SILCHESTER FIGHT BACK!

The Grenfell Action Group is privileged to be able to support Ann-Marie Richardson, and our other neighbours on Silchester West Estate, by sharing Ann-Maries’s petition below. Silchester residents are facing the probable ordeal of having their homes and community destroyed so that a few spiv property developers can make a fast buck.

The monstrous over-development that has robbed Frinstead House of all it’s original green space and residential amenity is set to be replicated around Markland, Dixon and Whitstable Houses. All the beautiful trees and parkland will disappear. Residents will face battles to hold onto their tenancies under the RBKC Decant Policy and will be re-housed in homes the size of match-boxes if they are fortunate enough to negotiate a “right to return”.
Meanwhile, we have a bunch of cultural tourists from West Londion Citizens trying to help the Council to do their dirty work and persuade our working class communities to surrender long standing tenancies and leaseholds.

The Grenfell Action Group is proud to offer our solidarity to the residents of Silchester West and we urge our readers to sign the petition below. If RBKC and West London Citizens think we will surrender our way of life without a fight they are badly mistaken!

Stop demolishing our homes and forcing us out!

https://www.change.org/p/kensignton-and-chelsea-council-stop-demolishing-our-homes-and-forcing-us-out

“For 25 years I have lived as part of a tight knit community on Waynflete Square,  a social housing estate in Notting Hill. Kensington & Chelsea Council have just proposed plans which threaten not only my home but the homes of hundreds of other families who live in the area.

Kensington & Chelsea Council are planning to demolish a large portion of the social housing in the borough. In the process they are going to enforce compulsory purchases on the lease-holder properties whilst forcing the social housing tenants to leave their homes and relocate to other areas (potentially to places outside of the city they have been in their whole lives).

At present the majority of the homes in Waynflete Square, the area the council have proposed demolishing,are owned by ex tenants who have lived in the community for over 40 years. The rest are rented by secure tenants, many, like myself, who were born in the area, have lived and worked here all of our lives and have very strong family and social ties to the area.

The proposals put forward by Kensington and Chelsea will have a major negative impact on the social and cultural fabric of the community and the lives of the people who are being forced out of their homes!

This cynical move by Kensington and Chelsea Council is nothing more than social cleansing of the borough. It will line the pockets of many of those at the top end of the scale as they continue to sell off land to private developers and housing associations in order to fulfill David Cameron’s promise that people will be able to buy a housing association property!

Petitions and public pressure have stopped families, like those on the New Era Estate, from being made homeless in the past. I am sure that the same can happen here.

Please support me in calling on Kensington and Chelsea Council not to relocate us and demolish our homes. It is creating fear and distress amongst the whole of the community. The security of all our futures is at stake.”

https://www.change.org/p/kensignton-and-chelsea-council-stop-demolishing-our-homes-and-forcing-us-out

Regardless of where you live in the Borough, North or South, Silchester or elsewhere, please sign! Numbers count!

KCTMO Versus Freedom of Information Act

According to the KCTMO Mission Statement, published on their website, they are committed to being open and accountable for all they do. However, there’s a world of difference between what they say and what they do, as demonstrated below.

In December 2014 the Grenfell Action Group wrote to the TMO requesting information under Freedom of Information legislation. Specifically, we requested copies of minutes of the monthly meetings between the TMO, their contractor, Rydon, and the project’s architect, Studio E. at which the progress of the Grenfell Tower Improvement Works were discussed.

This legitimate request for information was refused by Ms Fola Kadiyfa, the company secretary of the TMO who claimed that this information;

“… is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it is not information held on behalf of a public authority or by the TMO on behalf of a public authority. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 relates to information held on behalf of public authorities.”

It seems that, at present, neither the RBKC nor the TMO are willing to allow proper scrutiny of how nearly £10 million of public money is being spent and we believe that the TMO’s refusal to allow us proper examination of the finances and progress of the Grenfell Tower Improvement Works is evidence that they do not take seriously their stated commitment to openness and transparency, and prefer to keep potentially embarrassing information, or evidence of their negligence and incompetence, under wraps by whatever means they deem necessary.

Ever since the original contractor, Leadbitters, decided to decline, seemingly on cost grounds, the offer to undertake the Improvement Works, residents of Grenfell Tower have been kept completely in the dark about the consequences of this decision. We have not been consulted and, as a result, residents have no idea how the subsequent decision to appoint Rydons as the contractors, or to place the boilers in our entrance hallways, was reached.

We also have serious concerns that the TMO may have wasted a large amount of public money on employing a company called Max Fordham to undertake a feasibility study that was subsequently ignored. We know that the TMO spent nearly £1 million (approx 1/10 of the total project budget) on surveys and other sundries before they finally decided that Rydon would get the contract and we wish to examine how this money was spent.

We do not trust the RBKC Housing Scrutiny Committee at Hornton Street to assist us with this task as it is a well known fact that a large proportion of it’s members have nothing but contempt for the residents of Grenfell Tower and that the RBKC have a long history and a tainted reputation of colluding with the TMO.

As is our right under the legislation we have recently written to the TMO requesting a review of the decision to withold these documents, and arguing that;

“The purpose of the TMO is to manage Council owned housing stock on behalf of the Royal Borough Of Kensington and Chelsea that is, itself, a public authority. It therefore stands to reason that the information that we have requested, is held on behalf of the local authority and is subject to Freedom of Information legislation”.

As soon as we receive a further response from the TMO we will update our readers and, hopefully, will be in a better position to shine some light on these shenanigans. In the meantime, we invite our readers to consider what information the TMO might be trying to hide in their refusal to allow access to the basic facts concerning how the supposed Grenfell Tower “Improvement Works” are progressing, and whether tax payers money is being squandered with apparent impunity.

Readers might also like to see evidence of the rank hypocrisy of the FoI refusal statement issued by Fola Kafidya which is directly contradicted by documentation freely available from the KCTMO website showing that the TMO has acknowledged for years that it is indeed subject to the Freedom of Information Act, contrary to Ms Kafadya’s recent denial of this fact. You can read a short policy statement on their website via this link;

http://www.kctmo.org.uk/sub/publications/75/freedom-of-information-act-and-data-protection

You can also download the full text of the TMO Freedom of Information policy from the following link;

http://www.kctmo.org.uk/files/133435_freedom_of_information_publication_scheme.pdf

It is worth noting that the TMO’s Freedom of Information policy was first published in January 2005 and was subsequently reviewed in April 2009 and again in April 2013. The claim by Ms Kafidya, therefore, that the TMO is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, has no historical foundation and, based on the TMO’s longstanding acknowledgement and acceptance that it is indeed subject to the Act, has no validity.

MAXILLA UPDATE – Crisis management RBKC style!

It would appear that the storm of adverse and highly embarrassing publicity generated by the Grenfell Action Group’s latest blog and the involvement of our MP Lady Borwick and local Labour Councillor Judith Blakeman has prompted a sudden U-turn by RBKC who have now announced that the Golborne Childrens Centre will miraculously be ready after all to accommodate the infants transferring from the recently closed Maxilla Centre for the start of Autumn Term (please see response from our MP below):

From: Sweeney, John (john.sweeney@parliament.uk)
Sent: 27 August 2015 08:15:39

Dear *****

Further to our email conversation yesterday, Lady Borwick has been informed, quite separately I understand, that the school will be ready for 8th September, so the children will be going back on time. Lady Borwick had been told there would be a delay, but she is delighted to hear that this will not now be the case.

With kind regards.

Yours sincerely,

John

It seems very strange to us that the refurbishment of the Golborne Childrens Centre will now be completed on time as we have written evidence (below) that RBKC were indeed planning to use grossly inadequate premises on our estate as emergency accommodation for the Maxilla infants and that our local residents group would not be able to use these premises for the foreseeable future:

From: Janet Seward
Date: Thursday, 20 August 2015 15:30
Subject: RE: Community / Meeting Room for Lancaster West

Dear Mr ******

Your enquiry has been referred to me as I am overseeing the community rooms review. Unfortunately, the community rooms where you meet are needed urgently by a nursery which currently meets under the Westway. Before they open on 14th September, a number of repairs have to be carried out to make the rooms suitable for children and I cannot guarantee what stage the work will be at when you require the rooms on 2nd and 9th.

I am speaking to the council to see if the alternative venues that you propose are feasible and will get back to you.

Janet Seward
KCTMO Policy & Improvement Manager

It is typical of the TMO and the heartless RBKC Ruling Party that the well-being of the Maxilla children was only ever truly considered when the decision to dump them in the old caretakers office on Lancaster West was exposed and publicly challenged.

However, the question still remains how the the necessary improvements to the Golborne Childrens Centre could suddenly and miraculously be finished on time when our community had only very recently been informed that the works could not be finished on time and a serious delay was unavoidable. We were led to believe that the Maxilla children could not be accommodated elsewhere, and the only alternative was to dump them at Lancaster West.

Let’s hope that the Maxilla children are not now shunted onto an unfinished building site at Goldborne to save the face of RBKC Councillors and senior Council and TMO officers.

MAXILLA NURSERY SCANDAL

If residents believe that they will be afforded any respect or dignity from the Rotten Borough during planned “regeneration” projects in North Kensington they need only look at the shameless way the RBKC is currently treating the innocent children of Maxilla Nursery.

The Council closed down this much loved and cherished local resource claiming that they did not have the money to keep it open despite pumping millions of £££ of our Council Tax into elite “art fripperies” such as Holland Park Opera.

It has now emerged that the infants from Maxilla will not be moving to their new nursery, joining other children in Golborne Children’s Centre at the start of Autumn Term, but instead they will be shunted into the old caretakers office on Lancaster West Estate. It appears that the Golborne Children’s Centre has not yet been brought up to standard to accommodate the new influx of children from the newly closed Maxilla Nursery.

The old Lancaster West caretakers office is no place to house children all day and certainly not a suitable venue for a nursery. Not only is it small, almost windowless, dank and generally unsafe, with only the most basic of kitchen and toileting facilities, but it is also located directly adjacent to the delivery point of the Grenfell Tower Improvement Works on a dangerous congested corner full of construction and local traffic. It would be hard to imagine a more inappropriate location for a childrens’ care centre, even on the purely temporary basis that the Council apparently intends.

Meanwhile, the existing users of the Community Room (Grenfell Community Unite, the Muslim Homework Club and the Sunday Domino Group) have been unceremoniously thrown out of the same premises, until now the only remaining meeting place left for Lancaster West residents, without notice or consultation.

While local residents understand the need to find a temporary home for the Maxilla children, we believe that this problem should not be imposed on the Lancaster West community, as the refurbishment works to Golborne Childrens Centre are not this community’s responsibility. We do not believe that it is acceptable to take the Lancaster West residents’ only meeting space away to solve someone else’s problem.

We believe the actions of the RBKC and the TMO demonstrate the mindset and behaviour of a group of people who are not qualified to intervene in the lives of vulnerable children and certainly appear to have no idea how to communicate appropriately with the local adult population.

As the sad history of the destruction of North Kensington is recorded for posterity the treatment of those attending Maxilla will stand as a beacon of abuse and heartlessness from a Council that quite obviously despises working class people. What a disgrace!

PETITION – SAVE THE KENSINGTON ODEON

It is a sad fact that the Neanderthals who sit on the RBKC Major Planning Committee have absolutely no idea about what is held precious in the hearts of local Kensington and Chelsea residents. The decision to hand over the iconic Odeon Cinema in Kensington High Street to spiv property developers tells us all we need to know about the mindset of this most Rotten Borough’s Councillors. These blinkered idiots seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing as they hand over our treasured heritage to their speculator pals.

Please sign the petition below to try and save the Odeon Cinema and send a message to RBKC that our history and local assets are not for sale:

SAVE THE KENSINGTON ODEON FROM DEMOLITION

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-kensington-odeon-from-demolition

TO: RT HON GREG CLARK, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Please help save the Kensington Odeon. Immediately order a public enquiry into the recent decision by Kensington and Chelsea planning committee to allow this beautiful 1920’s Art Deco cinema in a conservation area, to be demolished and replaced with luxury flats and a tiny amount of social housing.

If a cinema re-opens on the site it would be a small box cinema buried underground with the associated fire and security risks. Our cultural and community heritage is under threat.
Why is this important?

We risk losing a magnificent iconic community venue. Kensington does not need any more empty luxury flats being bought up by foreign investors.

With the largest screen in London, a beautiful Art Deco exterior, stunning marble staircases and a mosaic floor in the foyer as the best cinema in London for premieres (already this year it has hosted Sir Ian McKellern in Mr Holmes and Sir Alan Rickman and Dame Kate Winslet in A Little Chaos), special events or just the best family night out!

On previous occasions we have managed to get Kensington & Chelsea planning committee to listen to the objectors to this scheme. But on July 21st, the committee gave in & voted to allow the scheme and as a result, the cinema will close on Sept 3rd and the bulldozers can move in any day after Sept 11th. Schemes like this are supposed to allocate 50% of the space to affordable housing for public service employees like firemen and nurses but Kensington & Chelsea are letting them get away with under 10% just for the elderly. It seems that the councillors on the Planning Committee are more in favour of corporations making money than the people who elected them being able to enjoy historical buildings for the original purpose they were designed.

A public enquiry is now the only thing which can Save The Kensington Odeon from the bulldozers moving in on September 12th. But first the Minister needs to hear from us that we are not happy with Kensington & Chelsea’s decision and want the Odeon to remain as a place that all Londoners can enjoy! Please let him know that you want this historic cinema with its iconic facade and monumental towers to remain as it is for the benefit of the entire community, not just a rich few who will leave their investment empty for most of the year.

Join Richard Curtis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jimmy Page, Elle McPherson, John Hurt, Dave Prowse & Jeremy Bulloch from Star Wars, Brian May & Anita Dobson and many other celebrities who have already expressed their disapproval of this development and please sign now to Save The Kensington Odeon for all Londoners to enjoy for another 90 years.

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-kensington-odeon-from-demolition

GRASART AT LANCASTER WEST

During our long and ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre development on Lancaster Green, we were fiercely critical of the entire project which we regarded as gross overdevelopment involving the destruction of essential greenspace on a totally inappropriate site. We have not changed our opinion on this. We were also highly critical of the Council’s decision to allocate an inappropriately large budget for the creation of artwork to enhance the new public realm surrounding and intrinsic to the KALC development. We have not changed our opinion on this either.

However, having witnessed the fantastic work of artist in residence Constantine Gras, especially with local children, we feel compelled to acknowledge, celebrate and marvel at, what this man, and the children he has been working with, have accomplished together. We strongly recommend to any of our readers who have not yet done so, that you take the time to visit the blog of this artist, enjoy the artwork he created with these children, and the photographs, video and text that document his work here so far:

Picture in words

Live, laugh, love
Grenfell Tower.

Flags.
I love you England and Morocco.

Clip, clop.
Horses hooves
Poo and pee.

Three, four, five, six, seven.
Ground floor, 2nd floor.
The movements of a lift.

An elephant, rhinoceros and giraffe
Came to Grenfell tower
For the day.

Flowers.
Free Syria.

Lionel Messi is the best.

Live, laugh, love
Grenfell Tower.

During his residency at Lancaster West Constantine is also working on a film portrait about local residents, what it means to live on the Royal Borough’s largest estate, and various views about changes taking place in the area. He is currently undertaking detailed audio interviews with a range of people connected to the past and present of the estate: architects, residents and TMO staff.

He will then be inviting residents to pick up a camera and film sequences to illustrate their own perspectives. This promises to be an exciting development in his collaborative approach to film making.

Why not get involved?

http://www.grasart.com/blog

http://www.grasart.com/blog/regeneration-and-art

http://www.grasart.com/blog/animal-life

http://www.grasart.com/blog/live-laugh-love

http://www.grasart.com/blog/community-film-making