Jayne and Bill's HSH blog

Lottery grant meeting

2009-12-08T18:50:00.005Z

Hi There - Jayne here.

Well - we had a very good meeting today, Bill, Paul and I plus Natasha from HSH, with a chap called Martin Fine who is a facilitator for the Lottery Fund. He is very knowledgeable about how to fill in forms and what documents we need to gather together. We also need to find ourselves a landscape architect at the speed of light and so if there is one out there who reads this or anyone who knows of one please get in touch. He seems to think that we have a good chance of getting the £50,000 we are asking for but we, the committee, will have a lot of work to do. I would like to thank Natasha Dennis too as she has agreed to work with us and, poor soul, will also have mountains to climb by the look of things. As usual we will let you know how it all goes and if you have any ideas,want to help, would like to get involved please give us a shout.

We still have no money or paperwork and still no access to the accounts. This is a pain as it means loads of extra work for us as we now have to "start again" - setting up bank accounts etc so that we can apply for our running grant from HSH. At this moment we are sharing the costs but as half of the committee are on a pension we need to get some funds into the bank - when we have one! We would have liked to have a mince pie and a glass of wine with you for Christmas but never mind.

I have heard today that HSH have had a surprise visit from the Audit Commission who have arrived to have a look at the books - who'd have thought - 'nuff said I feel. Watch this space I believe is the phrase one uses.

Bill and I now have all the copy invoices from HSH for Pinter and Hanne Level has them for Becket. We had asked someone to get them for Arden but this has not happened and so Bill will ask for them as the Chair of the Association - he can do this. We will then have all three blocks and can start to compare, check, etc. I went to the first Leaseholder Forum with 8 other leaseholders on Wednesday of last week and was told that the Ward (concierge) contract had been gone through along with all the invoices and that Ward had not been invoicing correctly and that we should expect a refund. No amount was mentioned but I trust the person who has done this ( HSH new staff) and I believe what was said - again watch this space.

Yui Law, one of our Beckett representatives is involved in the building trade and is investigating lots of ways that we can save money on our energy use. We will keep you updated as and when we get any information on that as well.

The press published the Connaught trading results recently. They are the company that do most of the repair work for HSH - you will be thrilled to note that their profits went up from £447 to £528 million - driven by the SOCIAL HOUSING SECTOR - you and me folks. I'm so glad that they have not suffered in these difficult times. HSH really do need to make more of an effort when they source contracts I think and I suspect you do too.

Take care - see you soon - Jayne (and Bill)

2009-11-15T10:01:00.003Z

Sunday morning and I am blogging - what that says about me I have no idea - sad old tart maybe!
Bill and I had a very good meeting with Natasha Dennis, the acting Resident Involvement Officer at the HSH office. She seemed to be keen to establish a genuine working relationship with the GRRA. We asked her, as our first and to us most important issue, if HSH would agree to re-naming the children's play area for Kay Barnes. Kay did so much for us all before her death, and I have just had an email to say that they have agreed and that if we just tell HSH what we want in the form of a plaque to that effect they will arrange it. We are, as you can imagine, delighted and I am sure that everyone else will be too.
Natasha also told us that there was an amount of £40,000.00 in the form of a grant from that Lottery. There were two phases, the first has been done but there is still the second, which is where this amount is being held. This has been awarded to the Grantham Road Residents Association but the previous Committee had not taken advantage of it for some reason. Time was running out, we only have until tomorrow, Monday 16th November, to produce something on paper to go to the Director for his decision and so wish me luck - I will need it as I have no idea as to the background and will have to just do what I can. £40,000.00 would make a world of difference to the play area and it would be wonderful for the children. So - we have been asked if we can quickly put something together by tomorrow so that we can at least extend the deadline. We really do not want to loose what is for us a great deal of money. I will keep you posted as to how we get on.
Natasha also gave us the "blueprint" package that HSH produce so that we can see what their idea of a well run Association is. This will help us to provide information to them in the best possible format to ease the passage of any requests we may have. We would like to have all the papers passed to us from the previous Committee so that we know about what has been going on and can make sure that where things have been started they are continued. Bill has asked Natasha if she can arrange for this and we will let you know when they arrive. Natasha, in my personal opinion, is an extremely nice person and both Bill and I, and I know the rest of the Committee, are looking forward to working well with her.
Bill did one of his "walkabouts" on Friday afternoon. He has been doing these every month for about three years with Maud Adams, our Housing Officer, and Donna (who manages the cleaners)who attends on most occasions. They found a huge amount of stuff - mattresses etc - on the 16th floor of Pinter House which they had removed there and then as it was a massive fire hazard. If any of you living in the three blocks see stuff on your fire landings can you please let your block representative know about it and we can get it removed. Their names will be going up in the notice boards in your Reception Areas next week.
So - things are moving along - I am going to do the first news letter this coming week so that folk who do not have access to the web are also kept up to date with what their Comittee is up to.
There has been a post on the last blog to say that it would be nice to have some photos so that people know who we are and what we look like. I, being a complete div have no idea how to do that but we have a wonderful chap, who is our Treasurer, who does. Paul is the man who has built this Blog, designed and built the webside and arranged the email address and I bend my knee to him as a miracle worker. We will get some done and then you will be able to see them - poor old you - we are ancient and totally SO not photogenic!!!
I did try to get into this page to have a chat on Thursday but there was a system problem the the site so apologies for the gap.
Take care all of you - Jayne

Tuesday

2009-11-10T16:22:00.006Z

Hi There...

Sorry that I have not been on here for a while but I was grabbed by my GP and had a 'flu jab shoved in my arm last week, felled at one blow! I have decided that the NHS have done a bit of forward thinking for a change and have decided to give me a whopping "charge" of bugs so that I seriously do not get ill - they can then deal with the poor souls who get the real swine flu and not less poorly folk like me. Anyway - the bugs are now marching out of the door and I'm on the mend.

Bill and I have a meeting this week on Thursday with an HSH member of staff called Natasha Dennis who is standing in for Robert Hamlin, the HSH Residents Involvement Officer, whilst he is on "gardening leave". Robert has worked for HSH for some years but has not been around for a good while now and we all hope that he is not seriously ill.

As we have a mostly new Committee now we need to have all the papers from the retiring Officers of the GRRA so that we can provide continuity of representation to the residents. All the Committee members want to pass on their grateful thanks to the outgoing committee members for their dedicated and hard work over the last years. I know that they were very good at providing social events for all who live in Grantham Road and we very much want to continue that service. We might not be able to do too much for Christmas as time moves along so quickly and we have not yet got any of the GRRA books or papers that we need. This means that we have no access to the funds available as it will take time, when we do eventually get access, to get the signatures changed etc. However, Easter should prove to be a surprise for everyone as it is already being planned.

There is a meeting in the Old Laundry this evening about anti-social behaviour on the Stockwell Gardens Estate in particular, but this also has a relevance for the whole area and Bill will attend at the invitation of one of our local councillors, Pete Robbins. Our safety is key to everyone who lives in the area and it would be wonderful if we could get more people interested in taking part in looking after the place where they live. I have long wanted some sort of workable youth provision in this area and the Stockwell Community Resource Centre, behind Stockwell Tube, is doing what it can. There seems to be an interest by the "powers that be" in putting some more Government money into Stockwell which can only be good news.

HSH have a new Income Mananger who is responsible for all the income collected by the Stockwell office. She has taken over from Sarah Day who is on maternity leave, having had another dear little baby girl. Nazia would seem to be a very keen person who wants to embrace the job ahead of her. She comes from another company where she was key in setting up a Leaseholder Forum and has been brought on board by HSH to take on the task of setting up their own Leaseholder Forum.

There have been two meetings already but I am worried that not all the Leaseholders got the information due to reasons various. If you are a HSH Leaseholder and do not know about this can you post something on this blog or our website - http://www.hshresidentsvoice.org.uk/ - and we will try to help. We also have an email address: hshresidentsvoice@googlemail.co.uk

Bill and I have lived in the area for many years - if you want to see and hear Bill go to Stockwell Stories on the web (Onion) and you will hear him talking about his life in the area as part of an ongoing project to go into the Lambeth Archives. If anyone out there is interested in being interviewed for this please get in touch. There is no "wrong" person as everyone has their own story to tell. Your recording will then go into history and your memories will be available to all for generations.

Well - off to do something about feeding William now I suppose - has anyone else (female or male) noticed that if you do not feed men at regular interval they get very strange. If I fill Bill up three times a day - sweet as a nut - if I don't - duck.

Take care
Jayne

Evening All

2009-11-02T21:07:00.003Z

Evening All - Jayne here again.

Had the usual busy day, I've actually managed to do a few things for myself as well - who'd have thought. The traffic around here gets worse and worse, I'm so glad that I don't have to find a solution and it will be left to better minds than mine.

As Bill has been voted in as the new Chair of the Grantham Road Residents Association we are looking for people with an interest in either Beckett, Arden or Pinter House to come on board and help us to get things running in an efficient way. We shall need to have the help of anyone who has a head for figures, knows their way around a building, has any involvement with professional decorators etc. etc etc. - this list could go on and on as I suspect you can imagine.

We are also very keen to have as many of the tenants involved as we can and so if any of you are reading this and would like to have a chat about what you could do to help, in even the smallest of ways, then please do get in touch. Bill and I are out and about most of the time and so if you want to stop us for a chat we would be very pleased. We are hoping to have some photos of all the Committee on the web information sites so that you will know who we are! More like mug shots I suppose and as I have to be the most un-photogenic person on the planet my apologies to all for having to look at my ugly mug.

Heard about a poor soul today who has had their service charge doubled in the last two years. They also have a huge damp problem that they have been trying to get solved for two years with no resolution as yet. I seem to hear a new story daily now and I am so impressed at how honest and decent most people are. In any other country I am sure people would take a much stronger line but in good old England we just endure. It makes me proud and want to weep all at the same time.

Take care - Jayne

Grantham Road Residents Association

2009-11-01T11:59:00.006Z

Hi Everyone - Jayne here.

This is the first time I have ever used a Blog and so you will all have to excuse me if I make mistakes - or insult anyone unintentionally (or intentionally come to that)!

Grantham Road Residents Association had its annual AGM on Monday of last week, 26 October 2009, and we have a new Chair, Bill Sainsbury. We also elected a new Vice Chair, Juliya Matusevicinte, know to all as Julia, and our Treasurer is now Paul Chodha.

We also have some old and new block representatives. Beckett House will be looked after by Caroline Ruffell and Yui Law, Arden House by Blake Gilchrist and Trevor Mendez and Pinter House by David Hurst and Charles Wood.

We are all facing challenging times. The credit crunch has meant that we are dealing with higher bills and less money to pay them with. When we are all having to watch what we spend so closely we think it is important that Hyde Southbank Homes does so too. Our job, as your Committee, will be to work hard to see that when contracts are awarded by our landlord they are getting the best value for money that is possible and that we are not paying out more than we need to.

I think that this is basic housekeeping. We all know that we have a certain amount of money coming in and we have to manage. All we are asking is that HSH do the same. Not a lot to ask as we are all paying a management charge to them for running these blocks.

Members of our Committee will be coming round to you to have a brief chat about what special issues you have and would like to discuss, and we will be having open meetings throughout the year so that you can tell us what is concerning you. The dates of these meetings will be published and put onto the notice boards well in advance so that you will have time to organise to attend if you want to.

We will also be sending round to you all a list of contact numbers, in case you have an emergency etc but you will also have the web site to refer to. We have built the site and have our own email address and will give you these details as well in the next two weeks.

If you do not have access to the web don't worry. We will make sure that you also get a hard copy of any information. Bill and I will be burbling away on the blog to keep you up to date as to what is going on. You can contact us by email and if we can help we will.

There is a huge amount of information available to you and our aim is to make sure that we keep in contact with all the other groups in this area that have HSH as their landlord. Together we can help them keep costs down, provide an efficient, polite and helpful service and a repairs operation that they can be proud of. That way, we hope, we can all live in harmony and get on with out lives.

I will chat to you again soon, and get better at it I hope.

Take care,
We are ALL precious cargo.