We’re sorry to our readers for the month long delay due to technical and other issues with our blog in bringing you this. But here, as promised, is the first of our transcripts of “RBKC Question Time” regarding the council’s Covid-19 response. (And we also apologise for the questions not always being in the right order – not our fault!)
Here is the Question Time with Leader of our council, Elizabeth “Dizzy Lizzy” Campbell – alongside some commentary from us (and please forgive us for the very long post, but some things needed to be said)
Please also scroll down for some important and useful links
Question from Sue Duggins on how the council is communicating with residents who aren’t online
Dizzy Lizzy: ” Thank you to Sue for asking how the council is communicating with residents who aren’t online and Sue, if you live in North Kensington, you’ll receive North Ken News, if you live throughout the borough you’ll have received an issue of Our Borough which has a section on the Covid-19 response, but most importantly we sent this to everybody.
It’s a leaflet showing what advice and what support we can give you as a council. And on the back of it, it has all the contact numbers to call if you are not online. So we do hope everyone received it and the numbers are there for you to contact should you have any issues.”
We are glad that the council has put out these Covid-19 leaflets and thank them for this. It is good to see something helpful and useful come through our dooors – unlike the other council publications like the two that Dizzy Lizzy has mentioned – most of the content of which is usually RBKC PR.
Well quite a few residents have some issues with the council phone numbers as we have heard that that nobody is answering at times, or when they do, not always getting back to them. We hope Cllr Campbell and her colleagues can please look into this as soon as possible.
Question from Sue Duggins: Do you really believe that the council did enough, soon enough to help the elderly and vulnerable?
Dizzy Lizzy, “And I’d just like to say I think its been incredible what’s been achieved here in Kensington and Chelsea and not really just by the council, it’s been working together. So to give you an example, this week I was at the Venture Centre helping unload a lorry of food supplies, and the MP was there, Felicity Buchan, Labour councillors were there, Conservative councillors were there, volunteers were there and it’s a whole question of everybody coming together. It’s been the most extraordinary time and I really think that we’ve done our utmost with setting up a hub for the old and the vulnerable so people can call in, theu can tell us if they have vulnerable neighbours so we can help coordinate volunteers, and again, I’d just like to take my hat off to all our volunteers and to thank them very very much indeed”.
While we are grateful that the council has got the Covid-19 hub set up of course, THINK would “just like to say” that many local volunteers; residents , people on Nextdoor, community groups, faith groups, businesses amd charities have been working to help the community before council had the hub set up, have done outstanding work and still are.
Many of them have been a lifeline to many residents and especially those who do not fit rhe criteria for the council’s hub – some of whom are on only £50 pee week benefit, some of whom are low paid workers, some of whom may usually work freelance or self employed and now have little to no means or income, some of whom are not in good health but still fall outside the council help ( the council Covid-19 hub criteria states “people with specific cancers” ) some of whom have mental health conditions but are not considered to be high priority, and all of whom are now facing real hardship.
It’s a shame that Dizzy Lizzy does not appear to want to thank and show some acknowledgement of all the other volunteers who have been helping so many in and around our community from day one so we will say a big THANK YOU to them from us here.
As for councillors helping out with the RBKC hub, we know that Cllr Ian Henderson and his fellow Colville councillors helped to organise that delivery that Dizzy Lizzy is referring to. Also we must say that while councillors on all sides have helped out, we have been disgusted to see Dizzy Lizzy put distasteful party political smears and spin on this as seen in our previous blog post here. For her efforts of going on LBC about the Labour Party (?!) our council “Leader’ really ought to be ashamed of herself.
Also with regards to the council’s Covid-19 hub, perhaps Dizzy Lizzy would care to explain why the council thinks that a former Labour councillor who left RBKC under a cloud (back in 2009) when she was under investigation for misappropriation of council funds, is a suitable person to be put in charge of a distribution hub for vulnerable people in North Kensington?
https://thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com/2017/10/08/marianne-alapini-the-vulture-returns-to-a-new-low-at-grenfell/
Yes, Marianne “The Vulture” Alapini for some reason has been put in charge of the RBKC distribution hub for Area 1 (St Helens, Dalgarno and Golborne Wards). (She also apparently lied to get the position about her place of residence claiming to live in Oxford Gardens, North Kensington but in fact lives in St Luke’s Street, Chelsea.)
Below is another lie of Ms Alapini’s – an up to date screenshot of her Facebook page on which she still claims to be a councillor and even a member of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee – which didn’t exist until last year:
That decision just goes to show what a bunch of clueless idiots most of the council’s “community engagement” officers are, though Dizzy Lizzy ought to know better as she was on the council at the same time as Alapini and we also sent this information to a member of her “Leadership Team” – with no response and nothing being done at all.
We will also state that Ms Alapini is not on the other council distributing hubs and also that some residents in Area 1 are also very unhappy about her being there.
Question from Sue Duggins: Why is non-essential work being done in the community such as 5G?
Dizzy Lizzy; ” I’d just like to say the Government thinks that 5G is essential and if you tbink of all our businesses and people trying to work from home, it’s absolutely critical for them that they can get on the internet and they they have quick connections”
Question from Elizabeth Clarke: Do dogs need to be kept on a lead?
Dizzy Lizzy: “And the answer is yes please, we would like them to be kept on a lead because it helps people follow rules about social distancing”.
Question from Elizabeth Clarke: Can we pat other dogs?
Dizzy Lizzy: “And again the answer is please don’t because we’re really trying to enforce these rules on social distancing”
Question from Elizabeth Clarke: If you are in the park, can you sit on the benches?
Dizzy Lizzy : And the answer is of course you can if you’re elderly and you need to have a rest, but on the whole, please keep going because if you sit on the bench, you attract other people around you to chat and sun and again, we really are trying to observe the rules on social distancing. Can I end by saying a big thank you to all the residents who use the parks because we’ve managed to keep them open because everyone is doing their bit to obey the rules so thank you very much and we do intend to keep our parks open for a long as we possibly can.Thank you”
OK we are in agreement here so we’ll give Dizzy Lizzy a virtual pat on the head (for the dogs and parks answers anyway)
Unfortunately we do not know what the next question was as Clr Campbell does not actually say; all she says is “the next question from Burak Dik falls into the business portfolio” (???)
And here is her (sort of) “answer”
Dizzy Lizzy “And if you have any other questions about business support matters, do get in touch, and Catherine Faulks, who’s my Leadership Team member for that will get back to you. Burak, I’d jist like to say that this is an incredibly (sigh) difficult time for businesses Er – you will find details of the Government scheme on the business support web page on the Government website. Er – we can email you these details later, I tells you how to apply and who’s elgible- oh well- etc. and what to do. In addition the council is also putting in measures to support businesses and you’ll find those details on our website, and finally, if you don’t think you’re getting anywhere, you can call the Covid-19 hub with questions or you can email us”
That “answer” sounds rather like “don’t call us we’ll call you” to us. We think that Dizzy Lizzy ought to email this resident, apologise for not reading out their question and make an extra effort to personally answer their question.
Here for our local readers, are the links:
RBKC Covid-19 hub email:
C19Hub@rbkc.gov.uk
And the phone number (if you have plenty of time and patiemce)
020 7361 4326
The website says “lines are open 7 days a week from Monday – Sunday from 9am-5pm”
Government guidance and support for business and self-employed:
https://www.gov.uk/browse/business
RBKC support for businesses and the self-employed:
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/council-services-and-disruption-updates/covid-19-support-businesses-and-self
Question from Aktharun Islam: Asking about rent and about council tax payments ( we didn’t get to hear what the exact question was) :
Dizzy Lizzy: “Aktharun, if you get in touch with the following numbers if you’re a council tenant they’ll be able to help you with questions about rent, and with regards to council tax, if you are already on our council tax reduction scheme, you’ll be eligible for an additional £150 worth of support. If you’re not in our council tax reduction scheme, go to the website, have a look at the details there under the council tax reduction scheme and if that’s still not answering your quesions then phone up the Covid-19 hub”
RBKC Council tax reduction scheme:
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-reduction
RBKC Covid-19 webpage Information, services and updates:
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/coronavirus-covid-19
THINK hope that some residents found the information and answers helpful anyway, and that everyone is staying safe amd keeping sane in this crisis.
We have two other RBKC Question Times coming up next with Kim Taylor-Smith amd Catherine Faulks, both of whom appear to have given questions some thought and put more effort into answering them – these are much better (even though clearly not all of us will be satisfied with the answers given either – but at least it is something).
We edited most of the “ohs” “ers” and sighing out but it was clear that Cllr Campbell found this very difficult at times (even with obvious help!) She would clearly rather talk about dogs in the park all day than fully discuss more important matters such as council tax, businesses and help for vulnerable residents (we’re also beginning to think she only turned up to unload that lorry when the cameras did).
However, we thank Cllr Campbell for at least taking part in this and send our biggest thanks to all the residents who submitted questions. RBKC Question Time should be a regular fixture on the council timetable in our opinion.
THis Is North Kensington 