RBKC “GERRYMANDERING” IN NORTH KENSINGTON!

For some time now the Grenfell Action Group has been highlighting the immoral and heartless housing policies adopted by the RBKC that we believe are designed to ‘socially cleanse’ working class communities from North Kensington.

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/feilding-mellen-rbkcs-social-cleansing-hitman/

Not only do we believe that these policies are fascist and immoral but we are also concerned that Cllr Feilding-Mellen’s intended destruction of Treverton Estate, parts of Balfour of Burleigh, the remains of Silchester Estate and the Lancaster West Estate “finger blocks” may also be illegal.

It was not too long ago, and not far from North Kensington, that the infamous Dame Shirley Porter was convicted in the courts on charges that amounted to ‘gerrymandering’ through a Westminster Council housing policy entitled “Building Stable Communities”. The policy was deliberately designed to replace working class tenants, more likely to be traditional Labour voters, with middle class homeowners, more likely to be Conservative voters. Dame Shirley was found guilty of wilful misconduct and ordered to repay over £35 million in wasted election fees.

The District Auditor at the time concluded in his report that Dame Shirley and her accomplices had enforced a housing policy that pursued an unfair influence on housing allocation that resulted in an electoral advantage for the majority party and that this was:

“…a disgraceful and improper purpose and not a purpose for which a local authority may act”.

The Grenfell Action Group believes that there are striking similarities between the current ‘regeneration’ policies of RBKC and those that landed Dame Shirley in so much trouble in the late 1980’s.

For a start, the intended ‘regeneration’ policies are targeted at Wards that are currently represented (some marginally) by Labour Councillors, particularly St Charles and Notting Barns. The inevitable result of ‘regenerating’ working class housing estates involves replacing tenanted properties with so-called ‘affordable’ housing (ie affordable only to middle class home buyers). One inevitable outcome of this process will be to skew the demographics of North Kensington with a predictable swing to the Tories. If the dreaded RBKC Decant Policy is implemented against residents living on estates facing ‘regeneration’ then such demographic changes will inevitably occur as traditional Labour voters find themselves forced to relocate to areas outside RBKC, perhaps even as far distant as Luton, Peterborough or Manchester.

One question that may be puzzling our readers is why the Grenfell Action Group, and not the RBKC Labour Group, is raising this issue and challenging the majority party on the subject of ‘gerrymandering’. Rumour has it that the untimely recent ousting of the well respected Emma Dent Coad from the leadership of the Labour Group at Hornton Street was the result of a coup organised by other senior Labour councillors. We believe the resulting change of leadership, which appears to have been hushed up, will ensure that Feilding-Mellen and his Tory pals are highly unlikely be held to account for their ‘gerrymandering’ under the new Labour Group leadership of the ‘dynamic and charismatic’ Robert Atkinson.

A second, and perhaps more fundamental, question arises from the involvement of Boris Johnson’s GLA in setting the broader political agenda within which these appalling policies at RBKC, and other local authorities, are rooted.

In 2009 the GLA produced their ‘London Housing Design Guide’, a key component of the ‘London Plan’. This requires;

“A mix of tenure to address social exclusion. Communities with a mix of household incomes should be promoted across London, in small developments as well as larger schemes. A balanced mix of tenures should be sought, particularly in neighbourhoods where social renting predominates.”

RBKC incorporated this dictat into its’ ‘Core Strategy’ (published the same year) which stated in, Policy CH2, that;

“Diversity of Housing is an integral part of the Core Strategy’s central vision. It is central to stimulating regeneration in North Kensington, and vital to the residential quality of life. The Council will require that affordable housing and market housing are integrated in any development and have the same external appearance….The Council will require new residential developments to include a mix of types, tenures and sizes of homes to reflect the varying needs of the Borough, taking into account the characteristics of the site, and current evidence in relation to housing need.”

Of course RBKC were fully aware that the main interest of future developers would be the provision of luxury accomodation for sale, particularly to foreign and other corporate speculators, and that they would fiercely resist any requirement to provide social housing, or so-called ‘affordable housing’, within these exclusive developments. Under such circumstances the developers can opt instead for a Section 106 agreement with the Council that allows them to pay to subsidise the provision of the required social or affordable housing at some other location.

Consequently Policy CH2 also contains the following requirement that;

“…off-site affordable housing be provided in any wards except the following: Golborne, St. Charles, Notting Barns, Colville, Norland, Earl’s Court and Cremorne;”

In case you hadn’t noticed, this list includes the Labour heartlands of North Kensington and World’s End, and the social housing estates in the Earl’s Court area. It means that all RBKC concentrations of social tenants, ie working class residents more likely to vote Labour than Tory, will be broken up and redistributed elsewhere. This is gerrymandering plain and simple.

Furthermore, if you also consider that all other residential areas within RBKC are protected Conservation areas, and therefore unlikely to be subject to any major new housing development,  it’s not difficult to predict that many social tenants displaced by ‘regeneration’ projects will have little prospect of being re-housed within the Rotten Borough, or anywhere else in Inner London, and may well find themselves forced to accept rehousing outside of London.

So what happened to the precedent set by the conviction of the notorious Shirley Porter? If it wasn’t OK for Porter to gerrymander by socially cleansing the Hallfield Estate, why is it now OK for RBKC to pull the same stunt, this time with the blessing of the Mayor of London, Boris The Clown Johnson, whose London Plan was created with the full knowledge and assent of the Prime Minister, and with barely a whimper of dissent from the Labour Party, which used to be the main refuge of the working class and the poor and underprivileged? If this is how we are now governed, in what has effectively become a one party state, then it is totally unacceptable.

This is bad news for local residents who voted for the RBKC Labour Group in the hope that they would help protect our homes. We believe that the current RBKC housing policies will lead to widespread ‘social cleansing’ and that our elected representatives should be doing everything in their power to protect our communities. This includes holding the RBKC Council to account for blatant ‘gerrymandering’ and we openly challenge them to do so.

MORE ON THE CUCKOO SYNDROME

Since posting our recent ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ blog we have been in  communication with West London Citizens Associate Organiser Amanda Walters who was kind enough to explain the West London Citizens setup more clearly to us and to clarify that the meeting at the Kensington Academy on Tuesday will be a closed meeting to which local residents will not be admitted unless they have been formally invited. We are now in a position, based partly on the information provided by Ms Walters, and partly from digging a bit deeper into the Citizens UK and West London Citizens websites to provide a more accurate picture of what appears to be going on and the role of West London Citizens in it.

Citizens UK claims to be the home of community organising in the UK, with diverse civil society alliances in London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Birmingham, Wales and Leeds. They claim to develop the leadership capacity of their members so they can hold politicians and other decision-makers to account on the issues that matter to them. They assert that community organising is democracy in action: winning victories that change lives and transform communities.

They say that, in preparing their report, they did have some involvement from Lancaster West residents, especially in Talbot Grove and Upper Clarendon Walk, and met with Christine Richer, the Chair of the Residents Association. However, they also admit that they don’t represent Lancaster West residents, or residents from other estates, and claim they are simply putting forward the views of the local people they spoke to and the institutions that have been part of the inquiry.

Please note that West London Citizens is a membership organisation (membership fees between £500 and £5000 annually) which holds events for its’ members. Tuesday’s meeting is not a public meeting but a meeting for member institutions. There is a guest list and entry will be refused to people who are not on that list. It is also not a debate. Questions from the floor will not be allowed.

The findings of the inquiry will be presented to RBKC and the TMO. West london Citizens will be seeking assurances from RBKC around the regeneration, including Right to Return, more affordable housing, dealing with overcrowding, and so on.

The institutions that have been involved in the inquiry include:

1. Kensington Aldridge Academy

2. St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College

3. Imperial Medical School

4. EPIC-CIC

5. Sion-Manning RC Girls School

6. Hear Women

7. St Pius X

8. The Forum

9. Al Manaar

10. Silchester Residents’ Association

11. Latymer Christian Centre

12. Dalgarno Trust

13. Venture Centre

14. Roots Estate Residents’ Association

West London Citizens claims that the Council did not ask them to do a Housing Inquiry in North Kensington. They say their member organisations decided to do the inquiry as housing frequently comes up ‘as a problem in their listening’. They say they have worked with Residents Associations and spoken to nearly 300 local residents to make up the findings of the report and decide on the recommendations collectively.

However, it seems to us that the list of WLC member organisations provided by Ms Walters, who were involved in preparing the report, is more representative of the local establishment, schools churches etc, than the residents of the most threatened housing estates of North Kensington, and cannot claim to speak for, or empathise with, the powerlessness, hopelessness and cynicism of those residents. The communities who inhabit these estates have traditionally voted left-wing but have mostly lost faith, especially with the Labour Party who they now typically regard as class traitors and careerist opportunists. Cuckoos in other words.

It hasn’t escaped our notice either that the nationwide membership of Citizens UK is composed almost exclusively of churches, faith schools and faith groups. Again the residents of inner city council estates are unlikely, for the most part, to be church goers, and would probably take great exception to the prospect that church groups were manoeuvring to influence or decide the future of their homes and communities. We have to wonder if Citizens UK  is yet another cuckoo organisation.

We invite our readers to form their own conclusions on this, and on whether the WLC Report is an appropriate or proper means of consultation on the future of our homes and the so-called regeneration of our communities. We would also challenge the self-aggrandising claims made by by Citizens UK and their offshoots that they are ‘the home of community organising in the UK’ and that their particular and clearly exclusive brand of community organising is ‘democracy in action’. The last time we checked our democratic rights were supposedly guaranteed and were not conditional on our ability to pay for membership of UK Citizens or any other lobbying organisation.

 

RBKC REGENERATION – A CUCKOO’S NEST

A copy of the below letter recently came into our possession and, although it was not addressed to the Grenfell Action Group, we have decided to share it with the residents of Lancaster West Estate and with other North Kensington Council estates facing the threat of ‘regeneration’. Whether or not you have received an invitation to this event, if you live in social housing in RBKC we would encourage you to attend this important debate on the future of social housing and the Council’s plans for the ‘regeneration’ of North Kensington. The event is being held in collaboration with an organisation called West London Citizens who describe themselves as;

“…a broad-based alliance of member communities who work together for the common good through the development of people and communities so they have the power to make change on the issues that matter”.

We find it deeply ironic, and more than a little worrying, that the Council has chosen to parachute in this organisation, which few local people know anything about, and most have never even heard of, to investigate, report on, and make recommendations on the future of our homes, rather than raise these issues in a more transparent inclusive and direct manner with the residents of the estates which are under threat.

West London Citizens is a branch of a national organisation called Citizens UK and there are indications that this parent body may be funded directly by Central Government under David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ initiative. The West London branch is led by Stefan Baskerville, an Oxford graduate and former president of the Oxford University Students Union.

We fear that West London Citizens may be colluding with the Rotten Borough and may produce a dubious report and dubious recommendations which RBKC will use to hoodwink residents about the true intentions of this greedy and heartless Council that will not be satisfied until every social housing tenant is ruthlessly expelled from RBKC and the land we currently live on is simply taken from us and given over to spiv property developers.

We would advise our readers to beware of West London Citizens which has chosen to feed at the RBKC table and appears to have entered into partnership with a brutal Council that does not have the interests, nor the empowerment, of existing social housing tenants at heart. We fear that the outcome of all of this will be that West London Citizens will produce a report that will be used by RBKC to justify a programme of ‘social engineering’ via the creation of so called ‘mixed communities’, the core of which will be the creation of yet more privately owned housing through the destruction of existing social housing communities.

No doubt the usual suspects, including Cllr Feilding-Mellen and Robert Black from the TMO, will be there to tell us how good it will be for us to have our homes destroyed in the name of ‘regeneration’, and to have our lives, living rooms and communities turned upside down so that more “buy to leave” flats can be put on the market for huge profit.

There is little doubt that the true intention of the Council is to change the status-quo so that only the super rich can afford to live in RBKC and we, the underclass, face the prospect of being ‘socially cleansed’ from the Rotten Borough and forced to relocate to Manchester, Peterborough or Luton. By the way, should you survive the regeneration of your area and succeed in being rehoused locally then you are likely to find yourself in cramped sub-standard accommodation, with greatly reduced residential amenity, a less favourable tenancy agreement and the prospect of being forced to use a ‘poor door’ to enter your property.

Cllr Feilding Mellen has been in power at RBKC for just a short time and we believe he was appointed specifically to sweep away families and communities that have lived and worked in RBKC for generations. There is no doubt that our housing and our communities are under attack from a vicious neo-con element in RBKC that despises the underclass and will not rest until they have taken every blade of grass from us and destroyed every working class housing estate in North Kensington. We need to let the Council know that we treasure our homes and that our communities are precious to us and will be defended.

The remaining question, of course, is how a supposed grass roots organisation like West London Citizens, that claims to stand up for oppressed communities, appears to be working in partnership with a far-right Tory Council that aims to smash working class communities and destroy the lives and homes of existing social housing residents forever. We would expect West London Citizens to explain their role and fully address and answer our criticisms at the meeting at the Kensington Aldridge Academy on 7th July!

WESTWAY23 FUNDAY & DAY OF ACTION

On Sunday 5th July Westway23 are hosting a creative demonstration of community in various areas along the 23 acres under the Westway – A40(M) in LADBROKE GROVE – an enormous area left to the local community 44 years ago as compensation for the destruction of homes and the ongoing harm from the highest pollution levels in the UK.

After years of wasted resources and the loss of countless community groups and spaces, this is our opportunity to ensure that local people have real control and access over our space, as a bloated and disconnected Westway Trust moves toward its aim of ‘Destination Westway.’

STAND WITH US AGAINST UNCHECKED GENTRIFICATION, SOCIAL CLEANSING AND PREVENTION OF REAL COMMUNITY ACCESS, CULTURE AND POWER.

http://www.westway23.org/

There will be activities, entertainments and information to join in with and share so that the entire community can enjoy a demonstration of creativity and a day of creative demonstration!

SUNDAY 5th JULY 12 – 4pm.

MEET AT THE WESTWAY STABLES……just west of Latimer Road underground station or join the demo along the route….

The procession will begin at the Westway Stables at 2pm.

 

GRENFELL TOWER – Propaganda, Lies and Fact

It has come to the attention of residents 0f Grenfell Tower that our local elected Councillors are misrepresenting what is actually happening to tenants and leaseholders as a result of the Grenfell Tower Improvement Works.

Councillor Blakeman, in a recent report to the Constituency Labour Party, claimed that only twelve households are resisting the works being carried out in their homes and that other residents are “furious” that those resisting the works may delay the completion date of the project.

We believe that Councillor Blakeman is merely parroting TMO propaganda on this issue, that she is working against the interests of residents in trying to minimise the level of opposition to the poor standard of work, and is not giving the true facts.

In a recent door-knocking survey carried out by concerned Grenfell Tower residents we found that 39% of households had not had the HIU work done and we believe that approx 46 households are actively resisting work being carried out as currently planned.

We are also aware that a significant number of residents who have allowed the work to be done are not satisfied with the standard of the work delivered by Rydon and many claim they felt bullied into having the work done by the TMO in the first place.

On SATURDAY 27th JUNE residents will be meeting at 10.00am by the “pink thing” on the lawn next to the new Leisure Centre. We will speak with our local Councillors at their surgery and get them to explain why we have been misrepresented and how they intend to help us get justice in the future.

Please support this important community action.

RUMBLES OF DISCONTENT AT LANCASTER WEST

Following a recent attempted break-in at one of the homes in Grenfell Tower the ‘official’ notice below was posted by staff acting on the orders of the TMO Neighbourhood Manager Siobhan Rumble:

It is unfortunate that Ms Rumble’s warning not to ‘buzz-in’ unknown people ignores the fact, of which she should have been fully aware, that the secure door entry system has been out of commission for several weeks.

By way of riposte to this clumsy and incompetent attempt by Ms Rumble’s staff to warn residents of this recent incident the notice below was found posted in the lift at Grenfell Tower the following day. We have no idea who the author – Ninja Boy – might be, but we think his words, clearly indicating deep frustration and cynicism, fully deserve to be reproduced on this blog, and we have no hesitation in doing so. We are not responsible for the content, but we certainly sympathise and believe a great many Lancaster West residents will identify and empathise with the sentiments expressed.

For the benefit of Ninja Boy, and any other of our readers who may be unaware of these details, we reproduce below extracts from the CV of Siobhan Rumble, published by her on the Linkedin website:

Her last job before joining Kensington & Chelsea TMO as Neighbourhood Manager for Lancaster West and Income Manager for all TMO properties, was with The Hyde Group, one of the biggest housing providers in the UK, where her job title was Head of Income for London and Kent.

At the Hyde Group she was responsible for a team of 26 staff including income assistants, income recovery officers, and a project manager for service charges & leasehold properties. Her priority in leading this team was to maximise the income for the London & Kent area which covered 14,000 properties and she was responsible for managing budgets, setting and monitoring service charges, effective performance management and development of staff.

We would suggest, based on this CV, that Ms Rumble is clearly overqualified for her position as Neighbourhood Manager at Lancaster West. We further suggest that this appointment was a mere pretext, and she was really brought in by the TMO, not to deliver essential services at Lancaster West, but for her expertise as Income Manager, ie for her ruthlessness in recovering rent arrears.

Ms Rumble recently added the passage below to her Linkedin profile:

“LOOKING FOR A NEW CHALLENGE Having just super exceeded my targets in income recovery bringing KCTMO arrears to below a million (984k) the first time ever, I am looking for a new challenge, do bear me in mind if you have any vacancies.”

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/siobhan-rumble/2a/941/666

Clearly she takes an immense, and we would say unhealthy, pride in her ability to squeeze money from those who are most likely in arrears because they are already suffering financial hardship, due to wage stagnation, unemployment, benefit cuts or whatever.

We say good riddance to Rumble. We hope she will up anchor sooner rather than later. The only question that will then remain is whether the TMO will replace her with a proper manager whose primary concern will be the welfare of  residents and the delivery of quality services to them. We think this highly unlikely as we are strongly of the opinion that the TMO, in collusion with RBKC, is deliberately running down Lancaster West for a variety of nefarious reasons, inluding the attempt to justify their plans for a scorched earth ‘regeneration’ of the social housing estates of North Kensington.