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Thursday 30 June 2016

THE END OF POLITICAL DAYS

The Dame was promenading behind High Street, Ken when she heard much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Looking up she espied a sobbing Cllr Moylan looking ready to leap from his balcony.
In times past, over a few bottles of Bordeaux's best, Boris had told Danny he would be rewarded for his years of sycophancy: a peerage was intimated, plus chairmanships of various quangos.
The Dame, being a kind-hearted old thing, refrained from repeating Enoch Powell's dictum that all political careers end in failure.
So, whither Danny? 
His options are fast closing down around him. 
His arrogance, at the expense of both residents and colleagues, has stymied his chances of unseating the well regarded and gentlemanly Paget-Brown.
The sole advice The Dame proffers is that Danny humbles himself. 
He then needs to hope Nick dumps the appalling Cllr E Campbell and gives him the job of looking after the vulnerable of the parish. 

Wednesday 29 June 2016

ROTTEN RUBBISH HANDLING IN EARL'S COURT



Dear Dame,

It appears the already blitzed residents of Earl’s Court, currently enduring salvos of noise, dust and earthquakes from demolition works, are now to be guinea pigs. 

The Royal Borough’s Head of Waste and Street Enforcement, Cleaner, Greener and Cultural Services, (what is that?) Matthew Lawrence, has decided to put residents through a three month long ‘residential waste bin trial’.  With no consultation and one letter to the residents, whimsically dated ‘June’, he says “The Council wants to work with residents to keep our streets clean and clear of dumped rubbish.  To help combat waste placed on the street at the wrong time, we are embarking on a trial of bins on the street.”

On Monday the large industrial bins were dumped at the ends of Penywern Road, Eardley Crescent and Kempsford Gardens. Belt and braces an extra two were dumped in the middle of each road in residents’ precious parking bays.

It’s interesting that these three roads should have been chosen and not for example, Philbeach Gardens, Nevern Square or Trebovir Road where ward councillors live.

Residents in the three roads, Penywern and Kempsford Roads and Eardley Crescent, are already under enormous stress from the five and a half days a week of massive demolition activity. That demolition has taken away the nearby Seagrave public car park which used to be available for commercial vehicles; these vehicles now use the ‘trial area’ streets as free parking. Forget resident parking here, the permit free vehicles start circling at about 5pm waiting to nab spaces, safe in the knowledge that RBKC no longer fields wardens in this area after 4 o’clock.

The people who live here, pay their council tax, pay for their parking permits and they vote but they have to think carefully about driving off anywhere after a certain time for fear of not getting a space anywhere in the area.

Now Lawrence of Waste has decided to dump ugly industrial bins in parking spaces on already congested roads. There are:
4 bins taking up two residents’ bays in Penywern Road
2 Bins taking up two residents’ bays in Kempsford
3 Bins taking up two residents’ bays in Eardley Crescent
Altogether 15 bins on the roads and pavements.

These metal bins are for industrial estates rather than a residential area.

Matthew Lawrence claims the bins are for those residents who do not have access to a bin store. Some years ago selfless, hard working members of the Residents’ Associations spent weekschecking with every single household in those streets, ascertaining that they had access to a dustbin area; where they did not the landlords were persuaded to provide one. Does Lawrence of Waste know that every single household has a basement bin area for rubbish?

The problem with fly tipping is borough wide, worse in some areas than others and not determined by smartness of the area. Unpleasant, lazy, dirty neighbours are a problem for everyone. The enforcement officers in this borough are exemplary. They work very, very hard and catch a good number of the repulsive soilers but the upper echelon does not prosecute.  Instead, they send a letter to the culprits for being naughty. For years residents have asked for cameras to be focused on the known black spots but have been offered a variety of excuses as to why it cannot be done, the best being that it impinges on the ‘human rights’ of the dumpers.  However, it is widely believed that there is deep fear of the Daily Mail’s scrutiny of Bin Idiocy. Rather than slap heavy fines on the pondlife who dirty our streets Lawrence and Co have taken it upon themselves to place heavy duty bins taking up space residents already didn’t have.

Two days in the same old slugs who dump their rubbish on the pavements are still dumping it on the pavements and now on the roads and next to the shiny, new bins. Enterprising dumpers from outside the area are driving by to dump theirs too. At about 6 feet high and with a large space beneath these bins are providing excellent cover for wildlife, both foxes and drug dealers.



This ‘trial’ smacks of a serpentine route to cutting domestic refuse collections. Would it be too cynical to suggest that perhaps someone somewhere has friends whose portfolio includes The Enormous Industrial Bins Company?"

Tuesday 28 June 2016

A VERY BRAVE MOLE

It seems our little animal readers, like Sad Badger and Mole are cogitating over the results.
Mole has been away and is now back.

Dearest Dame – imagine my talpid surprise to emerge from my warm shelter last week only to find my burrow is no longer located in Europe but on some cold unforgiving island anchored off its shores.
My first instinct was to burrow, burrow, borrow towards the continent, towards France (where I must say the worms and reputed to be covered by a  appellation d'origine controlee and be of the finest quality
y). However, I have decided not abandon my country of birth for the moment and sit it out and draw some cartoons instead which express my contempt – horror even – for the recent forlorn decision of the poor misled public.
Your servant, as ever,
Mole in a Hole
Cartoon attached.

Monday 27 June 2016

MOFFAT AND GREEDY:LEAVE THE HOUSE BOATS ALONE

Houseboats are to be found on the rivers of all great cities; London is no exception.
They are a charming part of the river scape: more than that, they provide essential low-cost housing in prime residential areas. 
Mr. Andrew Moffat, the developer-owner of Cadogan Pier, came to the Dame’s attention when he and his social climbing family pushed their way forward to welcome Prince William and his wife to Cadogan Pier. 
Little did the Prince know Moffat, an Aberdonian, was attempting to asset strip this historic pier..... so much part of the Thames.

Pushy is a good way to describe the Moffat family.
Their plan is to cast adrift houseboat owners from their Cadogan Pier moorings and re-let to those like the Dame needing a mooring for her Edwardian superyacht,  The SS Hornet-a gift from her Armenian arms dealer 'gentleman friend'.
THE DAME'S SPLENDID  STEAM
YACHT
Moffat’s company, Albyns  specialises in hugely vulgar interior decoration for the ‘international monied set’ with a 'taste by pass'



You can read all about Moffat's greedy plan HERE


THE COUNCIL GOES ON THE ATTACK!


"Claims of asset stripping are junk

The proper answer to recent claims of asset stripping is show me the teapot.

Asset stripping is a less serious charge than social cleansing I suppose and for that at least I am grateful. But it’s irritating nonetheless that yet again an ugly charge has been levelled against the Council that has no basis in reality whatsoever.

Call me old-fashioned but I think serious claims ought to be backed up by serious evidence. Cleverer men than I have made the same point, and far more elegantly. Carl Sagan said that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

Christopher Hitchens offered us Hitchen’s Razor: what is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. But my personal favourite is Russell’s teapot. Bertrand Russell pointed out that it is really up to the person who says there is a celestial teapot orbiting the Sun to prove it, not for me to disprove it.

Now I know these big-brained chaps were making a larger point, but their logic is just as sound on the somewhat smaller stage of Kensington and Chelsea. If you are going to protest outside North Kensington Library saying that the Council is “closing the library”; that it is leasing the building to its friends “on the cheap” and “asset stripping the community of all its public spaces” then there ought to be some sort of evidential test to pass before your claims are taken seriously. Let’s apply that test now, taking the largest claim first.

The Council is stripping North Kensington of its assets: the Council has recently built a state-of-the-art leisure centre and a brand-new academy. It has re-built Middle Row Primary School (now Ark Brunel Primary Academy); it intends to re-build Barlby Primary School, to build a brand-new school for children for special needs nearby and to add hundreds of new homes in North Kensington. And, oh yes, the Council has also painstakingly assembled the case for a station on the Elizabeth line at Kensal Portobello. I could go on, but I won’t because the point is made: claims of asset stripping are the purest junk.

The Council is closing North Kensington Library: er no, it isn’t. It is actually building a fine new library not 50 yards from the old one that, in library terms, will in every way be better than the old. Yes, the current library is a listed building but it doesn’t work as well as it should for its visitors. It was built at a time when architects simply didn’t consider the needs of the disabled, the elderly, or parents with prams. Spread over three floors it is not nearly accessible enough.

The library is being leased “on the cheap”: residents are not only getting a new library; they are going to continue to benefit mightily from the old one. That is staying in overall public ownership and being let on a 25-year lease to the prep school next door to provide places that are in great demand in Kensington and Chelsea.

Thanks to our hard-nosed approach our property income has soared from £3.8 million in 2010-11 to £10.5 million in 2016-17. So be in no doubt, there have been no mate’s rates. We have negotiated a good deal on the old library that will help fund our vital services as we go into our sixth year of austerity.

There. Job done I hope. Despite the passionate intensity with which they were made, the claims of closures, asset stripping, mate’s rates, and social cleansing for that matter, are no more real than Russell’s planet-sized samovar."

Herr Paget-Brahn

https://rbkcleadersblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/claims-of-asset-stripping-are-junk/

SAVING NORTH KENSINGTON LIBRARY

PLEASE COME AND JOIN THIS IMPORTANT COMMUNITY ACTION AND SHOW RBKC COUNCIL THAT NORTH KENSINGTON RESIDENTS WILL NOT SURRENDER OUR TREASURED PUBLIC RESOURCES WITHOUT A FIGHT!





Tuesday 21 June 2016

STRIP KENSINGTON JUDGE OF PENSION AND DAMEHOOD

A HOGG SPENDING HER
BIG FAT PENSION
The Dame rarely rages, but read THIS and then understand why Family Division judges are renowned as 'third raters' and unemployable in any worthwhile capacity.
Dame Hogg is a Kensington resident and thus qualifies to be in the Hornet as a woman of abject stupidity.
The Dame has written to her dear friend, Andrew Pearce, asking that The Mail launches a nationwide petition calling for the removal of this mad woman's pension and the stripping of her DBE.
THE DAME WRITES TO ANDREW
click to enlarge

The names of putative Family Division judges are put up to the judicial appointments body by heads of chambers anxious to rid themselves of criminal or family law dross. You know, the one's struggling to generate revenue and cerebrally challenged.

No one accuses Dame Hogg of  having been selected in this way.
She is politically well connected....papa...Lord Hailsham...brother...Douglas, the MP, castigated for disgusting expenses abuses.

Hogg should do the right thing and express her deepest apologies.....and then give up her pension immediately. 

Monday 20 June 2016

JUNE 29...DEADLINE FOR OBJECTION TO NEWCOMBE HOUSE


FOLLOWING RBK&C'S REFUSAL TO GRANT PLANNING PERMISSION THE DEVELOPERS ARE APPEALING AT A PLANNING INQUIRY.
ALL OBJECTIONS TO THIS PROPOSED 19 STOREY TOWER MUST BE WITH THE PLANNING INSPECTOR BY 
JUNE 29TH.   PLEASE LODGE YOUR OBJECTIONS ASAP BY CLICKING ON THE  LINK AND QUOTING  3149585.  EVERY COMMENT COUNTS.  BELOW ARE SOME GUIDELINES FOR COMMENTS WHICH MAY HELP


You need to confine your comments to matters the planning inspector can consider.

It's important to make your comments count.  The planning inspector will only consider  “material planning considerations” which include..

 o   Loss of light or overshadowing
 o   Overlooking/loss of privacy
 o   Visual amenity (but not loss of private view)
 o   Adequacy of parking/loading/turning in the finished development
 o   Highway safety
 o   Traffic generation
 o   Noise and disturbance resulting from use
 o   Effect on listed building and conservation area
 o   Layout and density of building
 o   Design, appearance, and materials
 o   Local, strategic, regional and national planning policies,
 o   Disabled persons’ access
 o   Loss of Social Housing - there are 20 social housing units at present.  There will be none in the future 
 o   The highly damaging effect on Bethesda Chapel which will be swamped by the development at the back, side and below.

 

CLLR CONDON- SIMMONDS: WHY DO YOU NOT CARE FOR THE INTERESTS OF THOSE YOU REPRESENT?

WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?
THE PUB OR THE PEOPLE WHO
ELECTED YOU?
AN OPEN LETTER TO AN ABSENT COUNCILLOR

Cllr Condon-Simmonds......



Your earnest wish was that our community be destroyed. 
You continuously express your regret it never happened. 
You know, had it happened, we would have lost our homes, our jobs, and our community.

Now, you openly express your strong support for the proposed planning application by The Riley Arms Public House, 433 Kings Road, London SW10 0LR

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS ?

The Riley Arms Public House, situated on the western end of the Kings Road, has submitted a planning application to have a rear patio built for the use of it's noisy, often drunken, and frequently badly behaved customers.

This pub extension will be next to the homes of elderly and disabled residents and many young children's bedrooms will overlook it 
Children will be forced to have their bedroom curtains closed during the day in order to avoid witnessing drug taking and drug dealing outside their homes. 
It is a 'known' that groups of patrons congregate smoking drugs on residents' entrances at the back of the pub during daylight hours on a daily basis. 
Children are forced to walk through these groups as they come home from school. 
A terrible example and frightening for residents.

The building of a patio at the back and an extra exit will further blight our children's lives. 

Children will witness and normalise drug taking, the fencing of stolen goods as men with ruck sacks weave their way in and out of the pub through the back door, drinking, smoking and violent behaviour. 

Their development will be further adversely affected by the building of a patio, an extra door and the installation of concertina doors at the front.

Concertina doors are proposed at the front. on the Kings Road . This will open the front of the pub seven days a week from 10 am to 11 pm . Mothers with young children at present desperately try to avoid the leery comments and the frequent sexual references as they force their way through crowds of drunks on the way to the supermarket on a daily basis. Having larger crowds will further compound the feeling of entrapment as they suffer this onslaught of antisocial and criminal behaviour at the front and at the back of the pub. They have no choice but to face this on a daily basis as they walk to the supermarket, shops and bus stop.

Other commercial premises are too frightened to complain or object as they clean up the vomit and urine every morning from their doorstep. The last time one did a microwave was thrown through their window.

The police attend the pub regularly in response to violence between drunk patrons. 

Many of us as young children have grown up with instructions from mothers " Don't go past the pub at the front or at the back. Cross over to the other side of the kings Road to the supermarket "  

Now we give our children the same instructions.

Many of us have worked very hard to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and in particular the children in our community as they are our future.

CLLR CONDON-SIMMONDS....WE ARE APPALLED THAT NOT ONLY HAVE YOU TURNED A BLIND EYE, BUT ARE SUPPORTING THE EXPANSION OF A ROGUE PUB....WHY?

KEEP YOUR COMMUNITY SAFE OBJECT NOW BY CLICKING HERE

PLEASE DON'T LEAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE
Deadline the 19th of July 2016.

BURYING BAD NEWS ON REFERENDUM DAY! GENIUS FROM OUR PR FLAK!

The Friends of Kensington Odeon made a stringently researched complaint about the dishonest handling of the application to list the cinema as an asset of community value.

Clearly, the Council is in a quandary. 
They know they are deeply in the wrong so called in the head of the £450,000 PR Team, 'Fizzy Fitzpatrick'. 
'Fizzy' quickly grasped the situation....
In a burst of genius, our PR guru said, "Tell 'em we will respond before Referendum Day, but put it out on the 23rd: in that way it will get lost"

Dutifully, Jo Hammond replied to the Friends, as below!

 I would like to acknowledge receipt of you email below addressed to James Preece, this is being dealt with as a complaint and we will respond to the points you have raised by 23rd June, if not before.

Regards


Jo Hammond

Neighbourhood Planning Team Leader


Wednesday 15 June 2016

THE DAME DEMANDS THE HEAD OF CLLR SILLY LIZZIE CAMPBELL

Who was responsible for appointing the ghastly little Milton Keynes solicitor, Mark Small, to represent the Royal Borough?

Small man:Crassly Stupid
One only has to take a look at him to see what a dreadful oik he is.
That dreadful hairstyle and shapeless, characterless face....






Someone needs to take the rap and the Dame senses that it's Cllr E Campbell(not the first class B. Campbell)
Just Stupid

LIzzie Campbell is just remarkably stupid. 
A notably inane comment was to suggest Holland Park School cost taxpayers nothing! 






With that sort of financial savvy small wonder long-suffering Mr. Campbell took away her bank cards: evidently her 'extravagance knew no bounds"

Her mismanagement of the transport for the vulnerable was just epic.
So, can someone who knows, tell the Dame whether this foolish woman had anything to do with appointing the nasty little Small man.