Category Archive: Elections

April fools? CBWRA committee’s latest and most desperate electoral manipulations. Why are they so scared of a fair and free election?

The CBWRA ‘co-chairs’ (Larisa Villa Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall) and so called ‘electoral oversight committee’ (which according to CBWRA march 24 committee meeting notes are Catherine Thome, Toby Spoerer and the former… Continue reading

CBWRA apparently OK with Rendall and Rittner’s £400,000 fire safety charges! Also in this post: New games planned to manipulate 2024 chair elections and no elections at all for Directors of the CBWRA Right to Manage company

At the end of January 2023 I reported here that Rendall and Rittner planned to hit Chelsea Bridge Wharf with a budgeted cost of £400,000 for work supposedly related to the Building Safety… Continue reading

Residents force CBWRA to abandon closure of the CBW app – still no procedure to prevent arbitrary app account closure

CBWRA made a unilateral decision to close the CBW app a few weeks ago, supposedly because it was ‘unsustainable’ at a cost of £5k per annum (which is roughly what they have left… Continue reading

El Presidentes say elections would threaten stability of Banana Republic and will stay in office beyond their elected term

At the so called ‘Leaseholder forum’ on 24th Jan, El Presidentes (Chairs Louis Sebastian Kendall & Larissa Villar Hauser) stated that the Chair elections (due in February) will be postponed for reasons of… Continue reading

50% of leaseholders reportedly signed up for Right to Manage at Chelsea Bridge Wharf – but CBWRA denies this and still acting like a banana republic

I am pleased to relate that according to information I have received, the 50% threshold for serving Right to Manage notices on the freeholders at Chelsea Bridge Wharf has been reached or is… Continue reading

Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association is Derecognised by Berkeley Homes – and why it matters

In February 2023, CBWRA was given 6 months’ notice by the main CBW freeholder (Berkeley Homes) that they would be derecognised. Despite that notice period, CBWA have not been able to satisfy Berkeley… Continue reading

CBWRA have proved they cannot run fair elections – We need independent electoral oversight

Those who were supposed to be ensuring a fair electoral process actively undermined it by initiating Garton-Jones’ biased email to 400 + leaseholders, while voting was live.

Update on Special General Meeting 12th September – two important motions passed despite improper voting procedures, CBWRA’s attempts to supress discussion and chronically low resident engagement

Many thanks to those who supported the motions I put forward for this meeting which focussed on freedom of speech on the CBW app, trying to ensure fair elections for the future and also trying to ensure that Right to Manage actually delivers increased power to residents not just to a handful of people on an unelected/unfairly elected committee. The meeting also included a vote on ‘ratification’ (i.e. not an election) of the committee and a new constitution. Two of the five motions I proposed were passed.

These motions (in plain language) were that:

That no residents CBW app account can be closed in an arbitrary manner without any due process (as was the case with the closure of my account in May 2022). The closure or threat of closure of CBW app accounts has carted a ‘chilling effect’ on the CBW app which means that residents are afraid to say what they think or to be critical of the CBWRA committee in any way.

That there will be quarterly meetings with the new managing agent (Urang) assuming that RTM foes ahead and they are appointed – the meetings will e hybrid (face to face with the option to attend online) and ALL residents will be welcome not just leaseholders.

The CBWRA Annual General Meeting April 2023.

*CBWRA plans to spend huge sums on new fountains *no meaningful response on massive service charge increases * CCTV installed in block foyers with no consultation *no action on management audit

In summary, dear CBWRA, thank you for the work that (some) of the committee are doing, but could I respectfully suggest that you please stop trying to blow smoke up the residents’ rear ends and start behaving like a normal democratic residents’ association, then we might actually get somewhere as a community of engaged residents. Even the CBWRA home page is not being straight with us – ‘a board of elected residents’?. No one on the committee is elected apart from the co-Chairs and there are many aspects of that which are questionable to say the least.

2023 CBWRA Chair Elections: Unfair by any reasonable measure

Grossly unfair elections – again! The 2023 CBWRA Chair elections were unfair for a number of reasons Two candidates stood jointly, thus pooling their votes, in a massive and clear violation of the… Continue reading