On Tuesday 19th April 2016 PRERA held its first general meeting. The meeting was well attended, both by residents and by visitors, including councillors, council officers, guests from St. Martin’s Estate TRA and an architect. Franny, our Vice Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and then Rob gave a presentation that described what the committee has achieved so far and suggested things that the committee could do in the future. The committee then appealed for suggestions from the other residents.
Residents raised issues including:
- High charges levied on leaseholders for work carried out by the council.
- Work to the heating systems being of a low standard.
- A desire by leaseholders to upgrade their windows, but a concern that they may subsequently be charged for the cost of replacement windows again, when the council upgrades all the windows.
- A concern that Bushell Close may be neglected when problems are identified across the estate.
- Whether rent arrears could be paid off in instalments where these arrears had occurred due to the council making late adjustments of rent demands.
The second half of the meeting covered the topic of the new resource centre for adults with learning disabilities. Fiona Connolly (Assistant Director of Adult Social Care) introduced the project to move the existing resource centre from Lambeth Walk to our estate. Rolf Nielsen, of the architects CF Møller, then gave a detailed presentation describing the proposals for the new building. These proposals had evolved from those presented at an earlier meeting to include a possible extra storey and up to eight flats for private sale or rent.
The meeting then concluded, but lively discussions continued amongst those who had attended.