James O’Driscoll( Mill Road), Angus Ferguson (Mill Road), Etta King (Gray Street), May Hollywood ( Gray Street), Cathie Duncan (Manse Gardens), John Redpath (Hogan Court), Jeanette Redpath ( Hogan Court),Mary Paton ( Willox Park), Cathy Martin (Young Street), Teresa Connolly (Westbridgend), Frank Frame ( Young St), Doreen Gilmour ( Young St), Ian Barr ( Young St), Teresa Whiteford ( National Lottery Fund), David Lynch ( Housing Co-Ordinator), Jane Mack (Tenant Participation Officer) and Richard Heard (HSCP).
Richard Heard chaired meeting and welcomed everyone.
Apologies from Margaret Whitten, Agnes Massie, Jean Massie, Margaret Stevenson, Gaby Eldred ,Margaret Deigman and Lee Bell.
Tracey advised that she was the Funding Officer covering West Dunbartonshire - gives advice to people thinking of applying.
Sheltered Housing complexes, can apply for funding – fits in small grants programme. Can apply online or use a paper application. Best to talk to Tracey before applying for advice and assistance. Tracey confirmed that the sheltered complexes can do a collective application to ask for funds so that all complexes can benefit.
£300 - £10000 grants provided, £4000 is the average.
Contact details distributed.
Members were asked to share a piece of good news or something they had done recently that they had enjoyed.
John – New Year party at Hogan Court (through lottery funding).
Cathy – Manse Gardens had recent meeting to agree plans for coffee morning to help raise funds arranged for 11am – Saturday 8/2/20.
Cathy – Young Street - £1400 taken out from funds to pay for couch and blinds.
Teresa – WBE – no events.
Etta – Gray Street residents went to Lomond Park Hotel for Christmas lunch.
May – Gray Street also having a Burns Supper on 25th January.
Angus – Enjoyed day out to Balloch, Christmas fayre and raised money for the communal garden.
James – Mill Road – Gardening club had funding raising events but hut blown down.
Mary – Willox Park Christmas Party.
Eddie Gray had resigned from being treasurer for the Forum Lottery committee and has since sadly passed away. Richard suggested a letter be sent to all tenants to see if any volunteers to take on the treasurer role.
Ian Barr from Young Street volunteered – John , Mary and Ian agreed to meet after the Forum meeting with Tracey Whiteford to arrange a new Lottery application.
Richard will link in with Mill Road warden to get treasurer books back from Eddie Gray’s family.
Some vacancies in complexes being advertised. Have some new staff and they have settled in well. Lee trying to spend more time in the complexes and will be spending 1 day a week at Gray Street.
Also looking at the Allocation policy with housing staff.
New post been created - Supervisor for night shift – been agreed and will be getting advertised. More Home- carers also been started so there should be less callouts for wardens to cover.
Issue raised by tenant at Young Street who had had 2 recent medical emergencies but been told should give more details when buzzer pressed so that controller can respond correctly.
Family been trying to contact Richard and Lee to discuss further - Richard to follow up.
Richard agreed to come to next meeting with details of how often supervisors are called away from complexes. Want to ensure discussion is around recorded information and that Service Standards are being monitored.
Teresa raised concern about lack of warden continuity at Westbridgend – no warden at weekends or on Fridays. Also nothing been done about common room.
Richard confirmed that should still be getting the daily calls - Tunstall have been upgrading the systems and some not working but Tunstall should be dealing with any issues.
David Lynch advised that the improvement work to the common room had been costed up and waiting on advice about door widening and work should start in next financial year – Teresa not happy and frustrated with delay as common room been in poor state for long time. Richard did confirm that once improvement work done it won’t be used by staff and will purely be for tenants to enjoy.
Richard agreed to consult with Lee and arrange to meet Teresa for a full discussion about Westbridgend and the improvements that can be made there.
Westbridgend also had funds and a Scotmid grant of £700 - still in the office – concern that cheque might not be valid to be paid into an account due to delay.
Richard confirmed that each sheltered complex has an Independent Fund facilitated by the supervisors and helps put on trips or events.
Question was asked about why the locks were changed at Hogan Ct – Richard didn’t know but will check with the warden.
Young Street – been upgraded and common room looking great.
Westbridgend as mentioned Suzanne Marshall in talks about £26,000 of improvements to be done in next financial year.
Manse Gardens works will be completed in February 2020.
Mellfort Avenue – happy with improvements and decoration of common room.
Second Avenue – new laundry facility been done.
Agreed that at the meeting about Westbridgend someone from Dumbarton housing team will also attend and cover the common room upgrades as David appreciated that tenants should be involved in decisions about the upgrade.
Young Street - ramp still to be finished.
Sheltered Housing tenant handbook
Thank you to everyone who was involved in the review of the handbook and copies of the new edition been distributed and the Housing teams have a supply so that new tenants will get a copy too. Handbook contains some really good pictures of the complexes taken by the Dumbarton Digital club – they are a great club and always looking for new members so anyone interested in photography or videos should get in touch with them.
Rent setting consultation
Thanks to everyone who came to the public meeting at the Clydebank Town Hall on 9/10/19 and those who completed the rent setting survey. Much greater response rate this year up from 257 last year to 845 this year so massive increase in people having their say. Preferred rent option from the survey is the 1.9% option with 41% of votes - Council meeting on Feb will confirm decision. All tenants will then get a letter formally advising them of the increase and what the increase will be for their rent.
Tenant Priority Budget
Budget still open for proposals and planning to have another public meeting on 6 Feb, 5pm in Council offices in Church Street to take forward the proposals still to be approved. Willox Park have a request in for raised beds.
Housing News
Quarterly newsletter that goes to all 10,000 Council tenants – used to update tenants on service improvements, new builds etc but if you have any story you want included just get in touch with Jane –articles for the Spring edition is needed by 7/2 or if you have any suggestions for things you would like to see us included let Jane know.
Tenants from Young and Westbridgend advised they had not had a copy of the new handbook – Jane will check with Natalie.
None raised.
Thursday 30 April, 2020, 2pm at Gray Street sheltered complex in Alexandria.