Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED –

THAT the ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists be noted.

To elect the Chair of Hampstead DMC for the 2022-23 municipal year.

Toyin Majiyagbe was nominated as a candidate for Chair of the DMC. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED –

THAT Toyin Majiyagbe be elected as Chair of Hampstead DMC for the municipal year 2022-23.

To elect the Vice-Chair(s) of Hampstead DMC for the 2022-23 municipal year.

The meeting agreed that they wished to continue having two Vice-Chairs. Annie Ward and Arun Kumar were nominated as Vice-Chairs of the DMC.

RESOLVED –

THAT Annie Ward and Arun Kumar be elected Vice-Chairs of Hampstead DMC for municipal year 2022-23.

To agree the DMC constitution.

RESOLVED –

THAT the Hampstead DMC constitution be agreed.

To agree the Code of Conduct.

RESOLVED –

THAT the Code of Conduct be agreed.

Apologies were received from Jeremy Woolcock (50 Fitzjohn’s TRA), Sara Bell (Alexandra and Ainsworth TRA), Janis Smart (Lymington Road TRA) and Shah Khan (Templar House TRA).

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no notifications of any items of urgent business.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th March 2022.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th March 2022.

With regard to his comment on page 4 of the minutes, Hasan Shah said that he had said that the mould and damp would not go away unless the walls were properly covered.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th March 2022 be approved, subject to the amendment above.

The DMC is asked to note the progress of the action points arising from the previous meeting.

Consideration was given to the progress report.

Paul Urquhart expressed his disagreement with the exclusion of complaints that took more than 100 days to resolve from the “average time to respond” statistic.

RESOLVED –

THAT the progress report be noted.

Report of the Director of Housing and the Director of Property Services.

This report brings together an update on Housing and Property service areas performance since the March DMC round. In addition to the performance updates there is also information on the Council’s new approach to complaints handling, information about the Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code and the social housing regulatory framework changes. DMCs are also invited to comment on related proposal to establish a residents’ panel which would contribute towards service improvement through in-depth analysis of our complaints and performance.

The DMCs are asked to feedback and make recommendations on the contents of the consolidated report.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Housing and the Director of Property Services.

Graeme Beedham, the Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing, introduced the item. He made the following points:

·         There had been progress in reducing the number of voids. The aim was to reduce the time taken to turn around voids further.

·         The contact centre for housing repairs were giving people online ways to communicate with them. It was now possible to report a repair by text message. This freed up staff to deal with residents who needed a verbal discussion.

·         TRAs were urged to request walkabouts if they had caretaking concerns.

·         With regard to the cost of living crisis, the Council was aware that some residents were in difficulties and its welfare advice staff were trying to help tenants in need.

·         The regulatory framework for social housing was changing following the Government’s Housing White Paper.

·         The Council was proposing establishing a residents’ panel to look at service performance.

The Chair asked for comments from members. With regard to the residents’ panel, the following comments were made:

·         DMCs did not always have the time to look into data, and so a specialist group would be better;

·         Residents had skills which would be useful on such a panel;

·         There were concerns about the selection process – members wanted to know who would be doing the selection and using what criteria;

·         Some people felt the proposed group was too small.

Some DMC members welcomed the opportunity to use webchat and other means to communicate with the Repairs contact centre. Others said that many of their neighbours preferred communicating by phone or in person and faced long waits for calls to be answered. With regard to the Contact Centre, comments were made about the script they used and the Chair said that it needed to be revised. The script seemed to be “one size fits all” and did not take account of the fact that this would not fit some repairs cases.

Members were concerned about problems with major works. A problem was highlighted relating to windows which were still in warranty at Sydney Boyd Court which the contractor should be ‘making good’.

With regard to tree and grounds maintenance, residents expressed concern where it had not been done well. Hasan Shah highlighted that there were dangerous trees in the vicinity of Burnham which were obstructing pavements. Oliver Jones said that his service would meet with residents to discuss this.

                                                ACTION: Oliver Jones (Head of Green Spaces)

It was also noted that there was a labour shortage of experienced people in the horticultural sector, which sometimes made it difficult for the Council and its contractors to recruit people.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report and the comments above be noted.

To consider a paper from the DMC chairs in relation to the Housing Ombudsman complaints process.

Peter Wright, the Chair of Holborn DMC, spoke to the paper from the 2021-22 DMC chairs.

He said that they were proposing a short-term resident-led panel which would work with council officers to publish a self-assessment of the Council’s complaints system and come up with proposals as to how residents could be involved in ensuring the Council adheres to the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints handling code.

Residents who wanted more information were urged to contact Mr Wright outside of the meeting.

Report of the Head of Tenancy Services.

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 a report of the Head of Landlord Services.

Celestine Fairhall, Neighbourhood Manager, introduced the report. The Lymington Road bid was not considered as there was no TRA representative present at the meeting.

Arun Kumar presented the bid from Mary Green TRA. The purpose of the bid was to improve the aesthetics of the lobby area by re-tiling the wall and floor. The bid was agreed by DMC members.

Officers were asked to circulate a reminder to TRAs of the deadlines for submitting bids so that they did not miss out on the chance to put their bids forward to future DMC meetings.

RESOLVED –

THAT the following bid be agreed:

To consider any local issues raised by DMC representatives, including:

·         HS2 works affecting Adelaide Road

The Chair mentioned a number of issues that had been raised with her at resident surgeries. Residents wanted to know which officers to contact regarding which issue. Members were informed that Sharon Calvey would be producing one in her estate management role.

                                    ACTION: Sharon Calvey (Head of Estate Management)

She added that people had been in contact with grounds maintenance about following up site visits and the emails had bounced back.

Hasan Shah said that there had not been a full resolution of problems caused in Dorney from a flood from above.

Anne Ward voiced concern about the impact of lorries taking rubble and other waste away from the HS2 site. There were a large number of lorries going past and some were very heavy and would have an impact on the road surface. Residents also voiced concerns that when they tried to raise issues with HS2, the company said that it was a Council issue.

Mark Norman, the Council’s Support Worker for HS2, said that planning officers would have worked with HS2 on a traffic management plan and that HS2 and its contractors should have been keeping to that. He would liaise further with them on this.

                                                ACTION: Mark Norman (HS2 Support Worker)

Residents expressed concern at the impact of different projects taking place simultaneously as part of HS2. A resident of Blashford said the tunnelling would be going very close to the foundations of that building. Another resident said that there had been talk of a gesture being made to compensate Chalcots residents for HS2 related disruption, and he wanted Camden to follow this up with the company to see if they would honour this offer.

A resident of Sidney Boyd Court expressed concerns about frequent plumbing issues that were affecting residents. There was also snagging after major works. Members wanted to know which officers to contact during and after major works if there were problems.

Concern was voiced about parking space being taken up on Winchester Road by wooden boarding around restaurants, which needed to be removed.

To note the briefing report on the New Homes for Small Sites Programme - Launching on-estate engagement.

This item was noted.

To note the minutes of the following group meetings:-

i)             Leaseholders’ Forum (available at: http://tinyurl.com/camdenlf)

ii)            Camden Association of Street Properties (available at http://www.camdencasp.org.uk/casp-meeting-minutes/)

iii)           Fire Safety Advisory Panel (available at https://tinyurl.com/camdenfsap)

Hard copies available on request.

This item was noted.

There was no other business.

The dates of future meetings of Hampstead DMC would be:

·         Thursday, 22^nd September 2022

·         Thursday, 8^th December 2022

·         Wednesday, 11^th January 2023 (joint DMC meeting)

·         Thursday, 9^th March 2023