

A few days ago Mr Graham sent his his resignation letter and asked us to publish it. Here it is:

OK so now we’ll respond to this in a few points.

Just because one’s family worked as officers for RBKC that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a special relation with and connection to  to our residents. Walk five minutes up to road to Notting Dale Ward and ask residents there about housing, communication and the “Grenfell Recovery” for a start.  There are too many  examples of some (not all but some) officers and suits not having connections with or caring about residents in this borough for us to go through in this blog post, but you can find those on many of our previous posts.    Or we  could  leave this here, taken from a residemt writing to  fellow Kensington blog From The Hornets Nest about Portobello Market: 

Our second point will not entertain his propaganda too much,  other than poimt out that only two members of  the “Leadership Team” live in North Kensington,  NONE sit for North Kensingron wards, and ALL have supported and/or voted for policies/initiatives that have  caused harm  to North Kensington and its residents.  We  did list a few examples ages ago here – LINK .

Thirdly, THINKers are far from the only residents who barely saw or heard anything fron Mr Graham whilst he was our councillor. Tellingly he does not go into anything much about Norland Ward in his letter.

 

Lastly – but it was one of the  first things we  noticed – where is the date on that letter? All officials put  dates on letters – or they’re at least supposed to.

Which means Stuart Graham and his  Conservative Party colleagues have deliberately withheld the actual  date  of his resignation from the public and all other parties concerned with standing in  the by-election in order to manipulate the process to their advantage.

By the way – Not a single one of the Kensington Bayswater, Chelsea and Fulham Conservative Party has disputed that their Norland candidate Stéphanie Petit donated £5,000 to Felicity Buchan’s office last year or disputed and/or issued an offical denial of the “Cash for Councillors” label and allegations about her allegedly purchasing the candidacy of the ward.

 

Norland By-election: Tory abuse of the electoral process and oh – what’s that, “Cash for Councillors”?

Meet Stéphanie Petit. We have. Just once very briefly ages ago, because she has stood as a candidate before for Earl’s Court at the last 2022 Local Elections. She didn’t get anywhere then.

On Thursday, we reported on absentee councillor Stuart Graham (finally!) doing the right thing and resigning as a Norland councillor, causing a by-election to now take place in the North Kensington ward on the 2nd of May. ( See our previous post . )

One would hope that in response to local concerns and ward matters  (not helped by absentee former Councillor Graham)  that we might get actually get a dedicated and local focus from the sitting Conservatives here.

But not so…..

Last year, Kensington resident (yes we have now corrected that, as others have pointed out she actually lives in Campden Ward now – not her former address in Courtfield Ward that we saw) Ms Petit had enough pocket money to give a personal donation to Felicity Buchan’s office of the tune of £5,000.

See this :

So we’ve had cash for questions, cash for favours and now cash for council wards from the Tories. It appears as if their candidate is allegedly purchasing North Kensington council seats.

Apparently £5,000 buys someone the candidacy in a held council ward.

And it gets even worse……

Because the Tories knew Stuart Graham was resigning ages ago they decided to deliberately withhold the information from the public for ages in order to start their campaign early, select their candidate secretly and push election material, all the while leaving people in the dark and other parties to have a last minute scramble (selecting their candidates, getting election material ready etc).

.

They admit it too – this is no excuse:

If our readers also share our absolute disgust and anger over people allegedly purchasing council wards in our area and over the local Tories’ deliberate manipulation, dishonesty and flagrant abuse of the electoral process we suggest tactical voting and protest voting for the Labour candidate who – if elections were held tomorrow – would come second (whoever that will be) and the best chance of getting rid to send them a message. What a sleazy bunch these people are.

As for us, if any of the Tories come campaigning to THINK HQ they will be getting a bucket of cold water over them. Even that wouldn’t clean up what a dirty bunch this lot are.

Let’s hope the electorate feels the same and gives them a well deserved kicking in the ballots. They deserve it – and Norland deserves far better than this.

Bye-bye, By-Election in Norland!!

We’ve just heard the news that Conservative Councillor for Norland Stuart Graham has resigned from the Council.

That’s right- Norland is getting a by-election!!

See this:

We did enquire if there was anything scandalous behind his resignation but no, apparently it is because he is too busy working elsewhere and he is moving out of the borough.

As THINK HQ is in Norland Ward, we have to say that from both our experience and from talking to our neighbours, he’s been rather the absentee councillor; hardly ever seeing to local ward matters, not answering emails or doing much work and not turning up to the Town Hall. As we haven’t seen anything in the way of him being a local councillor (and partly because THINKers aren’t Conservatives anyway), we can’t say we’re disappointed in his decision to quit, but we are at least thankful that – unlike some people we could mention – that he has had the honesty to resign, rather than sticking around here as a councillor in name only and a “bum on a safe seat”.

But will it be a safe Tory ward much longer? Well, considering how unpopular this Government is and that Joe Powell is making a very good impression on local voters here, yes – for the first time in our lifetime we think Labour is in with a good chance of winning Norland!

The Norland by election will be on the 2nd of May at same time as the Mayoral and GLA elections.

So a note to the Labour Party – please, please, pick someone tough, reliable, smart, assertive, knowledgeable of the area and more than capable of council work to be the candidate, because there is a very good chance they will win and be a councillor. A good understanding of housing (there’s actually quite a lot of social housing in the ward) the environment and conservation would be helpful as would be a willingness to work with others from other parties when it counts – bearing in mind that Tory David Lindsay is the other senior sitting councillor and that the views and votes of Norlanders are a mixed bag (look at the votes)..

We hope it’s not the only by-election as we are of the opinion that any other absentee councillors not pulling their weight in their wards and the Town Hall ought to take a leaf out of Mr Graham’s book.

Not forgetting those councillors who have defected to other parties but seem to forget about their principles in order to stay on for doing nothing and just picking up their council salaries ….

Yes that means you Councillor Dahabo Isse – on both counts!

So for now we will say goodbye, Stuart Graham. We can’t say we’ll miss you but hey – good luck with whatever you do next elsewhere.

We’re hoping that Labour can take this ward, and we do get someone dedicated to working for us, and someone with a new and positive approach to matters here.

We deserve that at least.

Meet the Housing Ombudsman event this evening (that RBKC didn’t want residents to know about for “some reason”)

This evening, 5pm at the Small Hall Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street W8 7NX, there will be a meeting Housing Ombudman Richard Blakeway will be putting in an appearance, to discuss the Ombudsman service and how it can help people (ie. how people can make reports complaints etc)

This meeting sounds to us to be a very good, useful and helpful initiative for residents – but oh what’s that? – RBKC   “forgot” and  for some reason   only just “remembered”  yesterday!!

One day’s notice!  Just fancy that!!

Here is the flyer with a QR code also a link to the Zoom meeting if you cannot make it to the Town Hall this evening:

So sorry for the short notice folks, but we weren’t at all aware of this until late last night.

By the way,  it was  postings on social media  from brilliant housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa  that eventually prompted RBKC to stick this on Twitter:

“Sorry you missed our information on this?” Oh that’s right people did – because RBKC didn’t post any information on this!!

Whilst whoever posted that RBKC Tweet seems to regard leaseholders as a different species of residents (!) , we gather that the event is for both tenants and leaseholders of RBKC and whilst the flyer doesn’t make it clear if that includes HA tenants and leaseholders or not, the Ombudsman does deal with complaints about other social landlords – Housing Associations – too so we would think so.

We will not be able to make it tonight (too short notice and we have other meetings at the same time) but we encourage all concerned social housing residents to come if they can and to please do share this widely.

Also for those who cannot make it to the meeting (probably most of us!), here is a link to the Housing Ombudsman Service website- LINK

One more thing – an observant resident (thank you!) has informed us that the Housing Ombudsman Residents Panel is now open for applications – here – LINK. If anyone is interested (and just in case they don’t mention it this evening).

There are mistakes, there is absent-mindedness and then there are deliberate mistakes. We know which one of those that this is. They really don’t want their residents living in the worst RBKC Housing conditions to meet Mr Blakeway and his team, mention their housing problems and to learn how the Ombudsman service works ( because they could get into hot water and have some PR they don’t like!) but thought to go ahead with the event as a “gesture” and “tick box exercise” to pretend they care, all the while fully intending to keep the majority of residents in the dark about it.

RBKC appears to be comfortably back in its bad old ways.

RBKC Lead (Cabinet) Member for Housing Management, Housing Safety and Building New Homes, Cllr Sof McVeigh is usually very good at posting on social media about things but somehow, this seems to have escaped her mind to share with people living in the housing that she is in charge of , but have no fear, THINK will do the honours and we will send a copy of this blog to her to discourage any further such incidents of forgetfulness.

Ten green bottles (or should that be eight?)

Altogether now:

🎶  “There were ten Labour councillors at Kensington Town Hall. Ten Labour councillors at Kensington Town Hall, and if  one Labour councillor should happen to defect/leave/get kicked out of the  Labour Party, there’ll be nine Labour councillors at Kensington Town Hall” 🎶

Well actually there are only EIGHT RBKC Labour councillors left now.

Yesterday we heard  that one of the Colville Labour  councillors, Cllr Dahabo Isse had just left Labour and was sitting as an independent.:

But now there is further news – Cllr Isse has since defected to the Conservatives. See this:

Oh dear. In fact Cllr Isse has done nothing at all    to champion Colville Ward. She is mostly noted by residents there for being absent from the ward and failing to  take any notice  of local issues and hardly ever doing casework, plus she also has one of the worst councillor attendance records in the Town Hall.

This is just the latest of defections, resignations and sackings on the Labour side, or rather what is left of the Labour side.

First there was Emma Dent Coad resigning after she wasn’t allowed on the Kensington Constituency PPC longlist – LINK

Kensington PPC longlist- “Your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in”

Then there was Dalgarno councillor Eva Jedut being suspended and ultimately removed from the Labour Party over offensive social media posts – and after she was found breaching the RBKC Councillors Code of Conduct.

Next came Notting Dale councillor Mona Ahmed resigning from the Labour Party over Keir Starmer’s position on Palestine – LINK

Cllr Ahmed was sitting as an independent but fairly recently she has formed an “Independent Group” with Emma Dent Coad.

Then came Golborne councillor Mona Adam defecting to the Green Party partly over Gaza and partly saying Labour was in an “open war against itself” – LINK

And now Cllr Isse defecting to the Tories makes FIVE of them no longer Labour councillors. We do wonder if any more will follow. The goings-on with members of the RBKC Labour Group are like a soap opera .

No more drama? If only!

Look we know that there were valid reasons behind a few of the defections and resignations but it’s getting beyond a joke now.

Also, surely some of these councillors know about committees, majorities and the balance of power and where that leaves their constituents ? Or care? Did anyone think about long term local government duties? We’re not entirely convinced all did…

We  also really wouldn’t like to think that maybe a few of them (the ones who are only known for being no shows and doing hardly any work like the new “star of the Kensington Tories” here ) might be mainly  staying put  for the purpose of collecting their councillors allowances, would we?

We also don’t think any of this is fair to members of the  North Kensington electorate who initially voted for 13 Labour councillors. There have been no  by-elections, so we do question why  wouldn’t supposedly  principled councillors then not be principled enough to let the voters decide?

On another but not  unrelated point about Labour and former Labour councillors and the utter mess they’re in, the open animosity and public squabbling between the two Dalgarno councillors, that is the  Leader of the Labour Group (not leading by example here) Kasim Ali and  (now independent) Cllr Jedut has got way out of hand – LINK   . We’re hearing from their residents about grants for City Living Local Life funds being rejected ot blocked and events and community initiatives not going ahead all because these two can’t agree on anything and now work, meetings and other business in the ward are being affected by these two councillors laying into each other , sabotaging each other’s work and continually reporting each other. – LINK  

It goes from RA events and children’s Christmas pantomimes being cancelled and ward matters not being seen to and then goes on to frustrated residents writing to us asking us to say something , We’re not the least bit surprised to hear that so many locals up there are utterly fed up and  becoming increasingly disaffected.

We think both councillors   are not conducting themselves  professionally at all and just end up (regardless of whether they intended to or not) failing their residents and issues in the ward.

So who is to blame for all this mess on the Labour side ?

Yes it’s hard to forget about those Labour councillor selections and deselections. There were perfectly good decent and hardworking councillors in Colville Ward before the selections got messed around with. Emma Dent Coad might like to think she can walk away with her hands in her pockets pretending it’s nothing to do with her but she does not have clean hands over this – in fact it’s been a common opinion around here that Cllr Dent Coad and a few of her close colleagues in CLP were deliberately putting in people who would pose no challenge to her and ignoring or pushing out those who were deemed to be either a threat to her leadership, not on their wing of the party or just not in their “clique” ( which also understandably put some good people off).

Back in 2022 a resident who was understandably unhappy about Kensington Labour’s terrible results in the 2022 Local Elections with no gains at all in contrast to a huge swing against the Tories everywhere else and the quality of some of the new people plus popular and hardworking councilors being deselected –   was told at this at the time in an email by the former Chair (who has since also left the Labour Party)  in an email:

Famous last words

Trying to be fair and hearing both sides here, when we sent that back to the former chair earlier , he did say that he had his doubts about the pool of available candidates and their abilities and that “several potentially good candidates did not get through the London Regional selection process” .

Regardless of whether people agree with his comnents or our comments or not, we do note that this could also throw up a frightening prospect fur the future of our local representatives – meaning the prospect of people with little to no connections to our community being parachuted in to be Labour councillors. We hope not, because in an area with such a rich history of local campaigning, , with a community that has so many great things to offer and no shortage of residents with the skills required to be councillors – we deserve better.  Having some out of touch  robot  who doesn’t know one end of North Kensington from another put in to supposedly represent us wouldn’t exactly go down too well with most  locals .

In our view,  this is the weakest and most volatile opposition in our living history  and beyond a small handful of  councillors who are now overworked and tired from attempting to get on with it and pick up the pieces (yes councillors, we are sending this post directly to you if you’re one of them who does work hard and still has our respect ) , it sure as hell doesn’t feel like  the best interests of the North Kensington community matter too much  these days at a local government level.

The RBKC Tories have of course taken full advantage of this situation and pushed through things knowing they will get a bare minimum of scrutiny.

What it all amounts to at the end of the day is our community ends up on the losing side of everything with an opposition barely fit for purpose and residents (some of whom are traumatised and vulnerable) left having to fight their own corners entirely now by themselves because there’s hardly anyone left further up who can fight for us anymore. To answer some of the queries we’ve had about why THINKers hardly ever go to the Town hall these days, here’s why: Because we cannot stomach our community getting it from both barrels. North Kensington residents and our issues and concerns have been well and truly left at the bottom of the .pile.

. .

Cllr Isse cannot be too surprised if she doesn’t receive a warm welcome back around here especially when she has barely done any work and people wonder what she’s still doing here anyway , when Colville has NEVER been a Conservative ward and when the Conservative Government isn’t exactly too popular. If she wants to know what her ward constituents think about her decision to join the Tories, here are a couple of comments we have received from them :

“The first recorded case of a rat joining a sinking ship”

“To become independent in protest is one thing but to join the Tories at this time and espcially given their racist and their anti-immigration policies is another. I think Colville residents will want to take action on this and call for a by-election”

We also have to say that the RBKC Tories might want to stay away from too much gloating and political point scoring over this latest defection if they have any idea of what will be coming up on this blog soon.

So far, no sign of any by elections on the horizon happening anytime soon and goodness knows what will  happen next, but in the meantime we will sarcastically “thank” Cllr Isse and others staying on with ZERO electoral mandate in North Kensington  for participating in the erosion of local democracy here.

What a mess this all is.

At this rate, when the next Local Elections come around in two years time, we can’t help wondering if there will actually be any Labour councillors left?

RBKC Tenancy Strategy consultation ends TONIGHT: Have your say (plus some notes from us)

The consultation for thr RBKC Tenancy Strategy ends at 11:59pm TONIGHT and contrary to how it is titled, isn’t just about RBKC tenancies; this is all social housing tenancies in the borough. The consultation is open to ALL residents and we recommend that all tenants (as well as anyone with an interest and concern about social housing in the borough) takes part.

The link to the survey is here – LINK, but as we’re often very wary of these surveys (which are often set out to lead people into giving the responses the council wants!), we thought it would be good to set out a few notes. in order to help people form their own responses . THINKers and friends (our huge thanks go to “J” ) had a good look through the draft and have highlighted a few points from the perspectives of social housing tenants. Please read below:

Actually the link to the 2023 Housing Allocation Scheme didn’t work and linked back to the old outdated 2017 Housing Allocation scheme

1. RBKC have recently halted 4 building projects citing cost reasons – LINK

2. Are they not doing this ALREADY? How’s that working out for them? If it’s failing, then how have they determined this and what metrics were used to verify that determination? Why have they not told us about this? If it’s not failing, then they must clearly intend to continue in the same way; which goes back to the first two questions above

3.. They haven’t explained how exactly they’re supporting the tenants most in need of help – after all they have a legal obligation to do so.

Plenty of residents in this borough are in the dark about what help they can get and are missing benefit payments and support to which they are entitled. Outreach and engagement with people in temporary accommodation outside te borough is very scarce. Often very vulnerable people outside the area struggle to access services and benefits ending up being passed back amd forth from this borough to whichever borough they live in (some have reported to us of having difficulty registering with a GP because of this for example). Again, no detail or explanations. It’s not good enough to say you’ll support people without going into ways of how you’re going to be supporting them.

4. We would welcome this with open arms. Refusal to take ownership of a problem and passing people around different departments has been a recurring theme at RBKC for a long time.

5. Quite a few of us know our rights well and have to remind some staff at the Council . It doesn’t always appear as if all staff are obligated to know residents’ rights. Also as for residents who don’t know or are unsure of their rights, we’d like to know what is in place (other than telling people to go to the Citizens Advice bureau) to help tenants understand them?

6. It would be interesting to have figures of how many introductory tenancies ended before they became permanent.

We would hope to see provisions made for when tenants transfer as in arrangements to have their lifetime tenancies transferred to their new tenanices rather than them having to go through introductory tenancies all over again.

7. What reasons?

8. Shouldn’t that be “with at least the same security of tenure on their return to settled accommodation.” RBKC’s phrasing seems to indicate that they approve of worse tenancies.

9. The rates in these are far too high already. Accommodation costs should be no more than 25% of earnings; those rates are way above that level. Shouldn’t there be some thought on the part of social housing providers (especially in these tough times) for how these tenants are going to realistically manage to make their rent payments when it is set at such a a high level?

10. There are not enough suitable homes in the borough for residents with physical disabilities. Two residents in wheelchairs spoke about no homes available for them locally at last month’s Full Council meeting. We think it is disgraceful given that residents with disabilities died in Grenfell , and when RBKC has been building new homes, there has been ZERO thought and effort to build family properties on the ground floor. Also isn’t it time to make some practical considerations for changing needs of residents by reserving ground floor properties for residents who cannot manage stairs (ie with disabilities or serious health conditions that limit mobility , older people) in order to prevent tenants being stuck for years in properties unsuitable for their needs? Shamefully RBKC still offers ground floor properties to fit and well able bodied resists without a thought. We know. our Editor was offered one.

11 What about residents who have been harmed or put at risk of harm because of RBKC’s actions and failures? Here are a few examples. A resident and family put at risk of domestic abuse because RBKC allowed their details to be posted. Residents harmed by antisocial neighbours and RBKC failing to act for years. We could go on but then it takes us back to our Council not taking ownership of failures and mistakes again

12. No details of how they plan to do this (plus we’re also hearing of further affected Grenfell tenants they have completely ignored). Housing and resident engagement with social housing tenants in RBKC has long been poor. We’ve said so on here more times than we can remember. What is going to change in order for them to look out for and properly address the needs of the most vulnerable?

13. Isn’t this what a Safeguarding Board is for? Also their Multidisciplinary Boards? Or is this another failure?

14. So the RBKC Conservatives have gone “off message” and aren’t calling it a “spare room subsidy” anymore!

15. But the applications for taking possession of hones are increasing. Saying one thing and doing another?

16. Better communication between tenants and housing officers is badly needed. We suggest RBKC do what a couple of the housing associations do and make sure all households have a “housing team” that they know. (Some households may require more or fewer members of staff depending on situation and need), making sure tenants have contact details of relevant staff who can help. Better and more efficient outreach and on the ground monitoring is needed in situations where residents have known background of ASB or crime.

17. Is this not a legal requirement? Refusing to do something purely on cost grounds is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.

18. So what have RBKC been doing in the last nearly seven years? Has housing quality and provision improved, deteriorated, or remained static in that period?

19. They should he doing this already. Complaints to the Ombudsman represent a failure of local authority’s legal duties to regulate social and private landlords in the borough, or its duties as landlord for council tenants.

20. Look at this – LINK Read the summary. This was a former resident of Grenfell Walk. Most tenants do not receive that much attention.

On another separate subject but relevant to tbis , how many times does RBKC threaten tenants with eviction over rent arrears when there are very few communications and little in the way of help from housing officers and rent officers with a tenant beforehand? Also what about exceptional situations such late payments of benefits, when a tenants has had to go away for some time or when there are very detrimental changes in tenants’ income and living circumstances?

21. Is evicting people for becoming financially stable really such a good message? Also since all the social housing providers are raising rents higher than inflation RBKC is going up by 7%; the major Housing Associations are all putting theirs up by 7.7% it stands to reason that some tenants might want to save more for a rainy day when rents keep rising like this , isn’t it really about time that the amounts tenants are allowed to earn and have in their bank accounts ought to increase?

22. Fine, as long as fraud committed by Council employees also receives the same level of attention. How much is spent on this compared to investigations of staff?- LINK

23. How many empty homes have they purchased in this borough? Anywhere empty for one year or more is subject to compulsory purchase by the local authority. Ealing has just bought a few dozen.

24. Are they serious? How’s the sprinkler system at Lancaster West Estate going? Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for vulnerable residents? There aren’t any. 😔

Save Shepherd’s Bush Market: Time for the Mayor of London to call this in

Back last June here – LiNK we posted on the Yoo Capital  redevelopment application  for Shepherd’s  Bush Market the future of   historic  109 year old Shepherd’s Bush Market is in doubt because of the redevelopment plans from Yoo Capital, a multi billon real estate investment company.

Our blog has been off-air for a while so an update of what has been happening is long overdue……

Plans approved by LBHF

After the 5th of December LBHF Planning Committee meeting was cancelled amid protests and residents and traders denied access:

https://x.com/savebushmarket/status/1732159095682032077?s=2

The next rescheduled Planning Comnittee meeting went ahead on the 19th December and the application was approved by 3 votes (Chair Cllr Omid Miri, Cllr Rebecca Harvey and Cllr Patrick Walsh) to 2 (Cllr Wesley Harcourt and Cllr Alex Karmel) .

Yoo Capital were pressures into making a last minute additional financial contributions towards carbon offsetting. This was in reaction to the findings that the whole site will only have a 29% carbon reduction, falling well below the GLA target of 35% and the Councils target of a 100% reduction. In reaction to this Cllr Wesley Harcourt (who voted against and is also LBHF’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology) said ” If you can afford to pollute you can get away with it, and I don’t agree with that”.

What also was apparent to us when tuning into the meeting was that traders were “haves ” or “have nots” with some supportive of the application (having been guaranteed permanent leases) and others on shorter term leases (who we didn’t hear from in the meeting ting ) being on different types of leases subject to terms and conditions.

Looks more like a shopping arcade than a market to us…..

After the scheme was approved, aspokesperson for Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market, who have led opposition to the plans, said it was “a shameful decision to side with corporate greed. Council planning officers repeated numerous factual inaccuracies and failed to answer basic questions regarding key planning concerns. Labour councillors asked performative questions about gentrification, trader retention and arch disrepair only to vote the application through.The Council have sided with the developer and ignored community and trader concerns for 18 months. Tonight just 3 councillors voted to approve an application which will push out traders and destroy the market’s diversity and character. We will continue to fight this application and the rampant gentrification it represents.”  

Artwork by Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market campaigners

What Yoo say and what Yoo do….

Speaking to  ITV News last month, Yoo Capital Director of Communications, Louise Page-Jennings  said “We are trying to really keep the character of Shepherd’s Bush Market what it is. Improving facilities, improving the retail area but not taking away what makes  Shepherd’s Bush so great. Keeping the traders, keeping the character but improving it for everyone.” .  We’re here to invest and to support it and support the traders.”

If it were the case that Yoo Capital were not planning a heavy intense regeneration and gentrification of the site for short term profit and they weren’t planning on getting rid of traders and completely changing the face of Shepherd’sBushMarket,  then why would  they be acting  in intimidatiing, heavy-handed and threatening ways, such as hiring security to go around the site  following  people about and  taking pictures of them,  sending out bullying and inaccurate emails to some of those who report about the matters (yes – we received one such email from Ms Page-Jennings)  and insisting that sone traders sign new leases with ridiculous and unreasonable  demands such as paying extra insurance for outside their premises, showing the content of all phones, laptops with with Yoo Capital ,

As for the question of whether Yoo Capital are genuinely in this for the ion-term or not, we’ll leave this here:

And if Ms Page-Jennings gets angry with us over sharing these pictures (above) saying that they are private information about her company as she did before (when they were widely shared on social media!) , then we must ask why they get so upset with a little community blog merely putting down our concerns about the scheme if they don’t have anything to hide?

By the way we are not objecting to any notion of refurbishment. It is generally agreed that Shepherd’s Bush Market is in need of refurbishment. We have particular concern over:

– The plans and design ( so much empty office space already in West London do you need to give over so much of that space – around the size of a football pitch – to offices? What about the Market? Plus the designs just look like an ordinary shopping arcade so we’re sceptical as to how much would revive the market’s fortunes)

– Fair conduct towards residents and traders (Yoo Capital say one thing but we’re getting very different messages from others) and the long-term workability of the plans for allowing the market to run long into the future. It looks to us that the small space for the market area is being deliberately kept so in order thst the developed can easily remove stalls shops and traders and chop and change things at short notice.

There are other plenty of other points but those, from a local perspective on the other side of the LBHF/RBKC border are just a couple of ours. This wonderful historical and multicultural market deserves to be refurbished but refurbished with the long-term interests of keeping the market going for years to come, and we sadly haven’t seen much in this scheme that promises to deliver that.

A trader evicted, a community asset lost

Pictured above is Meron Gwiggner of Hone Books Galore, a  much loved  children’s secondhand  bookstore and  library. Sadly Meron was evicted by Yoo Capital for refusing to sign a unethical and dehumanising new contract – see this – LINK

Many residents of our North Kensington community are regularly visitors to the Market and support Hone Books Galore and Meron so we send our support and solidarity to her. We feel very fearful for the future of what will happen to some of the traders as whole and the diversity and character of the place.

This isn’t over

You read that right, it isn’t, and we know our readers care very deeply about our area, community and neighbouring communities, as well as wish to see a local historic, beloved, diverse and affordable Market that has served this part of West London for 109 years to survive long into the future. Don’t forget – Sadiq Khan has the power to call this in – so here’s how you can help:

1. Sign and share the petition calling on Sadiq Khan to protect Shepherd’s Bush Market by tomorrow at 12pm – LINK

2. Please send a letter to the Mayor stating your objections here – LINK ,

Put in your objections into the Mayor of London at the GLA portal here – LINK clicking the OBJECT button.

3. Earlier today there was a Twitter storm (big thank you everyone who took part!) so please make the most of social media. Follow @SaveBushMarket on Twitter and Instagram and share Tweets, posts and links with your friends and family. Sharing is caring

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