In Law, a parish continues, and a precinct and its court leet are the same; they continue, unless abolished. No Act of Parliament has abolished the Precinct Meetings; this can be seen in the case of the Court of Chivalry, which convened after a gap of 200 years; the first task of the court when convening was to establish that it did, in fact, exist, and still had jurisdiction. This court was accidentally left off the list of ancient courts that had their judicial powers abolished by the Administration of Justice Act 1977; this act also makes no mention of Courts of Wardmote and Precinct, which are the equivalent in the City of London of Hundred Courts Leet or Sherrif's tourn, and the minor courts leet that are Views of Frankpledge (but are not these courts, though similar, and are not named).

Security issues on Middlesex Street Estate; there was a food delivery hijack last night (10.04.2020) and items ( high quality terracotta plant holder with rare seeds from Peru) were stolen from outside 10a PT.

Residents are concerned that the estate can be accessed freely from the basement car park, as the security doors are not functional.

Residents have been reporting harrassment by local beggars and homeless people, there have now been thefts reported on the estate, and the reported hijacking of a food delivery, are indicators of a more unstable environment.

I understand that certain types of works cannot be done during the lockdown; if, however, it is possible to temporarily fix the issues on the estate, this would be highly appreciated.

The Court of Common Council is responsible for looking after this building, and therefor responsible for the security of the residents, in its capacity as a local authority.

Is it acceptable that the estate has been left open to the public and vagrants for such an extended period of time?

The Court of Precinct Mote would like to set up a clothes bank in space we have been donated in the basement carpark - but because of security issues, it seems too dangerous to use it, as homeless people access the area and sleep down there; and in the current crisis, they have been displaying more aggression than usual.

The Precinct has been heavily involved in setting up the Square Mile Food Bank. The Headborough is in charge of the data consolidation and systematisation for Portsoken Ward, and designed the GDPR compliant data collection system.

The majority of referrals to the Food Bank for Portsoken Ward have, to date, come via the Court of Precinct Mote, as we have actively send leaflets and newsletters to the inhabitants, notifying them of the existence of the service.

PRECINCT WHATSAPP GROUP

The Precinct has set up a whatsapp group in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Please contact the Headborough for more information, or if you want to be added.

Evan Millner 07957 485365 evanmillner@gmail.com

CORONAVIRUS

INFORMATION IN LIFTS

The CoL has a general policy of allowing no posters to be put up inside the lifts. After representations by the Headborough, this restriction has been removed for the duration of the current crisis, with the proviso that notices placed in the lifts by the Headborough must bear the Corporation of London Crest, or come from the NHS/Public Health England.

STERILE WIPES

The Precinct Headborough will continue to provide free sterile wipes in the lifts for surface cleaning for the duration of this crisis. The wipes are 70% alcohol Please use them in the lifts, and to wipe down public door handles. These are distributed daily to : Dispenser at base of Petticoat Tower, and the three working lifts on the Square. Each wipe is soaked in a 75% alcohol solution, giving a final 70% concentration on the wipe. Each wipe is individually packaged in covid-19 protective conditions.

MASK MAKING CIRCLE

There is now a mask making circle.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

07590 549 607 (Ian)

07834 342479 (Jason)

07828 297699 (Sharon)

PRECINCT MOTE COURT

We continue to gather documents and sources relevant to the Precinct Meeting; most of these are purely of historical interest.

Standard Cyclopedia of Political, Constitutional and Forensic Knowledge Vol 3 London 1853 - 'Leet'

The Holkham MS. of the Anglo-Saxon customary law says :—" A tithing (there called decimatio) contains, according to local usage, ten, seventy, or eighty men, who are all bound (debent) to be pledges (fidejussores) for each other. So that if any of them be accused (calumpuiam patitur), the rest must produce him in court, and if he deny the offence, he is to have lawful purgation by the tithing (i.e. by their swearing to their belief of his innocence). A tithing is in some places called a ward, as forming one society, subject to observation or inspection within a town or hundred. In some places it is called 'borch,' that is, pledges, for the reasons above stated. In others it is called tithing (in the original decimatio), because it ought to contain ten persons at the least." Leets are either public or private.

Our WARDMOTE COURT is a Public Court Leet, and is summoned by precept by the Lord Mayor.

The Public Leet is an assembly held in each of the larger divisions of the county, called a hundred, at which all freemen who are resiants within the hundred are bound to attend in person or by their representatives. These representatives were the reeves or chiefs of their re- spective tithings, whether designated by that or by any of the other appellations, each of whom was accompanied by four good and lawful men of, and elected by, the tithing which deputed them.

THE PRECINCT

The tenants within the precincts of a private leet, whether in boroughs, towns, or manors, formed a body politic wholly independent of the tourn or leet of the hundred; (This is why the Precinct Mote can be summoned by the residents without a precept from the Lord Mayor) whilst such upland or unprivileged towns as had not been formed into or included within any private leet, still appeared, each by its tithing-man and reeve, and four men of the tithing, and formed part of the body politic of the hundred. Each of these communities appears to have exercised most of those rights which it has of late years been supposed could not exist without a royal incorporation.

HEADBOROUGH

The Precinct is like a manor, and the Headborough somewhat like the Lord of the Manor. (The History of Manchester, Whitaker, pg 145)

The Headborough is President of a Tithing, or Friborg, which is our Precinct.

Indeed, many Precincts referred to their Chairman as 'President'.

This position is distinct from the position of constable.

The duty of inspecting a decennary or tithing was called a View of Frank-pledge, the freeborrows having received from their Norman conquerors the designation well known in Normandy of frank- pledges. The principal or eldest of these freeborrows, and as such the person first sworn, who was denominated sometimes the tithing-man or tithing-head, some- times the headborough or chief-pledge, sometimes the borsholder or borsalder

(borhes-alder, or senior or ruler of the pledges), and sometimes the reeve, was especially responsible for the good con- duct of each of his co-pledges, and ap- pears to have had an authority analogous to that still exercised by the constable, an officer elected by the resiants for the pre- servation of the peace within the district that constitutes the ieet, tithing, or con- stablewick. This officer is in many places called the headborough, which designation, as well as those of borsholder and tithing-man.

See also: The Justice of the Peace, and Parish Officer, Volume 1, Burns, page 616

Borsholders (which is the other general name, and doth contain within it the meaning of tyrhingmen, boroheads, headborows, and chief pledges,) is a word compounded of the Saxon borge, borrow, or borhoe, a pledge, and ealder, the elder, chief or head; and borshealder in one word doth mean the chief or head of sureties or pledges. For the understanding whereof it is to be remembered, that by the ancient laws of this realm (before the coming of Kind William the Conqueror) it was ordained for the more sure keeping of the peace, and for the better repressing of theives and robbers, that all freeborn men should cast themselves into several companies, by ten each compnay; and that every of those ten men of the company should be surety and pledge for the forthcoming of his fellows; so that if any harm were done by any of these ten against the peace, then the rest of the ten should be amerced; if he of their company that did the harm should fly, and were not forthcoing to answer to that wherewith he should be charged. And for this cause, the companies are yet in some places of England called boroes, of the said word borge, borrow, or borhoe, signifying a pledge or surety; and in other places they are called tythings, because they contain (as hath been said) the number of ten men with their families. And even as ten times ten do make an hundred, so because it was then also appointed that ten of these companies should at certain times meet together for their matters of greater weight, therefore that general assembly, or court, was and yet is called a hundred....Now whereas every one of these tythings or boroes did use to make choice of one man amongst themselves to speak and to do in the name of them all, he was therefore in some places called the tythingman, in other places the boroes elder, (whom we now call borsholder) in other places the borohead or headborow, and in some other places the chief pledge, which last name doth plainly expound the other three that are next before it; for head or elder of the boroes and chief of the pledges are all one....in some places at this day there is both a tything man and a constable.

POWERS

It was the province of the private court-leet to repress all offences against the public peace, and to enforce the removal of all public nuisances. The leet jury may make by-laws.

SUMMONING AND FORM

This is done by the beadle crying "Oyes" (hear) three times, and then saying once, "All manner of persons who are resiant or deciners, and do owe suit royal to this leet, come in and do your suit and answer to your names, upon pain and peril which shall ensue." The bailiff then delivers to the steward a list of persons summoned as jurymen, together with the suit or resiant roll. The suit-roll is then called over, and those resiants who are absent are marked to be amerced. The bailiff then makes three other proclamations, by crying "Oyes" three times, and then saying, '• If any man will be essoigned, come in, and you shall be heard." The steward having called for the essoigns (excuses) enters them. The essoigns should regularly be adjourned to the next court for examination in the court roll or book. Suit-real must be done in person; it cannot be done by attorney; and probably it cannot be released by the lord. But the suitor may be essoigned or excused for the particular occasion, which is done generally upon the payment of an essoign penny. The constables are next examined as to their compliance with the orders received by them at the previous court. After this the leet jury is formed. This jury is chosen from the body of the suitors, and consists of not less than twelve, nor more than twenty-three. In some leets the jury continues in office for a whole year; in others the jurors are elected and discharged in the course of the day. A custom for the steward to nominate to the bailiff the persons to be summoned on the jury is valid. If a sufficient number of resiants to form a jury cannot be found, the steward has power to compel a stranger to serve, even though he be merely travelling through the district; but a woman, though a resiant, cannot be sworn. After the jury is chosen a foreman is named, who is sworn as follows:—" You shall well and truly inquire, and true presentment make, of all such articles, matters, and things as shall be given you in charge; the king's counsel, your companions', and your own, you shall keep secret and undisclosed. You shall present no man for envy, hatred, or malice; nor spare any man for fear, favour, or affection, or any hope of reward; but according to the best of your knowledge, and the information you shall receive, you shall present the truth and nothing but the truth." As soon as the foreman is sworn, and the rest of the jury, they receive a charge from the steward, pointing out the nature of their duties, and of the matters which ought to be presented. The jury make their presentments to the steward, who, in cases of treason or felony, must return the presentments (in these cases called indictments) to the justices of gaol delivery if the offenders be in custody; if they be at large, the indictments must be removed into the King's Bench by certiorari, in order that process may issue thereon. In all other cases the steward of the leet has power, upon the complaint of any party grieved by the presentment, or, on the other hand, upon any suspicion entertained as to the concealment of any offence, by non-presentment, to cause an immediate inquiry into the truth of the matter by another jury, though in the former case the more usual course now is by certiorari or traverse. A court-leet may be adjourned if the business of the particular court require it. It is not necessary that notice should be given of an order made by the leet for abating a nuisance; the party being within the jurisdiction, must take notice of it at his peril. For the same reason he is also bound to take notice of a bylaw. The ordinary profits of a court-leet are the fines, amercements, and essoign pence, and belong, in the case of a public leet or tourn, to the king; in the case of a private leet, to the grantee or lord of the leet. In a private leet also, the lord, as above mentioned, is entitled to a further payment, in the nature of a poll-tax, capitagium, or chevage, by the name of certum letae, sometimes called cert-silver, certainty-money, cert-money, and headsilver. When this payment is to be made on the day of the leet, the defaulters may be presented and amerced. For such amercement the lord may distrain; but he cannot distrain for the cert-money it

self, without a prescription to warrant such distress. In the absence of both amercement and prescription, the lord's remedy is by action of debt. Though the court-leet may now be considered as an antiquated institution in many respects, it is one of our old institutions that is characterized by many valuable features.

This letter is a reminder, in case you lost earlier information.

If you quarantine your household through illness contact: resident.involvement@cityoflondon.gov.uk OR

col-covid-19@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Please give your name, address, birthdate, and date you started.

City of London for Covid-19 cityoflondon.gov.uk

Public Health England is gov.uk/coronavirus

For 111, use https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19

Only ring 111 if you can’t get help online.

For life-threatening emergencies, call 999 for an ambulance.

THE ESTATE OFFICE

Our Housing Manager, Laurence, is home working. Matt Ring as of two days ago was still working out of the Estate Office, but behind closed doors.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH & WHATSAPP GROUP

mseneighbourhoodwatch@gmail.com

07590 549 607 (Ian) 07834 342479 (Jason) 07828 297699 (Sharon)

PRECINCT WHATSAPP GROUP – SOCIAL AND SUPPORT

https://tinyurl.com/wa8plvv

INFORMATION IN LIFTS

The Corporation of London has given the Precinct Headborough permission to place specific types of information in the lifts.

STERILE WIPES

The Precinct Headborough will continue to provide free sterile wipes in the lifts for surface cleaning for the duration of this crisis. The wipes are 70% alcohol Please use them in the lifts, and to wipe down public door handles.

CORONAVIRUS

PROVISION OF FREE STERILE WIPES IN THE LIFTS in

a. Petticoat Tower

b. Petticoat Square

The Headborough is providing alcohol wipes at the lifts in Petticoat Tower, made up to a 70% alcohol concentration as recommended by the WHO for surface sterilisation for SARS-coronavirus-2. Notices informing residents of NHS guidelines have been placed in the lifts.

PROVISION OF INFORMATION LEAFLETS IN THE LIFT

Information and guidance has been issued regarding Social Distancing and Self Isolation.

LOCKDOWN PREPARATION

A whatsapp group has been set up for the coming lockdown that we are expecting to be announced in the near future.

CURRENT ISSUES THAT HAVE COME TO OUR ATTENTION

1. Short term letting:

1.1 Wording of new leases granted to long leaseholders, to prevent AirBNB type situations; currently, if not otherwise specified in your tenancy or leasehold agreement, it is legal to let your home is if you are away temporarily, and if you do not do so for more than a total of 90 days in any year.

1.2 Query: does section 25 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 as amended by sections 44-45 of the Deregulation Act 2015 apply in the City of London?

2. Out of hours car park access:

2.1 For businesses, reduced access to the Middlesex Street Estate Car Park, due to the reduced library opening times, is becoming onerous and is causing hardship.

2.2 Why cannot access be granted out of hours for those businesses that require it?

2.3 Who sets the policy on this matter?

2.4 Is there proper consultation?

3. Motorcycles:

3.1 Regulating proper use of the motorcycle bays in the car park. Motorcycles appear to be parked randomly in various locations.

3.2 Is the current motorbike space fit for purpose? Can it be easily accessed?

4. Cycle Racks:

4.1 Are cycles still double-parked so to speak? Are there enough cycle racks?

5. Toilet on Harrow Place:

5.1 The gap behind this public toilet and the wall of the building encourages antisocial activities: better lighting?

5.2 Perhaps bricking up the gap at the rear in some way? This area is a general disgrace.

6. Planters:

6.1 The various planters around the estate - poor ongoing maintenance from Parks and Gardens needs to be flagged up.

7. Air Pollution:

7.1 Issues with the Precinct being right in the centre of a ring of high level pollution hotspots. For some reason, the funding is being directed at Barbican?

7.2 What is being done about the pollution hotspots surrounding the Precinct?

8. Aviation Air Pollution:

8.1 What is the effect of the recent increase in flights in and out of London City Airport on local pollution figures for the Precinct?

9. Heating System on the Estate:

9.1 What is the current state of play with negotiations regarding the renovation and/or replacement of the central heating system?

9.2 How does this impact on the local businesses in the area?

9.3 Issue with how to deal with temperature fluctuations, and lack of heating/over-heating at the spring and autumn interfaces, which are now extreme due to climatic instability.

9.4 Is the heating system tied to an external atmospheric thermostat? If not, why not?

10. CCTV System:

10.1 When was the system last tested? Is there a written report on this test?

10.2 What was the outcome of the test? Is the system functional?

10.3 How high-resolution are the cameras? Are the police/ Park Guard satisfied with the current system? Have recommendations been made for improvement?

10.4 Is it hard-wired, or wi-fi? Would not a wi-fi system be more economical, and also cause less disruption/damage to the fabric of the building, and give more flexibility about placement?

10.5 Could a feasibility study be carried out comparing the costs and advantages/disadvantages of eventual upgrade to a wireless system?

11. Wi-Fi:

11.1 Will the new city wi-fi system be good enough to include flats several floors above ground level? If Relish can manage it, can the City's new wi-fi system offer this?

12. Artizan Street Name

12.1 Revisiting the issue of renaming of the address from Petticoat Square to Artizan Street, just for the Tower Block.

12.2 Possibly also renaming the Tower as Artizan Tower, to reflect the original Artizan Dwellings? Also, possibility of gaining a new postcode for the entrance on Artizan Street to EC3? If Beaufort House is in EC3, why not the Tower? 12.3 Clarify: Will the Postal Address Allocation Service take a resolution of the Precinct Meeting under advisement?

13. Artizan Street Redevelopment

13. 1 What is happening with the redevelopment?

14. Petticoat Tower Foyer

14.1 Petticoat Tower Foyer is a high use area; yet it has not been re-painted for over ten years. It looks run down; it creates in the residents a negative feeling of despondency. It is a mystery as to why it is taking such an inordinately long time to apply a simple coat of paint. The ground staff have indicated a willingness to do this work. If for some reason procurement rules do not allow such in-house work, then a solution can be found by transferring funds to the Precinct Meeting, who can then engage the local ground-staff to do the work, unconstrained by EU directives on contracting out and procurement.