The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate is a 7 acre site and the home to 500 families in a peaceful ‘gated’ socially integrated community of intrinsic beauty, historic, social and cultural significance.

The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate is located on the Northern End of Ladbroke Grove, London W10, encompassing Barbly Road, Exmoor Street and St Charles Square. The new Portobello Crossrail Station will be opening on Barbly Road in the near future.

The rise in property prices in North Kensington due to Crossrail and the ‘Proposed’ development sites (The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton paramount due to its’ prime location at £900-£1200 per square foot) - incurs a substantial ‘Increase’ of ‘market value’ of the new Homes on the Estate thus making them un-affordable homes to the middle income earner and for Council tenants, with higher service charges and diminished owner/tenant and inheritance rights.

De-canting, demolishing existing buildings and rehousing the current community of the Balfour of Burleigh and Treverton Estate - will be at the Extreme cost to Taxpayers and a detriment to Society, financially and otherwise, and to immeasurable cost at the well-fare of the Community at large – not-withstanding the Mental Health issues invoked upon such proposals being adopted.

All those affected will be moved on and ‘out-priced’ as a consequence of the proposed ‘Development Regeneration Opportunities’ and therefore cause a vacuum in the Notting Hill Community and particularly Portobello Road, as the Residents who service and nourish it, the people who create the social and urban fabric that has made it such a successful multi-cultural community to date, will no longer be there.

The Notting Hill Carnival attracting over a Million visitors per annum would need to be relocated due to the Demolition of the site and RBKC has been desperate to move it to Hyde Park for years. This would kill Carnival, strip the livelihoods of the thousands of people who work tirelessly all year round and could ill-afford the ‘costs of hosting the event in Hyde Park’. The Egalitarian spirit Carnival fosters replaced by a Disneyland Mockery, touted for tourists and the Vibrancy of the neighbourhood killed in one swift move.

Currently the ‘Gasworks’ site next to Portobello Crossrail has been earmarked for development and will provide 4,500 additional homes to the area – the increase in population on the desired Gasworks site will have a huge impact on the infrastructure currently servicing North Kensington, with Ladbroke Grove and country-styled side roads already under incredible pressure from traffic at peak times and continual ‘Diverted routes’ due to continual road works.

The proposed site will also adhere conclusively to the Government objectives for 10,000 new homes across the Borough within the next ‘ten years’– and with considered planning, could include ‘disused’ sites currently available in RBKC and environs, to ‘REGENERATE’ without the demolition of sites that have been created for social-housing adhering to the post-war report (Dudley Report 1944) and have been successful in the aims of achieving the post-war vision for Britain and its prospects and prosperity of such visions with homes designed for the social good that were built to last for ‘200 Years’.

The post-war estate layout was founded on the principle of the ‘neighbourhood unit’ – a planning concept which promoted the development of self-contained communities, fostering, ‘a co-operative spirit between the social classes...to overcome the social and civic difficulties from which the large city suffers’ and the planning and construction of the Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate has been and continues to be successful in its objectives.

The Royal Borough Cabinet Council has not been transparent, honest or fair with its dealings with the Community and insist that Regeneration plans are “mere proposals”. The first TMO Feasibility Report of the site was in 2013 (cost unknown) and the first Architecture to tender the project was in 2015 at a cost of £3 million.

RBKC have already invested Millions of Pounds into the procurement process of The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate and have already bought buildings in Hewer Street and negotiated the deals for the acquisition of the Victorian Parade on Ladbroke Grove.

The TOTAL investment for 30 years across the whole Estate for maintenance and repairs is £5 million.

RBKC has spent at least double this amount on the ‘Procurement Process for Regeneration’ and until March 2017, have not given residents the option to continue with the Maintenance program, which should have been an Option from the outset of this process which began ‘Consultation’ with residents in Autumn 2014 (via a newsletter on RBKC website) and is the only Option to be considered.

Local Business’ and Residents who will be affected by the plans to Regenerate have not been consulted or aware of the proposals (including the Local Transport Authority, the Fire Station, The Eagle pub, Lloyds Williamson school, St Charles Catholic Primary and Sixth Form College, Sion Manning school, the Carmelite Monastry, St Charles Hospital and Centre of Wellbeing and all residents on the Estate on the side of St Charles Square and residents on Ladbroke Grove. Those who are aware are Outraged and in Full Opposition of Regeneration.

The Disaster of the New Build Portobello Village has taken away the heart of Goldbourne Road and the exquisite parklands of Athloe Gardens. Catalyst’s disgraceful workmanship (collapsing ceilings a theme for both social housed and privately owned property’s) and the unacceptable treatment of residents and families has bordered on breaching and directly contravening Human Rights.

Twelve RBKC Councillors (who have remained anonymous) - will make a decision in July 2017 about the Fate of our Futures. Not ONE Councillor has been to the Estate to consult directly with the residents about how their decision will affect them. Not ONE Councillor has had any experience living on a social-housing Estate, the issues that surround social housing and thus, what an Exemplary Utopia that The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate is.

Not ONE Councillor has given a valid reason for Regeneration citing deprivation and ‘fear of crime’ amongst their flimsy reasons. The new ‘Special Needs unit’ at Barbly School will provide 12 Special Needs school places and one of the reasons the RBKC validates its claims for the “NEED” of Regeneration of The Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate.

Not one Resident or Resident Representative has been invited to attend the meeting, or indeed has been informed when, where and what date the meeting is and who the Councillors are - and thus our Fates sealed behind closed doors in ‘Minutes’.

Our local Ward Councillors are mis-informed and to the date of this petition, were unaware that the Regeneration plans were still going ahead.

The Government Estate Regeneration National Strategy on December 2016 executive summary states: ‘Estate regeneration can transform neighbourhoods and people’s lives through the delivery of high quality, well designed housing and improved public space. Estate regeneration can offer new opportunities for residents by connecting schemes with wider redevelopment initiatives and has potential to deliver thousands of additional homes over the next 10 to 15 years.

The national strategy Funding accompanies £140 million of loan funding, £30 million of enabling grant and £2million of capacity building funding being made available to support estate regeneration…There is also support available for pre-construction activities such as demolition and moving residents.”

The Government Advisory panel members include Tony Pidgely, Chairman of the Berkeley Group, Dominic Grace, head of London Residential Development at estates agents Savills and Peter Vernon, chief executive, Grosvenor Britain. These commercially vested interests indicate the profit motives lying behind the so-called “Regeneration”.

Save our Children’s futures’, our Elderly and those in Care, our homes, gardens, trees, wildlife and livelihoods, as we say NO to Regeneration and YES to the Continued Maintenance proposal for the next 30 years, upholding the Balfour of Burleigh Treverton Estate as the area of intrinsic beauty, historic, social and cultural significance, it is.