Car Washing

[nick]

I would be interested to learn drivers' reactions to the imminent removal of the Car Wash machine, from the garage.

We are all responsible for making our own contributions to the Square's good looks - by for instance keeping our front-door furniture and windows spic and span - and car park users have always been asked to contribute similarly, by keeping their cars reasonably clean, to prevent the basement from looking like a scrap yard.

Drivers have been able to do this, by means of the self-funding car wash machine. Unfortunately however, this facility is about to be removed.

I am sure that we will be told that this is being done to save on precious water resources. This argument might not be so applicable in this case however, given that the Square pumps its own water from its own artesian wells and indeed, plays its own part (as do the bore holes on the Battersea Power Station site that pump water directly into the Thames) in making a positive contribution to lowering London's water table - that has been rising in certain Thames-side locations, to a worrying degree, as a consequence of the capital's de-industrialization.

We might also be told that the machine was costly to run - notwithstanding the fact that it is self-funding!

Nope. Sorry Mantilla. The only reason that tenants are going to lose this facility lies in the fact that once the car park staff are fired at the end of this month and the car park is left an entirely de-manned, dark and potentially dangerous environment as a consequence, there will be nobody available to hand-out tokens!

Come on guys: You try to reassure us all by telling us that the Security Office will remain permanently manned. Why not charge the security office with handing out the tokens instead?

Then again, if the responsibility of looking after a few tokens proves too much, what about installing a hose reel and a bucket in the wash bay instead?

[tobyw]

I'm not a driver but when i go and collect my bicycle everyday from the car park area I have never seen anyone using this facility. Even at weekends.

Not sure I understand the argument on retaining this wasteful water facility to lower the London water table?

Is there scope for turning this into a communal cycle hire area for residents instead just like the fabby street car station. Probably an easy win for the management to generate the same return on a much better facility for us residents and a lot more enviro friendly than the car cleaning function.

Cant wait for someone to get an electric car to park in the green bay however - presumably a well done to the Dolphin Club Tenants Association for lobbying to get this installed - just needs one of the more wealthy residents brave enough to dump their gas guzzler now!!

[nick]

The water table issue is an interesting one and has specific relevance to Dolly Square:

As a consequence of the loss of heavy, water-using industry from London (e.g power stations, printing, gasworks etc...), many of the direct boreholes that these businesses used, that drew water from the London water table - rather than from outside the area (where most of London's mains usage is sourced) have been capped.

Others are being capped (e.g. the Savoy's, Thames House's etc...) because they are too costly to operate.

As a consequence, London is in the unique position these days, of suffering from a rising water table and this is worrying engineers, utilities councils and property owners. For instance, TFL expend a large chunk of their energy draw on pumping out their increasingly soggy tube tunnels 24/7 and groundwater penetration is a worsening problem for many structures and conduits in the areas where the water table is higest (for instance around Vauxhall and Lambeth bridges).

This has become such a serious problem, that Thames Water have had to drill new boreholes (such as around Battersea Power Station) that pump water straight out the acquifer and into the Thames, to control this rise. They don't shout it to the world however, because it appears, on the face of it, to run rather counter to their "water conservation" messages.

The long and the short of it? Each time you flush your loo in Dolly, you are helping keep London's tube tunnels and basements drier!

[Brendan Martin]

Closing the car wash is indicative of Mantilla's true attitude to tenants. When it comes to Mantilla, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do instead.

Sorry to disappoint you, Toby, but the DSTA did not lobby for the electric car bays.

[nick]

The recent turnaround in attitude is indeed a shame.
Mantilla have done such a grand job of improving all Dolly Square tenants' lives, by catching-up on the previous landlord's maintenance backlog and improving all our common parts, gardens, restaurant, health club etc... - at no expense to tenants.
Sadly, circumstances have moved on in the world since they took over:
- Financing (of the building's acquisition, refurbishment and running costs) is harder to come by and more expensive for Westbrook, as a consequence of the credit squeeze.
- Property markets have shifted, reducing the building's value and hence what can be borrowed against it and how much value can be added by further improvements.
- Heating and lighting costs have exploded and as a consequence of c. 45% of the tenants' B leases, these increases cannot be passed on to the longer-standing tenants, via increased rents and/or new service charges.
I fear that the honeymoon might be over.
Before we all hark back to the "good old days" however, don't forget that even before the credit crunch and the explosive rise in oil prices, the old landlord was finding it hard to meet the costs of maintaining the building's deteriorating fabric and was, as a consequence, finding it ever harder to re-let vacant flats. I dread to think how it would have coped with the current markets.