The reforms which CBWRA maintained for 2 years were just around the corner are unlikely to materialise Throughout 2021 while on the CBWRA committee, attempts to discuss Right to Manage in committee meetings… Continue reading
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
An estate agent distributing Chair election voting links? While voting is live? And openly supporting one candidate? Yep, perfectly normal… nothing to see here… CBWRA requested Garton-Jones Estate Agents to ‘intervene’ in Chair… Continue reading
Berkeley Homes today confirm they have given CBWRA notice that their recognition will be withdrawn. The reason is not (as CBWRA have been desperately trying to say) anything to do with me –… Continue reading
. We should of course be recognised but we also need to get our house in order and start behaving like a normal residents’ association. A Residents’ Association which is not behaving in a democratic way – which has never held elections for committee and which has to be dragged into elections for Chair (while insulting the residents who are asking for elections) has never held a valid AGM, may have some issues to address..
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
Thanks to all who attended these meetings and to Canonbury Estate Management for providing expert advice. The standout points are
i) The advice given by Stephen Thompson/Roger Southam/Charlie Garton-Jones/CBWRA that Right to Manage for the whole development is not possible because of the supreme court judgement of First Port v Settlers Court is categorically WRONG. David Breare of Canonbury added that in his view, any competent advisor/consultant would come to the same conclusion (i.e. it’s not a grey area),
This confirms Canonbury’s written advice of June 2022 https://chelseabridgewharf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/canonbury-summary-advice-1.6.22-correspondence-1522672.pdf
Residents should recall that this judgement of First Port v Settler’s Court was (according to Mr Thompson) the reasons why Right to Manage was not pursued at the start of 2022 and why the management contract retendering was chosen (this failed in Sep. 2022, in my view wasting up to £15,000 of residents’ money).
ii) The current position of CBWRA (after 2 years of saying that Right to Manage is not possible) is that they will investigate RTM on a block by block basis. Canonbury were equally clear that this will not work because all blocks are linked by an underground car park, and therefore cannot be considered as separate for the purposes of RTM (they are not vertically separated).
Since 2021, Garton-Jones estate agents has enjoyed an amazing deal with the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association for exclusive use of the ‘estate agent’ page on the Chelsea Bridge Wharf for just £504 a year. This is interesting given that Garton-Jones’ 1.75% commission on a single apartment sale (at say £600,000) would be worth £10,500.)
Expressions of interest in buying the CBW app estate agent advertising slot from at least one other major estate agent have apparently been ignored, which to my mind is extremely worrying. The value of the advertising can only be determined by market testing/competition. It is not in residents’ interest to continue to give this advertising to Garton-Jones estate agent at what seems like an extremely cheap rate.
Mr Charlie Garton-Jones was a member of the CBWRA committee until Jan.22 and retains links with the CBWRA committee (he is apparently on the so called (and unelected) ‘oversight committee’ and is responsible for organising the elections for Chair /committee).
