Area Board Meeting
Minutes of meeting held on 25 October 2012 – The Brave Rood, DDC Offices, Dover.
Present:
Tenant Reps:
June Bailey (Chair) (JBai) Brenda Lyons (BL)
Sandra Murray (SM) Dave Aldred (DA)
John Battles (JB) Sarah Kidney (SK)
Dennis Haywood (DH)
East Kent Housing
Louise Taylor (LT) Janet Oxborrow (JO)
Keith Cane (KC) David Ashby (DA)
Dover District Council
Cllr Pip Russell
Paul Whitfield (PW)
1. Welcome and Apologies
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June Bailey, the Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and reminded everyone that the Code of Conduct should be read on a regular basis due to negative feedback she had received on tenant representatives behaviour.
Apologies were received from: Cllr Chandler, Chris Hanagan, Roy Barlow, Mary Hughes, David Quarrinton and Tony Troth-Alexander.
2. Minutes of last Meeting and Matters Arising
From the Action Points Janet confirmed that:
· The number of proerties sold in the last financial year were 10 – made up of 8 houses, 1 flat and 1 open market sale (The Gateway).
· All the other action points had been completed.
John Battles proposed that the minutes be accepted as a true record and Sandra Murray seconded. June Bailey signed the minutes.
3. Monitory and Scrutiny
Louise went through the report that had previously been circulated and made the following observations:
· The voids were now down to 12.94 days – the lowest figure in all four areas.
· Overall customers were satisfied with day to day repairs but some work was required on the satisfaction of improvement repairs.
· There was an error on page 9 the traffic light icon should be green because the target figure should be 35 and not 21 as stated.
Louise went through the Comments, Complaints and Compliments paper and said that in future the report would show the good areas in green and the bad areas in red. She also said that the sections would be shown as numbers rather than percentages.
Learning from complaints
Louise highlighted the following report:
Summary of complaints and lessons learned
/ Issue / What we have done /1. / Re-occurring leak from flat above which cast doubt about whether the initial leak was adequately repaired or if it was due to different leaks. / We are encouraging our Insurance Company to speed up the processing of such claims
2. / Complaint concerned the refusal to fit a disabled shower. / The Adaptations Policy is being reviewed in light of this complaint and a recent spate of similar complaints for sheltered properties
3. / The communal electricity supply had been plugged into the electrical supply for a private residence / Repairs contractor checklist amended to check they have not accidentally plugged the communal supply into a private residence
4. / Tenant unhappy that no response was made to her email / An automated response will be put on East Kent Housing email address.
June Bailey questioned why the gas performance statistics were not available for the Area Board. David Ashby apologised and said they would be available at future meetings.
Area Managers Report
Louise explained that two members of the Rent Team are leaving and that one of the posts had been advertised. It is hoped that that the posts will be filled so as not to adversely affect the improved collection rate the team has achieved.
The rent statement is due to be sent out on 5 November 2012 and with it would be information of the benefit changes, photos and contact details of Neighbourhood Managers and a flyer about cold callers (which is a particular problem in the Dover area).
Louise said that she will be working with the Area Board on a new tenancy agreement and that work is being done on the Customer Charter.
Asset Team Update
David Ashby explained the changes in the Asset Team and referred to the paper that had previously been distributed showing the new staff structure.
Budget Monitoring
David Ashby went through the financial spreadsheets that had previously been distributed and answered detailed questions on fire alarms and monitoring systems. He also asked the Area Board if they would like to receive this information in future and they said they would.
TICI Update
Janet gave the following update:
· Area Board Survey – please complete – information to be fed into TP Review.
· Draft Delivery Plan Survey – please complete (both documents had been sent with Area Board paperwork).
· Mystery Shopping – Area Board members from all four areas are going to be asked to check information at offices and on website to see if the information is correct and that every link works i.e. mutual exchange info etc.
· Tenant Inspector Report Summary – as you can see the most common concerns are horticulture or waste services. Handout from horticulture on procedures/timescales given to group.
· Reminder – Halloween Event 31.10.12 – Buckland Community Centre 1-3 pm.
· Cleaning contract – letters and surveys went out to tenants/leaseholders in flats plus tenants on Canadian Estate on 24.10.12.
· Example of Tenant Rep ID badges shown for approval. Group agreed to the design.
· Running a Xmas Card Competition with local schools – will be asking the Chair & Vice Chair to pick winning design.
· The Xmas Card will be sent out to inform tenants of festive opening hours and contact numbers.
· Feedback on walkabouts – NM’s will not know which ones you want to go on and phoning an hour before will probably be too late if you have already made plans for the morning. Keep to original plan where you notify us 2 days before which walkabouts you want to go on. Group agreed.
Date, time and venue of next meeting:
14 February 2013 – AGM 10.30 – main meeting 11am – 1pm – Brave Room, DDC, Dover.
Action Points
Page Number / Action / Person2 / David Ashby to supply gas performance statistics (to be added to monitory and Scrutiny section for all meetings) / DA
Signed …………………………………………. Date: ……………………….
(Chair)
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