West Ken: report on Misconduct in Public Office handed to Police

CapCo inspires locals with their vision

A report alleging very serious misconduct on the part of our Council has been handed to the police.

A formal document extending to 20 pages, the report makes for extremely uncomfortable reading both for Council officers and elected councillors. It documents what it claims have been attempts on the part of councillors to persuade residents to back the redevelopment with the promise of "guaranteed" houses on Seagrove Road.

That is a very serious charge indeed, relating to Misconduct in Public Office which itself carries the possibility of criminal charges, so the police are likely to take some time before deciding their next step.

Here's one passage:

"Some months ago a Conservative Councillor knocked at my door. The man asked me “What do you think about demolition?”. I replied I did not want to move outside the borough. He replied that I was definitely going to be re-housed in the borough, because I would be moved to Seagrave Road".

"I asked the Councillor if it would be possible to have a ground floor in Seagrave Road, and he replied “Your name will be put down on a list for a ground floor flat in Seagrave Road”. And then he added “Can we rely on your vote?”. I said “no”, and he left".

And it seems the Mayor of London's own camapign machine were sent to help out too. Here's another excerpt:

One day at the end of February/beginning of March 2012 someone knocked at my door. It was a man in his 50s, about six feet tall, with grey-black hair. He was wearing a black suit and at first I thought he was a detective.

He did not introduce himself and he did not show me any ID. He just asked me “Who are you going to vote for?”. I told him “I don’t know, I haven’t made my mind up yet”. And then he said “because I am working for Boris Johnson”.

I let him in. He had a consultation feedback form with him and he asked me what was my view about the redevelopment. I said that I quite liked it here, but that if I was given a better place in the area I wouldn’t mind. And then he told me that the people that agree with demolition have been given top priority to go to Seagrave Road. He [said] that if I did not agree I would end up being put into a hotel and lose my flat completely. He told me that I should fill in the form as soon as possible, because there would be not be enough places for everyone in Seagrave Road.

He was very authoritative and official, and I thought that everything he was saying was true. He made me feel as if it was really going to happen. He told me that he knew it because he was working for Boris Johnson, and he was the man who was going to make everything happen. He also made me feel as if he was doing me a favour, as if he was doing it for my benefit, as if he was concerned for me. But at the same time, he was scaring me saying that I would be put into a hotel or somewhere else in London.

As he left, he told me again to fill in the form and to post it as soon as possible, because the first applicants agreeing with demolition would be put at the top of the list to go to Seagrave Road, and there were many people applying for Seagrave Road, people who had already agreed with demolition and that therefore were going to have top priority to go there.

He left the form with me and I said I would fill it in as soon as possible saying that I agreed the demolition should take place. As soon as he left, I filled in the form saying that I agreed with demolition. I have lived on the street for nine years, and I did not want to lose my home. He made me feel as if I was going to lose my home.

After his visit, I was quite agitated, because it made me feel as if he was quite certain that the demolition would happen. It was only when I spoke with my neighbours that I realised there was opposition on the estates, and that many people were against it. Now I feel like I have been manipulated. He was using Seagrave Road as a carrot on a stick to make me do what he wanted, to make me agree with demolition.

The Council rejects the allegation, and has already responded with the simple rebuttal:

This is a serious charge and in the absence of any evidence a serious slur. (Chief Executive, 1 August 2012)

Speaking to me earlier this afternoon Council Leader Nick Boterill was unrepentant. He had this to say:

“The council is immensely proud that residents living on the two estates have been offered the best deal in any regeneration scheme in London. In fact, all residents are on the VIP list.

“We have adopted a ‘local lettings plan’ that sets out exactly how new housing will be allocated for eligible residents.

“All council tenants, freeholders and leaseholders who live on the two estates will be offered a brand new home, a very generous compensation package of £4,700 per tenant and new white goods, carpets and curtains.

“We have said all along that the major beneficiaries of this investment have to be the residents living on West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates, followed by the wider area, the borough and London as a whole.”

The problem with that argument, for the Council, is that this report is packed full with accounts of altogether different practices. And ones which collectively amount to a serious allegation of wrongdoing which is now in the hands of the police.

CapCo leave all smiles

I suspect the fireworks that follow on from this development may make the pantomime of the last meeting of the Cabinet look like child's play. Interesting times.

UPDATE 0900 THURSDAY - As expected the H&F Planning Committee acted with their usual rubber stamp and approved the development last night. As you can see from these pictures the folk from developers CapCo had a real spring in their step. But all of this of course becomes a bit irrelevant depending on the outcome of the legal side of things. This story has yet to run its' course...

They think it's all over: It isn't now..

UPDATE MONDAY 17th SEPT - The Fulham Chronicle, which has described the estates as "doomed" and said that the "way is clear" for their destruction has grudgingly reported this story, almost a whole week after it appeared here. Anyone would think they were batting for the Council. 

Chelsea & Westminster lobbies for Charing Cross/Hammersmith closure

Chelsea & Westminster hospital is using tax payers money to lobby for the closure of neighbouring Chairing Cross Hospital in our borough, and that of Hammersmith hospital too. In a deeply cynical move the health authority that is responsible for our hospitals, Imperial, is itself rowing back from a commitment to "consult" with local people and instead promising to simply use "local press" instead. As our MP points out with the readership of the local press being very low this effectively means many people will not be consulted at all.

I attended a campaign meeting of the community group Save our Hospitals last week where this was laid bare, including by residents of Kensington & Chelsea where Chelsea & Westminster hospital is based, who came along to offer their support to our campaign, so disgusted were they at the pitting of local people against each other. 

Following our meeting the NHS NorthWest London group of health bosses held its Annual General Meeting in Westminster on Friday, at which they were questioned by local MP Andy Slaughter among others. They admitted that they only planned to use "local papers" instead of a genuine local consultation that reached the population as a whole and had little to say in defence of Chelsea & Westminster's use of tax payers cash in this way. 

Mr Slaughter has written to the Chief Executive of the Chelsea and Westminster Trust to object to this and to ask them to discontinue the campaign and to withdraw their misleading and divisive postcards from public circulation. They are at present being placed in patient areas around the hospital and being heavily promoted in a newsletter, also produced with public funds. It urges people to vote simply for "Option A" which in terms of the consultation means they stay open but our own hospitals do not. This is presented as keeping the "NHS safe in our hands" complete with tinted pic of baby being protected from those nasty men with clipboards. 

Andy Slaughter said:

“I have no objection to Chelsea and Westminster campaigning to keep their A&E open in a united front with other Hospitals in the area. But it is highly unprofessional and counterproductive to set one hospital against another and it’s scandalous that they use public money to do this.”

Mr Slaughter also had harsh words for Imperial Healthcare Trust.

“Imperial, by contrast, is saying little or nothing about the proposals to close 2 of its 3 A&E departments and to dismantle the whole of the Charing Cross site. I am informed that they have taken on expensive PR consultants to defend their position against public criticism. They would be better employed in defending their own world-class hospitals from the government cuts which will see our local health service set back by generations.”

Piotr Mikiewicz: The Memorial

Piotrs' colleagues en route to the memorial

Last Wednesday, a week to the day of the murder of Piotr Mikiewicz, I went to a memorial service at Askew Road Church. It had been called in order to mark both the incident and register people’s shock but also their recollections of Piotr himself.

The church was packed. Rows of fluorescent orange vests indicated the large numbers of Piotr’s colleagues who had come along, while there was a healthy contingent of local residents too. Joining them were senior managers from Serco, who employed Piotr and his colleagues, and the local police safer neighbourhood team.

There were contributions from each of the above, but one stuck in my memory more than most because it was an indication of the man that people clearly held in a great deal of respect. The Chair of the Ashchurch Residents Association Fiona Anderson recalled an encounter with Piotr during last Autumn when he was busy dealing with the annual deluge of leaves. Piotr had said hello and Ms Anderson expressed sympathy with the amount of work the annual leaf-fest was generating for him. “Oh no” replied Piotr enthusiastically, “it’s worth it because look at the beautiful trees!”

That infectious love of life and the world around him seemed to charecterise every other memory of the man and I left the church with a real sense of loss. His wife had attended as had many of his family from Poland. At the end of the service we had a rendition of the Polish national anthem on the church organ, that I suspect mangled the tune a little bit, but everyone stood in respect to the man and what he’d brought to our community.

Back outside on the walk back up the Askew Road, I saw some leaves gathering in the gutter, and it all seemed such an enourmous waste.

Oxjam launch party at Vandella: Saturday

Oxjam Shepherd's Bush will be launching the countdown to the musical take over of the Bush with a party at the Vandella on Goldhawk Road this Saturday.

The musical take over itself will take place on October 27th with all proceeds going to Oxfam.

Encouragingly the organisers have managed to line up quite an impressive number of local businesses to sponsor the event, including The Happiness Centre on Uxbridge Road, Vue cinema and the newly opened LKH curry house which took over one of the many vacant spaces in the W12 centre recently. Cunningly placing themselves between a gym and a pub - they'll go far.

The shin dig kicks off at 7.30 pm and I understand you just turn up on the night.

So maybe see you there!

West Ken: Council sell estate - MP bundled out of room

Andy Slaughter addresses meeting

Predictably pantomime-ish scenes last night as the Cabinet of H&F Council met to rubber stamp their plans to sell the West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates in the face of the massed ranks of residents who oppose the move and who have vowed to fight the plans in the courts.

Inside the meeting the councillors were roundly booed, especially when they prevented two young girls who lived on the estate from speaking, before proceding to apply the H&F Council Rubber Stamp, a well-used tool in these ere parts.

The residents themselves, equally predictably, vowed "never to surrender" and promised a long drawn out battle which they would win, they said. Here's them doing a thoroughly defiant "Mobot" on the way home!

Knowing the end result, and having given up many other monday evenings to these sorts of farces before, I didn't bother going. The real story here is not what happened last night but what happens first of all in the courts and secondly in David Cameron's new Government, with many new Ministers and perhaps a new determination to make the Prime Minister's Big Society idea of residents controlling their destinies rather than local authorities a reality.

But I might just have gone along to watch the local MP, Andy Slaughter, being unceremoniously threatened by the Council's beefy security guards, if only to witness a scene that I wouldn't have thought possible even here! Here's Andy's account of the incident - which of course is from one side only. The Council are welcome to give their side of the story...

Mr Beefy interrupts to ask Mr Slaughter to get out

"Last night I was forcibly removed from a meeting of Hammersmith & Fulham’s Cabinet on the instructions of the Conservative council. I had attended with about 100 residents of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates to object to the demolition of their homes of 50 years. Before the one-Party committee made the decision to sell the land to CapCo – a multi-national developer which wishes to replace the affordable houses and low-rise flats with 30-storey luxury blocks - I asked if I could address them for five minutes. Fifteen seconds for each year I have represented the area as councillor or MP. 

Nick Botterill, supposedly a softer replacement for Stephen Greenhalgh as Council Leader shouted me down, then ordered the Cabinet to leave the room. At this point two very large gentlemen stood either side of me and ordered me to leave. They also ordered the public to stop tweeting or using their mobile ‘phones.

Had I been granted my five minutes I would have made the following points:

• The residents of the two estates, a mixture of council tenants, leaseholders, freeholders, housing association and private tenants – in other words the model of a mixed community – voted three times against demolition, most recently by a majority of 4 to 1. This is virtually ignored or misrepresented in the Council’s report. 
• The economic justification for the £8 billion scheme says no more than that replacing low-rise affordable homes with high-rise luxury flats will add to the value of the land. A statement so fatuous as to defy belief. This could justify the demolition of almost any neighbourhood in London. 
• The companies advising the Council on the merits of the sale – principally Jones Lang LaSalle and Price Waterhouse Coopers – are the same firms advising the purchaser. Challenged on this the Council’s defence is that these companies have a virtual monopoly in their field. 
• The conflicts of interest between the Council’s roles as local authority, planning authority, landlord and beneficiary are nowhere addressed. Similar conflicts arise for Kensington & Chelsea and the Greater London Authority. 
• The disposal of the first part of the development site to an underfunded subsidiary of CapCo and a Hong Kong-based property company whose principal directors have been charged with corruption offences is an inappropriate partner for a local council to rely on to re-house its residents 
• The sum of £105 million which the Council will receive for delivering the land to CapCo with vacant possession is a substantial inducement to evict the residents, but a grotesque undervalue of the site given the planning consent the Council intends to grant on 12 September. This represents a huge subsidy to a multi-national developer from the taxpayers of Hammersmith & Fulham. 
• The promises made to existing residents will not be honoured. Of 760 properties, 171 are owned freehold or leasehold, 58 are rented by housing associations and 531 by the Council. Only if a tenant moves into a new home built on the site will they continue as social rented homes. Given the 20 years of building works before the development is complete it is likely that the majority of tenants will not move and the new homes will be sold or rented out a market or near market rents. The freeholders and leaseholders will be bought out or offered a share of a new property, either way these will sold at market rates.

Lawyers, consultants & financial advisors paid to work for Council - and who also work for the developers at the meeting

This process has continued for four years already. The only constant factors are the residents’ determination to save their homes and the Conservatives’ desire to demolish them to socially and politically alter the area. At some point political control locally or nationally will change or the developer will revise their plans to exclude the estates (which will still allow them to develop one of the biggest sites in central London). Until then the battle continues, next to be joined at Planning Committee on 12 September.”

UPDATE 1530 WEDNESDAY - Well, I did offer the Council the opportunity to put their side of things and it seems they have a very different recollection of events. Here's Cllr Nicholas Botterill, Leader of the Council, speaking to me this afternoon:

“Opposition Members were given unlimited time to ask questions. However, the MP attempted to disrupt the meeting in an inappropriate manner.

“The MP was not forcibly removed and he remained in his seat throughout the duration of Cabinet. 

“This meeting was for elected councillors to make a decision on whether to include the two estates in this scheme. 

“Members of the public, including the local MP have had numerous opportunities over several years, to have their say on the proposed regeneration of Earls Court and the surrounding area.”

Piotr Mikewicz Memorial Fund

Following the horrific murder which took place last week a memorial fund has been set up for Piotr’s family in response to the many donations received from members of the public.

Donations can be made to: A/C: Serco Limited: Piotr Mikewicz Memorial Fund, HSBC Bank plc, Sort Code 400250, Account Number 61337068.

Letters of condolence can be sent c/o Sophia Coulson, ELRS, H&F Council, 77 Glenthorne Road, Hammersmith, W6 0LJ. Letters will be forwarded on to Piotr's family

1430 UPDATE - Details of tomorrow's memorial service have just come to me from those organising it. They are as follows:

Memorial to Piotr Mikewicz

We will be opening Askew Road Church (corner of Bassein Park Road) from 1.30 to 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday (5th September) for those who would like to come for a quiet reflection on the events of last Wednesday at around the same time. Everyone will be welcome.

The Church is on the top floor so if you are disabled or want to bring a pushchair please ring the bell at the Bassein Park Road entrance so that you can use the lift. Otherwise the main door in Askew Road will be open.

Westfield put art before disabled

c/o @hasenschneck

Balls to disabled access! Westfield and Transport for London, fresh from denying disabled Londoners access to the new Shepherd's Bush central line tube station, which they designed without a simple lift, have decided to carry on flipping the finger to wheelchair users by installing some ridiculous and pointless concrete balls at bus stops.

As you will see this farcical piece of street furniture is conveniently located just at the point where the bus doors stop, niftily preventing the use of a ramp.

c/o @hasenschneck

Imagine being the person in a wheelchair at rush hour, with a crowd of impatient commuters glaring at you because you are the reason the bus has to nudge forwards and backwards until it's negotiated these pointless spheres so that yuo can get on. And that's assuming the bus driver even bothers.

That Westfield has a sense of irony, however, is also clear. They've decided to instal these orbs of oppression right smack bang in the middle of the London Paralymic games.

Full marks.

1530 TUESDAY UPDATE: Victory to the people! I understand from a few of you that the balls have been there for a while and Westfield were just claiming it was a TfL matter, nothing to do with us, guv.

But a little bit of unwelcome publicity does wonder to focus minds and this afternoon I received the following message from Westfield, who I fear may not number among my biggest fans:

 

Note not a hint of any kind of apology, or expression of regret for the barriers they have caused through their thoughtlessness. They must have typed that tweet through gritted teeth. But who cares! We're the winners, and rightly so. 

It's not the first time they've behaved badly towards the local community after all...

0530 UPDATE WEDNESDAY - Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, has responded to Westfield's climb down, and has had this to say:

"The only people that come out well from this fiasco are local bloggers and residents who have expressed their total opposition to the crass decision to make such an important bus stop inaccessible for disabled people. 

"I hope both Westfield and TfL have now learnt a very important lesson."

Hospital closures: protest outside NHS AGM

Friday will see protestors outside the annual general meeting of NHS North West London, which covers the area where both Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals are set to lose their A&E departments and much of their other capacity. The protest is being led by the community coalition established in opposition to the cuts.

The protestors will include people from Ealing as well as Hammersmith & Fulham and no doubt beyond as well. It follows numerous street stalls in both Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush, including some bizarre new coalitions (Anarchist-Conservative anyone!) and other shenanigans. 

The details are as follows: 

• Methodist Central Hall, 1 Storey’s Gate Westminster
• 7th September from 12-1pm. (The AGM starts at 1)

This is the first significant activity of the campaign since before the summer break, which brought political foes and all sections of the community together at this meeting in July. It's set to be a long and hard fight, not least because NHS bosses are on record as saying they don't much care what local people think. 

Which is nice. 

Piotr Mikiewicz: Man charged with murder

Roger Philip Buckingham, 30 (18/6/82) of Bentworth Road, W12 was today charged  with Piotr Mikiewicz's murder. Piotr was just 40 years old and a streetsweeper, much valued by both his colleagues and the residents he served across our community. 

Mr Buckingham was further charged with possession of an offensive weapon, theft of a motor vehicle and burglary at an address in Rylett Road W12 on Wednesday 29 August.

He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court this Monday, 3 September.

Five other people arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender have been bailed to return on a date in October.

Meanwhile I spoke to Serco, for whom Piotr worked, today. We can expect an online donation facility to be available on their website next week for the many of you who have expressed a wish to assist his family. 

Monday 1440 UPDATE - I've just heard that Mr Buckingham will appear at the Old Bailey in December to begin his trial for murder and attempted burglary. I ran past Wormwood Scrubs today on an early morning one and saw the vans outside the door ready to transport inmates, and wondered whether he was one of them. I think it will take a long time for the events of the last few days to recede - and of course for many, particularly those who knew Piotr, they never will.