Gentrifying Chelsea

Last week, a Kensington and Chelsea TMO Board briefing was leaked indicating that the Cremorne Estate would be demolished within 6 years to make room for private property developments and a Crossrail 2 railway station.

The briefing states that RBK&C Council Leader Councillor Paget-Brown has personally requested that TfL consider sites further west of the originally safeguarded site of Chelsea Fire Station.

TfL will therefore now consult on the proposal for a station at a location labelled "Chelsea West".

The consultation is NOT honest or transparent. 

It does NOT indicate in its maps and posters, or available information sources that the proposed site of 'Chelsea West' is actually the Cremorne Estate.

A letter from Councillor Tim Coleridge, cabinet member for Transport and Planning, to Mayor of London Boris Johnson, dated August 2013, indicates that there was full knowledge of the plans to demolish hundreds of homes and failure to inform residents or the public.

In the letter, the Councillor admits that:

"social deprivation in Chelsea is most pronounced between World's End and the West London Line: there are areas that fall within the 20 percent most deprived parts of the country."

Councillor Coleridge's solution, it seems, is to displace the deprived but vibrant community that has lived in the Cremorne and surrounding estates for decades, and gentrify the whole area. Replace the poor with the rich and the deprivation "issue" will have been solved. Such genius!

The lack of transparency and blatant elitism behind the plans is wholly and completely unacceptable.

The 'Save The Cremorne' campaign is defending the estate's vibrant and long-standing community which is under attack by the Council's plans to demolish the estate - 250 homes - and hand the site over to private property developers.

WE SAY NO TO GENTRIFICATION