The TRA

Attendees
Helen Luck, Lena Shah, Azom Choudhury for HFI, Dennis Sheen for Apollo, & disappointingly just myself Steve from The Triangle!

Points from July Steering Group

1. A mechanical fan for installation in kitchens has been & will again be on display in the Apollo site office.
2. Thermostatic valves will be fitted to each radiator (this gives individual room temperature control).
3. Cold Water Tanks will be be tested when the system is flushed & replaced if their life is considered short. Hot Water Tanks remain in situ as these provide back-up (if loss of gas supply then hot water could still be available).
4. Paving Stones broken during these works will be made safe & re-assessed after.
5. Communal Glazing will be replaced with Georgian Wired Glass & HFI will be asked to use the same if further replacement is required post major works. Views are welcomed on this subject as whether an alternative material could be used uniformly - this needs to be agreed upon soon. Azom Choudhury has some experience here.
6. Window restrictors - to be reviewed.
7. Contract is like-for-like there can be no further changes to the planning application now - extra patio doors will not be considered.
8. All balconies will have to be cleared (partitions included) for inspection of leakages / asphalt repairs if required.
9. Work on communal aerial will try to push forward though this does not pose too much of a problem as it can be done by ab-sailing.
10. Cavity Wall Insulation is to be included in this contract.
11. Tenanted Kitchens will be renewed only if the Government Standard is not met (presently about 50-60 tenanted flats) although, as there will be some disruption where boiler renewal is necessary, these will be ‘made-good’.

Finally, I have asked about flat 37 & will be in-touch with Ross about this.
Azom Choudhury will replace Lena Shah (azom.choudhury@homesforislington.org.uk).
Steering Group Contacts are being set-up & will be distributed in future mailings. For TRA chair, secretary & myself use the address above or speak to us when you see us about - we don’t bite! Grr! The next meeting, although not confirmed yet, will probably be Weds 05/09/07 possibly earlier about 6-6.30pm.

BEWARE OF BOGUS CALLERS & LOOK OUT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS (Especially The Elderly)

AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING (Add Suggestions)
How are internal window housings to be replaced / made good?
Will cyclical repairs (re-decoration) be done following this contract? (Supposedly every 7 years - almost 6 years by end of contract since last done (I reckon) & will probably need re-doing - does anybody have a record of this?)

Can we please have better attendance at the next meeting - This is important to ALL of us!

Steve Robinson

Hi All
Click on the link below to find out what Apollo are claiming.
Makes for an interesting read!

http://www.theapollogroup.co.uk/documents/SH_50TriangleEstate.pdf

Steve.
(This is a test posting, “apollo”gies, ’scuse the pun, if it doesn’t work.)

Mmm… So the link didn’t work - go to website & click on ‘more’ at the bottom right then scroll down to ‘HFI the Triangle Estate pdf’.

The latest Islington Council Planning Committee meeting was held on Thursday 15th of February, and for the third time HFI were in front of the committee in an attempt to convince them of the merits of their Major Works plan. HFI’s proposal was once again deferred, with a 2-1 majority of councilors concerned that HFI’s proposed mix of sliding and top-hung windows would be detrimental to the building.

There was also a great deal of confusion as to whether HFI had provided the appropriate documentation in time for the meeting, as many of the plans (including elevations and window cross-sections) were not generally available for interested parties to examine until the evening prior to the meeting, and were only presented to the councilors at the meeting itself. This caused some discussion as to whether a decision could even be made based on the state of the proposal, however it was decided by the committee that the plans, regardless of the state at the time of the meeting, would not resolve quesions over the proposed plans suitability.

Once again this will delay the commencement of the Major Works plan at The Triangle. We will now have to wait until either HFI decide to put forward a proposal that is acceptable to the Planning Committee (at this stage it appears it would have to incorporate sliding windows throughout) or take their proposal to Planning Appeals. If the proposal were to go to appeal, it would cause further serious delay to an already laughably late improvements project.

As you are probably aware, The Triangle estate has a number of covered garages situated at the ground level of the estate. These garages have not always been kept in the best repair. The garage area itself has historically been vandalised and, due to lack of security and inadequate lighting, has not been considered the safest area on the estate.

Despite this, many residents with cars have applied for spaces in the garages. Unfortunately not eveyone has been succesfull, and in recent discussions with HFI it was stated that there were up to thirteen residents on waiting list for a garage space, with some people having been on the list for quite some time (some time being measured in years!).

One the face of it, this seems unfortunate but could be purely the result of too few garages and too many residents with cars. However, it has been stated off-record by HFI that approximately twenty three garages are being held empty so that they can be used by contractors when the scheduled Major Works programme begins.

As anyone on the estate can attest to, their have been significant delays in Major Works program, specifically related to HFI’s inability to satisfy Islington Council’s South Area Planning Committee.
So to summarise the situation we currently have:

1. 13 residents on a waiting list for garage spaces, some for a number of years.
2. 23 available spaces have been left empty, earmarked for contractors involved in works that have not even been accepted by the Council Planning Committee. The original start date for the Major Works was in June, leading to the assumption that these garages must have been empty since at least then. We still, even now, do not have a start date for these works.

It appears that an adjustment of the prioritisation system used for the allocation of garages is needed. HFI seems to be penalising tenants at the cost of keeping garages empty for what is effectively their own use. From the figures above it is obvious that EVERY tennant that is waiting for a garage could have one immediately, whilst still providing a number of garages spare.

Common sense would dictate that an equitable prioritisation system would look something like:

1. Residents with special needs
2. Residents
3. All others (with resident requirements superceding any rental agreement)

Under this scheme, all residents could be provided with a garage, and any spare spaces allocated to contractors as required. If all garages were allocated and another resident required a garage, at the end of the current rental period for a non-resident garage leasee, that garage would be re-allocated to the resident.

The next step in investigating this issue is to ask HFI to provide information on the number, state and rental status of each garage. Following this would be a request to implement a prioritisation scheme that puts more emphasis on the rights of the people who live at The Triangle. Stay tuned.