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)
