Nicholas Hall Freeman (25 July 1939 – 11 November 1989), OBE (1985) was the Conservative Party leader of the London Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council in the United Kingdom from 1977 until 1989; he was also its mayor in 1988.
He failed to secure a nomination, which was no doubt partly explained by a number of previous controversies: the Old Town Hall crisis and his virulent opposition to the Community Charge (also called the "poll tax").
[3] At constituency level also he met outspoken opposition, particularly from Conservative Monday Club activist Gregory Lauder-Frost, his Ward Committee Secretary and also a member of the Chelsea Association's Executive.
He survived the storm, doubtless helped by the fact that he dominated the council to a degree unusual among municipal leaders, but there was little comfort for the ratepayers: the cost of the new town hall far exceeded his original estimates.
He vigorously implemented the Conservative government's curbs on local authority spending and was able to claim that his council had the smallest staff per head of population of any British borough.