Silchester Residents’ Association. Minutes for Open Committee Meeting
Thursday 14th January 2016
7-9pm, The Harrow Club
Present: Derek White (RA Chair); Jo Poole (minutes), Cllr Judith Blakeman (Notting Dale Ward), Cllr Benazir Lashare (Notting Dale Ward), Alex Bosman (head of contract management at the TMO),Mandy Warrier (KCTMO) Robin Lawrence (TMO) Steph Perkin, Louisa Hiett, Eman Yosry, John Murphy, Hannah Thomson, Ann-Marie Richardson, Ira and Helen Irwin, Peter Radisic, Michael O’Donovan, Lina Lens, Patricia O’Sullivan, Lousie Nzandory, Lorraine Wallington, I. Abdan, Nahid Ashby, Kevin Mercer,
1. Welcome
2. Apologies for Absence.
Sean Doherty, Piers Thompson, Liz Grey, Mrs Toomey, Mary White
3. Regeneration Update
a. Ask the Architects 2nd event. Monday 18th January at Latymer Community Church on Bramley Road
This is mainly at the RAs instigation due to the poor publication of the previous event. All residents including non-TMO have been invited.
b. RA response. We are responding to consultations as an RA. There is also a review of the Local Plan for our area. There will be an event on the Thurs 28th Jan 6-8pm at the Harrow Club for Latimer/ Freston. Event on 22nd Jan from 2 – 4.30 pm at the town hall to look at residential areas. There is a group working on a response from our RA. We hope as many residents as possible can attend these consultations.
4. Approval of minutes: Meeting held 15th October 2015
a. The minutes were approved.
5. Matters arising from previous meeting (not covered by agenda).
a. Our Residents Rooms will be handed over (from Mace) to Waites the kitchen contractors in 2 weeks. Waites’ work is expected to take 6 weeks so the earliest they will be returned to residents use is mid-March. Mace promised to pay for 5 meetings whilst the clubrooms were unavailable to our RA. We currently have no record of receipt of this money. We want them to reimburse us for all meetings we have had to have off site over the last 2 years.
6. Estate Management Update
(a) Update from Alex Bosman. Estate lighting issues were resolved promptly after our previous meeting. There is now damage to Shalfleet Drive columns that the TMO is addressing but as they are within the Mace area they cannot do much. The temporary lighting must be also be fixed.
The lights need to be upgraded in particular as the pavement services are in such a state as to be dangerous. We, the Residents Association have requested that the lights be upgraded as they are not fit for purpose. Alex Bosman will contact Mace and Simon Girling about this.
The lighting on Markland gardens has been reduced since the re-landscaping. There used to be 4 lights and now there are 3.
(b) Lifts. Frinstead lifts have been performing better since work following the last meeting. Dixon lifts are now problematic. If the fire brigade are called the TMO must also be made aware of the incident as the fire service do not alert the TMO and defects are not repaired. The fire brigade will only attend if someone is stuck inside the lift. There is an improvement in lift contractor performance across the borough but there is still a long way to go. A resident of Whitstable was told that an out of order lift is not an emergency by the out of hours service which is a company called Pinacle. The lifts on Silchester have NOT been prioritised for replacement within the next 5 years as there is worse stock in the borough.
(c) Remodelling of the low rise entrances. The Darfield way blocks have plans for remodelling of their entrances that currently have structural problems. These will be prioritised over entrances to other blocks.
(d) There is poor and dangerous paving on the entrance to Waynflete Square from the cul-de-sac by the fire gate. It has been fixed and gone again. Alex Bosman to follow up.
(e) 11 Darfield Way A bathroom needs to be made accessible. The wrong basin was fitted. The tank is wrong for the shower also. The TMO are contacted regularly, send someone who takes a photo and nothing happens. Alex Bosman given details.
(f) Whitstable house has a number of dangerous paving slabs.
(g) Parking. We are currently between parking enforcement systems and will update residents at the next RA meeting, especially on the situation regarding the new visitor permits.
(h) A request has been made for the chutes outside Whitstable house to be inspected as they have not been cleaned for some time.
(i) Complaints about the closing of the Shalfleet Drive to Freston Road walkway. It is suggested that we use MoreWest as access. This will be raised with Mace.
(j) The Frinstead House temporary walkway now has improved lighting and fire alarms.
(k) The TMO has sent out “in arrears” letters that have been difficult to follow up. It has taken Mrs Hyatt 4 weeks to speak to someone about an arrears letter sent to her in error causing considerable distress. There is a new service introduced by the tri-borough via a BT system that has been sending many letters in error to people who owe no money. There have been no apologies. There have also been missing payments recorded where payments were made.
7. Any other Business.
8. The date for this year’s residents conference is Saturday 17th Sept. It will be at the Royal Garden Hotel, 2-24 Kensington High St.
9. Dates and agendas for;
a. Estate Inspections February 8th.
b. RA Meetings We hope our next meeting will be regeneration focused, but that will depend on news from the feasibility study.
The meeting ended at 20:05