Council & Community
EXCLUSIVE: RBKC Leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell issues urgent rallying cry for residents to help the council STOP the Mansion Tax
RBKC leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell has issued an extraordinary battle cry to residents to step up and help the council STOP the Government's proposed "mansion tax". Campbell has sent out an unprecedented letter to the Chairs of Residents Associations across the...
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,...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
Leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell’s new term – and teary – speech in FULL
Cllr Elizabeth Campbell addressed the full council meeting as she took office for the third time. During the part of her speech that referred to out-going Deputy Leader Kim Taylor-Smith, Ms Campbell became gripped by emotion. As she considered her political "anchor"...
The Royal “boro” welcomes a new madam mayor – an “extrovert” native New Yorker
From The Citizen’s customary front-row perch on the Town Hall press bench, John Cookson looks on wryly as Kensington and Chelsea’s civic grandees gather beneath fibre optic chandeliers to perform one of local government’s oldest rituals — the solemn appointment of a...
Cllr Monica Press, Leader of the Labour Group of Councilllors – FULL speech
Cllr Monica Press, Leader of the Labour Group of councillors, who represents Colville ward, addressed the full meeting of the new council. Here is her speech in full Thank you Madam Mayor and congratulations on your election. And congratulations to Cllr Nur on...
“I’m really thrilled and excited. We knocked it out of the park” – Leader Elizabeth Campbell as unbreakable blue wall remains solid
Jubilant Tories were celebrating victory today after comfortably tightening their grip on power in a landmark RBKC election. After rises in Council Tax and the controversial premium on second homes, the man or woman on the King’s Road omnibus might have expected the...