An email to the Chairs and Secretary of the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association

From Mike O’Driscoll: (Warwick leaseholder)

Dear Katherine Greenaway (CBWRA Secretary), Larisa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall (CBWRA ‘Chairs’) 

The elected term of the current Chairs expires within the next 2 weeks. Can you tell me why you are not holding the elections which are now due?

You have tried to pretend the decision to ‘postpone’ the chair elections until the end of June (or indefinitely) was legitimate because (5) committee members had a vote on it. However the constitution cannot be changed or overridden by a vote of committee members – that is the whole point of a constitution – they are the core rules which can only be changed at an AGM as I have explained here, not by the whim of 5 committee members, 3 of whom are wholly unelected and 2 of whom were elected in a farcical banana republic style election in Feb 2023 and whose dodgily acquired term in office has almost expired.  

It is really sad that residents once again have to fight for an election to even be held – as they did in February 2023 and were then seriously bullied online by committee members. There was massive and serious electoral misconduct in the 2023 elections as I have detailed here

which means that the current chairs were not fairly elected and now also intend to stay in office way beyond the elected term.

I think it is quite possible that CBWRA do not intend to hold any further Chair elections but rather to have CBWRA run by wholly unelected Directors if RTM goes through in June. 

Can you explain why you have not acknowledged the complaint  which I sent you more than 6 weeks ago

which detailed the misconduct in the 2023 elections and a number of other very serious matters:

• Why do we still not have a clear timelines or targets for completion of the RTM process
• Why are there no elections for Directors of the Right to Manage Company?
• Why were the CBWRA committee not allowed to see and vote on approval of the contract with Urang?
• Why are residents not able to see the contract with Urang?
• Why have the ‘co-chairs’ decided to stay in office at 4 months beyond their elected term
• Why has no date or procedure been announced for the 2024 Chair Elections and what will CBWRA do to ensure that the elections are conducted appropriately?
• Why have CBWRA finances declined from £27,000 to around £5,000 in two years? What does this say about the committee’s ability to oversee a £5 million service charge budget after RTM?
• Why have CBWRA not published full accounts?
• Why has CBWRA changed the constitution to remove the requirement for resident auditors?
• Why has CBWRA changed the constitution to remove leaseholders’ right to inspect correspondence between CBWRA and the freeholders and managing agents?
• Why is someone who has been the subject of multiple complaints to the Police still a member of the CBWRA committee and a director of the Right to Manage company?
• Why is pro-committee online bullying and arbitrary account closure still the norm on the CBW app?
• Why has the motion passed by residents at the SGM in September 2023, calling for a formal written process to govern the closure of CBW app accounts still not been enacted?
• Why were no notes from the ‘leaseholder forum’ meeting in October 2023 or February 2024 (Hint: the committee were heavily criticised for lack of progress on RTM and poor communication and online bullying was also raised)

Why are you so afraid of fair and free elections? I think we all know the answer to that.

In my view your behaviour shows a total lack of respect for the constitution, for fair play generally and for the residents of this development.

In my view, are not the legitimate elected representatives of this development but people who simply hold onto power through control of the CBW app and because of a culture of fear on the app where debate, scrutiny or even the most basic questioning of the committee is  closed down. 

Please have some respect for residents of this development and organise fair and free elections for Chair of CBWRA and the Directors of the RTM company

Best Wishes

Mike O’Driscoll

Warwick leaseholder