Silchester Residents’ Asociation General Meeting
Wednesday 22nd April, 2015
7pm Harrow Club, Freston Road
Present: Derek White (Chair), Steph Perkin (Treasurer), Jo Poole (minutes), Sera Kennedy (TMO officer), Kiran Singh (TMO Head of Neighbourhood), Alex Bosman (TMO), Juliana Castaneda, Brenda Mercer, Amanda Walters, Milka Ghebrewold, H Peyton, Selma Peters, Patricia John, Simon Eirwan, Hannah Kawa, Hani Bushara, Eman Yosry, Mary White, Lina Lens Vicos, Louisa Hiatt, Margaret Payne, Charlotte Moore (RBKC), Simon Girling (TMO project manager), Gloria Green
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies received from Judith Blakeman (Councillor Notting Dale Ward), Victoria Borwick ( Kensington parliamentary candidate, Conservative).
2. Minutes of the last AGM on 24th June, 2014.
The minutes of the 2014 AGM were accepted.
3. London Citizens Housing Enquiry
Amanda Walters from West London Citizens spoke about their enquiry into housing issues in North Kensington. They are currently meeting with Councillors, MPs, Robert Black of the TMO and others to ensure local people have a voice in current regeneration projects in the area. They will be door knocking around the estate to gather as many voices as possible around this issue. This will continue until the launch in July of a report discerned from the enquiry.
4. Silchester Garages Development
a) Phase one of the development is due to be completed by mid-May.
b) Frinstead House club rooms.
Renovations of the club rooms are running behind schedule, hopefully to be completed mid-May.
The council hopes to find money to update the kitchen and toilets associated with the club rooms. This will be undertaken by a different contractor from the main garages development and therefore completion is expected at a later date.
There will be a door from the lobby in Frinstead House for access, improved heating, windows and insulation. Simon Girling is positive about the changes.
An intercom has been requested.
Juliana Castenada, Steff Perkins, Eman Yosry and Jo Poole have volunteered to be involved with further decisions about what we want for the club rooms.
We need to consider which entrance we want to use for the club rooms and consult the Frinstead House residents about the use of their building’s entrance to access the club rooms. This decision will affect and could possibly be controlled by the intercom/ entrance system.
c) Other issues with the construction work
i) We have requested that Shalfleet Drive be resurfaced. This has gone to Mace and Peabody.
ii) There are issues with construction traffic blocking Shalfleet Drive. This is unacceptable. Charlotte Moore will cross reference issues with the traffic plan. There is a new residents liason officer who can be contacted about this and other issues, including problems with residents phone lines and other disruptions.
There is also inconsiderate driving by construction traffic when in motion.
iii) Members of Frinstead House would like an apology from Peabody for dust and disruption.
d) The Hub
Sara Hoskins (Peabody) has been in contact with Clement James on Sirdar Road about their Into Work project. They have been contacted about offering this type of service 5 days a week from The Hub alongside support of entrepreneurs and social enterprises.
A panel has interviewed the Dalgarno Trust who have run a project to support people into employment amongst other things, Sorbus (H&F) who have an enterprise hub on Dawes Road and Vital Regeneration (Westminster) who also offer this type of service. They have been asked to put together a business plan for managing the space.
There will be a kitchen on the ground floor alongside reception.
It is hoped that by the end of May the partnership will have a business plan so Peabody can progress with the terms of the lease, which should be around a 10 year lease to enable borrowing of money and fitting out the building.
There has been a bid to the GLA for capital money for the project of around £110,000.
There is currently no plan for a homework club or other regular child focused activity as requested by the residents. Clement James may be approached to provide such facilities as they apparently do elsewhere.
Alice Exley will take over from Sara Hoskins as she leaves the project soon. We thank Sara for all her work.
5. Estate Management Update – Recent / upcoming TMO works
a) Lifts
Alex Bosman is aware of issues with the lifts. PDRS (lift contractor) started a new contract 18 months ago and there have been issues with their performance. The TMO are trying to improve this by working with them.
Lifts being reset – maybe by vandalism or the doors being held for too long – can mean that it is not possible to see what problems have occurred and why.
It is suggested that the lifts are routinely checked more often. They are currently serviced monthly.
The response to the emergency button is too slow or non-existant resulting in people being trapped and the fire brigade being called. Recorded messages are also received on calling emergencies. If a call is answered it does not necessarily provide the understanding or reassurance those trapped require.
This is not acceptable. It should be answered 24 hours.
It has been suggested that the TMO sanctions a test of the emergency button to ascertain the problems with the contractors.
The even number lift in Whitstable house has a broken display so you do not know where you are stuck.
b) There is an issue with smoke permeating the buildings, especially in the flats higher up the blocks. In Markland House there has been an increase in dust and smells since the kitchen/ bathroom refurb a few years ago.
c)There is anti-social behaviour from people on the stairs in Frinstead House. Urination, dirt, music, people loitering. This is not necessarily from residents.
The safer neighbourhood team patrol the 4 tower blocks on the Silchester Estate.
d) It has been noted that the upper section of Frinstead House stairs is poorly maintained. This will be examined on the next estate inspection.
e) There is a tenant support service being set up within the TMO for residents. This is in addition to Audrey the welfare reform officer. These services are currently available for TMO tenants but may be opened up to leaseholders.
f) Sera Kennedy and Kieran Singh have suggested organizing a repairs and ASB surgery for individual issues. It may be possible to have operatives present. This could be set up in Waynflete Square whilst the light and weather is good.
g) Waynflete Square entrances.
There is currently a borough wide assessment of entrances to be upgrade cyclically. Alex Bosman will be in touch about where Waynflete Square sits in this and talk to us locally. This should mean the contracts are larger and more efficient.
There have been security doors breached with trades buttons letting people in at all hours.
24 Shalfleet Drive has a broken buzzer
h) Lighting
This has not been acceptable on Shalfleet Drive for over a year. This is especially bad in conjunction with the uneven surface on Shalfleet Drive.
i) Dog mess
This is an ongoing issue. Historically there were dog toilets on the estate, but these were not being emptied. Kieran Singh will be researching the dog mess bins on the estate and looking at how the dog toilets are run on Little Wormwood Scrubs and the Memorial Gardens.
j) Kitchens and bathrooms
The TMO are currently building a record of when kitchens and bathrooms were done and when they will need to be renewed. Many residents are receiving letters in order to gather this information.
7. Matters arising from previous meeting (not covered by agenda).
None
8. Any other business
Queries can be raised with the TMO through the 0800 number. If they are not aware of issues, they cannot be resolved.
9. Dates and agendas for;
(a) RA AGM late June/ early July
(b) RA Meetings