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Minutes of Adur (Tenants’ & Leaseholders’) Consultative Forum on Thursday 7th June 2007 Meeting held in the Southwick Green Residents’ Lounge, Southwick. Present: - Wendy Farmer - Chair ACF, Hurstfield Towers RA Welcome and introductions
Wendy was attending a meeting of the Development and Scrutiny Committee and arrived later in the evening. George chaired the meeting in her absence. Apologies
These were received from Conny Fairclough and John Halls (Avon Court RA), Elsie Kitson (Southwick Square rep), Sylvia and Tania Page (Corbyn Crescent reps), Linda Price (Blacksmith Crescent rep) and Ann Seldon (Pashley & Surry RA). Minutes of previous meeting on 15th March 2007
These were agreed. Matters arising
There were no matters arising. Secretary’s report and correspondence
Bridget reminded everyone of the TPAS conference in Birmingham on 3rd to 5th August and advised anyone wishing to attend to contact Barry. Treasurer’s report There is a current balance of £1997.00. George advised that the increase in funds is largely due to raffles. He suggested holding a social event for members but after some discussion, it was agreed to leave this decision until the AGM. Bids from residents’ associations for environmental grants
Relatives of a tenant of Prince Charles Close who died recently wish to install a bench in her memory and the residents association requested funding to install a concrete base. This was agreed in principle, subject to estimates and council permission. Paula enquired about the water butts requested at the previous meeting and was informed that these were no longer required by the associations concerned.
Adur Development Plan (Site Allocations)
The ACF Management Committee had previously met to discuss this issue but decided that while they largely agree with the aims of the plan, they were unable as an organisation to comment on the individual sites. They sent a letter to the council to this effect and stated that they will give their views on individual sites as and when proposals are made to develop them. Ruth reminded ACF members of the high number of people on Adur Council’s housing waiting list and of the need to be flexible in their outlook. Agenda for Housing and Central Services Committee meeting
Item 6 – Proposals for land at Overhill Item 9 – Relocation of VCS organisations 10. Reports of the sub-committees Compact Monitoring – The next meeting of the monitoring group will be on Wednesday, 13th June. George highlighted the difficulty in meeting some of the targets for involving people from ethnic minorities and those with disabilities. A discussion also took place on the best way to involve young people and several suggestions were made, including the use of video and targeting specific flyers at people of this age group.
ii) The Forum – Bridget requested articles and contributions from residents’ associations by 20th June. iii) Leasehold Sub-group – The Adur Leaseholders’ Forum met on 6th June and the meeting was very well attended. The results of the Status Survey were discussed, as well as the new repairs and maintenance contract and several complaints were noted and will be followed-up. The next meeting will be the AGM on 18th July. iv) SHARP - George mentioned that SHARP had formed a sub-committee and they would like to be involved with any proposed changes to the sheltered housing service. He said they were mindful of protecting the interest of sheltered tenants and may call on the ACF for their support in future. Stan questioned why sheltered housing tenants had not been consulted on the recent changes of mobile scheme manager staff. Barry explained that changes in personnel are management decisions for the council but the duties that the mobile scheme managers perform will not change. Edna questioned when automatic mechanisms would be fitted to the fire doors at Marsh House, as they must be kept closed at all times and many tenants are finding them difficulty to operate. 11. Any other business The evening raffle raised £21.00 for ACF funds. Rose reported that the rear access path behind her house is still blocked by overgrown vegetation from a neighbouring owner-occupier’s property. This recently resulted in a contractor being unable to access the rear of the property and having to carry materials through her house. She also mentioned that the toilet seat fitted as part of the recent modernisation work was faulty and she has since discovered that this seems to be a common problem with the design. Ruth stated that there had been a leak in her bathroom following similar modernisation work and that this resulted in some of the work having to be done again. She also complained that one of her window sills had been damaged during this work and that she was still waiting for it to be repaired. Ruth listed the local voluntary groups who had been awarded grants totalling £9,500 by Adur in Partnership from the Community Wellbeing Fund. Bruce requested re-imbursement of £25.99 for an ink cartridge for his printer that he used for ACF work. This was approved. Copies of a preliminary report from the Tenancy Services Manager were circulated to find out the views of the ACF on the use of CCTV. This resulted in a full and frank discussion but no firm conclusions were reached. Suggestions for the way forward included arranging a trial installation of the new CCTV in a priority area and making greater use of free skips to combat fly-tipping on particular estates. Wendy read out a statement that she had made early that evening to the Development and Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s review of the political management structure (see appendix below). There was a brief discussion on future locations for ACF meetings and it was agreed to continue to hold them at the current venue.
Date of next meeting – This will be the AGM and will be held on Thursday, 9th August 2007 at 7pm in the Committee Room, Civic Centre.
Appendix Statement by Wendy Farmer to Development and Scrutiny Committee on the political management structure I believe the council should retain the committee system as it is more open and allows for issues to be debated in public before a decision is reached. Under the present system, committee reports are there for everyone to see and the public can decide whether to go along to the meeting to express their views or to listen to the debate. This is not possible under the cabinet system where decisions may be made before the facts are fully disclosed to the public. The committee system also better reflects the views of minorities as councillors from the smaller political parties are still able to contribute to debates. But above all, my biggest concern is with the lack of public consultation on this issue. Before the decision was made last time to reject the cabinet system, a poll was held via Adur Outlook which showed that the majority of local residents were in favour of retaining the committee structure. Now, a decision is being taken in principle before councillors have heard the views of the general public. I appreciate that the council face a “chicken and egg” situation but it seems as if the cabinet system is being promoted as a pre-requisite of developing the Adur and Worthing Partnership Strategy. I believe that public consultation should take place before consideration is given to this proposal and that the political management structure should not be secondary to the development of the Partnership Strategy.
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