Written by Residents for Residents. Contact us on strf.org.uk.

Pages

6-9

New members required for Residents Scrutiny Forum Page 11

Join in our new Boules Group

Page 12

Out of Hours 2 Coffee morning 12

Meet the Federation 3 Community Event 13

Golden Mile 4-5 Old Southend 14/15

A Fun Summer 6-9 Nomination Form 16

SEH to stay 10

Scrutiny 11

Squatters on council land 11

2014 Page 13

Issue 12

2

Chair’s Update

Time goes so quick, here is yet another Edition of the Fed Mag.

Firstly I would like to say a great big thank you to all who were

involved with the community event - Organisers, Helpers on the Day

& Estuary. I would also like to mention the entertainment on the Day

- Starlight Productions, Elvis Impersonator (Pat Byrne), Tamil Dancers, Mushroom

Theatre Company and Bon Marche - every one of you pulled a crowd so well done to you

all and once again thank you.

I would also like to make all residents aware the Task and Finish group have drawn a

conclusion as to whether we go back in house or stay as South Essex Homes. See page

10 for a full update.

Many residents were awarded trophies for all the hard work they do during the year at a

presentation event at the Cliffs by South Essex Homes. Also the Garden in Bloom award

winners were included in this event, it was great to see so many people in attendance

and being recognised, Thank you South Essex Homes.

Shirley O’Reilly

Chair: Southend Tenants and Residents Federation

E. Mail: shirley.oreilly@strf.org.uk

Landline: 01702 610408

Out of Hours Service When a resident telephones South Essex Homes ‘Out of Hours’ service, a member of the Careline

team will deal with their enquiry. The Careline team treat emergency calls as a priority e.g. calls

from residents who have triggered their personal alarms (as they may require medical / emergency

services) before dealing with any general housing / repair issues.

To prevent any out of hours repairs calls being missed it was arranged to install an answer phone

facility to assist during busy periods. To improve this service South Essex Homes are currently

looking at the option to incorporate a queuing system to our service, so that callers have an

informed choice on their position in the queue whilst waiting to make contact with Careline, a

message will be played so that residents with non-emergency calls have the option to contact us

via email to reduce the waiting time or to leave a message so that an officer can return their call

once they become available In relation to covering additional calls during

an emergency (e.g. flooding), South Essex Homes

also arrange for additional staff to provide further

assistance in answering calls when required.

3

Chair

Shirley O’Reilly

Shirley Oreilly has been returned as Chair of the Federation. Shirley is an active member, she sits on the repairs group with both contractors and senior managers.

Shirley is dedicated to making sure every resident has a voice.

She also loves to receive your nominations for the Good Neighbour and Golden

Mile awards

Vice Chair

Malcolm Ellis

This year is the first time that Malcolm has been elected for the role of Vice Chair.

Malcolm is the present Chair of Triangle Residents Association and works hard for the 400 residents it represents. He also spends a lot of time mentoring other residents in using a computer among

other things.

Treasurer

Diane Nicholls.

Again it is another first time for Diane to join the committee. Diane is secretary of the Mendip Wildlife Garden which she devotes a lot of time to. She is also the Treasurer for the Mendip and Treecot Residents Association and the Chair of the Residents Scrutiny Forum

Committee Member Terry Swinney.

Terry is also a new member on the Federation Committee. Terry is the Chair of WASH Residents association and cares about the residents who come under this group.

Committee Member Jackie Butler

Jackie is on the committee of a new resident association “The Four Eagles” She is involved with the residents of the area and is helping to organise a children's Christmas party and one for the adults in the area the Four Eagles Represent.

Continued on page10

4

Diane Nicholls Mendip

I would like to put Diane Nicholls forward for

an award as I believe not only does she do a

lot in the community for all the residents, but

as a rep she also does anything needed for

her immediate neighbours. Nothing is too big

to ask Diane, she is always willing to help.

However it is not often I ever hear people

saying a simple "thank you for the hard work

and effort she puts in".

Mrs. Lena Pester (The Brambles)

The nominator said: “This lady is such a helpful

person who goes out of her way to assist everyone.

She is a great source of comfort to me and will

always take time to listen.”

Lena also helps other residents in the unit by doing

shopping for them.

Mrs Lilian Frost (Trafford House)

The nominator said: “She has a heart of gold, I

have never had such a neighbour before, she

will help anyone out, she has had a lot of ill

health herself but that does not stop her

helping others. She is an absolute darling.”

5

Caretaking Team Staff

Shirley said: “These guys worked wonders for

3 days over the community event - they

collected items from my house with no hassle

or complaints and there was a lot of stuff on

the day. They all worked their socks off

helping in any way they could, after the event

they helped pack up stalls and litter-picked

and the next day they returned everything

back to my house for me to sort out.”

Caretaker Ivor

This nomination came from the Residents

of Snakes Lane.

They wrote “The most helpful Caretaker

we have ever had here.

“Thank you Ivor for doing such a good

Job.”

6

Community Event

On August 7th Ben O’Reilly in the guise

of Peppa Pig came to Southchurch

Park.

Ben did a grand job considering

how hot it was and he managed

to collect £26 in his tin for the

PDSA.

When he got to hot he relaxed

by going on the Bucking Bronco.

Bert Goodbourn is a SEH resident who helped in setting up “The

Village”, which is held on Sunday Mornings near Southend Airport .

Members of the public are welcome to go along and see some of

the beautiful things that people who are disabled create.

Bert came along and displayed some of his excellent paintings

which were a joy to view.

Thank you Bert for sharing these with us.

The very young people had their own crèche which was run by

Estuary Housing Crèche. Estuary joined forces with us in May and

agreed to provide something for the very young and a tea/coffee

area so that visitors could sit and enjoy a reasonably priced cuppa

and mums and dads could keep an eye on their children.

Once again South Essex Homes, Southend Borough Council and

charity organisations came along to support us in strength.

Visitors found their displays eye catching and informative.

We must not forget PH Jones, Mitie, TSG, Kier and Valliant as

without their donations we

could not have done as well as

we did. A BIG thank you from

the committee. Essex Police and

CDRP also came along to

support us and a lot of visitors

were directed to them to discuss

their problems.

7

This year we purchased people counters (clickers) at the cost of £11.80 for eight.

The Clickers recorded a total of 3052. This is what we have based our costs on.

Estuary joined us this year and gave a £2000 donation. This year we added to the young people’s

entertainment and booked Trampolines and bucking Bronco which went down well. We covered the costs

of the Bouncy Castles but made a small loss on the trampolines and the Bucking Bronco due to human error.

Over £685 was collected for the PDSA.

A cheque will be presented to them at the

Awards Ceremony.

Bon Marche put on a splendid fashion show

and our six volunteers did a wonderful job of

modelling

The Committee are very proud that the six

ladies agreed to give up their time not only to

model but go down to Bon Marche to select the clothes they wore. Well done and thank you.

A group of young people who were doing volunteering towards an award turned up early in the morning and

helped us set up and worked hard during the event getting surveys filled in. They did a marvellous job .

The £25 shopping voucher for completing the survey was won by

Miss K Robertson.

Enjoying the Fashion Show

8

Bournes Green Fun Day

On August 21st three ladies, one from Bewley Court and two from Longbow, organised a fun day to help

enhance community relations . This event came about through the community circle meetings.

It can be very difficult living in a tower block and not knowing your neighbours and this is why Erica, Chris

and Rose came up with the idea to do something for the community to try and bring it together.

It was a wonderful event and the residents came along and had a very good time and asked when the next

one was.

The Mayor and Mayoress attended and walked round all the stalls talking to the residents before drawing the raffle.

Coleman Street Carnival.

Coleman Street came alive to the sound of drums on August 2nd when the

residents from the Town Centre Tower Blocks came together to enjoy a fun

filled day. There were many activities for the young people including playing

the drums with the professionals.

There were also a lot of information stands where the residents could go for

help and advice.

Coleman Street Group came about when the four tower Blocks were having bad press in 2011 and South Essex

Homes set up a Community Circle to help resolve the problems that the four blocks were having. Because of

the success of the circle and how it brought all the four blocks together with the help of Sam Elliott (Resident

Involvement Officer) they decided to hold a small event in 2012 this was a success and this year they decided

to hold a bigger one.

It was held in the centre of Pennine, Malvern and Chiltern. Storehouse provided free Tea and Coffee with

Danish pastries during the morning and free hamburgers. It was a very good day and it brought the residents

together and a good time was had by all.

Chair of Federation

No Good Trying to Hide

Some pictures of the day.

9

Four Eagles Residents Association

Gazebo on the Green

In March a new committee was elected for the Four Eagles Residents

Association. The first action that the Chair and Committee decided on was

to hold an event to try to get residents from the area to say what activity

they would like to see take place to help bring the Community together.

June 5th saw all the committee set up a gazebo on the green and offered

tea and coffee to passing people and asked what sort of event they would

like to see and would they attend.

There was also a Guess the Teddy’s Name and sweets for the young people

coming home from school.

There was an overwhelming request that they hold a children's Christmas

Party.

This has now been organised and invitations will be going out to Fraser

Close, Cunningham Close, Kingfisher Close and Sandpiper Close.

Winner of the Guess The

Teddy's Name with two of the

committee members and two

residents

Nicholson House

17th August saw Nicholson House open its doors for their Annual Bazaar.

Despite the bad weather forecast the Sheltered Housing Officer Maria

Scanlon and the residents who had organised it were out in the garden at

7.30am putting it all together.

This year the organisers decided to have a star prize of a flat screen

television as well as a raffle which went down well and helped boost the funds for the unit. These funds help to

maintain the garden and the monthly meal and entertainment

among other things that resident request for the unit.

The crowds turned out and filled the lounge and garden till the

wind and the rain came and they all disappeared, leaving the

soggy helpers to put everything away for next year.

Nicholson also won an award in the Gardens in Bloom

competition.

Victory Residents Association.

Victory Residents Association set up an information morning on the East Road

Estate on the 21st August. There was loads of information and freebies. They

also did a ‘Name the Animal’ (Residents could not decide what it was meant to

be) and free tea of coffee.

Not many residents bothered to go which was a shame as their committee put

a lot of hard work into this venture.

10

Southend Tenants and Residents Federation.

At the October meeting, the members were introduced to the new Chair of the

Board Tony Churton and Vice Chair Wendy Greenberg.

The Board extended its thanks to all the staff that assisted the residents of Nestuda House

affected by the recent flooding due to an exceptional heavy rainfall.

The National Housing for Older People Awards. This is a national award for the UK’s Best

Retirement Home for which residents nominate the scheme they live in. Trafford House won

a Silver award and Bishop House won the Gold award. The Board extended their

congratulations to Hazel Spires and Joanne Pullibank, Sheltered Housing Officers for Trafford

and Bishop, and presented them both with a bouquet of flowers.

Echo Business Awards. SEH sponsored the “Community Awards” category. The winners

were HARP, Hood Group and Trust Links.

The Federation extended their thanks to the previous Chair Phil Lyons and thanked him for

the work he has done over the past seven years.

Chief Executive of South Essex Homes Mike Gatrell gave us the news that the Fed have been

waiting for. The task and finish group have concluded their report on the future of our

housing and was pleased to tell us that SEH will be in place at least till 2016.

The full report is on our website www.strf.org.uk

Continued from page 3.

You have seen our new committee who most of them are new faces. The Chair would like to

thank the previous committee for their work and give a warm welcome to the new

committee. This coming year is going to be a busy year with changes that are bound to take

place in SEH and the committee will have to make sure these changes do not affect the

service we have.

The Chair noticed that I was not on page three (my excuse was run out of room) Well here

are my details;

Secretary Carol Thipthorp who is also the elected editor of the Fed Mag among various bits and pieces I do. My contact details are: Telephone: 01702 460985 E-mail: carol.thipthorp@strf.org.uk

Address: Flat 12, Nicholson House, Southchurch Road, Southend, SS1 2PB

11

R S F

RSF stands for Resident Scrutiny Forum. This is a group of residents who

were interviewed to look into parts of the service that are not

performing to residents’ expectations.

The RSF have just completed their first scrutiny on avoidable contact which is where you, the

resident, have to ring again to try and get an answer.

The RSF found that most of the problems lie with the contractors but there were one or two

training issues with South Essex Homes. This Scrutiny also highlighted that residents were

sometimes told that staff had ten days to call them back. The RSF found no document to

uphold this practice.

Senior Management have read the report and implemented some of the recommendations

that the RSF requested, including revising this ten day rule and removing the complaint

heading of ‘General Dissatisfaction’.

If you would like to be part of the RSF please either ring Resident Involvement on

01702 212650 or ring the Contact Centre on 0800 833 160.

Previous applicants need not apply again. Following the report SEH have asked me to remind

residents that if they change their telephone number or mobile please inform SEH on the

0800 833 160 as with some of the calls we looked at, the residents could not be reached due

to contact details not being updated.

Once the sun goes down and night creeps forward a figure emerges from the under growth looking for

scraps of food. Somehow a signal is sent that it is safe for the rest of the family to come along and have

some food. The mother goes first to make sure it is safe and then out trots the baby who jumps and

skips along to join in the feed up.

Yes as you guessed it is not humans but a family of white badgers who appear along the strip of land

between the old Maybrook site and Nicholson House.

These animals give a lot of pleasure to many residents who

watch their antics from their windows.

The residents are concerned for the welfare of the badgers

when building work starts on the Maybrook site. The Essex

Badger Society have been contacted and we were told not

to worry too much as Badgers will always find another

route to where they wish to go .

Ta

ke

n

by

a

re

side

nt

in

Nich

olso

n H

ou

se

12

Several of Part one and two Sheltered Schemes took part in the World’s

Biggest Coffee Morning to raise money for Macmillan Nurses, held on

Friday 27th September.

For two of the part one sheltered it was the first time they have organised an event. Yantlet in

Leigh had residents up at the crack of dawn baking cakes. They were all delicious and the

residents who attended the coffee morning could not get enough of them (including me).

They managed to raise £93.00 for Macmillan.

Snakes Lane held their coffee morning on Saturday and like Yantlet, it was their first event

and it was a great success with everyone attending enjoying themselves - they raised

£138.00.

There are still some coffee mornings to be held and it would be nice to add up all the

contributions that were raised by South Essex Homes and the residents from across the

Borough.

Careline also organised a coffee morning for Macmillan and invited all the residents from

Nicholson House and then with the cakes left over, took them to Cheviot House to sell to the

staff - they raised a total of £277.42p .

Well done to all those who organised the event and the residents who supported them.

Carol Thipthorp

BOULES

Are you interested in playing Boules? If so why not join a group of

like minded residents.

We can start this in March first by having a meeting and getting to know each other then

we could stat playing in April in Southchurch Park.

If you are interested please contact me :

E-Mail: shirley.oreilly@strf.org.uk

Telephone 01702 610408 or Mobile 07876116552

13

Arrangements are now taking place for next year’s Community Event. This

year we are pleased to say that we have new faces on board and as we have

over twenty members, the Chair Shirley O’Reilly has split everyone up into

sub groups.

There are five sub groups with at least three residents taking part in each

group. Members have a choice of which group they would like to join and the

Chair will be doing one to one with all the committee members to discuss

what they would like to do in the organising of this year’s event.

This year we have a booking clerk which the lead person from each sub group

will report to. She will be doing all the bookings for the event .

Please watch out for the date and venue which will be agreed on at our next

Full Meeting.

During the one to ones, Steve Gosby came up with a good

idea.

It was “we do exit surveys on the day - why don't we do a

survey asking all residents what they would like to see or

do at the next event “.

If you have any good ideas of what you or your family would like to see and

do, please contact me and we will try to incorporate them in the event .

Please don't mention food as we are aware that it was not very good and too

expensive last year and this year we have a Catering Sub Group who have

been tasked to find food outlets that will keep their prices under £5.

If you have any good ideas please contact ;

Carol Thipthorp

12 Nicholson House

SS1 2PB

Telephone: 01702 460985

E-Mail: carol.thipthorp@strf.org.uk

Community Event 2014

14

Southend United Compete In Anglo-Italian Cup

Ford New Holland sponsored a fresh cup competition during the 1993-1994

season. On 23rd December 1993 Southend played Italian club Padova in Group B at

Roots Hall. A fine win, 5-2 to the Shrimpers, saw them lead their group, taking

them through to the Semi-Finals. A two leg affair against Notts County saw the

spoils shared 1-0 at each ground, therefore a penalty shoot decided the

finalists. Notts County scraped through 4-3 and went on to play Italian Club

Brescia, but lost to them 1-0 in the final at Wembley.

Fire at the Palace

Police and RAF fire fighters were called into action in Southend to evacuated about 150 people after a blaze

broke out on the fourth floor of a hotel. The fire started in a store room at the Palace Hotel at around 4am on

Saturday 29th August 1998. Army Green Goddesses and fire fighters from the RAF responded to the call

because members of the Fire Brigades Union in Essex were on strike. Many elderly and infirm were taken to a

local shopping centre and then the civic centre where the borough council was providing emergency help and

support.

The Kursaal at the Palace

1998 was a special year for the much loved Kursaal, not only was it being physically reborn, but Palace

Theatre Artistic Director Christopher Dunham and playwright Peter Quilter turned their skills towards making

this Southend Landmark the centrepiece for a new play called 'By the Dome it is Known'. The play focused on

the people that worked there, with fictional accounts of loves and lives of some of those who played there in

the famous ballroom. As part of the research for this unique play, the services of two sons and a

granddaughter of the Jolly Boys who performed opposite in the Kursaal on Marine Parade between 1900 and

the late 1930's, were called upon. The play followed the Kursaal's long history through two wars and a 1950's

knees-up, featuring a cast of over 100 amateurs.

Borough's Oldest School Moves

St Mary's School in East Street, Prittlewell, was originally established in the 15th century by the Jesus Guild,

and moved to the East Street site in 1868. After 130 years, in 1998 it moved to bigger premises by taking

over the building in Boston Avenue previously occupied by Prittlewell High School and formerly the original

Southend High School for Girls.

15

Fire Hits Seafront

Huge gales set off problems along Marine Parade on the seafront

on 9th September 1970, creating a large fire which destroyed a

few buildings and damaged others including the Criterion and the

Ivy House pubs.

Southend Airshow

In 1989 the Coca-Cola company launched a new brand of drink

named "Sprite". The Southend Airshow was selected to be one of the

very first places in the UK to showcase the new drink. The airshow

had secured a new sponsor for the event in the shape of the railway

company Network Southeast at that time still part of British Rail.

The 1989 Southend Airshow was backing "Charity in Action" it also

saw a "Preview" staged the day before. This was a small number of

the following day’s main display take to the skies above Southend

performing fly pasts and shorter displays. Free airshow Gift Packs

were also given away and included in the bag was a paper hat,

poster and a badge.

Victoria Not for Sale

In 1989 there was an unexpected request from Victoria, British

Colombia in Canada who wanted to purchase Southend's Queen Victoria

Statue, to place outside their own provincial government

offices. Southend Council politely turned down the request.

End of an Era in Shoebury

The Horseshoe Barracks finally said farewell to its military occupants.

with a Sunset ceremony on 4th March 1998, with music performed

by the Royal Regiment of Artillery and the guns of 100th (Yeomanry)

Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers).

The salute was taken by Field Marshal the Lord Vincent,

GBE KCB DSO.

16

The Golden Mile Award

&

The Good Neighbour Award

Have you had contact with an Officer of South Essex

Homes, or maybe a contractor who has gone that extra mile to provide you with

excellent service? This would involve the Officer/Contractor dealing with something

that is not normally part of their every day job.

Or perhaps you have a good neighbour who helps you or others around you who

are less able then themselves.

If so please let us know and we will put your nomination forward to the panel made

up of Southend Tenants and Residents Federation and the Tenants Voice

Association for consideration, the winners will be awarded a certificate and

£25 shopping vouchers.

We look forward to hearing from you. Please forward this slip to:

The Chair of the STRF

75 Southchurch Avenue

Southend on Sea

Essex SS1 2RS

Or e-mail to: shirley.oreilly@strf.org.uk / Telephone: 01702 610408 / Mobile: 0787116552

Nominated Person

Department or Address

Reason for nomination

Nominated By

Telephone Number

Nominees Telephone Number If known