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 to spend what is needed to complete the renovation of its social housing estates within a similar time frame, or indeed any time frame: the works proceed at a glacial pace, often delayed and uncoordinated, and with no end date in sight.

I reproduce below the text of my email to the Corporation’s Chair of Policy explaining the situation, comment on her reply, and ask questions about a photograph taken last month.

EMAIL SENT BY ME TO THE CITY OF LONDON COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL ON 6 JULY 2021 (addressed to the Chair of Policy and copied to all members)

Dear Policy Chair,

During the last month, I have called on the Policy and Resources Committee to take urgent action on a matter that blights the Corporation’s reputation and many of its residents’ lives.

For decades, the Corporation has neglected the maintenance of its own social housing estates. When I gave the Chair of Policy a tour of Golden Lane Estate four years ago, I believe you were shocked to see its poor condition. When I gave Keith Bottomley, Vice Chair of Policy, a tour of the estate last month, he had a similar reaction. Any member can go to the estate to see for themselves peeling paint on the buildings and railings, patched and leaking roofs and rotten window frames. The buildings bear the insignia of the “Corporation of London”, a name which the City of London Corporation hasn’t used for the last 15 years. The shame of the neglect is compounded by…

The Golden Lane Estate Residents' Association is one of the sponsors of a major petition that has just been launched to seek reform of the planning process in the City.

All Golden Lane residents know the harm that is being done to our Estate by the Denizen and COLPAI developments, which are the products of the City’s undemocratic planning process.

This petition is a chance for you - together with other City residents and workers, and anyone interested in our heritage - to speak with one voice against that process, particularly as a proposal was recently made by the City Corporation's leadership to reduce democratic accountability in planning even further.

The text of the petition is set out below.

Please use this link to sign it a soon as you can: http://chng.it/Y8H6M7DsHf.

(If you haven’t previously signed a Change.org petition, you may not initially be offered a Comments box in which you can insert your status as a resident, etc. You may be able to add that comment afterwards. But while giving your status is useful, it isn’t essential: the important thing is to sign.)

The petition will be formally presented to the Court of Common Council at its meeting in April (but needs to be lodged before the end of this month). A high number of signatures may turn the dial - even a little - on this matter, which potentially affects us all.

Petition to the Court of Common Council, City of London…

Here is an update from Sustrans on a proposal for a parklet on Golden Lane.



City of London and Sustrans are planning to co-design a temporary parklet in Golden Lane. Sustrans want to work with the community, businesses and schools to co-design and install the parklet, which will provide a pleasant space for people from all walks of life to visit, rest and meet-up in once it is allowed.

What is a parklet?

A parklet is a mini-park that repurposes road space to turn it into a space for recreation, play, socialising or resting. They can be made by extending the pavement and providing things like benches, planting, artwork, cycle stands, giant chess games...the limit is your imagination!

Why?

The project will help deliver healthier streets and facilitate a space for the community to enjoy, rest and meet while socially distancing outdoors, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

When?

Between now and March 2021 we will be holding online activities to listen to residents, local groups, businesses and people working in the area about their views and suggestions for the space. We are hoping the parklet will be installed in Spring 2021.

Get involved!

Complete our initial short survey and join our mailing list here.…

Below is the text of an email I sent today to all members of the Court of Common Council (the City Corporation’s elected governing body) about the proposed postponement of the elections of the City’s 100 councillors from March 2021 to March 2022. 

What little democracy there is in the City shouldn’t be postponed by a year for no good reason. But I expect that the postponement of these elections will receive overwhelming support from members of the Court at its meeting on Thursday 10 September.

EMAIL FROM COUNCILLOR GRAEME HARROWER TO THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL ON 7 SEPTEMBER 2020

The public and press watching the meeting of the Court this Thursday will see it make an initial decision on a recommendation for 100 councillors to extend their terms of office by a year for no good reason. A few of the 25 aldermen may also use the postponement of the councillor elections as cover for extending their own terms of office for even less reason.

The Policy and Resources Committee has  recommended that the Court postpones the councillor elections due in March 2021 to March 2022 because the committee is concerned that the turnout of the business vote in March 2021 would embarrass the City Corporation by being even lower than usual. The committee fears that businesses would be even less inclined to register this autumn than usual, due to the Covid aftermath. (The majority of City businesses are so uninterested in the Corporation that 60% of them didn’t bother to register to vote last year, before Covid was an issue.)

The logical solution to this democratic deficit would be to reform the City’s electoral system by:

- abolishing the undemocratic and largely unsupported business vote, and 

- reducing the number of councillors to be proportionate to the number of residents.

That would move the dial of democracy in the City from before the Reform Act of…