Silchester Residents’ Association. Minutes for Open Committee Meeting:
Thursday 15th October 2015
7-9pm, The Harrow Club
Present: Derek White (RA Chair); Jo Poole (minutes), Cllr Judith Blakeman (Notting Dale Ward), Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen (Holland ward, Cabinet member for housing), Ruth Angel (RBKC), Fay Thomas-Green (TMO Neighbourhood Officer), Alex Bosman (head of contract management at the TMO), Lina Lens Vicos, Steph Perkin, Louisa Hiett, Margaret Payne, , Eman Yosry, Juliana Castaneda, John Murphy, Sean Doherty, Ann-Marie Richardson, Michael Jardine, Ira and Helen Irwin, Mary White, Kenrick Greene, A Pall, Piers Thompson, Max Gonzalez, Tricia, Lorraine Walllington, Ilisa Klisaric, Betty Oracca-Tetteh, Sandra Urfials, Pul Abelaes, Caros Cardozu, Jams Guerrero, Ily Mousanda, Afodia Mousanda, P Elliamos, L Peyton, Ann Waters, S Fosters, Asiee Ezdoulie, Jade Ezdoulie, Tracey Simmons, Try Simmons, J Frernzon, Wendy Roudetts, Dora Appy, Ubah Garmele, John Dubbin, K Richards, Peter Radiscz, Michael O’Donovan, Nahid Ashby, Jackie Turner,
1. Apologies for Absence.
a. None were received.
2. Approval of minutes: Meeting held 22nd April 2015
a. The minutes were approved.
3. Matters arising from previous meeting (not covered by agenda).
a. There were no matters arising
4. Estate Management Update
Recent/ upcoming TMO works
a. Update for the promised TMO event: the event it was to be held in conjunction with an event at Lancaster West which has not happened, as our event promised to be before September 26 has not happened. It will probably now happen at the Harrow Club.
b. Lighting. This is still poor in Shalfleet Drive and Waynflete Square. There is the possibility of additional lighting around the Waynflete Square entrances, which we hope will not disturb the block’s residents . The TMO are working with Mace over damage to the Shalfleet Drive cables and the lack of temporary lighting on their hoarding, which are red. The Waynflete Square lighting is to be fixed by the end of next week, Friday October 23rd . Shalfleet Drive is more complex due to the involvement of Mace. Alex Bosman (TMO head of contract management) to revert to Derek White by Friday 23rd October.
c. Unsatisfactory Frinstead House entrance. This will be followed up tomorrow, October 16th. The Mace will remove the temporary entrance and restore the original entrance. There are issues with accessibility, especially re: disabled residents. The temporary access was due to be 6 weeks, but has now been in place close to 14.
d. Frinstead House lift has been out for 12 days as of today. The TMO are also unhappy with the lift contractors. However, they are not responding as if this lift outage is an emergency, and are not showing empathy to the Frinstead residents. The residents demand action and new lifts soon. The repairs to the lift are due tomorrow, Friday 16th October. The Frinstead residents have given up security, and space with the construction site. It has been suggested that the fire brigade do an inspection of Frinstead house to identify health and safety issues. Alex Bosman offers a meeting at 15.00 tomorrow, 16th October for Frinstead Residents at the Harrow Club. There is a lack of communication and apologies which shows disrepect to the Frinstead residents. The 8 lifts across the 4 tower blocks need review.
e. The Frinstead House exit is currently onto the bins. This will be looked into by Alex Bosman.
f. K&T heating are not turning up for their boiler servicing appointments. They are the new contractors for the TMO. Many working residents have been inconvenienced by this.
g. The Frinstead floor tiles apparently contain asbestos. There has been a request for testing. The TMO have tested samples in similar properties of the same age and the data has been copied. The floor tiles are managed in situ, as it has been deemed safe to do. These concerns are being relayed to the TMO health and safety team.
h. 18 Frinstead House. Since 10 June 2014 there has been water in the kitchen. The TMO have come to take photographs, as has someone else. Her husband is disabled and she has had to keep the heating on to assuage the damp. She has had to replace the flooring etc. due to this leak. Immediate action is expected to be taken by the TMO.
5. RA Committee Reports
(a) Chair – Parking. Waynflete Square and Darfield Way will be Estate Residents parking. There will be 6 places on the square. Shalfleet Drive will not be estate parking. The garages under MoreWest will be ready next year. If you had a garage on the Silchester Garages site, you MUST get in touch with the TMO then Peabody to ensure you get a parking place. Lockton Street is currently not adopted by RBKC and many More West residents are parking there. The development was built to be no parking.
Mace are having a drop-in on 12 November 3-7pm at the Harrow Club to answer resident’s questions.
(b) Treasurer – There has been no payment in or out since our last meeting. Balance at 28/8/15 is £3421.65
We have received £100 from the TMO as a grant such is given to every RA.
(c) Secretary – Residents Rooms. Eman Yosry, Jo Poole and Juliana Castaneda have met and visited the site on behalf of the Resident’s Association with Charlotte Moore of RBKC and Sharon Baah and Simon Girling of the TMO. The rooms were decorated to a poor and unfinished standard, and the kitchen was awaiting re-design. We have now selected floor and kitchen finishes and wall and door colours for the new design. There is also some concern over appropriate signage and accessibility requirements which we are working on with Sharon Baah. Mace currently hope to hand the rooms over by the end of October. The kitchen works can then begin, which will take 6 weeks. The earliest we might have use of the rooms is mid-December.
6. RBKC Housing Review
a. Q&A with Cllr Feilding-Mellen
Questions were asked to start the housing review section.
At the West London Citizens event questions were asked of Councillors who agreed to work with Citizens in setting up a regeneration charter to ensure that any regeneration happens swiftly and to the benefit of residents. How do you see this co-deisign and resident involvement being a reality rather than the council telling us what is going on?
Re: the tender for the feasibility study. Could you tell us the state of play? In the borough newspaper it says the study is underway, and could you direct us to where we could find a copy of this presumably open tender? Can you tell us whether or not you have publically advertised for and appointed the architects to undertake the possible regeneration of SIlchester?
Update from Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen, Deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for housing.
The cabinet decided to do a very high level feasibility study into the options for redeveloping Silchester back in July 2015. They decided to look at this as they have a duty and desire to ensure they provide the best quality homes for current and future tenants. They are committed to preserving the quality of the housing stock in the borough, and believe that the current post-war stock does not meet their desire for quality. The money from our rents etc is ring-fenced to be used for housing only. They will provide all current tenants a new home on the redeveloped site, same terms, same rent levels. There is commitment to replacing outdoor space. They believe in mixed tenure estates and streets. They will look at increasing density as our estates are low density. In doing this they hope to address the housing crisis. RBKC has 1,850 households in temporary accommodation. This borough is the 2nd most densely populated in London.
RBKC are also redeveloping the Warwick Road and Balfour Burleigh Estates. They have not yet decided whether redevelopment of Silchester is viable to meet their stated meet criteria and objectives. The council will come back to us early next year, in Feb or March, and tell us what the viability is of redeveloping Silchester. They may then appoint a multi-disciplinary design team to look at the options in detail and consult with the residents from this point. The council-leader committed to co-design and will work in an iterative process with the residents as redevelopment progresses. Housing officers will talk to every tenant affected. West London Citizens will be talking to residents on estates about ideas for what should be in the residents charter. The tender for the feasibility study includes pieces of land outside RBKC ownership. 6 options – looking at scenarios 1-3 where council owned land is developed and where they look at council owned and surrounding neighbouring land. 1) Comprehensive redevelopment of the estate, 2) includes leaving towers and building around towers 3) redeveloping and replacing the towers, no new high rise.
Balfour Burleigh Estate is being redeveloped by infill development leaving towers. This planning has been devised by masterplanners. Warnington Road is also being redeveloped, with the Catalyst housing trust.
Resident’s questions.
Will we see the tender document?
Cllr Feilding-Mellen will look at the legal department and see what we have access to.
Where do you intend to put the existing tenants? The feasibility study will look at this and will try to build a first block so the move can be phased, a one move decant. A temporary decant to a local council property may be necessary for 18 months to 2 years. RBKC would help with the move, removals, disconnections and reconnections, packing etc. You’re entitled to a home loss payment £4,900 and a disturbance payment to cover all reasonable costs of moving, curtains, etc. This is per move, so a temporary move is double the cost. The definition of local is somewhat flexible and depends on the household’s circumstances.
Leaseholders and secure tenants. What are the proposals towards leaseholders? Explain taking equity? What does it mean for leaseholders who bought within the last 3 years? Do you have properties available for decanting in North Kensington? Will RBKC pay to provide homes for existing tenants, Can development deliver on objectives and pay for itself?
Leaseholders: The council’s statutory duty is to pay full market value disregarding any potential blight for the redevelopment of their homes. There is a 10% (up to £49K) disruption payment for resident leaseholders, 7% for non-resident leaseholder. Disturbance payments, and stamp duty for new homes are also available for leaseholders.
On Warwick Road Estate, which is 2 years further on from us, many of the leaseholders wanted to stay. Flats in the area became worth more, so leaseholders were worried about being forced out. RESIDENT Leaseholders were offered shared equity schemes, e.g. On an existing £400K flat (+ 10%), for a new flat at £600K the council would retain £160K equity as a share of the property (25% ish) then when the leaseholders sell, the council get their 25% back. This equity in the property should be able to be passed on once through inheritance or divorce with the council retaining the unsold equity. Under this scheme there is no rent or interest payable on the equity retained by the council. The offer is intended for resident leasholders. Permision to rent out the property is at the discretion of RBKC and you will be asked to repay them a percentage of the rental income. There is no guarantee this offer would be made on other estates developed, so may not be offered to Silchester residents.
Affordable housing includes target or social rent averaging £126/week. You have to qualify and apply for Affordable Rent which is target rent (£126/week) + 20% on 1 or 2bed flats, a lower percentage on larger flats. Intermediate rent is for housing those on low to middle incomes typically £20K – £60K per year household income. The rent is up to 40% of net household income.
25% of borough’s housing stock is for social housing. Intermediate housing will address gap in the middle.
Re: the split of tenure, RBKC would look to re-house all social tenants. They will look at additional affordable housing on a case by case basis. On the Eden way development there are 100 flats, 50% of which are affordable, and of that 15 flats are social rent, and 35 flats intermediate rent.
Regarding, Charlotte Mews, the housing association have some shared ownership with the leaseholders. The council haven’t figured it what the situation is with them yet. They should be able to re-provide shared ownership.
MoreWest was council land, a development partner was procured with architect Howarth Tompkins. A 125 year lease and a £3M grant to ensure the right amount of affordable housing was given by RBKC to the development partner.
Lessons must be learnt from the Silchester Garages/ MoreWest development re: lights, entrances, etc. if further redevelopment is to take place.
Cllr Feilding-Mellen doubts green space will be replaced like for like. He says it is possible to have smaller, better, more attractive, well used green space. He dismissed concerns about private gardens being replaced like for like suggesting that was out of the question.
We, the Resident’s association, ask RBKC for commitment to the whole of our estate, inculding improvement to blocks not being redeveloped. - No commitment can be given. If towers are to be left in situ, problems will need to be understood.
We are a fantastic community who love our estate and love living here. We as a RA are committed to working with RBKC so long as we can trust you. - Promises will not be made before they can be kept. The council have a responsibility to existing and future tenants.
We reminded Councillor Feilding-Mellen that we love our homes and regard them more than fit for purpose. Issues on the estate stem from poor management of common parts and a lack of action addressing issues by the TMO. We have not heard from a single residents complaining about the quality or design of their home.
b. RA approach – We love Silchester
We have launched a Facebook page “We love the Silchester Estate, Twitter account @lovesilchester and Flickr account Silchester Forever.
We want the world to see how great our estate and community are but sharing photos and stories. Please engage and encourage your friends and family to do the same!
7. Any other Business.
8. Dates and agendas for;
a. Estate Inspections Friday October 16th.
b. RA Meetings TBC
The meeting ended at 21.05