Agenda and minutes

Appendix A lists those Tenant and Resident Associations (TRAs), which have satisfactorily completed the registration process at the date of despatch of this agenda. It gives details of the representatives of those TRAs to be co-opted onto the DMC, in accordance with the constitution, together with the names of the substitutes.

Appendix B lists those TRAs whose registrations have lapsed. If a TRA wishes to register it must hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM), open to all members, once a year (with an independent observer in attendance). The minutes must be sent to the Tenant Participation Service together with a membership list and a completed registered form.

The DMC considered the list of registered tenant and resident associations (TRAs) provided by the Tenant Participation Service listed at Appendix A to the agenda and those TRAs whose registration had lapsed, which were listed at Appendix B.

The DMC noted that the Clarkson and Mornington TRA had disbanded itself, this was also something the Mayford TRA could decide to do.

The DMC asked that officers seek to undertake appropriate action to help tenants and residents to form or reform TRAs on estates in the Camden Town DMC area, along with ensuring that TRAs follow governance rules.

ACTION BY: Tenant Participation Team (SLF)

RESOLVED –

THAT the ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Maria Sexias (Agar Grove), Jackie Haggett (Ampthill Square TRA), James Mansfield (Bridgeway Street TRA), Jason Schluter (Goldington Street Estate TRA), and Sherryl Murphy (Mayford TRA). Also apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member Better Homes.

Re-ordering the agenda

The meeting agreed that the minutes and the action point update items would be considered at the end of the meeting.

Special Housing Conference

The meeting was advised that there would be a special resident-led Housing Conference, taking place on Saturday, 29^th June 2024 at the Starcross Street Skills Centre (the former Maria Fidelis School off Hampstead Road).

The meeting noted that as this was a resident-led event all the DMC representatives on the steering group requested that all 5 DMCs be asked to fund the costs of the conference, which was anticipated to be in the region of £20,000 in total. Each DMC would be asked to make a £4,000 contribution to these expected costs. The specific bid to fund the costs of the conference would be submitted for formal consideration by each DMC at their June meetings. The DMC supported the principle of funding the conference from DMC funds.

ACTION BY: Tenant Participation (SLF)/NHMs/Strategic Lead Supporting Communities (LR)

Camden’s Evening and Night-time Economy proposals

The Chair advised the meeting that she, along with other TRA representatives, had made representations to the Leader of the Council, along with a letter to the CNJ, asking that the Council take a balanced and a more objective approach to its proposals to change Camden’s Evening and Nighttime Strategy. The Cabinet had not listened to these representations and agreed the revised strategy. 

There were none.

There were none.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of Camden Town DMC held on 29^th November 2023 and 10^th January 2024.

Consideration was given to the meetings on 29^th November 2023 and 11^th January 2024.

The meeting noted that in relation to the minutes of 29^th November 2023, the word ‘humidifier’ should be changed to ‘de-humidifier’ on page 16 of the agenda papers.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 29^th November 2023 and 11^th January 2024 as a correct record, subject to the change outlined above.

Consideration was given to the action points.

Heating Pool deep dive

Further copies of the slides that were considered at the special Camden Town DMC on 14^th December 2023 would be available on request from the Tenant Participation Team.

ACTION BY: DMC representatives

Further information regarding the follow up session to be provided to DMC representatives.

ACTION BY: Director of Finance (EC)

HS2

The Chair would provide a copy of the response from officers regarding replacement homes and the reclassification of blocks, which would then be circulated to DMC representatives for information.

                                                              ACTION BY: DMC Chair/TP

Lift Protocol

Officers would provide a response to the Ampthill Square TRA regarding the lift flooding.

                                                              ACTION BY: NHMs

Grounds Maintenance

Officers to provide a response regarding whether there was a formal proposal to take estate playgrounds out of the responsibility of housing services, should this be the case then the response should indicate what the impact of this would be on the HRA and housing service delivery.

ACTION BY: Director of Recreation (OJ)

Estate lighting

Officers to provide a response regarding who pays for communal lighting on estates where the area has been deemed a public space (e.g. Ampthill Square Estate).

ACTION BY: Director of Finance (EC)

Officers would provide a response to the Ampthill Square TRA regarding LED lights being on all day.

ACTION BY: M&E Operations Manager (JS)

Officers to provide a response to the Walker House TRA regarding why they did not have LED lights in place.

ACTION BY: Programme Manager (PM)

Heat Meters on High rise estates

Officers to provide a response on the issues surrounding having heat meters for tenants living on high rise estates.

ACTION BY: Programme Manager (SD)

RESOLVED -

THAT the action points be noted.

To consider the report of the Directors of Housing and the Director of Property Management

This report offers an update on the Housing Transformation Programme, highlighting key areas and the progress in both housing and repair services.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing.

Scot Reid, Head of Property Customer Services and Engagement, took the meeting through the report and gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Neighbourhood Services would be going through a service restructure below head of service level the details of which would be provided to tenants and residents once the proposals had been finalised.

ACTION BY: Head of Neighbourhoods

·       One of the service improvements within Neighbourhood Services would be introduction of district-based hubs, where neighbourhood/repairs/community safety and adult social care officers would be based to provide joined up services to tenants and residents living in the area.

·       The repairs aspect of the voids delivery initiative had steadily improved, with properties now being made available in approximately 50 days by the repairs service. The log jam-in process was due in part to tenant’s refusals, as the current process allowed tenants an unlimited number of refusals, so delaying the allocation of a home and subsequent loss in rental income. Any changes to this part of the process would require changes to the Council’s Allocation Scheme. The Council was seeking to revise its Allocation Scheme and officers would confirm the time-line regarding this.

ACTION BY: Head of Allocations, Lettings and Private Housing Services 

·       Most repairs were now no longer being reported through the Housing Repairs Call Centre, rather they were being done on-line (85%).

·       Telephone call from tenants who were identified as being enhanced or were reporting an emergency would be taken through the call based service, all other calls would be advised to report their non-emergency repair on-line. Officers would re-listen to the message advising tenants and residents regarding reporting repairs through the repairs call centre to see if it was clear and if necessary, following input from tenants and residents, make appropriate revisions.

ACTION BY: Head of Property Customer Services and Engagement

·       The Council’s existing main call centre telephone system would be replaced by a cloud-based system in June 2024. This should improve the user experience.

·       Officers would get the ASB officer to contact Churchway TRA and Cooper’s Lane TRA regarding the ASB in their areas.

ACTION BY: Director of Public Safety (ND)

·       Officers would check the repairs issues regarding Cooper’s Lane Estate and contact the TRA regarding the issues they were experiencing.

ACTION BY: Head of Repairs

·       The Council had put in a place a successful programme for dealing with damp and mould cases in the borough. The Council currently had 673 active cases (new and existing cases), that it was dealing with at the moment. Tenants with damp and mould issues should contact the Council for assistance or action even if it was a repeat issue. The Council was now offering Saturday appointments (150 which had been undertaken so far), something that was proving to be very popular with tenants and residents. When necessary tenants had been moved to allow for work to undertaken to deal with structural issues that were causing damp and mould in their homes.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Director of Public Safety

The report outlines the actions taken or currently underway on how the Council is collaborating with other stakeholders in response to the recent youth murders to ensure community safety and reduce fear of crime.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Public Safety.

Albert Simango, Community Safety Team Leader, took the meeting through the report.

The DMC was advised that there was a combined Police and Council operation that would be undertaken to seek to deal with drug dealers/users and resulting community safety issues in the Camden Town area. Further information regarding the initiative would be available to be shared with the DMC in the future.

ACTION BY: Community Safety Team Leader (AS)

The DMC noted that the Police SNT for the area would soon be back being fully staffed and one of the returning officers had experience of the area.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

At 7.20pm the meeting adjourned for 10 minutes.

Report of the Director of Property Management

The report provides an update on then upgrade roll out programme of new CCTV on estate/areas in phase 1 of the programme, along with a schedule of estate for the phase 2 of the programme. The report also offers performance update on the responsive security patrol service.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Management.

Albert Simango, Community Safety Team Leader, took the meeting through the report and he along with Scot Reid, Head of Property Customer Services and Engagement, gave the following key responses to questions:

Officers agreed to provide a response to Churchway Estate TRA regarding its wish to be included in the CCTV Installation programme and provide a response to the TRA. This response should explain the reasons why it would not be included, if it proves to be the case, and attend the DMC to outline the position.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management

RESOLVED:

THAT the report be noted

Report of the Head of Neighbourhoods.

In line with the DMC funding guidelines, TRAs will be asked to provide an update to the meeting regarding the progress of agreed bids, including an update on the associated spend. TRAs are invited to circulate any relevant information in advance through the clerk.

TRAs are encouraged to submit bids as soon as possible, so they can be properly assessed and prepared by officers, ready for submission to the DMC. TRAs are reminded that verbal bids cannot be accepted at DMC meetings as, in line with the guidelines, officers need to be able to assess bids before passing them to the DMC.

For more information on DMC bids, please see our webpages: www.camden.gov.uk/district-management-committees.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Neighbourhoods.

The DMC were advised that there were no new bids for consideration.

The DMC noted that the Ampthill Square Metro Bins scheme may need additional resources once issues had been resolved. A further bid would then be made should that prove necessary.  

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

There were none.

Report of the Director of Finance

This report provided information regarding the cost of CIP to the HRA over the last 5 years, how much of this had been paid back to the HRA, and the rate of interest on any borrowing

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Finance.

The DMC asked officers to provide the answer to the question raised at the January meeting that asked officers to provide information regarding the cost of CIP to the HRA since 2012.

ACTION BY: Director of Finance (MW)

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

Report of the Director of Property Management

This report provides an update regarding the installation programme and the alternative approaches that were available.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Services.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

Report of the Project Manager

This report provides an update on our project to improve parking on Camden's estates.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing.

Officers would provide a response to the Ampthill Square TRA regarding the consultation timeline for the introduction of Traffic Management Orders programme to enable the better management of parking on the estate.

ACTION BY: Estate Management Service Manager (JS)

Officers would look into the parking issues surrounding Plot 10 and provide a response to the Bayham Place Estate TRA.

ACTION BY: Estate Management Service Manager (JS)

Officers would look into the parking issues at Cooper’s Lane Estate and provide a response to the Cooper’s Lane Estate TRA.

ACTION BY: Estate Management Service Manager (JS)

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

Report of the Director of Housing

This report provides details on the election process for DMC committee officers (chairs and vice chairs) at its June meeting that is the start of the municipal year.  The report includes the prescribed forms DMC members are asked to complete and return should they wish to nominate themselves or another member.

Consideration was given to the information from the Director of Housing.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

To note the dates for future meetings document.

Consideration was given to the dates of future meetings.

RESOLVED –

THAT the dates of future meetings for 2024/25 as set out in the document be noted.

There were none.