About this blog

Ramblings, thoughts, facts and opinions about political things - starting point council tenant participation with my land-lord Camden council and council tenant reps plus other housing issues, and whatever.


NOTE: I believe this account has been illegally hacked. Little clues have been left for me. They like playing games.

Sunday 5 June 2022

Municipal Corporations - Local Governance

WORK IN PROGRESS


[notes: I can't find this great reform act of 1832 or the below mentioned 1835 Act - on the website legislation.gov.uk, not even under the year 1832 HEREI've also checked the years 1831 - 1839, just in case and I still can't find such acts even ones that have been noted as repealed.

I can though find 2 Municipal Corporations Acts of 1882 and 1883 which I will link to below]


http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/politics/municip.htm

" The 1835 Municipal Corporations Act 

After the passing of the 1832 Reform Act the next logical step in the reform of the constitution was that of the Municipal Corporations

There were about 250 of these towns, each of which had received a Royal Charter at some time in the past to have its own council or corporation. There were great variations in how the corporations were chosen and how they functioned but in over 180 of them, only the members of the Corporation were allowed to vote. Normally they re-elected themselves or brought friends and relatives onto the council. The Commission found generally that power was held by a small number of people because so few townsfolk could vote. 

They also found evidence of corruption with the council members becoming rich at the expense of the town's inhabitants.

Corporation funds are frequently expended in feasting and in paying the salaries of unimportant officers. In some cases, in which the funds are expended on public works, an expense has been incurred beyond what would be necessary if due care had been taken. These abuses often originate in negligence ... in the opportunity afforded of obliging members of their own body, or the friends and relations of such members.

Parliamentary Papers (1835) XXIII. Royal Commission on Municipal Corporations

The corporations fixed the local bye-laws and taxes and it was impossible for the majority of rate-payers to remove unpopular councils because they could not be voted out. Most of the corporations used their privileges for personal and party advantage: the majority were Tory. Councils ignored matters like water supplies, drainage and street cleansing which they were supposed to oversee.

Even worse than this, most of the new industrial towns had not been recognised as boroughs and had no corporation at all. In these towns, living conditions deteriorated and the overcrowded slums were a threat to public health. In October 1831 the first cholera epidemic broke out in Sunderland and spread rapidly throughout the country. By January 1832 cholera had broken out both in Edinburgh and London.

Following the same procedures that had been adopted for the investigation of the Poor Laws, in July 1833 the Whig government set up a Royal Commission was to investigate the working of local councils. The Commission's secretary was Joseph Parkes, a radical lawyer. 285 towns were investigated, most of which were found to be unsatisfactory. As a result of the Commission's findings, a Bill was drawn up and brought to the House of Commons by Lord John Russell in June 1835.

The Bill went through the House of Commons without too much difficulty but the House of Lords proved more difficult. 

Most of the closed corporations were controlled by Tories and the Tory peers claimed that the Bill was an attack on privileges and property. They had used the same reasons to oppose the abolition of rotten boroughs during the 1832 Reform Act campaign. The Lords made some amendments to the Bill but, thanks to the efforts of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, the Tory Lords were restrained from throwing out the Bill altogether. The legislation went onto the Statute Book in September 1835.

Terms of the Act

  • All closed corporations were abolished
  • Borough councils were to be elected by all male ratepayers who had lived in the town for three years
  • Councillors were elected for three years at a time and one-third of the council was to be elected annually
  • Councillors would choose the mayor, who would hold office for one year
  • Councillors would choose a group of Aldermen who would hold office for six years
  • Each borough was to have a paid town clerk and treasurer. Accounts were to be properly audited
  • Councils were required to form a police force
  • Councils, if they so wished, could take over social improvements such as proper drainage and street cleaning
  • Towns and cities that had no council could apply for incorporation if they so wished

Comment

The Act provided a vast improvement over the previous system, which was haphazard and disorganised. It also established the principal of elected town councils. Progress was very slow but the Act at least established the machinery that would enable future reforms to be carried out in the towns. However, the legislation did have several failings:

  • The Act did not compel the new councils to make social improvements. Consequently, by 1848 only twenty-nine boroughs had taken any action in terms of public health
  • Many towns failed to apply for incorporation because the procedure was complicated and expensive. In 1848 there were still sixty-two large towns without councils.
  • The Act mainly benefited the middle classes. Very few working men were wealthy enough to be ratepayers."  Source  http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/politics/municip.htm


Municipal Corporations Act 1882 HERE   

Municipal Corporations Act 1883  HERE

Thursday 7 April 2022

Camden Council Elections 5 May 2022

                                 London Wide Local Government Council Elections 5 May 2022


taken from https://www.camden.gov.uk/local-council-elections-may-2022

Because of recent Boundary Changes there are now 20 wards 
with 15 wards having 3 elected councillors 
and 5 wards with 2 elected councillors
instead of 18 wards with 3 elected councillors, in the London Borough of Camden. 
I have put a 2 with the ward name - of those wards with 2 councillors. 

There has also been some ward name changes.

Map of whole Borough as it was and as it is now HERE  and below



Wards   Click on name for list of candidates                           

Belsize                           

Bloomsbury                                          

Camden Square                                                    

Camden Town                                                           

Fortune Green                                      

Frognal                                                                           

Gospel Oak                                           

Hampstead Town    [updated 3 June 2022: there will be a by-election in Hampstead Town [unknown date] ward due to local labour association putting up a candidate who won seat in this ward, but who appears to have been a dud and has stepped down]   

Thursday 7 July 2022  https://www.camden.gov.uk/hampstead-town-by-election Linda Chung, LD                             

Haverstock                                                      

Highgate                                                            

Holborn and Covent Garden                        

Kentish Town North                                                         

 Kentish Town South                                                         

Kilburn                                  

Kings Cross                           

Primrose Hill                                                                      

Regents Park                  

South Hampstead                                                                   

St Pancras and Somers Town               

West Hampstead                     

 

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Tues 12/12/2023 

from Nov 2021 

The Strange case of Lazzaro Pietragnoli - former elected member of Camden Council who was first elected onto the Council as a labour party member -  at Camden Town with Primrose Hill ward by-election May 2012 - he replaced Thomas Neumark who moved to the United States twitter name was @phillmum 


https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/21327675.unacceptable-camden-councillor-resigns-secret-twitter-account/

23 Nov 2021 






18 Nov 2021 - CNJ  Former mayor Lazzaro Pietragnoli resigns as Labour's chief whip over ‘abusive' Twitter account

22 Nov 2021 - CNJ  Lazzaro Pietragnoli resigns from council over ‘abusive' social media account

25 Nov 2021 - CNJ I’m sorry for fake account's online abuse’: Lazzaro Pietragnoli quits Town Hall

                   Letters Behaviour is no surprise 

PS apparently the Twitter account @PHillmum which Lazzaro Pietragnoil [LP] had been running/twitting from had been around for 5 years - so that makes it sometime in 2017 it was created. 

Thursday 10 March 2022

Camden Council Landlord Services

 work in progress                               Notes: noise log and other things 

      

                    List of  Housing Scrutiny Committee  meetings since 17 July 2014         

DRAFT

https://www.camden.gov.uk/home

https://www.camden.gov.uk/housing 

https://www.camden.gov.uk/community-safety1

https://www.camden.gov.uk/decision-making-in-camden



Letters and things from front line staff 


Notes: 

14 march 2022

camden council housing officer has started her nonsense with me again

.tenant in flat C has again been making malicious reports to her about me and she doesnt even ask me for confirmation or not before she sends me emails

its sort of like social media fall outs where someone says something about someone else and the person they say it to doesnt bother to at least try and get it confirmed or not before they kick off or whatever

16 March 2022

C came in recently and slammed both doors and I heard her muttering - apparently she has been reporting me every day to housing office for this that and the other - and housing officer who i now feel is harassing me hangs onto her every word it seems. This is 'root cause' is it? [ref to angela spooner of YT 28 March 2019]


i'll put up the letters she has sent to me - i think it was last year she first sent general letters. i can hear C above me speaking loudly above my bedroom and banging about.

she had replaced the previous housing estate officer - the one who had this put in youtu.be/_D2DeGbR4r4 in collusion with A and C yet I wasnt informed/ didnt know about it until it had be installed - was like that for a year or so




The below letter sent out by Housing officer is to do with  agenda item 8 Implementation of clear communal area policy to manage the risk of fire for Camden Councils housing stock HERE 

of the Monday 28 June 2021 meeting of the Fire and Safety and Compliance advisory panel HERE 


7 june 2021 - 3 pages. apparently also sent to C and A




mary mcgowen director of housing management london borough of camden 14 june 2021 deadline to remove the obstructions etc. bookcase had nothing to do with me [as far as Im aware flat C] come 14 june 2021 it was still there//
just checked my recording - bookcase was still there 29 sept 2021 - covid given as excuse by HO, who even walked past it when she came to property to put letters under my flat door - not able to multi-task i guess - fire hazard not as important as the letters?



As you see in the above photo the 'take me away note' that I didn't notice at first was placed under the 'no smoking' sign and not above the bookcase[b/c] where it should have been put.

I removed the note and placed it above the B/C and someone removed it and i didnt see it again- flat C i think




    By Sept 2021 I was being sent the above such letters - aside from the 'asb' that is being alleged
the letter also implies that "alleged banging to disturb both the residents of A and B"

The way some of these letters are worded [put together] seems in my view to be a bit messy, thrown together one could say, but then one could also say that its deliberate to cause confusion.

Despite DC knowing that out of the 3 flats in the property, only 2 [mine B and C above] are occupied
she not only implies i'm disturbing the other 2 "residents" but she writes it as A and B when it should have been A and C - understand what I'm saying?


********************************************



In regards to the court order about access to my flat for housing repairs to check for leaks in my bathroom - the order ran out 7 feb 2022 and the same week I let them in [under duress and in pain of punishment from HMCTS if I didn't] 2x it took ///

1st time was plumber and woman from holmes rd - she seemed friendly enough to me, polite etc - heo nowhere in sight though i did hear she was about somewhere. plumber came back on his 2 days later to finish what he had started. // plumber seemed nice enough.

he found some water under my bath in the top corner where taps are - i saw the water. He also saw as I did, that the waste pipe from the bath to joined pipe under the bath, was a bit loose - he tugged at the joined pipe part after having turned on the water in the bath //

he disconnect the 2 pipes and - water came out and there was some water on the floorboard. I says - this was apparently proof of a leak - i says but you just tugged etc at it no wonder there is water there. Anyway with holmes rd deport woman standing watching him and me //

/watching him [but I couldnt see all of what he was doing as he was bent over with his back to me - maybe housing repairs woman saw] he says he sees water at the corner on floorboard. Ok I thought but that that doesnt mean its a leak and that its been a repeat thing ///

//and that it has seeped through to flat below. the loose pipe was replaced, the tiles from where bath taps are - where replaced with plastic. The 2 council tilers who did around the bath [ this was under duress on my part] ///

// didnt do as good a job as i thought - nice lads though, plus i was given a new shower rail and shower curtain. wow the landlord splashing out i see.. shower curtian too long though so wasnt used there but did come in handy for covering over my cycle which is chained //

/up outside. Also a new board was put on the front of the bath - ply board. i'll put up some photo's later. Nice lad.



WORK IN PROGRESS

https://youtu.be/g_nxiv0h6GY

19 Dec 2017 




                                    https://youtu.be/fhdAy6yRs5w 

                                                28 March 2019 


the below is the mainly yt generated transcript tided up a bit - my emphasis added in bold

0:07  We currently  provide landlord services to 33, 000 households [music] 
0:16 and our residents each have their own needs and requirements from their landlord 

0:19 our vision is to make Camden a place where everyone has a chance to succeed and nobody gets left behind

0:27 to achieve this we know we need to think differently about the way we do things
       to design our services so they are focused on our citizens 
0:37 and develop an ethos that means we continuously reflect on what we are delivering and to learn and improve 
0:46 we want as a landlord to be approachable and accessible,  to listen to what matters to our residents 
which is why we have reviewed our services, we have listened and tested with our frontline staff ways of working a new model
1:01 as a result of this we have shifted from working in distinctly separate teams  and taken a different approach on issues including rent,  money and debt management repairs and neighbour issues
we are now working flexibly to understand the context of our residents lives 
1:18 and delivering a more tailored support service to those who need it 

we know that we need to focus more on tackling the root causes rather than the symptoms of problems and build a culture of reflective practice and  continuous improvement in which

1:37  as we are discovering everyday this new approach  is helping us create a landlord service 
that will build resident  and community resilience 
1:45 we know we've got a lot of work to do to build on our new approach in the future, working with other services and organisations to deliver even more effective services for our residents 
at Camden Council we have strong ambitions to ensure that by 2025 more people have a suitable home and employment, feel safe, happy and healthy and are part  of a strong networked community
2:10 please get in touch if you want to know more about working for Camden or you want to find out more about what we are doing 




16 march 2022

i know i become activated when they start with with me and can get a spurt of energy but I also get depressed/fed up with it - i feel trapped again and no-one wants to help me with getting redress/justice so i have to do it alone - mistakes an all. I might as well be a leper

when they take against you ... well you know the rest.
taking a break from this for now

well I was until C went out and slammed both doors again causing me annoyance and my cat to be spooked. Im noting some of the stuff. not that the landlord takes any notice - its very one sided.

C slammed flat door again. They think i have to take this and not say or do anything. oops i just let out some gas - that may not be allowed though if she hears it. its not smelly though.






youtube.com
Billy connelly Farting




16 march 2022
letter dated 28 feb 2022 [no ref number] sent by camden council includes a letter with danny waites name on it [head of repairs]
"Dear resident
Please be aware of scam messages claiming to be from Camden Council
Some Camden residents have been receiving bogus WhatsApp or text messages from "Housing Disrepair Helpline" pretending to be the Councils repairs service and asking people to share their personal information
These messages are not from Camden Council and you should not reply

if you receive an unexpected message claiming to be from Camden Council, contact us to check: 0 speak to our repairs team through webchat at camden.gov.uk/housing-repairs, and click the blue speech bubble from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

0 Contact your neighbourhood housing officer on 020 7974 4444 (option 3 then 3) or visit
0 Call the Camden Council Contact Centre on 020 7974 4444 from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

If you receive a text message from "Housing Disrepair Helpline" or any other suspicious messages, please report them to the cybercrime organisation, Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk

if you have received a WhatsApp or text message and have shared your personal details, report this to the police by phoning 101 Yours faithfully Danny Waite Head of Repairs



the address is: Property Management London Borough of Camden Holmes Road Depot 79 Holmes Road London NW5 3AP



Chalcots: Builder says Camden's fire safety bill is £26m over the odds hamhigh.co.uk/news/housing/b camden council

finance officers in charge i think - do they mislead cabinet members and the public? the overcharge for vital water still not paid back to tenants, denial they owe tenants the money of course yet admit profits go back into the system .. evidence of this is where?

15 march 2022
i don't think camden council is all bad, all badly behaved people etc, lots of good stuff happens [ that needs to be monitored of course to gauge outcomes].... but and this is a big BUT when things do go wrong they will deny, delay, and try and destroy - thats my experience



12 march 2022
next week - 16 March 2022 is 2 years from the date I had a heart attack in the street on my way to a dentists appointment. i part blame housing people and the 2 tenants [A and C] for this because of all the stress and upset they put me through, which still goes on



29 March 2022
A young and dynamic social housing champion is on the scene and he ain't from Camden, look him up.













CE = Chief Executive
ED = Executive Director 


CE Jenny Rowlands

Deputy CE & ED Supporting People  Martin Pratt 
ED Supporting Communities  Gillian Marston
 ED Corporate Services Jon Rowney [section 151 officer]

 Director of Public Health Camden (Interim) Piers Simey

Borough Solicitor Andrew Maughan

Director of People & Inclusion Joanna Brown

Director of Participation, Partnerships and Communications Kathryn Myers

 

3 June 2023  work in progress

Tenancy Management  - a cycle of restructuring of workforce teams and idea's - coming up with better ways of doing things and communicating these new ways to Cabinet and tenants -

Take for instance the year 2019 and the restructuring of services: tenancy issues, repairs, caretaking, general ways of doing things. Sounds/Reads good. Officers Reports that seem to have become an agenda item for every and each DMC.

Kentish Town DMC [which covers ward I live in as well as a few other wards] 

agenda item 15 Service Reports March 2019

 

DMCs are asked to note the content of the below reports.

·         Caretaking review, Landlord Review, Change to water charges: update, Welfare changes update

  Waste oil from Estates options,   Adult Social Care in Camden Council Properties


 Implementation