Tenant News

Produced by Tenants for Tenants

June 2010

page 1

INSIDEthis issue...

� The Worthys Later

Life Exercise Group

� Five-a-side football

for youngsters

� New Pilot Scheme in

Hampshire Takes Off!

� New Horizons

Produced by Tenants for Tenants issue 9

Former TACT chairCyril Gilbert-Wooddied peacefully inMay after a shortillness.Cyril, who was 85, wasa long serving andrespected member ofTenants and CouncilTogether (TACT) and wasinstrumental in making itthe force it is today.

He became involved in TheWorthys’ Tenants Association in1998 and before long waselected Chair of TACT.

He was renowned for hisattention to detail but always

wielded his redpen with accuracyand humour! Hewas never afraidto challenge theCouncil onmatters ofconcern totenants in a fair andconstructivemanner.

Accuracy was one of Cyril’smany strengths in adistinguished military careerspanning 26 years. He was anon-commissioned officer, withexpertise in small and full boreshooting, and teaching. He was

based in both the UK and Maltaand was awarded the BritishEmpire Medal.

Cyril was also a highlyaccomplished swimmer andrepresented the Navy at waterpolo – as his father had donebefore him.

After leaving the Navy, Cyrilworked for Hampshire Police asa driver and later as the Lost,Found and Crime Property Officerat North Walls.

Cyril will be fondly rememberedby both tenants and councilofficers, and we offer ourcondolences to his beloved wifeOlive, sons Colin and Chris, andtheir families.

TENANTS JOIN THE KINETICSMONITORING GROUPLong serving TACT members David Cruden and Paul Bungey havejoined the Council’s bi-monthly Operational Meetings with Kinetics.

Council officers invited TACT to join the group at April’s Property andContracts meeting.

TACT aims to see that tenants get Value for Money and this is justone way we do that.

Kinetics had only been in its current offices at Langstone TechnologyPark, (an ex IBM office complex) for approximately six weeks at thetime of our first visit in April.

The engineers are out on the road all day and stay in contact withthe office by mobile phone and GPS tracking. After a few hiccupswith computers and printers, which will be fixed by the time youread this, we will be looking for on target performance in the future.

Watch out for more information in future editions of Tenant News.

Paul Bungey, TACT.

Cyril Gilbert-Wood BEM

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Produced by Tenants for Tenantspage 2

The five workshops were:

� The Role of the Resident Representative

� Inspecting your Landlord

� Getting your act together

� Dealing with difficult situations

� Anti-Social Behaviour - What can residents do?

I chose “Inspecting Your Landlord”, which wasextremely interesting and thought provoking.

During the coming months there will be a lot ofconsultation and discussion with Winchester CityCouncil and TACT relating to new standards set bythe Tenant Services Authority.

It was an intense, but enjoyable day.

Nearly 200 residents and officers from acrossHampshire have celebrated the launch of aunique pilot scheme that changes the waythey work together to raise housingstandards across the county.

The Hampshire and Districts Residents’ Forum isthe biggest, and only county-wide scheme inEngland and represents 100,000 tenants from 10social housing landlords.

The scheme is one of 39 pilots supported by theTenants Services Authority (TSA), which regulatessocial housing.

TSA chief executive Peter Marsh, who came tothe launch in Southampton in March, praisedHampshire for getting together in this novel way.

“I am most proud of creating an environment ofempowerment and involvement. To havebrought landlords and tenants together has beena remarkable achievement!” he said.

The new Forum aims to make residents andlandlords equal partners in delivering excellencein services.

Beryl White, joint TACT chair, said: “We are allworking together as partners in the forum andwe have an equal say in what goes on.Landlords who fall behind will be encouraged tocome up to standard.”

The first ever Training Programme organised bythe new TACT Training Group has been launched.

Many tenants have booked places on the eighttraining courses that have been arranged.

In-house subjects included The work of Propertyand Contract Services.

The Training Group have also includedAssertiveness Skills, Presentation Skills and EnergyEfficiency in the programme as well as somecourses aimed at those tenants who are involvedwith Tenants and Residents Groups. All the trainingcourses ran during late May and early June bothafternoon and evenings to give everyone anopportunity to take part

David Cruden, Chair of the TACT Training Group said:“We are pleased with the initial take up on thesecourses and if they prove successful we shallconsider another programme of courses for all CityCouncil tenants in the autumn.”

South Coast Training Conference Novotel, Southampton

TACT Training LaunchedNew Pilot Scheme In Hampshire Takes Off!

Report by David Cruden TACT Representative

Eight tenants from Winchester joined peers from four other Councils and three Housing Associations for theSouth Coast Training conference in April.

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Produced by Tenants for TenantsTenants for Tenants

Later LifeExercise GroupThe Worthys’ TenantsAssociation (TA) have setup regular Tuesdayafternoon over 50s LaterLife Fitness and MovementClasses.

The TA had help fromTenant Participation OfficerDavid Lumby and GillyOstler from Get Fit 1-2-1.

Each class is 45 minutes andexercises are carried outsitting down and are withinthe capabilities of most

people. If you cannot manage one part it does not matter becauseGilly is an excellent and friendly instructor.

Sessions are open to all tenants and residents over 50 within theWorthys and are held in the Common Room at Harwood Place, KingsWorthy on the Springvale Estate, every Tuesday afternoon from 2.30to 3.15pm.

The cost is £1.50 for tenants and £2.50 for other residents.

Sessions are followed with a cup of tea or coffee and a chat if you so wish to help wind down.

So if you live in the Worthys area come on down and join in the fun!

Paul Bungey, Tenants Association Chair.

Tenants AssociationSurgery &InformationSessions.In January this year TheWorthys Tenants Associationstarted a series of SaturdayDrop In Surgeries andInformation Sessions in theCommon Room at HarwoodPlace, Kings Worthy.We are open on the lastSaturday of the month from10am to 12noon and welcomeyou with a cup of tea or coffee.

Our Area Housing Manager,Maria Dore, is often joined by aCity Councillor or CountyCouncillor and by the TenantsAssociation Committee.

We are open to tenants andleaseholders with any problemsor queries and to other residentswith Estate problems.

Our next surgery is on Saturday31 July so if you want to talkabout an issue pop in and havea chat to us over a cuppa!

Paul Bungey, Tenants Association Chair.

Children from Stanmore tookpart in a series of Five-a-Sidecoaching sessions over theEaster holidays finishing witha mini tournament on thefinal day.The sessions were organised bythe Council and sponsored byboth the North Stanmore andLower Stanmore ResidentsAssociations who promoted theevent though their newsletters.

Twelve children between the ageof seven and twelve signed up

for two days of coachingsessions which took place at theKings’ School Astroturf. On thefinal day, Michaela Knowles AreaHousing Manager for Stanmorepresented certificates to thechildren who took part in the mini tournament.

It is hoped to run a similarscheme in the autumn and getsufficient children interested tohave a team from NorthStanmore and Lower Stanmore.

Five-a-Side Football For Youngsters

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TACT Tenants &Council Together Meeting Dates 2010

Meetings are held on a Wednesday Afternoon from 2.00-4.00pm,and in the Evening from 7.30-9.30pm in The Common Room,

Godson House, Central Winchester unless otherwise stated below.

21 July18 August

15 September – Joint Meeting (7.30pm-9.30pm)20 October

All tenants and leaseholders welcome

Contact the TACT chairs Alan Rickman or Beryl White if you want to

find out more about TACT, their meeting dates, or want to raise any

issues. You can call them on Freephone 0800 716 987 and leave a

message or write to them at:

� Alan Rickman,

101 Taplings Road, Winchester, SO22 6HG

� Beryl White,

2 Pine Road, Bishop’s Waltham, Nr Southampton, SO23 1EH

Alternatively go to www.winchester.gov.uk/TACT

This edition of Tenant News

has been produced by a team

including Alan Rickman, David

Cruden, Paul Bungey, Joan

Downing, Angela Stevenson

and Susen Harding.

Produced by Tenants for Tenantspage 4

Now turn the magazine over to read

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NewHorizons?We all know now there isa new coalitiongovernment, it is oftensaid two heads are betterthan one.TACT looks forward to workingwith the new government, andchallenging when needed.

The previous government startedat the very last moment, to comeup with ideas and answers tonegative subsidy, and selffinancing.

“The question left unanswered iswhy leave it so late in the termof office?”

TACT looks forward to the futurehowever, and will work with ournew council, and together do thebest for the council tenants ofWinchester.

Alan Rickman joint TACT Chair

CALLING ALL LEASEHOLDERSThe leaseholder forum invite you to attend their Annual GeneralMeeting on Tuesday 21 September 2010 in the Common Room at

Godson House, Central Winchester, starting at 7.30pm.

The new committee consisting of Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary for

the coming year will be elected at this meeting.

If you find it difficult to attend meetings, but would like to be kept

updated by email, please call the Tenant Involvement Team on

Freephone 0800 716 987. All email addresses will be kept

confidential in accordance with the Councils data protection policy.

A new councilloris nowresponsible forhousing followingthe city councilelections in May.Cllr LucilleThompson.

She is very impressed by the workof TACT: “It’s great there is a bodyset up by the tenants and I thinkwe do work very closely with themand I want to continue that.”

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