Elections

For some time now, I've been talking to residents in Earl's Court about the proposed demolition of the Earl's Court complex. This is part of a massive plan for redevelopment by the developer CapCo. It would really be an entirely new neighbourhood rather than simply a housing development, which would stretch across two London Boroughs and include office and leisure facilities. The Hammersmith & Fulham side of things has had significant press coverage because, controversially, the development would mean the demolition of existing social housing. CapCo have promised to re-provide the housing in the new complex but it would mean the breakup of the existing community.

But here in Kensington, residents immediately adjacent to the existing Earl's Court complex are worried about the impact of the first stages of the development on the existing neighbourhood. That first stage, which could happen as soon as the Olympics have finished, will be the demolition of the enormous Earls Court 1. This is the part of the complex that everyone has heard of because it's the exhibition and concert venue.

The Royal Borough went into absolute panic in March about the scale of the public and press reaction to the replacement of a historic part of Portobello Road Antiques Market with a branch of a fashion chain store.

There has been widespread disbelief and downright anger on the part of local residents that RBKC has allowed the developer of the All Saints store to pierce the historic flanking wall of one of the most prominent buildings in a Conservation Area. Now, an application for retrospective planning permission for the shopfront is about to come before the Council. It strikes me that this grants the Council one final opportunity to show that it has listened to the extraordinary scale of the public opposition to the appearance of this premises which - while absolutely fine for Westfield - is entirely inappropriate to this location.

Now that the election has finally been called, it is a good moment to consider how broken our political system is. That's why I signed the Power Pledge which is a campaign for a reforming Parliament. After the mess Labour and the Conservatives have left, we really need one!

The Liberal Democrats will change politics forever and end safe seats by introducing a fair, more proportional voting system for MPs, and for the House of Lords. By giving voters the choice between people as well as parties, it means they can stick with a party but punish a bad MP by voting for someone else.

Liberal Democrats would scrap ID cards. Getting rid of this illiberal, expensive and ineffective scheme will free up money for thousands more police on our streets. We will also get innocent people off the DNA Database and scrap the intrusive ContactPoint database which will hold the details of every child in England.

Liberal Democrats will replace the House of Lords with a fully elected second chamber with considerably fewer members than the current House.

People should have the power to determine a new, written, constitution in a convention made up of members of the public and parliamentarians of all parties, and subject to final approval in a referendum.

Robin Meltzer is the local choice for Kensington. Robin lives in the constituency and has been campaigning on local issues for several years.

Robin ran the successful Liberal Democrat campaign for last year's Council byelection in Notting Hill, winning more votes than the Conservatives and Labour combined.

A local paper wrote that thanks to Robin's campaign, the "cosy consensus between the other two parties" has been broken.

A former BBC television producer, Robin is a member of Friends of Holland Park and of Liberty, the human rights organisation.

Robin said: "Kensington deserves an MP who actually lives here and stands up residents who have been taken for granted for far too long."

PROTECTING OUR LOCAL SHOPS & SMALL BUSINESSES

Kensington's blend of independent shops is under threat from chain stores. The Liberal Democrats would give local authorities new power to prevent areas like Portobello Road from being taken over by clone shops. Robin Meltzer is campaigning against the Council's unfair and inconsistent planning decisions especially the waving through of controversial plans to replace market stalls with chain stores.

ACTION ON HOUSING

There is a shortfall of 3950 affordable homes per year in our Borough, so Robin Meltzer iscampaigning for all new developments to include affordable housing. "The list of upcoming developments waved through by the Council with no affordable housing on-site is shameful," says Robin. "The Commonwealth Institute, the Odeon Kensington, Holland Park playground - all these developments will contain only the mostexpensive property. No homes for teachers, police officers, nurses and other local key workers. We must reverse this trend."

ACTION ON SCHOOLS

Robin Meltzer was the only candidate to speak out against the Council's decision to SELL OFF the playground of Holland Park School, the only Comprehensive school in the Borough, reducing the size of the overall site. The resulting development will tower over Holland Park.Robin also led the Lib Dem campaign for a new community secondary school in North Kensington. The new school is finally going ahead, probably in Walmer Road.