Public call for the City of London Corporation to respect the law

We, the City councillors named below, call on the City Corporation to pay its social housing tenants a full refund of a profit that it (and a number of other local authorities) made on “water reselling” from 2001 to 2019 following a ruling by the courts that this profit was unlawful.

The City Corporation should have taken the lead in paying a full refund, because it:

- prides…

CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION FAILS ITS RESIDENTS

I've called on the City of London Corporation to use some of its £2.6 billion quasi-public “City's Cash" to fund an acceleration of the renovation of its social housing estates, which - due to decades of neglect - are in poor condition.

My call has been rejected by the leadership. The Corporation is happy to spend what is needed to put up new non-residential buildings within a short time frame, but refuses…

As mentioned in my last blog https://www.goldenlaneestate.org/profiles/blogs/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-city-s-discredited-standards, a significant proportion of City residents signed a petition last year declaring that they had no confidence in the City Corporation’s “standards" regime. One of their demands was for reform of “standards" proceedings. A motion was…

Last year, more than 1,100 City residents - many of them in our ward of Cripplegate - signed a petition declaring 'no confidence' in the City's standards regime. 

That petition called for two specific reforms.

The first was to let your elected representatives speak and vote on matters which affected both you and them as residents. After nine months of intense…

Here is correspondence I’ve had with the City Corporation’s Policy Chair and the Community Services Chair after the government recently published guidance promoting longer working hours on construction sites:



My email to the Policy Chair and Community and Children’s Services Chair on 14 May



Will you undertake that the City Corporation, as the developer of the COLPAI project, will not seek permission to extend the working hours on the site in the…

On Friday May 1^st Alderman Luder sent to all members of the Court of Common Council an email to justify work continuing on COLPAI during lockdown. ColPai. A brief reply to Common Councillors Pearson and Harrower

It’s disappointing that the resumption of work continues to be justified by the need for the social housing or the delay to opening the…

In my last blog I drew attention to how the City Corporation was supporting non-essential construction work on its own COLPAI development, to the detriment of its residents - COLPAI: despite lock down work about to resume 

On Thursday morning I sent an email to the Policy and Resources Committee, which is…

CITY CORPORATION SUPPORTS NON-ESSENTIAL CONSTRUCTION WORK

The City Corporation announced yesterday that construction work on its own COLPAI development would recommence after a two week break, with workers maintaining social distancing “as much as possible”, but acknowledging that this may not always be possible:…

You will be aware from the Evening Standard articles on 16 and 17 December and local television news that Beech Street tunnel will become the UK’s first zero emission street (ZES), with an 18 month trial starting in March.

What you may not be aware of, since there has been no consultation, are the consequences for us residents of Golden Lane Estate and adjacent residential areas.

What is the project?

Only emission free vehicles will be allowed through…

At the meeting of the Court of Common Council in July, Alderman Ian Luder put a “question” to the Chair of the Standards Committee that attempted to cast a slur on my character by insinuating that I was engaging in some kind of criminal activity.

His “question” was as follows:

“Could the Chairman of the Standards Committee confirm the rumours that a Member has made a claim for rights of light arising from the construction of COLPAI. If so, has the claim been settled, and…

Cllr Graeme Harrower (member for the business ward of Bassishaw) has long been concerned about the anti-resident bias of the Standards Committee. He supported me through the Standards Hearing that I had to endure last year (2018) and is a persistent advocate for residents' rights and Standards Committee reform. Below his latest emails to the Court of Common Council on the matter.

EMAIL FROM CLLR HARROWER THE COURT OF…

Extract of email sent on 15 July 2019 from Councillor Sue Pearson to the Standards Committee

"The current dispensations policy – which claims to “maintain public confidence” - was demolished three months ago when, in a petition, residents demonstrated that the policy had the opposite effect. The public’s view of an acceptable dispensations policy was recently articulated in four identical requests for general dispensations which the Dispensations Sub-Committee…

Dear Fellow Residents,

I am the only City of London councillor who lives on Golden Lane Estate. I’m being prevented from properly representing you, and from protecting and promoting our interests. You can help change this.

Background

Two years ago, I was elected with 558 votes - far more than any of the other 99 councillors in the City. I do not belong to a political party, and have no interest in a political career. I…

UPDATE: WASTE STRATEGY CONSULTATION SURVEY NOW SUSPENDED

As of Wednesday 27 March

To Fellow Residents

On Thursday 21 March Colpai held a drop in at the Golden Lane Community Centre to consult on replacement trees to  border the allotments and waste strategy. Boards can be downloaded…