One Heart
The weekend after the Grenfell anniversary saw some much needed levity at the One Heart Festival at the Westway Sports Centre, hosted by the inimitable polymath, Risky Javan.
BOWW Wow
A welcome addition to the festival was a new initiative, BOWW (Biodiversity on the World’s Watch), bringing animal handlers to young people and inspiring people urban areas to engage with wildlife, in-person and via social media.
Given that the horses are gone from under the Westway, and the only animals spotted in the previous 12 months were rats and pigeons, BOWW were a refreshing change with their Crested Gecko, Corn snake and Boa Constrictor. They plan to work with local young people via our vibrant charity sector.
Rotten? chatted to some of the BOWW team, who told us:
“When young people get to connect with nature in a direct and exciting way, it makes everything feel real to them. That hands-on experience sparks their curiosity and it shows them that they’ve got a role in protecting our planet. The youth are the future.” - Joel Duncan Founder of B.O.W.W
"The wildlife is the best type of life. Once people see these animals up close, they look at nature differently. Without nature, we've got nothing." Benjamin Delgado aka Bandz, B.O.W.W’s animal handler.
Bandz, BOWW’s animal handler at the One Heart Festival, June
Speaking of the local charity sector, more good news was that Nova has survived an existential threat, ensuring 3000+ local people will continue to benefit from their work and expertise. But it was a close-run thing and more local charities will be imperilled if the snake of austerity isn’t cast off by serious investment. See Rotten? #1 for more on cuts to charity funding.
Grenfell Council is ‘over’ Grenfell
Council cheerleader Elizabeth Campbell clearly writes her own speeches; no one paid for the job would come up with ten minutes of tone deaf self-glorification, followed by sheer vindictiveness towards the Labour Opposition Group seen at Full Council on 24 June.
So much for the ‘culture change’ demanded in the numerous Task Force, Local Government Association, Centre for Public Scrutiny etc reports since the Grenfell Tower fire. At the May elections the Tories had, unsurprisingly, retained their grip on the wealthier wards of our beautiful borough, and the Council Leader will continue to praise her ‘humility’ every darn meeting until she can find something actually relevant to say.
We were told that the number one priority for ‘her’ residents is ‘cleaner streets’. This was allegedly the result of responses to the Budget survey. However, 92% of the 357 Budget survey respondents live in the wealthier wards; just 8% of respondents (28 people) come from the deprived areas still suffering from years of neglect by the Council, which culminated in the Grenfell Tower fire.
Having a pop at the Labour government’s ‘abandonment’ of London via funding cuts is one thing. But once she had run out of superlatives about RBKC’s street cleaning and waste removal, she turned full beam onto the Labour Group. I’m no fan of the Labour newbies, who seem ignorant of the complexities and vulnerabilities of their constituents, but I almost felt sorry for them listening to Campbell’s rants.
EVERY SINGLE report on the Council post-Grenfell recommended more respect, more joint working, more dialogue between the Council leadership and Councillors representing the five North Ken wards. Instead she challenged their right to speak for the wards they are mandated to represent, the wards drained yearly of support, funding and care, with its group of 13 Councillors – a ‘full house’ of the North Ken wards.
Her comments were unedifying, distasteful and frankly deranged. I wouldn’t normally quote Theresa May, but am reminded of her comment, two days after the fire, at the ‘utter uselessness’ of the Council. Praising bin collections euphorically while de-funding services in North Ken, and denying elected representatives their mandate to represent, is the perfect picture of a role the Council Leader has yet to master.
Sadly, the Labour Leader chose not to respond, but stuck to her prepared speech lamenting the low installation of solar panels. I despair. More ‘Bad Press’.
A brave Motion to Council followed, by two of the longer-serving Labour Councillors, asking the Council to work together to adopt a ‘do no harm’ policy, which they felt the Council owes to the people harmed by the Grenfell Tower fire and the subsequent abusive conduct to the community. Two well-crafted and informed speeches, bringing in Constitutional issues, the Hillsborough Charter supposedly embraced by the Council, and matters of trauma informed practice, were cast aside by the Tory speakers: ‘we already do that’, ‘it’s not a policy it’s a slogan’…
As the debate concluded and the vote was taken, the Mayor laughed.
At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 8 July the Tories’ position became even clearer. A discussion of the draft Asset Management strategy listed various properties currently under the microscope. How they managed to ‘omit’ any mention the two most hotly contended community assets – Maxilla City and Lancaster Road Youth Hub - was clearly not an error but a deliberate obfuscation of the kind we can no longer ignore.
Discussion of the progress of the ‘Grenfell commitments’ was also a shocker, regarding just how far they haven't gone. There were questions from furious members of the public about the phony ‘co-design’ commitments among others, for which the responses from officers were long-winded and opaque.
Rumours are circulating that the Lead member and the Director for Housing are reverting to the pre-Grenfell Council mindset and don’t think poor people have the right to live where they were born and bred in homes they can afford.
What is becoming obvious is that the Grenfell Council is ‘done’ with Grenfell. To hell with culture change; the borough is their personal fiefdom and they will run it as they please.
Cover Up
The core of RBKC continues to rot because of the cover-up of the crime at Grenfell Tower. 72 dead, still no justice. Theresa May was even allowed on a panel in Parliament to gloss over her own role in the atrocity. Invited by Netflix/film production company, Rogan Productions. According to people people present, the Baroness reprised her performance in the film, out of touch with reality, out of step with the other speakers, not part of the main panel, just there to nervously utter a few platitudes before moving aside to allow the experts to speak. Why boost her credentials by inviting her, especially as nine years ago she ordered the Inquiry that has brought no justice to the victims?
Others have taken the cover up literally. The graffiti at the top of Ladbroke Grove is an important reminder to people leaving or entering North Kensington that we haven’t and won’t forget. But somebody decided to paint over the words ’72 dead still no justice’ just ahead of the anniversary.
The fence is on public land, but the Council told Rotten? that they had not ordered the paint job . Who else could have been so offended by these facts that they sent a minion down there to do a thorough blotting out of the truth? Ballymore? Sainsburys? Global Media?
There’s always some pushback though, usually in the form of street art and the black canvas now tells the truth again.
Pushback
More pushback around the anniversary came when Tayshan Hayden-Smith, CEO of Grow to Know CIC, invited RBKC Leader Elizabeth Campbell to join him at the Pride in Our Planet awards ceremony at the Conduit Club in Mayfair, where Tayshan was presented with a Hero award in recognition of his work in climate action and nature recovery. Ideal for a politician known to be proud of her environmental achievements.
After Campbell and then other senior Councillors ignored his invitation, RBKC’s Strategic Head of Property David Allen attended instead. This followed a brief online courtship/bromance. Allen has since gone quiet following Tayshan’s acceptance speech.
A cautionary tale for RBKC. Expect the Grenfell Council to stick to the asset stripping and glorification of bin collections for the foreseeable.
One half of the Rotten? editorial team was on Portobello Radio recently, providing an update on the campaign against the co-owners of Israeli (aka appropriated Arab cuisine) restaurant Erev who have been proactive in the mass slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Respect to Piers, Isis and Hannah at Portobello Radio for providing some airtime for the issue of our time. Click here to listen.
Rotten? is edited by Emma Dent Coad & Tom Charles. The Rotten? images are by Junior Tomlin.
If you have any stories you’d like to see included in Rotten? you can email them to us at [email protected]. We are committed to not revealing the name or any other personal information of any source unless they explicitly express consent for us to do so. Whistleblowers are especially welcome to get in touch.