Carlton Mansions co-op, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton - history and news

[shifting gears]

FFS , I'm just catching up on this thread now and my blood is fucking boiling

The slippery fucking wankers

 

[Gramsci]

""The residents in terms of their social environmental and conditions are likely to carry out practises where fires could develop in the home."" wtf?!?

It is laughable.

code for "Dirty bunch of layabouts partying all the time" etc

Thanks Lambeth Council.

 

[quimcunx]

Look at you going on carrying out your fire developing practises.

 

[Gramsci]

Look at you going on carrying out your fire developing practises.

We are all safe in the hands of the caring Council. They are so concerned about our welfare.

 

[indigolove]

Good luck at the hearing today.

Fwiw I do a fair bit of work with London Fire brigade - if it would help for me to try and find someone to speak to about the risk assessments then let me know and I'll do what I can.

I would imagine that there's a lot of angry firemen at Clapham Fire Station - can they not advise you?
We need to be supporting one another -

 

[leanderman]

Quite, and hoping the post you quoted was made firmly tongue-in-cheek.

Why should I not quite like lower council taxes?

As long as services are not compromised.

 

[quimcunx]

I'm fairly certain service are being compromised at this time.

 

[leanderman]

I'm fairly certain service are being compromised at this time.

We'd better pay some more council tax then!

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

""The residents in terms of their social environmental and conditions are likely to carry out practises where fires could develop in the home."" wtf?!?

Does that mean 'some of them smoke'?

 

[Thimble Queen]

Nah fire ritual satanists, blates.

 

[Rushy]

Making the building a no-smoking zone would go some way to averting risk, presumably?

 

[Rushy]

From reading the barrister's comments in the Brixton Blog article it looks like this is as much about the council being seen to have taken all available steps to warn the tenants of fire risk and avoid culpability. They've told the occupants about the risk, they've asked them to move out immediately, they have attempted an injunction. If someone gets subsequently gets hurt in a fire it would be much harder to argue that the council is to blame.

What is the set up there? Is the co-op responsible for maintenance?

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'd quite like lower council tax!

I'm sure we all would, but the more sensible among us would probably attempt to weigh the costs of it being lowered. At least, I'd hope so!

 

[ViolentPanda]

""The residents in terms of their social environmental and conditions are likely to carry out practises where fires could develop in the home."" wtf?!?

Trans: "The residents are squatters, and obviously that means they're all intravenous drug-users, and probably arsonists as well!". Classic bit of attempting to play on the presumed social prejudices of "the establishment".

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'd 'quite like' lower council tax but I'm actually pretty pissed off that they sent me my bill proudly announcing they'd frozen it at a time when they are cutting services. Better to take a bit more from me than make people on benefits start paying/pay more.

Thing is, rather than them presuming (or checking) that people like you (what I'd loosely call "people who've still got a social conscience")are prepared to pay an extra 5-10% on your Council Tax, they assume that people like you are the same as people like them: Grasping, venal and unprepared to act like social beings in a social environment.

Frankly, even if someone's thinking is entirely instrumental, it generally "pays" to suffer a rise in Council Tax in terms of stability or even improvement in services.

 

[ViolentPanda]

FFS , I'm just catching up on this thread now and my blood is fucking boiling

The slippery fucking wankers

Lambeth Labour doing what they've done best since the "New Labour" days: Looking after themselves, their future political careers and their privileges.
Of course, any administration would do similar, given the legislation, but the whole issue of freezing CT when they have a mandate to raise it by at least inflation is pretty much a signal of where their concerns lie, and how they're going to play.

Saddens me when I think back to how hard Lambeth Labour used to struggle to be an example of municipal socialism.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Why should I not quite like lower council taxes?

As long as services are not compromised.

Bit late for that. Services have arguably already been compromised by the decision to effectively "freeze" CT rates, rather than making legislatively-permissible inflationary rises over the last 3 years.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Does that mean 'some of them smoke'?

"Some of them cook up their smack over candle flames, milord. G-d's honest truth guv!".
Just in slightly more insinuatory language.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Nah fire ritual satanists, blates.

Bloody Luciferians and their ritual flame jugglers and fire-breathers. What next? Satanic clowns?

 

[leanderman]

Bit late for that. Services have arguably already been compromised by the decision to effectively "freeze" CT rates, rather than making legislatively-permissible inflationary rises over the last 3 years.

The council tax has been frozen but higher fees for parking permits, charges for bulk waste collection etc mean that, in effect, council tax payers are paying more.

 

[critical1]

Hohoho

Has anyone complained as to the level of help received from the councillors in regard to this, and the bullying tactics (dirty tricks) of Lambeth Housing a department of the Co-Operative council.

Critical1

 

[Thimble Queen]

Bloody Luciferians and their ritual flame jugglers and fire-breathers. What next? Satanic clowns?

As long as there's no fire poi involved everything will be OK.

 

[ViolentPanda]

As long as there's no fire poi involved everything will be OK.

Or burning hackey-sacks! (((((burned knees)))))

 

[ViolentPanda]

The council tax has been frozen but higher fees for parking permits, charges for bulk waste collection etc mean that, in effect, council tax payers are paying more.

Sure, but that's indirect taxation, as opposed to direct taxation. I'm talking about CT, and why (IMO) the administration doesn't want to/won't raise it.

 

[Gramsci]

Trans: "The residents are squatters, and obviously that means they're all intravenous drug-users, and probably arsonists as well!". Classic bit of attempting to play on the presumed social prejudices of "the establishment".

Thats what I thought it meant as well. It is prejudice.

 

[kittyP]

Got a reply from Councillor Rachel Heywood on behalf of loads of other Councillors.

Thank you for contacting councillors about this situation. I am replying on behalf of Coldharbour ward councillors – Donatus Anyanwu, Matt Parr, and myself. Our colleague Cllr Pete Robbins, Cabinet member for Housing and Regeneration, will be responding in more detail on the issues that you and others have raised about Carlton Mansions but Matt Donatus and I wanted to acknowledge the enquiries which have been sent to us in the meantime.

You will probably be aware that the outcome of the application to court yesterday morning was that the case has been deferred and will be heard on the 22nd May. This will allow us to continue to work with the coop to assess individual needs, to plan alternative accommodation where appropriate, and to ensure that they are receiving all the support to which they are entitled, including to benefits. We hope to start this work with individuals immediately so that as much as possible is resolved before the case returns to court, however we have been meeting regularly with representatives of .


This does not remove the urgency of the situation, and I hope that the coop will accept support to promptly move out of what has been judged to be a building which poses an ‘intolerable’ level of risk to those living in it. This is a judgement which we cannot ignore, and is the reason for the actions which have been taken. We understand that this is an extremely difficult situation for CMHC and for individuals but we believe there is no alternative solution in the immediate future.

Our colleague Pete will be in touch with a further update.

I am thinking I might reply with my feelings about how totally unnessecary it was to drag everyone in to court yesterday, what a waste of pubic money and stress to residents it was and how they have been total bastards, but more politely obviously.

Anyone got any ideas of what to say?

 

[Thimble Queen]

I got this response too. It makes it sound like the decision has already been made

 

[JTG]

Same for me as well. Begs the question, if they did whatever work was deemed necessary, would the council reverse their stance? Or just find another reason to try and force them out?

 

[Dairy]

I got the same email myself, I'm interested to hear what other people think about it before I send them a reply.

 

[Fenian]

It is laughable.

code for "Dirty bunch of layabouts partying all the time" etc

Thanks Lambeth Council.

CAN-NOT-FUCKING-BELIEVE-THIS.