In early 2023 we broke the news that Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBKC) had done a secret deal with the international property developer Ballymore for the sale of one of North Kensington’s last remaining community assets, Canalside House. Ostensibly, very little has changed, but we can update our readers on what hasn’t happened, non-developments that expose the council’s attitude towards its poorer communities, of interest to those who care about North Kensington’s future prospects.

Context

Neglecting Canalside House has been emblematic of the council’s approach to the North Kensington community for decades as successive RBKC leaders have sought to justify the off-loading of the centre by pointing out its poor condition. This mentality persisted despite the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, after which RBKC spent public money on a review that produced “12 Principles of Good Governance” that the council adopted into its official policies including its Grenfell Recovery Strategy.

Deterioration

Since we last published on Canalside House, there has been no face-to-face, video or telephone contact between RBKC and the tenants of the building. All council communication has been via email and, whether sent by councillors or officers, the emails to residents have all been variations of the same original press release sent to Urban Dandy.

All tenancies – ‘license agreements’ – held by the charities and community organisations operating from Canalside House expired on 31^st March 2024. No extensions have been offered and the council has not contacted the groups to provide any information regarding their status in the building. This leaves the groups in limbo, unable to fundraise without secure premises, and unable to plan for an unknown future.

In January, via an appropriate third party, Canalside tenants requested an urgent meeting with the relevant officers from RBKC. Ballymore readily agreed to attend the meeting, but the council dragged out its response, and a quarter of a year has elapsed with no meeting yet set.

Meanwhile, the fabric of building is a major issue. We visited this week and saw holes in ceilings, exposed wires, and heard about the tardiness of Town Hall staff in responding to residents’ reporting of these issues.

Neglect

Canalside House’s landlord, RBKC, has long neglected the building. This has included spurning a grant from Tudor Trust secured by the community to enable a lift to be installed for the benefit of disabled service users; the decision of disgraced former deputy council leader, Rock Feilding-Mellen to evict all the tenant organisations, only averted following the Grenfell Tower fire; and the lies told by his replacement, Kim Taylor-$mith who repeatedly vowed to upgrade the building, but ultimately continued Feilding-Mellen’s strategy of managed decline.

Resident organisations at Canalside House have not had a chance to raise any of the issues caused by RBKC’s non-engagement. Neither the residents nor the wider community were consulted on RBKC’s decision to pursue the sale of their building to Ballymore; and they were not informed that the council’s Local Plan would include a subtle move of a boundary line to enable the Kensal Gas Works housing development to swallow Canalside House.

The rights and protected characteristics of the building’s users under the 2010 Equality Act have been disregarded by RBKC; there has been no democratic oversight of decision-making around the sale, and to date, only one local politician, Emma Dent Coad, has made a significant intervention to call out the council and try to preserve a vital community asset that benefits thousands of local residents.

Read our previous articles about Canalside House here.

by Tom Charles

@tomhcharles

@urbandandyLDN