A letter from the Council just landed in our letterboxes.
The letter is signed by a Patrick Sean Sullivan, a member of the Council Housing Department's Environmental Services Team.
This team, which the Council inherited from the TMO, has been the subject of many a complaint from many residents over the years.
They are no strangers to allegations of corrupt, immoral and dishonest behaviour.
The letter claims that the Residents Association had asked the Council to open up the estate's gardens.
They would remove the existing fencing around our garden areas and open them up to public use.
This is an unbelievably stupid proposal. Monumentally stupid in fact.
Parts of the estate currently suffer from regular incidents of street drinking, drug dealing, dog fouling and every other kind of anti-social behaviour imaginable.
We've had drunks from the local pub pass out and collapsed on the ground outside blocks.
Drug dealers are often seen dealing from behind some of the sheds on Ann Lane.
The local Police do the best they can to deal with the issues. The Council have yet to demonstrate either the willingness or the know-how to deal with any of them.
Some Council staff actually seem to do the best they can to remain willfully ignorant and pretend those problems don't exist, which is why we appear to be stuck with them.
And now they want to open up our gardens to all and sundry.
As if all this ongoing appalling and unwanted behaviour will somehow not simply migrate there and turn our gardens into a hive of anti-social and criminal activity.
They intend to destroy our gardens and make the lives of those living nearby a misery.
And then they have the temerity to claim this was requested by the Residents Association.
We know most of the residents on the Residents Association. Most have served on the Residents Association for years and know the estate well. They would not propose this.
And having now spoken to most of them we know none of them asked for these works.
None of them were even consulted about them.
The first they knew of these works were when the letter from Patrick Sean Sullivan arrived at the weekend.
They're all supposed to have proposed something they knew nothing about!
In truth they are all very strongly opposed to the proposals. They know the damage opening up the gardens would do.
They know how badly their neighbours would be affected.
They would not dream of proposing such a damaging and dangerously stupid idea.
The letter is clearly factually incorrect and grossly misleading.
The question is whether Patrick Sean Sullivan and the Council know that it is.
We suspect they do.
They're lying.
And they know they're lying. It's clearly intentional.
We don't know who Patrick Sean Sullivan has been speaking to, but it's clearly not the Residents Association.
What remains to be seen is just how long they intend to pretend they aren't lying.
But if they're lying about something like this, what else might they be lying about?
The Residents Association is not the twelve residents we elected in December. It's the one or two individuals the Council have deemed worthy of listening to.
ReplyDeleteSo when Patrick says "the Residents Association has proposed these works" he actually means "one or two self-serving individuals have proposed these works and we've decided to listen to them despite the fact that they are very clearly in the minority and their views don't represent the views of the majority of the Residents Association let alone the views of the majority of the estate's residents".
Is that a lie? Yes. Is it immoral? Yes. Is it a surprise? Sadly, no.
Patrick and his colleagues at the Council will then proceed to rig the consultation exercise (a non-consultation if ever there was one) to ensure the works go ahead whatever anyone says.
Is that dishonest behaviour? Is it immoral? Yes. Is it a surprise? Sadly, also no.
RBK&C ran the TMO.
DeleteRBK&C assimilated the TMO.
RBK&C are now the TMO.
Or is the TMO now RBK&C?
Same difference.
I live in Riley House. I do not want any of the gardens near me opened up for public use. It's bad enough as it is. Having people sat right outside my flat will be intrusive and worrying. I will not feel secure. How anyone thinks this is a good idea is beyond me. If I were a leaseholder I would threaten legal action. This is going to devalue people's homes.
ReplyDeleteWhat's happening on our estate will eventually happen everywhere else. It is how the Council want to manage their estates. Any consultation they carry out is pure theatre. At the end of the day they will do what they like.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember that Crossrail 2 hasn't gone away. We should be worried that the Council will suggest our estate for the site of a Crossrail 2 station in Chelsea to TfL behind closed doors. I certainly wouldn't put it past them.
It is quite possible that Mr. Sullivan has been lied to by the new Chairman of the Residents Association and that he has simply repeated what he has been told.
ReplyDeleteOf course if someone has gone to the trouble of pointing out the lie to Mr. Sullivan and he keeps on repeating it then he deserves to be called a liar. Knowingly repeating a lie is lying.
We've exchanged emails with Mr. Sullivan.
DeleteWe have pointed out that they proposal doesn't have the support of a majority of the residents on the Residents Association.
He has gone quiet.
It appears the truth is a mere inconvenience to Council staff and all those promises from Mr. Sullivan's superiors of only ever engaging with residents in an open, honest and transparent manner following the Grenfell fire are actually total hogwash.