2023 CBWRA Chair elections – democracy dying in darkness?

I have nominated myself for Chair of CBWRA in the 2023 elections because I wanted to improve the governance of the CBWRA and to ensure that all that was possible was being done to achieve Right to Manage, following what have been (in my view) two wasted years as far as RTM goes. I had hoped that with the imminent standing down of the current Chair it might be possible to draw a line under some of the unpleasantness, divisiveness and poor governance of the last two years but sadly that seems not to be the case.

How can the Chair elections be fair when:

One of the candidates (i.e. me) had their CBW app account closed in May 2022 without any explanation, presentation of evidence, any chance to respond or due process?). The ‘misinformation’ was in fact me saying that Right to Manage was possible (contrary to the advice supplied by Roger Southam). The Chair’s emphatic statement in May 2022 that Right to Manage was not possible and that I was misleading residents has been shown to be wrong. and I have been proven to be 100% correct as shown in independent advice from Canonbury Estate Management in June 2022. So the person supplying the correct information gets their CBW app account closed? Yes that is truly Orwellian as I have noted elsewhere. No evidence at all was supplied regarding my supposed ‘breaches of the community guidelines’ which are in any case being frequently violated by the Chair and some committee members. in speaking disrespectfully to residents (e.g. see Residents’ demands for Chair election below).

You can read Roger Southam’s letter (the attachment in the above email) here roger-letter-21.5. The key points are that he claims Right to Manage is NOT POSSIBLE at CBW and says that this is because of First Port v Settler’s Court. He states that I am wrong in believing that Right to Manage is possible at CBW. However as independent advice shows, it was actually Roger and CBWRA that were wrong. Had I not challenged this incorrect advice then Right to Manage might now be off the agenda.

How can the Chair elections be fair when:

One of the candidates (i.e. me) is being daily subjected to bizarre, defamatory and wholly unevidenced claims of harassment by the Chair of CBWRA? (Particularly bizarre was the claim that I had ‘harassed the Chair and committee for three years’ – the committee has only existed for two years). Strange indeed that none of this supposed campaign of harassment was ever reported to the Police (who have confirmed 13.2.23 that there has never been any complaint against me at any time).

How can the Chair elections be fair when:

Two people have been allowed to stand jointly for Chair, which is against the constitution and indeed common sense, since a major role of a Chair is to be the final arbiter when a committee is divided or deadlocked. This clearly gives a massive advantage to joint applicants since they combine their support base. I have nothing at all against the two committee members who are standing jointly but this is unconstitutional and unfair. If joint applications are allowed then what is to stop 3,4 or 5 people applying jointly and making a total farce of the election process, so that it has no legitimacy.

How can the Chair elections be fair when:

The amount of false allegations made against me in the last few weeks on the CBW app mean that a fair election is now impossible if there ever was any chance of it due to the continuing assassination of my character. I have contacted the CBWRA Secretary to ask why this daily defamation of me on the CBW app, a platform where I cannot respond, is being allowed when it is clearly against the CBW app community guidelines apart from anything else: no reply received. This would seem to highlight the importance of detoxifying the CBW app which I have given a high priority in my manifesto for the 2023 Chair elections.

This ridiculous behaviour towards me has been going on for around two years on and off and I had hoped to avoid discussing it in public to avoid potential damage to the reputation of this development. However the level of abuse is now so gross that it must be addressed and as I am not able to do so on the CBW app, I publish a summary of some of the main false claims that have been made against me by a certain party. The number of false claims about me grows daily and I do not have time to deal with them all at the moment but updates will be provided.

I am not afraid to publish these absurd claims about me – I know there is no evidence to support any of them and they are much more a comment on the person attacking me, than they are on me. I have given that person every chance to withdraw these claims (via my solicitor) and draw a line under the matter with a simple apology, in the interest of all residents and the development. That person has chosen instead to double down on their attacks on me.

It is hard to understand those on the committee who see these things going on and say nothing – I invite them to step up and end this vile behaviour which makes intelligent discussion and any pretence of democracy impossible. I am still willing to settle this through a simple retraction, apology and undertaking not to repeat these claims by the person perpetrating these claims. I urge the person engaging in this behaviour to desist as these action are harmful to any sense of community or democracy in this development, in my view. Below I summarise the history of this election process so far and the ludicrous attacks on my character.

_______

https://chelseabridgewharf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/final-newsletter-update-elections-21.2.23.pdf

Chair elections 2023 – an update from Mike O’Driscoll, Warwick leaseholder. Email:residents@chelseabridgewharf.org.uk

Dear resident, I am contacting you with an update from my point of view regarding the 2023 CBWRA Chair elections, as it is impossible for me to use CBW app and in particular to reply to numerous false allegations made against me and other residents by the current Chair, Mr Stephen Thompson.

1. Residents’ demands for Chair elections: You may be aware that (after much pressure from residents) there are to be elections for Chair of the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association. That is good news, but this process should in fact have been completed by the end of January as the current Chair (Mr Thompson) was elected for 12 months from 29^th January 2022. In mid-January. As no mention of elections had been made by the committee, residents began to ask on CBW app asking when the elections would occur/what the process would be. Initially these polite requests were met with extreme hostility by Chair/some members of the committee with residents being referred to as ‘’piranhas’’, ‘’lazy’’ and ‘’stupid’’. One committee member stated that it was ‘’idiotic and wasting everyone’s time’’ to raise this question.
2. A hastily improvised and (in my view) unfair election process was eventually published. CBWRA gave residents a series of confusing responses stating the elections would be ‘at the AGM in April’, then in the ‘run up to the AGM’ and then in ‘February/March’. It was claimed at one point that the Chair and committee had been elected at the AGM in May 2022 but in fact as I have documented no elections took place at this meeting and in any case it was not a valid AGM (leaseholders did not receive notice to attend as required in the constitution and only 24 people attended). Up to the current time there have been no elections for committee members EVER although CBWRA say there will be ‘opportunities’ for this after the Chair elections. It is not clear what that means. Residents were promised that a month’s notice would be given for nominations for Chair but when the dates of the process were actually released, we were given 2 weeks. Obviously the whole process should have been thought through and published at least one month ahead of the process. Residents should not have to fight to get elections held as if this was some sort of favour being granted to residents.
3. Why is this an unfair election process? Firstly, I understand that there will be a joint nomination for Chair from two residents (i.e. they are jointly standing for Chair). This is not in keeping with the constitution which clearly states that ‘members shall elect a chairperson’ (singular). While job sharing/role sharing can be very good arrangements, these are never found in relation to elected posts –voting for two people in that context makes no sense and hence no election for councillors, MPs or indeed any other residents’ association that I have ever heard of would allow joint nominations. It clearly gives an unfair advantage to the two people who run jointly as they pool their support. One of the main functions of a Chair is to make a decision when a committee is divided. If there are two Chairs, then clearly there may be a time when they disagree and hence the committee will be stalemated. Also one might ask, if more than one Chair is allowed, what is to stop a joint application by 3 or 4 people? It makes a nonsense of the whole process. Sadly this does underline the poor governance in CBWRA and a need to change the culture radically, so that CBWRA behaves like a normal fair and democratic residents’ association. I will add that I know all of the candidates to some extent and have nothing against any of them – this is not personal.
4. Secondly, I am a candidate for Chair but my CBW app account was summarily closed in May 22 without any due process or evidence and remains closed. I was accused of ‘misleading’ residents for saying that Right to Manage WAS possible (which has been proven correct by independent advice https://tinyurl.com/28dht6ya) and that retendering the management contract was therefore a very bad decision in my view. The email closing my account refers to ‘’repeated breaches of community guidelines’’ which are not detailed or evidenced in any way. Apparently the CBWRA committee now agree that RTM is possible, whereas only a few months ago this was apparently heresy which merited the immediate and permanent closure of my CBW app account. Had I not obtained this independent advice I think the position of CBWRA would still be ‘Right to Manage is not possible’.

So we have the absurd situation where one person (the Chair) can arbitrarily decide that someone else (someone who is critical of some of their decisions and performance and who is standing for Chair) is ‘misleading’ residents (despite all evidence to the contrary) and summarily and permanently close their CBW app account. This is something you might expect in a dictatorship but not in a democratic society. Thirdly while I am forced to be absent from the CBW app, the soon to be former Chair (Mr Stephen Thompson), has repeatedly made defamatory statements about me which are completely untrue and unevidenced. I consider these wild and groundless statements to be a smear campaign, and make a fair election impossible. My solicitor has written to Mr Thompson (5.2.23) and offered him the opportunity to draw a line under these matters by a simple retraction and apology on the CBW app – unfortunately Mr Thompson has refused to do that and hence I am writing this letter and discussing further action with my solicitor. Mr Thompson enjoys legal insurance as the Chair of CBWRA, which residents are paying for, and which in my view is being seriously misused.

• Numerous instances of defamation by Mr Thompson Since May 2022 Mr Thompson has made many claims about why my CBW app account was closed, which are unevidenced, meaningless and inconsistent with the email sent in May. He has made a great number of defamatory attacks on me which seem to have intensified in the run up to Chair elections (i.e. Jan 2023). I do not have time to deal with all of these here but I will mention the following claims made on the CBW app in January 2023.

As I write this I note via friends that Mr Thompson had made (on CBW app) further bizarre and unevidenced claims of harassment by me and other residents. Strangely this ‘’harassment’’ has never been reported to the Police. In summary Mr Thompson has forced me to resign from the CBWRA committee; made untrue allegations of bullying and harassment against me on countless occasions; closed my CBW app account three times, behaved in a way which forced me to report him to the Police on two occasions and yet he would have you believe that he is somehow the victim. I understand that Mr Thompson is standing down as Chair and I welcome that. I would be even happier if these claims about me were withdrawn and an apology made, so that we can all move on.

We now need fair elections which everyone can have confidence in so that we can move on, get Right to Manage and a properly functioning residents’ association. I am still standing for Chair in spite of all of the self-evident unfairness.  If you are a leaseholder and have not been sent the candidates’ manifestos and videos please email info@cbwra.com. If you are a tenant please pass this to the leaseholder. Meet the candidates and ask questions Sat. 25^th Feb 12-1 at BPS (Scott House, 1^st floor) and voting opens shortly after the meeting. Unfortunately it is not clear whether there will be any independent inspection/verification of the results. Whoever you wish to support, please do vote – we desperately need change, an end to this craziness and a well governed and democratic residents’ association.

I believe I am the only candidate who has the experience, vision and determination to step away from the current regime and culture of CBWRA and deliver a major restructuring of the CBWRA, as well as Right to Manage – and we need both of those things fairly urgently. I have not seen any evidence that any of the CBWRA committee members, including the joint candidates for Chair, are prepared to speak up and condemn what seems to me to be clear evidence of inappropriate behaviour on the CBW app (sometimes by those who should be setting an example) or the unfairness and irregularities around this election process.