Pendleton Area Forum,
Minutes of Meeting 17th March 2009
In attendance:
Initials as used in minutes
Colin Marchbank Smith, Salix Court
Monica Wilson, Beech Court
Ken Derbyshire, Salix Court
Edward Down, Thorn Court
James Gillard, Hornbeam Court
Sue Charker, Holm Court
George Newton, Holm Court
Stuart Antrobus, Windsor Albion
Warren Carlon, Principal Security Officer, Salix Homes
Shamus Smyth
Jon Smith
Cllr Gina Loveday
Gerry Rickson; Protocol
Chriss Whittle Jackson Lloyd
Representative Jackson Lloyd
Derek Wunderley Salix Homes
John Leycock
GMP
Representative City Glass
Chair - CMS
Secretary - MW
Treasurer - KD
vice Chair - ED
JG
SC
GN
SA
WC
SS
JS
Cllr GL
GR
CW
DW
JLa
Apologies: Cllr John Warmisham, Cllr Lynne Drake, Simon Walford, Maureen Tully, Sam
Appleyard, Joanne White, Mathew Whitely, Paul Hudson, Ross Spanner.
Before the meeting commenced the Chair asked for a minutes silence as a mark of respect
for Cllr James Hulmes, who passed away recently. The tributes where lead by Ken
Derbyshire who was a personal friend of Cllr Humes and served as his consort during his
Mayoral year Ken said that Jimmy had worked as a driver for the Daily Mail prior to
becoming a Councillor for this ward, Jimmy used to hold his Council Surgery and could be
found most mornings holding court in the coffee shop in the Shopping City where he could
be found dealing with peoples problems. Ken also said that he had suffered with heart
complications over the past few years and had lost his wife a year ago.
Cllr Loveday stated that Jimmy was committed to the youth of the city and supported the
Ocean Youth Club as well as Hope Diabetic Unit charity
The forum was reminded that Cllr Humes had been, until a few years ago, our local
Councillor and was a founder member and treasurer of the Forum for a number of years.
The forum exec proposed that a donation be made to the diabetic unit at Hope Hospital, as
his family requested. The proposal was carried unanimously.
1) Minutes of last meeting –
Agreed as a true and correct record.
2) Matters arising –
a) Drinking ban signs for the Broadwalk will be changed for larger signs;
Ross Spanner has said that they will not be done from this year’s
budget.
a) Both the caretaking and security reviews are ongoing. Notices to be
posted on the blocks for the next phase of consultation. Project Plans to
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Action
be emailed to those that requested them.
b) The TAS event held at Diamond House was a success with some
lessons learned about the quality of sound and the problems that this
caused. It was suggested that for future events that Salix Homes invest
in a PA system.
3) Chairs report –
a) It appears that the gas contractor Apollo are using vans in the Salix area
with City West logo on them this is leading to some confusion amongst
some tenants.
b) Colin Marchbank-Smith and Monica Wilson will be attending all the TSA
events, representing Salix Homes. Salix Homes Customer Involvement
is being showcased, the York TSA event has been cancelled due to
poor uptake, the Manchester event is tomorrow, 18th March 09 and Salix
have paid for a number of customers to attend, the other events will
take place next week and are to be held in Peterborough, London,
Gloucester and Bodmin.
c) The date for the rent income SSP has been set and anyone who is
interested in this panel need to contact customer involvement.
d) There are still issues with rubbish blowing around the area from open
skips at the Gateway Centre. The chair and secretary of the forum met
with the centre manager and despite assurances that the skip issue
would be dealt with nothing seems to have happened.
a) The chair and secretary met with representatives from JL, they asked
that any tenants with repair or other issues to contact them direct as this
allows an immediate response to issues raised and customers will not
have to wait until things filter through the system.
e) The investment and maintenance SSP asked that City Glass attend, the
manager of City Glass asked that tenants contact him direct with any
ongoing issues. He left some business cards.
f) There is still an issue with the lighting on Holm Court but through block
inspections jobs are now being done.
g) The subject of disability parking bays on Holm Crt was raised again.
This appears to be a common theme across the area.
h) The pathway to the side of Holm Crt has now been dealt with through
the co-located team. The dangerous area now has barriers, although
the barriers are now down.
i) Ongoing issue with the crossing on Hankinson Way needs to go back to
community committee.
j) Community Committee Newsletter has now been delivered to some of
the area but there appears to be a problem with some of the people
delivering them. ED said that only 2,000 copies are produced and this is
not enough for the whole of Ordsall and Langworthy. It was pointed out
that the newsletter is not meant for each property but is produced for
TARA’s and community groups and other interested parties who attend
community committee.
k) The matter of block cleaning when caretakers are off is to be dealt with
at the Cleaner Greener SSP.
3) Security Report – this report was taken out of turn and brought forward
due to Warren Carlon becoming a new grandfather and having to leave
early.
a) WC gave an update on the status of the security review. Next round of
consultation is almost due and posters will be going up in all blocks as
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CM-S
WC
DW
Cllr GL
DW
b)
c)
d)
e)
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f)
well as customers being leafleted. An invitation was extende3d to
anyone wanting to join the Safer SSP.
An away day has been held for staff and they are positive about the
proposed changes to the service and will be kept fully involved in the
process. WC also reported that the rumours concerning the service
have now died down.
ASB - staff have expressed an interest in doing presentations on the
processes for dealing with ASB.
SS asked if there would only be one more meeting before a decision on
security was made. WC stated that extra meetings would be held if
necessary plus there would be day and evening consultation events and
the Salix to You Trailer would be utilized for wider consultation. ( WC left
the meeting)
JLa presented a paper on the vehicle registration scheme the scheme
will be piloted on Fitzwarren and Whitebeam Courts and then rolled out
to other blocks. The pilot should allow suitable processes and
procedures to be developed. Up-grades will have to be made to a
number of blocks i.e. fob reader posts and remote readers to some of
the more difficult gates. The paper presented is available on request.
This report raised a number of issues.
Are blocks due for demolition to be excluded from the scheme? Only a
limited amount of resources will be used for these blocks.
The meeting felt that there should be no hold up of the schemes launch
due to PFI.
How will motor bikes display permits? The displaying of permits could
lead to bikes being targeted.
Concerns were raised over the initial permit being for only two years.
The reason give was that it will take so long to roll out the programme.
Visitors will not be issued fobs to vehicle gates.
Multiple fobs for one vehicle will only be issued on production of
evidence.
Customer care team will be trained up to deliver.
Fob database to be cleaned up. Any fob not in use for 8 months will be
cancelled.
Policy to be enforced after awareness raising has been completed; this
should stop irresponsible parking by carers, nurses and JL operatives.
Company vehicles will be allowed to park if they belong to a resident.
A procedure is to be written for caravans and included in the policy.
GR
Gerry Rickson from Protocol presented a report that is available on
request. He said that there were concerns that there had been reports
of staff not wearing security jackets, this has now been resolved. JS
said that there are signs that the service is improving and that if people
have issues and are reporting them they need to note the time and date
that the issue arose.
4) Housing Up-date
a) GMP introduced the SNAP initiative on behalf of Ross Spanner and
asked that the Forum come up with ideas to improve communities. The
chair will contact RS for more leaflets and the TARA’s will deliver
b) DW told the meeting that Salix Homes will also be involved and that this
initiative will also be linked to Neighbourhood Days.
c) SS said that he was concerned that the leaflet referred to Langworthy
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and even though he recognised that politically this area is classed as
Langworthy, people who live here don’t think of it as such.
5) Jackson Lloyd (JL)
a) The chair stated that the SSP for Investment and Maintenance had
seen performance heading in the right direction. Optitime is to be
introduced and should improve the service to tenants. Tenants with any
operational issues that require immediate attention should to report
them directly to Simon Walford. SW has already successfully dealt with
a number of issues this way.
b) CW informed the meeting that JL operatives have new ID badges; they
are almost identical but now carry details of language line on the back of
the card with a section in Braille.
c) JL have produced operative handbooks with information on cultural
differences and phrases in the most common languages use locally; this
will be rolled out at the JL toolbox talks. Copy of handbooks is available
on request.
d) JL have amended their code of conduct and it will be presented at a
future meeting.
e) Two schemes in this area are benefiting from the JL corporate social
responsibility group; both are on Holm Court. The chair requested that
this scheme needs to be related to Salix Homes.
f) ED stated that starter kits from the allotment association for community
vegetable growing.
g) All JL vans are to be serviced by a local enterprise garage.
h) Repairs surgeries will be held across Central Salford.
i) JL will attend all local events, contact CW for information.
7) Neighbourhood Champion report.
a) DW apologised to the group for not attending the last couple of
meetings he introduced himself and told the meeting that he had two
roles, to work with the PFI steering group from a Salix Homes
perspective which included the re-housing analysis & strategy for reprovision and to manage the neighbourhood throughout the redevelopment.
b) He would be making sure that services in the area are delivered and
that processes run smoothly, he would be working with the co-located
team.
c) The neighbourhood days have not had any customer involvement to
date; they have been used so far to introduce staff to the areas.
d) DW gave an overview of area blueprints.
e) The chair stated that he was disappointed to find that the new
publication with the audit commission’s findings from the first part of a
two stage inspection had not been to any of the SSP’s before
publication he felt that it was a pity that no one had been made aware of
this publication particularly since Salix Homes was taking part in a
country wide road-show where Salix customer involvement was being
showcased.
f) He also asked CW to liaise with Pendleton Gateway on behalf of the
community in regards to the issue with litter from the site.
8) AOB –
a.) The chair said that the Forum would like to show their appreciation to
Ross Spanner for the work he had done on the issues raised at the last
meeting.
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b.) The next community committee meeting will be held at Pendleton
Gateway.
c.) There are a number of issues with the traffic calming measures on
Fitzwarren Street.
 Rubberised bollards to be installed.
 Possible yellow lines.
 No lights on sighs
There being no other items of business the meeting closed at 9:05pm
Date of next meeting 21st April 2009 7pm Lombardy Crt.
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