This invitation came to me via a rep on Pepys Estate. Unfortunately News on the Block's last reference to Social Housing was in 2007. Oh well...
Leaseholders and residents' associations seminar: Your rights explained - Thursday 13 July 2010
Trowers & Hamlins LLP would like to invite you to the above seminar, held in conjunction with News on the Block on Tuesday 13 July 2010 at our London office, Sceptre Court, 40 Tower Hill, London EC3N 4DX.
The seminar will focus upon the rights granted to leaseholders and leaseholder groups by law. You will hear from speakers including: Nic Shulman of News on the Block (Chair), Geneviève Mariner of Strettons and Director of LEASE, Peter Ward, Michael Donnellan and Leigh Shapiro of Trowers & Hamlins LLP.
Our presentations will cover the following topics:
• Legal rights available to leaseholders
• How to make your rights work for you
• How premiums payable by leaseholders are arrived at
• Practical issues and case studies
Registration will start at 4.30pm for an 5.00pm start. The seminar will end at approximately 6.15pm, and will be followed by drinks, where you will have the opportunity to talk with the speakers and delegates.
For more information about this seminar, please see attached flyer. Please note there is no charge for this seminar.
If you would like to attend please email events@trowers.com no later than Monday 5 July 2010.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Unanswered queries on Leaseholder Bills (2)
On 20th May I wrote to the Complaints Team regarding unanswered queries to Leasehold Services (one query to Sandra Canham had not even been acknowledged). See previous post.
I had copied the Complaint to Cllr Padmore. Cllr Padmore wrote to Sandra Canham asking for a response. She replied to him and he forwarded her reply to me.
Dear Cllr Padmore,
my apologies for not acknowledging your e-mail. We are still investigating some of the repairs queries raised by Sue Lawes, I am sorry this is taking some time but we do want to provide information in the detail that Sue has requested. We are working with our Repairs Service to achieve this.
regards
Sandy Canham
Head of Leasehold Services
So, is Cllr Padmore my secretary? No, he is not.
I have not had a reply from the Complaints Team to acknowledge the Complaint.
I have not had a reply from anyone.
I had copied the Complaint to Cllr Padmore. Cllr Padmore wrote to Sandra Canham asking for a response. She replied to him and he forwarded her reply to me.
Dear Cllr Padmore,
my apologies for not acknowledging your e-mail. We are still investigating some of the repairs queries raised by Sue Lawes, I am sorry this is taking some time but we do want to provide information in the detail that Sue has requested. We are working with our Repairs Service to achieve this.
regards
Sandy Canham
Head of Leasehold Services
So, is Cllr Padmore my secretary? No, he is not.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Combined Area Panel Meeting, 3 June 2010
Raphael asked me to accompany him to the Combined Area Panel meeting. He is our rep on the Deptford Area Panel, and this meeting held at Goldsmiths was for the three area panels from across the borough (made up of both tenants and leaseholders) to get together with various officers from Lewisham Homes.
As an observer, I didn't have a vote and was discouraged from speaking, but it was very hard to keep my trap shut. It was also the first time I had ever seen the CEO Andrew Potter in person. When Joan Ruddock wrote to him on our behalf last year, the reply came not from him, but from Lesley Seary, Customer Relations Chief for Lewisham Council – so this man has yet to earn my respect.
The meeting was convened by an independent chair, who announced there was a heavy schedule of presentations to get through, so comments on them would be restricted due to time. Subjects could be followed up at the end of the meeting. This was so bloody typical of Lewisham Homes' strategy of strangulating the views of residents that I almost walked out there and then. These meetings are not for us to discuss anything, but are simply a one-way channel for LH to pass down information: not consultation at all.
Matters Arising began with what appears to be a continual occurrence at these meetings, judging from the last minutes – a question on why councillors do not attend. It turns out that LH had only extended the invitation to councillors the day before – although they insisted that councillors have the calendar of dates provided in advance as much as we do. A brand new Labour councillor from Telegraph Hill, Paul Bell, was present however.
Raphael wanted it noted that he had spoken at length at the meeting before last but none of his points had been noted in the minutes. His attempt to have the minutes amended to include his points by going to the Holbeach office with a short write-up of what he had said, had met with failure. Another resident pointed out that requests made at the last meeting for certain items to be on the next agenda had not been met either.
The first presentation was from the Warden Service, explaining how it works. There are only 8 wardens to cover the whole of Deptford and New Cross, which might explain why they're rarely seen (which seemed to be the experience of many of the residents at the meeting). Their hours are 10-6 in winter and 10-10 in summer. A resident asked why not the same hours in winter, and the logic appears to be that wardens' chief job is to be visible (which they wouldn't be in the dark of winter). They are not trained in fitness (as pointed out by a resident) and are not expected to act as law enforcers – that's the job of the police. Raphael asked about duplication of this service with our very own ASB Service, which, he reported, had been roundly condemned as totally ineffectual at a recent Focus Group specifically about the service. Potter explained that there are six ASB Officers, who chief job is to enforce tenancy agreements and they spend most of their time on building cases. Perhaps we would like a presentation on the ASB Service at the next meeting in August? (Oh God, no, not another back-slapping presentation, please).
Presentation on Resident Involvement
Adele Stevens gave a presentation on Resident Involvement. She's a very nice woman, but quite honestly I'm not surprised to hear there are 3000 people on the database (out of a potential 20,000?) but that hardly anyone turned up to the Fun Day. I started to feel like the day dreaming soldier learning about guns in the World War 2 poem by Henry Reed, Naming of Parts, as I gazed out the window at the brilliant blue sky and could vaguely hear the chitter chatter and clink of glasses from the outdoor balcony area of Goldsmiths Union Bar. "Today we have the naming of parts, yesterday we had daily cleaning, and tomorrow we have what to do after firing. But today we have the naming of parts. Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighbouring gardens, and today we have the naming of parts"...
I was awoken from my reverie by the announcement of the next item, which was a presentation by the Head of Estate Services, ex-caretaker, Dave Tutt.
Presentation on Estate Services
Apparently we have 96 caretakers, 2 estate team managers, 8 estate team supervisors, 2 mobile team supervisors and 2 others whose jobs disappeared off the powerpoint presentation before I could write them down. All this lot manage 740 blocks, and are responsible for caretaking and some aspects of the Council's Environment team's work (ie sweeping and bulk household waste removal). I would've thought regular attendees at these meetings already knew all this, as the slide show went through 'WHAT THEY DO!' (which is all available on the website anyway, apparently).
If you didn't know, caretakers' hours are 8-4 Mon-Fri, 8-1 Saturday and 8-12 on Bank Holidays. There will be a new extended service by the 'mobile' staff until 8pm soon, since it had finally been recognised that a lot goes on after 4pm and many residents who go to work often felt like there was no caretaking going on at all since any tidying up done during the day could be completely undone again later in the day...He made it sound like looking after council house residents was like clearing up after a load of toddlers in a nursery. Which is probably true.
I wrote this stuff down because it was information not provided with the meeting Info Pack (which, this month, is 59 pages long and contains most of the presentations in written form, with the inevitable graphs and statistics that LH are so good at, usually with no explanatory keys...not only are these posted out to panel members but an equal tonnage of paper is also used in providing a similar number for the meetings, but there appeared to be about another 30 left over since most folk bring their own copies)...
Tutt talked about Inspections (his 8 estate team supervisors conduct 10 inspections a week...er, I don't think he said whether that was 10 each or between them). Questionnaires had been sent to TRAs about inspections. I've not seen one, though. They were looking at extending inspection times to later in the day so that more residents could attend, and Saturday inspections are available on request. Yeah, yeah, yeah...not happened yet, though, has it.
Tutt sounded agreeable and cuddly when doing his presentation but soon became his usual disagreeable self when it came to questions from the floor. One resident commented on the Bulk Household Waste Removal scheme not working very well in his area. In fact they seemed to have more waste hanging about than ever before, and suspect flytipping. Mr Tutt refuted the idea that the scheme wasn't working and suggested this might be a local minor problem peculiar to the gentleman – the usual old chestnut pulled by Sandra Canham: 'see me at the end of the meeting about your peculiar little localised problem'. When other residents concurred it was happening elsewhere, we were more or less told to shut up. Before the Chair hastily stepped in to get another question from the floor, Tutt conceded there might be a problem with local tradesmen knowing they could dump stuff and that the council would clean it up. They had advertised the service widely, he said (but one panel member said she had never heard of it). I was going to mention that there were no details about it in the last newsletter (that came with the service charge bills) but the Chair moved on.
Raphael wanted to know if Mr Tutt could explain what was meant by 'cleaning', and got short shrift from Tutt, who has been asked this question many times before by Raphael, although perhaps not in front of this particular audience. Raphael was referring to cleaning 65 stairs with a mop and a bucket of cold water, and began waving photocopied images of filthy stairs at other panel members, but Tutt got nasty. "I don't hear complaints from other people on your estate about the cleaning, it's just you going on about it." When I chipped in to support Raphael, the Chair, sensing discord, rapidly moved on and we were silenced.
Next up was a presentation on Repairs that was supposed to come from Chris Cuttleton, but Andrew Potter delivered it himself, since Chris couldn't be there "and I've been with him all day, so I know the stuff." Although he doesn't look like either, he sounds a lot like a cross between Peter Mandelson and David Cameron. A consumate politician. Anyway, his presentation was short and mainly referred to the new texting service available to tenants who report repairs in their homes, and that this service will be extended to caretakers reporting communal repairs.
Raphael weighed in with our perennial leasehold question about NOT KNOWING WHAT WE PAY FOR because we don't know what repairs are being done and it's not good enough that only caretakers are told when jobs are being done (and then only if they report them). Whilst Raphael was building up a head of steam on the subject, Potter was laughing and saying "I can answer that, and I think it will be an answer you like" (you can imagine Mandelson saying the same thing to Jeremy Paxman)...
POTTER MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT. HUSHED SILENCE PLEASE...
Potter said:
- if we want to know what repairs are going on, this information can be provided on request.
- very soon, we will be able to view all repair orders online.
I pointed out that only a couple of weeks ago Sandra Canham had told us this was IMPOSSIBLE, and that she'd been saying this forever. Raphael said we'd always been told this would be TOO EXPENSIVE to implement. Potter laughed and said OF COURSE it has cost implications. The Chair stepped in and silenced us again so we didn't get to ask, for instance, what was the timeline on the latter, since 'very soon' in Lewisham Homes World usually means 2 or 3 years? (And anyway, hadn't they been ordered to do this by the Council's Scrutiny Committee in its Recommendations for Leasehold Services?). Also, if I'm going to start emailing Mick Duncan or Alex Slattery once a week to find out what repairs are going on on my estate, wouldn't it make sense for them to just formalise the procedure and send me (or the TRA) weekly reports?
The meeting came to an end with a couple of pertinent comments from two panel members:
A North West Area Panelist (a leaseholder) commented that it should be noted that when we make requests for things to be on the agenda, that these requests are met in full. The panel had asked for Green Team to do a presentation at this meeting, but this hadn't happened. He also wanted it noted that the Lumber Collection Scheme doesn't seem to be working and that it was wrong to have assumed that the gentlemen who raised a question about it was told it was a local problem to him only.
A Deptford Area Panelist (a tenant) commented that LH should reconsider the purpose of these meetings. She understood they might work in the same way as the Complaints Procedure. For instance, when you make a complaint, if it is not sorted, it proceeds to a 2nd stage, and then to a 3rd if it is still not sorted and where it must be resolved. Likewise, as she saw it, one might bring a problem to a TRA meeting, and if the LH officer present (or not present she seemed to infer) did not get the problem sorted by the next meeting, you took this problem on to Special Interest groups, and finally the Area Panel meetings. But if these meetings continued to be congested with too many (sometimes pointless) presentations with no time for discussion and comments among members then problems had no chance of ever being resolved. Panel members should be respected as having the sense not to waste the meeting's time on highly localised issues, so it should not be assumed that when a panel member brings up a local problem that it was not widespread across the borough.
I could've kissed that woman. Crossfields Leaseholders will recall how when we tried to meet with Lewisham Homes back in June 2009 to resolve issues of overcharging, Lewisham Homes set the agenda with an astonishing time wasting hour and a half devoted to a presentation on Antisocial Behaviour. They have been using this technique to silence residents for far too long.
By the way, I may have missed something out in this account. I have made no mention of the buffet provided, most of which was left behind, although I think Raphael snaffled a salmon sandwich for his tea later. Also, Adam Barrett, Head of Resources, was present at the meeting but I can't remember if he actually gave a presentation or said very much at all. Apologies if his unremarkable contribution has gone unreported. No doubt all the highly paid staff present had the next day off (time off in lieu) for a conveniently long weekend.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards the early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers: they call it easing the Spring.
The whole procedure is flabberghasting. How are we doing? they ask. You said, we did, they say. Any fool could predict many of the things residents come up with at these meetings, most of them are common sense ideas that a manager with half a brain should be able to foresee when planning a service. Perhaps instead of wasting all our unpaid time in endless unproductive meetings, they should be made to come and live on one of our estates for three months and find out for themselves...
As an observer, I didn't have a vote and was discouraged from speaking, but it was very hard to keep my trap shut. It was also the first time I had ever seen the CEO Andrew Potter in person. When Joan Ruddock wrote to him on our behalf last year, the reply came not from him, but from Lesley Seary, Customer Relations Chief for Lewisham Council – so this man has yet to earn my respect.
The meeting was convened by an independent chair, who announced there was a heavy schedule of presentations to get through, so comments on them would be restricted due to time. Subjects could be followed up at the end of the meeting. This was so bloody typical of Lewisham Homes' strategy of strangulating the views of residents that I almost walked out there and then. These meetings are not for us to discuss anything, but are simply a one-way channel for LH to pass down information: not consultation at all.
Where are the councillors and what is not minuted?
Matters Arising began with what appears to be a continual occurrence at these meetings, judging from the last minutes – a question on why councillors do not attend. It turns out that LH had only extended the invitation to councillors the day before – although they insisted that councillors have the calendar of dates provided in advance as much as we do. A brand new Labour councillor from Telegraph Hill, Paul Bell, was present however.
Raphael wanted it noted that he had spoken at length at the meeting before last but none of his points had been noted in the minutes. His attempt to have the minutes amended to include his points by going to the Holbeach office with a short write-up of what he had said, had met with failure. Another resident pointed out that requests made at the last meeting for certain items to be on the next agenda had not been met either.
Presentation from the Warden Service
The first presentation was from the Warden Service, explaining how it works. There are only 8 wardens to cover the whole of Deptford and New Cross, which might explain why they're rarely seen (which seemed to be the experience of many of the residents at the meeting). Their hours are 10-6 in winter and 10-10 in summer. A resident asked why not the same hours in winter, and the logic appears to be that wardens' chief job is to be visible (which they wouldn't be in the dark of winter). They are not trained in fitness (as pointed out by a resident) and are not expected to act as law enforcers – that's the job of the police. Raphael asked about duplication of this service with our very own ASB Service, which, he reported, had been roundly condemned as totally ineffectual at a recent Focus Group specifically about the service. Potter explained that there are six ASB Officers, who chief job is to enforce tenancy agreements and they spend most of their time on building cases. Perhaps we would like a presentation on the ASB Service at the next meeting in August? (Oh God, no, not another back-slapping presentation, please).
Presentation on Resident Involvement
Adele Stevens gave a presentation on Resident Involvement. She's a very nice woman, but quite honestly I'm not surprised to hear there are 3000 people on the database (out of a potential 20,000?) but that hardly anyone turned up to the Fun Day. I started to feel like the day dreaming soldier learning about guns in the World War 2 poem by Henry Reed, Naming of Parts, as I gazed out the window at the brilliant blue sky and could vaguely hear the chitter chatter and clink of glasses from the outdoor balcony area of Goldsmiths Union Bar. "Today we have the naming of parts, yesterday we had daily cleaning, and tomorrow we have what to do after firing. But today we have the naming of parts. Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighbouring gardens, and today we have the naming of parts"...
I was awoken from my reverie by the announcement of the next item, which was a presentation by the Head of Estate Services, ex-caretaker, Dave Tutt.
Presentation on Estate Services
Apparently we have 96 caretakers, 2 estate team managers, 8 estate team supervisors, 2 mobile team supervisors and 2 others whose jobs disappeared off the powerpoint presentation before I could write them down. All this lot manage 740 blocks, and are responsible for caretaking and some aspects of the Council's Environment team's work (ie sweeping and bulk household waste removal). I would've thought regular attendees at these meetings already knew all this, as the slide show went through 'WHAT THEY DO!' (which is all available on the website anyway, apparently).
If you didn't know, caretakers' hours are 8-4 Mon-Fri, 8-1 Saturday and 8-12 on Bank Holidays. There will be a new extended service by the 'mobile' staff until 8pm soon, since it had finally been recognised that a lot goes on after 4pm and many residents who go to work often felt like there was no caretaking going on at all since any tidying up done during the day could be completely undone again later in the day...He made it sound like looking after council house residents was like clearing up after a load of toddlers in a nursery. Which is probably true.
I wrote this stuff down because it was information not provided with the meeting Info Pack (which, this month, is 59 pages long and contains most of the presentations in written form, with the inevitable graphs and statistics that LH are so good at, usually with no explanatory keys...not only are these posted out to panel members but an equal tonnage of paper is also used in providing a similar number for the meetings, but there appeared to be about another 30 left over since most folk bring their own copies)...
Tutt talked about Inspections (his 8 estate team supervisors conduct 10 inspections a week...er, I don't think he said whether that was 10 each or between them). Questionnaires had been sent to TRAs about inspections. I've not seen one, though. They were looking at extending inspection times to later in the day so that more residents could attend, and Saturday inspections are available on request. Yeah, yeah, yeah...not happened yet, though, has it.
Tutt sounded agreeable and cuddly when doing his presentation but soon became his usual disagreeable self when it came to questions from the floor. One resident commented on the Bulk Household Waste Removal scheme not working very well in his area. In fact they seemed to have more waste hanging about than ever before, and suspect flytipping. Mr Tutt refuted the idea that the scheme wasn't working and suggested this might be a local minor problem peculiar to the gentleman – the usual old chestnut pulled by Sandra Canham: 'see me at the end of the meeting about your peculiar little localised problem'. When other residents concurred it was happening elsewhere, we were more or less told to shut up. Before the Chair hastily stepped in to get another question from the floor, Tutt conceded there might be a problem with local tradesmen knowing they could dump stuff and that the council would clean it up. They had advertised the service widely, he said (but one panel member said she had never heard of it). I was going to mention that there were no details about it in the last newsletter (that came with the service charge bills) but the Chair moved on.
Raphael wanted to know if Mr Tutt could explain what was meant by 'cleaning', and got short shrift from Tutt, who has been asked this question many times before by Raphael, although perhaps not in front of this particular audience. Raphael was referring to cleaning 65 stairs with a mop and a bucket of cold water, and began waving photocopied images of filthy stairs at other panel members, but Tutt got nasty. "I don't hear complaints from other people on your estate about the cleaning, it's just you going on about it." When I chipped in to support Raphael, the Chair, sensing discord, rapidly moved on and we were silenced.
Presentation on Repairs
Next up was a presentation on Repairs that was supposed to come from Chris Cuttleton, but Andrew Potter delivered it himself, since Chris couldn't be there "and I've been with him all day, so I know the stuff." Although he doesn't look like either, he sounds a lot like a cross between Peter Mandelson and David Cameron. A consumate politician. Anyway, his presentation was short and mainly referred to the new texting service available to tenants who report repairs in their homes, and that this service will be extended to caretakers reporting communal repairs.
Raphael weighed in with our perennial leasehold question about NOT KNOWING WHAT WE PAY FOR because we don't know what repairs are being done and it's not good enough that only caretakers are told when jobs are being done (and then only if they report them). Whilst Raphael was building up a head of steam on the subject, Potter was laughing and saying "I can answer that, and I think it will be an answer you like" (you can imagine Mandelson saying the same thing to Jeremy Paxman)...
POTTER MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT. HUSHED SILENCE PLEASE...
Potter said:
- if we want to know what repairs are going on, this information can be provided on request.
- very soon, we will be able to view all repair orders online.
I pointed out that only a couple of weeks ago Sandra Canham had told us this was IMPOSSIBLE, and that she'd been saying this forever. Raphael said we'd always been told this would be TOO EXPENSIVE to implement. Potter laughed and said OF COURSE it has cost implications. The Chair stepped in and silenced us again so we didn't get to ask, for instance, what was the timeline on the latter, since 'very soon' in Lewisham Homes World usually means 2 or 3 years? (And anyway, hadn't they been ordered to do this by the Council's Scrutiny Committee in its Recommendations for Leasehold Services?). Also, if I'm going to start emailing Mick Duncan or Alex Slattery once a week to find out what repairs are going on on my estate, wouldn't it make sense for them to just formalise the procedure and send me (or the TRA) weekly reports?
Finally, some common sense...
The meeting came to an end with a couple of pertinent comments from two panel members:
A North West Area Panelist (a leaseholder) commented that it should be noted that when we make requests for things to be on the agenda, that these requests are met in full. The panel had asked for Green Team to do a presentation at this meeting, but this hadn't happened. He also wanted it noted that the Lumber Collection Scheme doesn't seem to be working and that it was wrong to have assumed that the gentlemen who raised a question about it was told it was a local problem to him only.
A Deptford Area Panelist (a tenant) commented that LH should reconsider the purpose of these meetings. She understood they might work in the same way as the Complaints Procedure. For instance, when you make a complaint, if it is not sorted, it proceeds to a 2nd stage, and then to a 3rd if it is still not sorted and where it must be resolved. Likewise, as she saw it, one might bring a problem to a TRA meeting, and if the LH officer present (or not present she seemed to infer) did not get the problem sorted by the next meeting, you took this problem on to Special Interest groups, and finally the Area Panel meetings. But if these meetings continued to be congested with too many (sometimes pointless) presentations with no time for discussion and comments among members then problems had no chance of ever being resolved. Panel members should be respected as having the sense not to waste the meeting's time on highly localised issues, so it should not be assumed that when a panel member brings up a local problem that it was not widespread across the borough.
I could've kissed that woman. Crossfields Leaseholders will recall how when we tried to meet with Lewisham Homes back in June 2009 to resolve issues of overcharging, Lewisham Homes set the agenda with an astonishing time wasting hour and a half devoted to a presentation on Antisocial Behaviour. They have been using this technique to silence residents for far too long.
By the way, I may have missed something out in this account. I have made no mention of the buffet provided, most of which was left behind, although I think Raphael snaffled a salmon sandwich for his tea later. Also, Adam Barrett, Head of Resources, was present at the meeting but I can't remember if he actually gave a presentation or said very much at all. Apologies if his unremarkable contribution has gone unreported. No doubt all the highly paid staff present had the next day off (time off in lieu) for a conveniently long weekend.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards the early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers: they call it easing the Spring.
The whole procedure is flabberghasting. How are we doing? they ask. You said, we did, they say. Any fool could predict many of the things residents come up with at these meetings, most of them are common sense ideas that a manager with half a brain should be able to foresee when planning a service. Perhaps instead of wasting all our unpaid time in endless unproductive meetings, they should be made to come and live on one of our estates for three months and find out for themselves...
Friday, May 28, 2010
Leaseholder Improvement Group (LIG) 20th May 2010
Silbury House writes on the Sydenham Hill blog:
I managed to attend the first hour of the meeting, held at the Civic Suite in Catford, missing the last part relating to help for leaseholders in paying their major works bills.The only Lewisham Homes official present was Sandy Canham, who took a bit of a roasting from the attendees over costs of services being unreasonable, also that numerous paragraphs were left off the minutes of the previous meeting: especially those of particular embarrassment to Lewisham Homes.
It was noted that the minutes of the meeting held on 20th May, when available, will be complete.
The general feeling in the room was one of frustration and disbelief. The residents felt that they did not have the forum with this meeting to actually bring their concerns to Lewisham Homes. The agenda is rigged and all the issues, specifically relating to costs and standards of services repeatedly raised, are either left off the minutes or not remedied by Lewisham Homes at all.
Crosswhatfields writes:
How very true, Silbury House. Unfortunately the minutes written by Ann Fitzgerald are not provided digitally, and I am not about to spend time scanning and OCRing them.
On the whole I thought the minutes of the last meeting had recorded all salient points. The problem being that all salient points require further discussion and this is never allowed for, especially if someone's point has been treated with the classic "Ms Canham will see you at the end of the meeting" (about your pointless and pathetic little personal vendetta that has nothing to do with the wholly fictional picture we want to present)...
Especially notable how Mr Griffiths of St John's Vale is treated. This elderly gentleman makes his points quite eloquently and forcefully but is accused by Canham as only speaking for himself. Fortunately his neighbours were there to back him up and point out that he spoke on behalf of all of them, many of whom were not at the meeting.
We spent the first 45 minutes just on Matters Arising from the Last Minutes and could have spent the entire meeting discussing the various points raised at the last meeting (which was about Repairs, Caretaking, Estate Inspections and Pest Control, all too much in one meeting)....The inadequate service in those areas are our main concerns and the reasons we attend these meetings.
I wanted to follow up on items recorded in the minutes such as:
- Estate maps showing which areas on everyone's estate the Green Team (ie Glendales) would be working were reported as being available to view online by April (they were not, doh!)
- Mick Duncan from Repairs had said he'd look into the possibility of providing monthly reports to TRAs of logged repairs
Sandra Canham was pleased to announce that any leaseholder or tenant who reported the requirement for a communal repair would now be texted about the progress of this repair following their report. You can just see the headlines in Home magazine now: "TEXTING GOES LIVE IN TWO WEEKS TIME"...Yes, Sandra, but only the reportee of this repair will know what's happening. No one else will. And many of these repairs are reported by the caretakers, so what will we know about that?
I suggested that TRA Reps were also texted, but what about those estates that did not have TRAs? Nothing here to celebrate regarding TRANSPARENCY.
Much to Sandra Canham's annoyance, this latter item was discussed at length, with many attendees agreeing it was desirable that EVERYONE gets to know when a repair is taking place. Canham said we could come anytime to her office and find out this information. Someone said why do we have to come to her office in Holbeach and take time out of our working week? Canham mentioned there had been special Saturday surgeries held at Holbeach for leaseholders to come and discuss their concerns over their service charges after the bills went out, but these opportunities had not been taken up. An attendee remarked that it must therefore be obvious how pointless these were.
Another attendee suggested that if that information was available why couldn't we just have it emailed to us, to our TRA Reps or put on the web? Canham then backtracked and said the information she would provide would be retrospective since the figures were only produced quarterly. We had to point out to her that we weren't after figures and costs to leaseholders, but just wanted to know EXACTLY WHAT BLOODY REPAIRS ARE TAKING PLACE.
Without even ending the discussion, Canham steered the meeting onto her first agenda item, which was providing low cost loans to people who can't afford Major Repairs. The Council had decided that these mainly favourable loan terms were not available to leaseholders who did not live in their homes (ie, rented them out). The Council considers these leaseholders to be commercial owners, not in need of financial help. They can simply raise their rental charges to cover the costs, or remortgage.
Whilst I can't help agreeing, I can see in this decision the remnants of the Council's discrimination and hatred against leaseholders who took up the Right To Buy that has been prevalent from the beginning. It's probably the only Old Labour trait of this New Labour Council that's still recognisable. It accounts for a certain attitude towards leaseholders (leaseholders = cash cow) that doesn't work for those who have bought without the RTB, or for those who did whose incomes haven't risen above the national minimum wage or are now on negligible pensions not quite low enough for benefits. Nevertheless, those with equity have means...
I then got a coughing fit and missed most of the rest of the meeting. Gas Servicing was on the agenda but I might have missed it. The idea was to make it a compulsory and legally binding part of the lease.
Ms Canham closed the meeting, thanking us for our contributions. But were you listening, Sandra?
(Written from memory in absence of notes left elsewhere so may be added to)...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Audit Commission Inspects Lewisham Homes in June
The following is taken from Lewisham Homes' website. You can download the Audit Commission's Draft Report on Lewisham's Housing 2007 on our Appendix page here.
Introduction
Lewisham Homes was set up as an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) on 22 January 2007. It is responsible for managing Council housing services on behalf of Lewisham Council. The Council is still the landlord.
Lewisham Homes is being inspected by the Audit Commission in June 2010 and we are aiming to achieve a two star rating or good service rating.
Who are the Audit Commission?
The Audit Commission is an independent organisation set up to drive efficiency and effectiveness in local public services. They work across local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue service. For more information visit the Audit Commission website.
When will the inspection take place?
The on-site inspection will take place over two weeks beginning on Monday, 21 June through to Friday 2 July.
What does the inspection involve?
Inspectors from the Audit Commission will meet with Lewisham Homes staff, our Residents, the Council and our contractors to assess the quality of housing services being provided. They will also assess whether there is potential for services to continue to improve for residents.
How does the Audit Commission score the service?
The Audit Commission makes 2 judgements:
1. ‘How good is the service?’ (also known as Judgement One)
2. ‘What are the prospects for improvement?’ (also known as Judgement Two).
The first judgement is scored by a three star rating system. Stars are awarded depending on how well the housing service perform.
0 star rating = poor service
1 star rating = fair service
2 star rating = good service
3 star rating = excellent service
The second judgement is an indication of how well we are set up to provide continuous improvement:
* Poor
* Uncertain
* Promising
* Excellent
What is the Audit Commission's current star rating of Lewisham Homes?
This will be Lewisham Homes first inspection since it was set up in 2007. In November 2008 we invited the Audit Commission to carry out a voluntary mock inspection in preparations for the real inspection in June 2010. This inspection was not rated. The Mock Inspection report is available to download from our website. (It is pretty damning - Crosswhatfields)
What will the inspection mean for Lewisham Homes residents?
We are aiming for a two star rating which will enable us to access funding which will be used to bring all homes up to the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). A guide to the Decent Homes Standard is available from the Communities and Local Government website.
The Government has advised all Arms Length Management Organisations making applications in Round 6, including Lewisham Homes, which had not yet got a two star rating by the Audit Commission, that they would not be able to access Decent Homes funding until 2011/12. This announcement means a delay in the commencement of work in Lewisham by about six months. To access this funding we must get two stars in our inspection in June 2010.
When will Lewisham Homes know the result of the inspection?
Following the inspection, the Audit Commission will write a report that highlights the strengths of the services we provide and will make recommendations of the areas we need to make further improvements. The report is expected to be available by the end of August 2010 and will be published on our website and in our resident magazine.
Your views on the services provided by Lewisham Homes are welcome on the Crosswhatfields website.
Stair cleaning
This news was first posted on Crosswhatfields main site, so apologies for the duplication, but it should be of particular interest to leaseholders, so needs to be on this page.
Last Monday and Tuesday the Holden House caretaker was out on both days cleaning the stairs. The normal cleaning day is Wednesday, but on the Monday he did the normal perfunctory routine with the mop and bucket of cold water. The next day he was accompanied by another guy in white overalls who watched while our guy used a plastic bristled broom to really scrub our filthy old stairs. This was the result:
The stairs didn't look much better, and the caretaker was unable to get to the areas between the bannister uprights with his six inch broom. Also, having worked up a bit of a dirty lather, much of it was spread to the unpainted concrete surfaces of the balconies, which are now quite badly stained on all floors.
The dirty lather also dripped down the sides and stained the paintwork there.
The following week, on May 24th 2010, more caretaking operatives were working on the stairs, attempting to clean the areas between the bannister uprights. They were at it all day and I spoke to one of the guys, Jim, who explained that first they were using a scrubbing brush with a special cleaner that would lift the dirt.
Then another guy was a couple of flights behind him with a vacuum cleaner...
Both were critical of the surface, which was laid over ten years ago. Jim suggested it was Health & Safety gone mad that had led to a paint surface mixed with grit to prevent slipping. Such a surface was impossible to keep clean, he said, and he thought the best thing to do would be to remove it, but he wasn't sure how. He later set about some already chipped areas with a knife and removed quite a bit from the first mezzanine landing, in an attempt to see how easily it might come off.
I suggested that their cleaning operation was just a precurser to the stairs being painted again and that last October we had been told estate services wanted to trail a new paint surface, but didn't go ahead with it. He said he'd seen some new paint surfaces over at Honor Oak and that they were no better and would not last. But he knew nothing of any plans to paint our stairs.
This exercise, which is apparently going to be done on all the blocks that have painted stairs, must surely be in advance of the AUDIT COMMISSION's visit next month, when Lewisham Homes will be tested on whether they have done enough to qualify for Decent Homes government money – if any is still available.
What WALL are you paying for?
We have been trying to find out what wall leaseholders in Congers, Finch and Farrer have been asked to pay for in this year's bills. Apparently a wall was rebuilt in June 2008, but its exact location remains a mystery. The repair breakdown lists: REBUILD WALL BY NATURE PARK FRONT OF CONGERS.
The TRA thinks there is only one place where a wall needed rebuilding, and it was something the Repairs Officer had been chasing for some time. That particular wall was situated near the ballcourt and between Farrer House and Congers, and next to the bikesheds by Sue Godfrey Garden. It had been knocked down and remained as a pile of rubble for a couple of years.
It was pointed out in the impromtu "Programmed Estate Walkabout" that took place in July last year, and duly recorded in that report. As a result, the debris of bricks was removed. A later version of the report recorded that the wall had been 'made good'.
This is where that broken wall ended up – round the side of the bike sheds, about twenty feet away...
The TRA thinks there is only one place where a wall needed rebuilding, and it was something the Repairs Officer had been chasing for some time. That particular wall was situated near the ballcourt and between Farrer House and Congers, and next to the bikesheds by Sue Godfrey Garden. It had been knocked down and remained as a pile of rubble for a couple of years.
It was pointed out in the impromtu "Programmed Estate Walkabout" that took place in July last year, and duly recorded in that report. As a result, the debris of bricks was removed. A later version of the report recorded that the wall had been 'made good'.
This is where that broken wall ended up – round the side of the bike sheds, about twenty feet away...
The total charge for rebuilding the mystery wall was £1184.54, and it is three months since we asked what wall is being charged for. Still no answer.
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