Minutes of the meeting of the 14th May 2007

Present:

Gillian Higgins ( Two Rivers Housing)

Graham Ball ( Gloucestershire Independent Tenant) Network Secretary

Keith Peacock ( Gloucestershire Housing Association)

Philip Amos (Gloucester City Homes)

Joe Corrigan (Bristol City Council)

Jean Pearce ( Two Rivers Housing)

Andrea Wylde (Two Rivers Housing)

Dot Lewis (Two Rivers Housing)

Martin Beacham ( Gloucestershire Housing Association)

Nancy Churchill ( Gloucestershire Housing Association) Network Tresurer

Lyn Scudamore (Gloucester City Homes)

Sally Cripps (Gloucester City Homes)

Stuart Strathearn ( Stroud District Council)

Lucy Biddle ( Stroud District Council)

Roy Haynes ( Stroud District Council)

Sandra Mutton (Stroud Distic Council) Network Chair

Julie James (two Rivers Housing) Minutes taker

 Graham Ball opened the meeting by welcoming those present and invited Gillian Higgins to chair the meeting.

After the preliminary Minutes of the last meeting with matters arising Roy proposed accepting them as a true record Gillian seconded and they were duly accepted.

Spotlight on Tenant Involvement

Sandra is a tenant of Stroud District Council and vice chair of their Tenants and Residents Forum to which all Tenants and Resident Association belong. one of their focus groups is the Housing Management Fprum compising 9 tenant 9councillor plus supporting officers and deals with housing items on the Council Agenda. Their Maintainance Focus Group invites Contractors along to discuss preformance and other issues, they are also involved with chooeing those contractors. There are other groups and an over arching grop which deals with rules of conduct foir each group.

Roy Haynes is also a SDC tenant and part of the Lower Kindshill Management Co-operative, which comprises 7 roads. These members have all recieved training to carry out their posts but government changed the rules regarding co-opteratives and they subequently lost their voting rights. They are involved with runing repairs and do pre and post inspections. they also organise training courses. Roy is now the adviser for the grop which has its own offices. Their board comprises 12 tenants,2owners ( one of whom is a councillor) and 4 co-optees. Sandra said this was a good example of how things should work and they would like to run the same thing in the north of the district but it would be difficult taking into account the geography of the area, They do have street reps with a good repair servisand contractor accountable to the group.

Dot Lewis is a tenant of Two Rivers Housing and is also a member of the editorial group that helps to put together the Tenants Topics newsletter. This is a job she very much enjoys and knows that she can ask questions and be involved with the company. She also realises that there is still a lot more to do.

Andrea Wylde is also a tenant of Two Rivers Housing, and is part of the Costomer Focus Group, which bring together customers and the various departments within Two Rivers Housing. A freephone nuber has recently been introduced which is working very well. Andrea is also involved with the Equality and Diversity Droup which she finds very interesting and is pleased to be a part of it.

Jean Pearce again a tenant of Two Rivers Housing is part of the Disability Group which meets to try and help resolve the various problems encountered by tenant. She enjoys the meetings and is very satified with the work they do.

Sally Cripps is Chair of Kingsholm Consultative Committi. This group comprises flats,bedsits and maisonettes. They have a customer panel,a forum and an asset managment group and is conserned that with this number of groups there are too many meeting. Gloucester City Homes put forward suggestions which are discussed then reported back to the committee, over the years that she has been involved she has found Gloucester City Homes have been very helpful.

Kieth Peacock is the vice chair of Gloucestershire Housing Association Forum. They have a core group of highly active members mainly involved in the internal monitoring of the Forum(policy and procedures). They are a more informal group who are not afraid to voice their opinions and have regular visits from staff and executive team. They ensure that tenants get full feedback on all things that impact on them. He also said that at the start of their meeting they hold an open sesssion for people to air their problems. They are hoping to become charitable and would welcome any  ideas on where to go for further funding. He said that being involved with the group has led to him meeting many people 'modest tenant meets government people', he has learnt that tenants can make changes and influence what goes on onces they reakise they have the power.

Graham Ball became involved with Gloucestershire Independent Tenants for purelyselfish reasons, problems with a neighdour, realising that he couldn't tackel this alone. He contacted various 'bodies' took what information he had gathered and other ideas to  Residents Association and Cheltenham Borough Homes. His own problems were resolved but he carried on with the other various groups, took part in training from the Tenants Federation, set up Heighbourhood Watch and became involved with The Gloucestershire and Severnside Tenants Network and wants to carry on but emphasised that he is an independent tenant. He also wanted to say that in his exsperience 'Safer Estates' does work.

Gillian Higgins commented that many people involved with groups of this kind do suffer from 'burn-out' from too many meetings and she advises Two River tenants to commit to only two groups. She went on to say that during the inspection carried out last year tenants were asked what grops they belonged to, they couldn't remember which group or what they did. This has now beebaddressed and the involved tenants have a choice of two groups they can belong to which is better for all concerned. They also have a more diverse selection of tenants from all areas and of all ages that participate in groups of their choice.

Sally Cripps asked if Cheltenham Borough Council or Two Rivers Housing have got an anti-social behaviour section/officer. Gillian replied that this aspect was handled by the Neighbourhood Housing Advisor. Lyn Scudamore advised that Gloucester City Homes has a dedicated team and that the whole process takes a long time to get to the point where action can be taken and also that you don't have to be a tenant if there is a problem. The main thing is to get incidents logged.Gillian H pointed out that Two River Housing has recently signed up to the 'respect agenda'.

Lyn Scudamore said that with the help of local police and community support they hold 'face the tenant evenings' which have been very successful. Gillian said they hold a similar thing with meeting held in an area all tenants and resdents  are invited and it was interesting that the main concerns were abandoned  cars,dog fouling and graffiti, as was exspected.

Keith said that they have 'bridging the gap' events, inviting old and young on a trip to London( youngsters were under social care). They met their M.P., visited an exhibition and were encourged to chat and discover what the concerns on both sides are. He said it was an interesting day which is encourging.

Andrea said that it was sad that many young people were having to leave the Forest because they couldn't find work.

Kieth added his comment that when young people were finding it difficult to find work or a place to live the problem must be look at and solutions found. Many move to towns because of higher wages but rural area suffer as a result.

Gillian said that in the Forest area a lot of work was being done towards community regeneration.

Lucy Biddle said that the main problem faced by groups of this type was increasing the number of attendees, various street representatives forums were being organised but the main problem was to increse the feedback for residence. Lyn said that they were at that moment awaiting the results of their inspection. They were able to show the nuber of tenants and residence involved and the training offered them. Some tenantslacked confidence but she has seen people grow with training and support. They now have six tenants on their board.

Stuart Strathern from Stroud District Council agreed with Lyn and reminded everyone that it is the Lanlord that has the responsability to provide these opportunities, they were also trying to make their meetings less formal, making it easier for tenants to get involved. Thebiggest increase has been the Sheltered Housing Panel with 43% of tenants involved from 5,500 properties. A disabled focus group has just been started.

Joe Corrigan of Bristol City Council said that they had 29,000 properties and the problems they encounter with tenant involvement arew no different to smaller landlords. The council are going through a lot of internal changes at the moment. One of their successful initiatives with regards to anti social behavour has been the introduction of a 'good neighbour agreement' Neighbours get together and itemise what problems they are facing each then signs the agreement. The idea is to get communites to live peaceably.

Martin Beacham agreed with Joe and said that Gloucester City Housing also uses this method, residents agree a number of bullet pointsi.e. noise, rubbish. It has been successful but if the problems escalate the agreement can be used as evidence in court as a breach of tenancy.

Two Rivers Housing has come a long way since its startup 4 years ago there are now 40 tenants involved on various panels and to date have helpedput together 34 KLOES (key line of enquiry) for the inspection, tenants hand book, web site, and thereis a continual stream of people wanting to join up. Tenant Involvement hasmoved on they no longer expect to rubber stamp decisions.

FORT South West Update

A handout had been prepared by Keith, there have been sharp lessons to learn, they have had to restructure how the group works, more active, localised groups with more feedback into local councils and associations. There will be a full scalere-launch at the AGM due to be held in Swindon in July. There have been 4negative comments but lots of positive one aswell.The Regional Authority have also asked that two reoresentatives be appointed from each county to attend in their area, this will give greater representation.

TREASURERS REPORT

The accounts have now been transferred to a computerised system, after many hours and a lot of hardwork by Nancy Churchill. The group has £1,080.44 in the account. Problems regarding the membership of Bristol City Council have now been resolved. A handout has beeb prepared.

Graham Ball went on to explain that another sigatory was required for the account. This is as a safeguard. Sally Cripps agreed to do this.

She was proposed by Sandra Mutton and seconded by Kieth Peacock all members agreed.

SECRETARY's REPORT

Graham Ball informed members that TPAS membership was due in July, there was some discussion as to whether this would be taken up again as most information is available to landlord and should be passed on, therefor saving the group £105.

Gillian disagreed because from personal exsperiance information is not shared or passed on and she thinks direct access is better. A vote was taken with the majority in favour of retaining membership.

There was then a dicussion conserning 2 representative we have been asked to send to the Regional Assembly. The main question was where and when these meeting take place. Keith these would be in Bristol quarterly. Sandra Mutton, Gillian Higgins and Andrea Wylde put their names forward.

AOB

Roy Haynes suggested that Spotlight on Tenant Involvement be a standing item on every agenda this was preposed by Gillian and seconded by Sandra,all agreed

Roy then invited Gillian to Lower Kings hill to observe the office in action.

Kieth asked if there were any oppertunitis to join the training events of other groups. It was agreed that it made sence to fill up vacant places.

It was also agreed that information such as the treasurers report should be circulated before the meeting date.

Next meeting 13th Aug at Rose Green Centre Bristol.

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