|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Minutes of ACF Meeting
Present: - Wendy Farmer (Chair), Bridget Orman (Vice-chair & Secretary), Bruce Andrews, Ruth Andrews, Rose Boden, Bill Bone, Keith Bones, Paula Kinsella, Elsie Kitson, Sue Lane, Bob McClellan, Barry Page, Ron Pope, Linda Price, Stan Reed, Brian Smith and Edna Wye. ADC: David Panell (Executive Head of Adur Homes Services), Christine Ryder (Finance Manager) and Barry Maxey (Tenant Participation Officer). Welcome and introductions
Wendy welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced David and Christine. Apologies
Apologies were received from Sue Holland, George Jones, Brian Higgins, June Moulton, Tony Morris, Sylvia Page and Tania Page. 3. Housing Revenue Account Budget 2009/10 Christine explained the main issues around the Housing Revenue Account and set out the details of rent restructuring and how rent levels are calculated. She then went on to elaborate on the financial position of Adur Homes Services and why it is proposed to increase average rents for Adur tenants this year by 6.1%. David said Adur Homes Services had already identified savings of £200,000 this year. This has largely been done by not replacing staff and by reducing the amount paid to other departments for their services. He said that the need for savings would be on-going and that difficult decisions will need to be taken about the services that could be provided. The feeling of the ACF is that while members accept that many factors influencing this rise are beyond the Council’s control, the increase is excessive and at a time when tenants may be suffering from unemployment and from the severe downturn in the economy. A number of more general points about the housing service were also raised and particularly about repairs. These included a repair request reported via the internet that had apparently not been received and other requests for repairs not being acted upon. David took details of these reports and said that he would look into them. David and Christine left the meeting at this point. 4. Minutes of the last meeting 20th November 2008 The minutes were agreed. Matters Arising
Greenscape have agreed a price for tidying up the Millennium Garden but work hasn’t started yet. The question of funding this work from the ACF Environmental Improvements budget was raised but it was decided that this would be inappropriate as this money comes from the Housing Revenue Account, whereas the garden is on land that is the responsibility of the General Fund. All expenses incurred will therefore be paid from ACF funds, although Brian has offered to carry out some of the garden maintenance in future. 6. Treasurer’s Report The funds available to the ACF are £2,636. 7. Bids for Environmental Improvements Barry agreed to contact residents who use the electric vehicle store at Marsh House to get their views on proposed alterations to the path. 8. Cabinet Agenda Item 6 – Request for extension to existing Council property The ACF note the report’s recommendation but on the limited information available to the public, are not really in a position to comment further. Item 7 – Housing Revenue Account Budget 2009/10 This was discussed under Item 3 above. 9. Reports of the Sub-Committees i) Compact Monitoring Group A meeting is to be arranged in February to agree the revised version of the Compact. The Forum
Articles were requested for the spring edition of the newsletter. The first planning meeting for this edition will be held in the ACF Office at 10.00am on Thursday, 5th February. Adur Leaseholders’ Forum
Bill reported that Nviro, Greenscape and New Concept are working well in his area. The next meeting of ALF will be held at the ACF Office at 2.15pm on Wednesday, 11th February.
SHARP
Sheltered housing residents are currently going through the process of choosing their representatives for SHARP and these will meet shortly to agree a new constitution for the group. It was explained that existing SHARP members have set a limit of allowing four residents from each scheme to attend meetings in an attempt to prevent meetings from becoming unwieldy. AiP
Ruth explained about the differences between the Adur and Worthing Local Strategic Partnerships that had been discussed at the last AiP meeting. The next meeting of the board will take place on 14th February. 10. Any Other Business Bridget suggested that ACF members may like to set up a committee to organise more social events for the group. Bruce, Rose and Sue said they would be willing to look into this.
Bridget also said that, earlier in the day, she had attended a presentation by Eastbourne Homes on the Tenant Services Authority (TSA). This will be the new regulatory authority for all social housing providers by 2010 and they are currently getting the views of tenants about the standards that they would like to see from their landlords. It was agreed that ACF members would meet to discuss this. Bruce proposed putting a link from the ACF website to the TSA and this was agreed.
The evening raffle raised £23.00 for ACF funds.
11. Date of next meeting The next meeting will be held at 7.00pm on Thursday, 19th February 2009 at the Southwick Green communal lounge.
|