2024 Chair elections – Notes from meeting of CBWRA Chair candidates with residents – 6th April (Scott House, BPS)

Dear residents,
This is an update regarding the 2024 CBWRA Chair elections.
We had a useful  meeting of Chair  candidates and residents on Sat 6th April  at BPS. You can access the full notes here.  As a taster, some of the key points were

• Only 130 leaseholders are members of the RA and CBWRA have changed the constitution so that only they can vote in the Chair elections. This means that 88% of leaseholders cannot vote in the Chair elections.
• MOD drew attention to the need to think about what would happen after RTM in terms of power passing almost entirely to the Right to Manage company, with unelected directors and a culture which seems hostile to consultation, resident involvement and appropriate checks and balances.
• Residents questioned the lack of elections for Directors of the CBW Right to Manage Company
• Residents drew attention to a lack of consultation and engagement from CBWRA which is reflected in these astonishingly low membership numbers.
• Residents drew attention to the lack of freedom of speech on the CBW app and the likelihood of being attacked online if one asks even the simplest question of the committee. This means that meaningful discussion is impossible on the CBW app.
• MOD drew attention to the arbitrary closure of his CBW app account as an act of political censorship and that CBWRA were unable to produce any meaningful justification for having done this or for refusing to re-open it.
• MOD suggested many ways in which consultation and engagement with residents could be improved and offered to help with this but this offer was declined.

As described above, just 130 (11.3%) of leaseholders are allowed to vote in this Chair election because CBWRA chairs changed the rules in September 2023 and kept it fairly quiet. They told you that they were only making minor changes to the constitution but in fact major changes were made – not just that the vast majority of leaseholders would in effect be unable to vote in Chair elections but other important changes also such as removing your right to see correspondence between CBWRA and the freeholders. managing agent and also removing the requirement to have resident (non-committee) auditors of the accounts.

Further silly games which were played in the election process this year, as you may be aware, were  manifestos were not released until voting opened and the only meeting allowed between residents and candidates occurs half way through the voting  period. Only paid up members of CBWRA are allowed to vote as mentioned above and CBWRA have also decided that owners of more  than one apartment will have to pay £20 or each one if they want to have a vote for that property. So if you own 3 apartments and want to have 3 votes in the Chair elections you have to pay £60. This is pretty bizarre and all of these arrangements seem designed to minimise the number of people voting and to make sure that, of those who are entitled to vote, before they have a chance  to meet any challengers to the current Chairs.  

The maximum number of votes which can be cast in the Chair elections 2024 is 130 and as turnout is unlikely to be more than 50% it seems that the total number of votes cast, for all candidates, will probably not exceed 65 or 100 at the outside. That is out of 1,150 leaseholders. Truly CBWRA has trashed any remaining shred of legitimacy it might have had – it has a mandate from a tiny and decreasing minority of leaseholders and does not even represent them meaningfully, in my view as there is a total antipathy towards consultation. The governance of CBWRA is broken in my view and the current leadership do not have the support of any meaningful number of leaseholders.

Despite all of this (or maybe because of this) I would encourage all leaseholders (who are paid  up members of CBWRA)  to vote as there are many very important issues at stake. VOTING CLOSES 9pm on FRIDAY 12th APRIL.  I explain some of the key issues in a 3 minute video (link below)

 3 minute video 

My Priorities as Chair would be to: 

• Ensure the smooth completion of the Right to Manage process
• Ensure all leaseholders get the benefits of Right to Manage  (by ensuring elections for Directors and resident consultation on all major decisions) 
• After RTM – set the new managing agent (Urang) a target to reduce the average service charge by 15% 
• Challenge Building Safety Act Costs (R and R budget these at 400K which is many multiples of charges at other developments such as VISTA). 
• Introduce hard data monitoring on key performance indicators so that we have a rational basis to judge the performance of Urang
• Ensure fair and transparent election process for CBWRA Chair & committee members and DIRECTORS OF THE RIGHT TO MANAGE COMPANY. Please consider signing my petition in support of this    https://chng.it/dsxcXhx9BP 

The election timetable is as follows:

·       Call for manifestos – 19 March

·       Deadline for applications – 2 April

·       Voting opens – 2 April

·       Meet and greet – 6 April 11-12 at Scott House on the BPS site

·       Voting closes – 12 April, 9pm

·       Result announced – 15 April

·       Chair takeover (if a new Chair is appointed) – 1 May

if you have any queries about membership or voting please contact info@cbwra.com

Please use your vote and use it wisely. Right to Manage is only half the battle – we need a democratic and accountable organisation to run RTM and to make sure it is one which listens to residents and is tolerant of different viewpoints. There must be freedom of speech on the CBW app and an end to arbitrary account closure. There is currently close to zero consultation with residents and this has to change. 

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions: Mike O’Driscoll   residents@chelseabridgewharf.org.uk    07970571197 

If you want to have a say, now and in the future, about how your service charge money  is spent, please stand up for fair elections, democracy, transparency and accountability. 

Thanks for your time

Mike O’Driscoll