Business
£50 for 15,000 low income residents – RBKC signs off budget with £750,000 cash handout
The leaders of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council have waved through its budget for 2025-2026. Following a full council meeting on 5th March, the budget was signed off. Council tax will go up by four per cent - one of the lowest increases in London....
Lord Cashman speaks up in support of the Chelsea houseboat owners
Lord Cashman made a spirited defence of the Chelsea houseboat owners in a speech in the House of Lords on the evening of 4th February. Baron Cashman of Limehouse, for it is he, spoke up during a debate about the Renters' Rights Bill. He revealed that his...
MP BEN COLEMAN QUITS….AS COUNCILLOR
The Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham has resigned as a councillor of Lillie ward in Hammersmith and Fulham after ten years of service to concentrate on his MP work. Mr Coleman talks to The Citizen about his landmarks achievements at H&F Council...
Government lobbied to press for extradition of Rashid Ali from Pakistan
The Citizen is lobbying the Home Office to fight for the extradition of Rashid Ali, the driver who ran over and killed Jack Ryan on Battersea Bridge in 2021. Ali was sentenced at the Old Bailey last September to five years in prison for causing death by dangerous...
Other News
Council calls on residents to help it choose where to spend money as it faces up to funding crisis
The Royal Borough is asking residents to help decide what matters most over the next four years as it wrestles with a £108 million budget gap and growing demand for services. A six-week public consultation has been launched to shape the authority's new Council Plan, which will set spending and policy priorities through to 2030. The exercise comes...
Council goes extra lengths to improve Chelsea’s public swimming pool – and splashes out £1.3m
Chelsea Sports Centre’s historic swimming pool is set to undergo a £1.3 million refurbishment, with RBKC Council unveiling plans to modernise the 119-year-old facility while preserving its heritage. The investment will see the pool close from 12th July until November 2026 as contractors carry out extensive improvement works designed to secure the...
Justice For Jack Ryan campaign petition draws 1,000 signatures in first 24 hours
The campaign in the name of tragic Jack Ryan has launched a petition demanding that the Government changes existing bail laws to stop serious offenders escaping justice. The Justice for Jack Ryan petition on the Gov website gathered more than 1,000 signatures in its first 24 hours and currently stands at 1,900. Under the Gov petitions process,...
Hot air and air con: John Cookson’s sketch from inside the Town Hall chamber on the hottest June day in history
From The Citizen's customary front-row perch on the Town Hall press bench, our faithful municipal eavesdropper John Cookson watched Kensington and Chelsea's newly elected mayor - Cllr Janet Evans (Courtfield) - preside over her first full council meeting. The Borough's new First Citizen swept into the chamber in a fetching baby-blue cotton,...
The Citizen makes history as new media partner for The Chelsea History Festival
The Chelsea History Festival will return this autumn with a programme of around 100 events, bringing world-renowned historians, broadcasters, performers and storytellers to venues across Chelsea. Running from 1 to 4 October 2026, the eighth edition of the festival will explore the theme of World History, examining the people, events and ideas...
History Director Gill Webber Interview: “Everywhere you look in Chelsea there’s a fascinating story to tell”
The Chelsea History Festival returns this October with its most ambitious programme yet, bringing world-class historians, authors, performers and cultural figures to the area’s most iconic venues. At the helm and guiding this extraordinary festival every step of the way will be Gill Webber, the Director of Chelsea Heritage Quarter. The festival,...
“I was resentful at the time, but as time goes on, the less I feel that way — war is hell”. Stories of heroism at the National Army Museum
Three men who faced bullets, bombs and terrorists — and lived to tell the tale — gathered in Chelsea as the National Army Museum celebrated becoming the new home of a world-famous collection of Victoria and George Crosses. Reporter John Cookson joined an audience captivated by extraordinary stories of courage, fear and survival. You could have...
HURRAH! TFL parks dumb Loading Bay decision – after The Citizen inspires residents to fight
Transport for London has caved in and REVERSED its decision to change a much-needed loading bay into a parking berth for rental bikes and scooters. The bay on Cheyne Walk by the Chelsea Reach marina has for countless years been a vital stopping point for the residents of the houseboats to collect and unload heavy goods. They were aghast to...
“Park in a bay – or we’ll take it away”- RBKC Council seizes 2,600 e-bikes and wheels in £210,000 in fines
The Council has scooped a fortune in fines from e-bike operators by impounding more than 2,600 hazardously parked bicycles since launching a pioneering borough-wide enforcement operation 18 months ago. Dangerously abandoned bikes which posed immediate danger or significant disruption were seized in the Council’s attempt to preserve the...
RBKC officers put resident through years of hell and £10,000 bill trying to BAN wooden terrace they had already APPROVED
A homeowner was dragged through a planning nightmare by the council for two-and-a-half years and forced to spend nearly £10,000 defending a roof terrace screen — only for a government inspector to rule the council had already approved it. In a humiliating defeat for RBKC, the Planning Inspectorate threw out the council’s enforcement case against...