CITY CORPORATION FORCED TO CONFRONT WINDS OF CHANGE

[Graeme Harrower]

On 11 February the Telegraph published this article describing some of the many issues affecting the City Corporation:  City of London Corporation forced to confront winds of change

It’s interesting to read the remarks of some of the Corporation’s supporters.

An unnamed supporter smears all the Corporation’s critics by mentioning only conspiracy theorists, whom one finds expressing views - invariably unsupported by facts - about all secretive and influential institutions (CIA, Vatican, etc). This supporter has never tried, though, to dispute any of the verifiable facts that I have disclosed, or to find flaws in the logic of my arguments, during the 16 months that I have been publicly seeking accountability in the Corporation.

Mark Boleat, former Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee, concedes that “you would not invent the City of London, absolutely not” but asks “what is the practical problem you are trying to solve?” Had he asked me that question when we were both on the planning committee, instead of asking it rhetorically after his retirement, I would have answered with a long list of "practical problems", including: the case of a resident councillor who stood up for her constituents against one of the Corporation's own developments and was referred by the Corporation to the police for prosecution that turned out to be entirely groundless; having a planning committee that cannot say “no" to any major developer, even if the development fails to comply with planning rules and blights the lives of the City’s own residents; spending an undisclosed six figure sum every year on the dining and wining of City councillors while the Corporation's own housing estates are visibly poorly maintained; and the many other issues identified in my Christmas Quiz

It’s good to see that discussion about radical change in the Corporation is now being aired in the national media. One issue which the article doesn’t focus on is the undemocratic nature of the City’s business vote, that is a root cause of much of what is wrong in the Corporation. But it won’t be long before we hear more about it.