Joint Consultation Meeting between The Standing Joint Committee of the Doncaster Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations and St Leger Homes of Doncaster and Doncaster MBC held on 28 May 2015 at 1.00pm in the Doncaster Federation s Tenants & Residents Resource Centre Present Standing Joint Committee Linda Hall (LH) Chair SJC Andrew Kitchen (AK) Treasurer SJC Mavis Lindley (MvL) Co-opted Member St Leger Homes Mick Werritt (MW) SLHD Director of Property Services Meryl Liddell (ML) SLHD Strategic Involvement Manager Janet Walker (JW) SLHD Strategic Involvement Support Officer (minutes) Apologies Carol Robertson Item Item No 1 Welcome and Apologies The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were read out. Action 2 Health and Safety The Chair advised the members of the meeting on housekeeping rules and welfare facilities. 3 Minutes of the Last Meeting 30 April 2015 Page 2 last paragraph to be amended as it should read DMBC have entered a contract with a builder for the new builds and not SLHD. The minutes were then passed for accuracy and the following matters arising were recorded. Page 2 - ML gave apologies as she hadn t chased up her two points on Page 2 due to time constraints but would do so this week. Also that St Leger House was now up and running. LH to send some availability dates for the SJC to visit. Joint Consultation Meeting 1 28 May 2015
LH asked if the tenants were being asked if they wanted the Solar panels or just selected. MW replied that the project would be a pilot in Highfields village. DMBC would be talking to tenants but they had decided a no refusal policy on it. They still had to speak to the national Grid office first but they should not be any internal rewiring etc. required. It would all be external with the minimum upheaval to the client. If this pilot was successful then MW has asked for SLHD to carry out the consultation. Page 3 MW asked MvL if she had the number/address of the empty property that had been empty for quite a long time. MvL hadn t but supplied the street name of the property. MW would pass this on for someone to look into but it wasn t a SLHD property. Page 4 MW hasn t a solution for the issue at Darlington Grove regarding parking but would keep this on the radar when they look at environmental schemes. MW had passed the issue regarding security cameras to Dave Abbott. The result would be brought back to the next meeting. MvL asked if permission was required to put up home security cameras. MW replied that in a SLHD property then yes it was. Page 5 ML asked if anyone required the Food Hygiene training. LH to send suitable dates to ML. LH ML reported that she has planned a meeting with Jackie Linacre and Andy Rowe regarding Scheduled Repairs. 4 Directors Report Mick Werritt MW spoke of the Council House Build Programme Phase 2. The Local investment Planning team and Construction Services have been working with the appointed contractor Willmott Dixon Housing Ltd over the past 6 months, to enter into a contract for the delivery of 120 units. This was signed on 19 th May 2015. From the initial decision, a number of units have been lost through the planning process; however an additional site has been identified and added to the programme at Croasdale Gardens, Carcroft. The Housing Delivery programme is scheduled to run from May 2015 to March 2017 and delivery of the 120 units is programmed within this time. The new homes will be a mix of 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroomed apartments, houses and bungalows. Joint Consultation Meeting 2 28 May 2015
Planning permission has been granted on six of the nine sites and the remaining three are awaiting a planning decision. The sites with planned approval are: Victoria Court, Bentley Shelley Avenue, Balby Layden Drive, Scawsby Mere Lane Armthorpe (Former Depot Site) Whitcomb Drive, Rossington Croasdale Gardens, Carcroft 17 units 6 units 57 units 12 units 3 units 5 units The sites awaiting a planning decision are: Wildflower Close, Rossington Ashwood House, Adwick Abbey Green, Dunscroft 4 units 10 units 6 units The anticipated planning decision for wildflower Close and Abbey Green is expected at the Jun e Planning Committee. Ashwood House s decision is anticipated in Autumn 2015. The first start on sites will be Victoria court and Shelly Avenue, where site set up is currently taking place. Layden Drive is scheduled to start on site later this summer. The Council was successful in its bid to the Homes and Communities Agency in 2014 and the new builds will be part funded with Affordable Housing Programme grant. The remaining costs will be funded through Housing Revenue Account resources approved through Capital Programme 2015/16-2018/19. All the new properties will be managed and maintained by SLHD and advertised through the Doncaster HomeChoice website. 5 Community Engagement Report ML read through the report and highlighted the following: There are two AGM s this month, Latin Gardens and Moss Road. LH would advise who would be attending prior to the meetings. LH stated they were recruiting and had some great interest arising from the fun day. ML gave the names of two people who were interested too. ML spoke of the new mobile App. It cannot work of the windows platform as that is far too expensive but otherwise is compatible with everything else. Tenants will be able to pay rent, report ASB, report a repair etc. via this app. A query was raised. When someone pays rent at the Civic, why must they have to contact SLHD to find out just how much rent is owing? The staff at the Joint Consultation Meeting 3 28 May 2015
Civic cannot tell a client how much is owed. MW replied that SLHD collect the rent but cannot say what Housing Benefit has paid. ML will ask someone from the Financial Inclusion Team to contact them and talk them through the exact process and policy. The Learn My Way drop ins at Thorne has been extended due to demand. We also have some new ones starting at: Rossington Communal Library (every Monday from 1 st June until 29 th July 10am til 12 noon) Bawtry Communal Hall (every Thursday from 4 th June until 30 th July from 10am -12 noon) Warmsworth Library (every Tuesday from 2 nd June until 28 th July 3pm to 5pm) TRIP would be having a meeting next week. We will shortly trailing WhatsApp in order to engage with our younger tenants although anyone can engage with us through it. The Community day was a reasonable success, approximately 300 attended. Evaluation forms have gone out to the services who attended on the day and will report back when we have them all in. 6 Chairs Report The fun day was very good and we had some people interested in joining us. The business plan is finished and we are now waiting for the feedback from Judith Jones and Jane Davies. We are now looking at recruiting more members to make it bigger and better than ever before. LH thanked SLHD for all their advice and assistance over the past few months and look forward to working together for a better future. LH asked for her thanks to be passed to Lauren Hemmings for her excellent presentation on HomeChoice. It was very informative, very interesting and they learnt a lot. Many thanks to Lauren for her patience and knowledge. 7 A.O.B MW added that the new portfolio holder for housing was Sandra Holding. Joint Consultation Meeting 4 28 May 2015
LH asked if anyone would mind changing the times of the meeting to slightly later. It was agreed for future meetings to start at 2pm. 8 Time and date of next meeting 25 June 2015 at 2pm. Joint Consultation Meeting 5 28 May 2015