HFTRA

Civic 8 Harrow Civic Centre

Station Road 

Harrow

HA1 1XF

Tel: 020 8420 9685

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Covid-19

Due to the current self isolating regulations the HFTRA office is currently closed. Please email us using the form on our Contact page and we will reply to you. Or call us on the above number to get furthur details on how to get in touch with us.

Cancelled Meetings

Furthur to the above, all meetings that are held at Sheltered Blocks have been csncelled. Althought still listed they will not, due to Covid-19 rules be able to be held until regulatiobs about shielding vaunerable persons are eased. Please watch this site and look out for an announcement about restarting meetings on this site and in the information letter that you receive from HFTRA.

Find out what has happened at our last few meetings

Thursday 5th March 2020 

Present: -       Sarah Evans,  Michael Williams    John Allwright   Sue White  David and Beverly Emery-Barker  

Apologies: -   Grace Allwright   Maureen Bharat   Sarah Love 

                         Paddy Lyne (HFTRA)

Minutes:-     

                        The minutes of the 16th January 2020 meeting were read through and approved as being a true record of the meeting.

Matters Arising:-    

                        John A said that in the minutes was a report on the flyer that was sent out to all of the flats asking if they were still experiencing problems with their windows etc. He reported that only four responses had been received, and that according to the contractor all except the faults reported using the flyer had been resolved.

                        This was met by derision by the tenants who said that none of them were happy with the windows, expressing that if they had known just how bad the new ones were going to be they would have preferred to have had the old ones left in place, as they were better.

                        From then on there were several tenants talking at the same time, raising points between themselves and to the chairman, below is a list of some of the problems individual tenants raised.

1. Beverly E-B (77) said that her windows were so bad that when she pulled her roller blind that it was fluttering due to the draught from the windows. (The Tenant of No.8 has also reported that her windows are “whistling” even in a breeze).
2. Sue W (112) said that there was no way that her windows were checked as to get access to the outside they would have had to enter the garden which the person below her had planted, this would have meant the tenant allowing them access, the tenant would have informed her if this had occurred.
3. All of the tenants said that most of people who they had spoken to had said that they were not satisfied with the windows, and that a lot of them made the comment “what’s the good of complaining as they (the Council) do nothing no matter how many times you complain.
4. All tenants remarked that they had experienced a large increase in the cost of heating this winter compared with other winters.  John A said that it had been a cold winter and he himself had noticed an increase, even though he did not live in the flats. Tenants said that they felt that the increase was mainly due to the window situation, with only a small part due to the cold.
5. Beverly EB went on to say that she was paying well over £20.00 a week to keep her flat warm, even when using only a couple of the storage heaters, she highlighted the fact that those on benefits, who had a pre-payment meter were suffering the most due to the high unit cost of their electricity.
6. Comments were made about the Council’s duty of care to its tenants, saying that leaving them with windows whose bad installation had left them living in cold flats which were affecting their health.
7. The tenants were upset that there were no minutes available from the “Legacy” meetings to highlight what had been promised to be done and what had actually been done, some felt that promises were made at these meetings which denied at later dates.
8. This discussion continued for over three-quarters of an hour with several repetitions of the same problems from those attending, highlighting the above problems and expressing their despair that they were getting no response, it was agreed that the following would occur:-
9. That a letter be written to Bob Blackman to request his help in getting a resolution to the problems that were still on-going, asking him to attend a meeting with the tenants to discuss their problems.
10. It was also suggested that the local paper be invited to do a piece on the flats and the tenant’s problems in getting then resolved.
11. A door to door survey be conducted to allow a more comprehensive list of the repairs to the windows that are still outstanding to be made, these would then include those where tenants have problems, but have stopped attempting to get the Council to resolve them.

Chairman’s report:-

                        Sarah did give a reported as the majority of the points that she wanted to make had already ben covered.

Treasurers Report:-

            Similarly John did not give a report as there had been no changes to the account over the past three months.

Any Other Business:-

                        During the discussion on the windows several other problems were mentioned which are listed below in no specific order:-

1. Sue W said that there had been another leak into her flat from the one above, she said that she has approached him and he had blamed the council for the leaks, saying that it was the way that they had done the plumbing. Sue asked if it was possible for the council to fully inspect the pipework to ensure that there would not be a third leak, she felt that he might have caused the leak himself in an effort to get moved into other accommodation.
2. Sue continued asking if there was anything being done about the graffiti that the tenant of 120? Had done around hid door frame, she went on to say that he had got a motorcycle which he was keeping on the estate, moving it from place to place, sometimes keeping it in the store rooms and at others directly outside of the rear doors to the blocks, which in itself is a fire risk should it catch fire as well as making evacuating the block difficult as it was left obstructing the exit. Sue also said that Sue McDermott was aware of the graffiti and had yet to do something about it, she also said that she believes that the tenant living in 120 is a “care in the community” person.
3. It was commented that this man has also broken up a settee and dumped the pieces on the ground outside of the block.
4. Pricilla (159 – 181) said that she had been informed that the bin store was not now going to be moved, even though it’s repositioning had been promised by Ben Curling at one of the early Legacy Meetings, going on to say that the minutes taken at these meetings could not be found to substantiate her claim.  Said that she would again be writing to Rukshan about this.
5. Pricilla said that she felt that there was more rubbish on the estate since the bins were put outside and thought that the old bin stores even with their problems were better, especially in the light of Sue McDermott’s letter threatening the closure of the store rooms unless only bicycles and pushchairs only were stored in them (at the owners risk). Several tenants asked why no notices had been put on the doors saying that only specific items (bicycles and pushchairs) could be kept in the store rooms.
6. Michael W said that he was still waiting to know what was going to be done about the storage heaters in his flat, whether they are going to be replaced or the whole block be converted to gas heating. He said that a new tenant had moved into one of the ground floor flats and had had a new heater fitted. It was suggested by another tenant that he should approach HAD to see if they could assist him in resolving the heater problem.
7. Michael also said that the light high on the wall outside of his block (102 – 124) was still out.
8. Tenants expressed concerns that once the CPZ (10am to 3pm) started in a few months’ time they were not going to be able to park in the parking areas allotted to the flats because of non-tenant parking in the flat’s spaces. It was asked if notices could be put up stating that these areas were “Tenants Parking Only”.
9. Sarah Said that the drug problem had increased again in Overbrook Walk, as well as fly tipping and abandoning of cars in the area. She said that a house had been vacated and the neighbour had been dumping rubbish and unwanted items over the fence into the vacated house’s garden, Sarah further stated that a property in Handle way was having a “granny flat” or similar erected in his garden backing onto Overbrook walk and was intending to make the entry to this building in Overbrook Walk. Parked contractors’ vehicles are causing difficulty for residents trying to get access to their homes.

Thursday 12th January 2020

Present:-       

                          Sarah Evans,  Michael Williams    John Allwright    

Apologies:-   

                         Grace Allwright   Maureen Bharat   Susan White

                         Sarah Love

Minutes:-     

                        The minutes of the 5th December 2019 meeting were read through and approved as being a true record of the meeting.

Matters Arising:-    

                        Michael Williams commented that he had heard nothing about the possibility of his storage heaters being replaced, either with a more modern equivalent ones or having gas central heating installed. John A commented that he has heard that the council was still looking into the feasibility of getting a gas supply to the blocks of flats with storage heaters.

Chairman’s report:-

                        Sarah reported that the same old problems were still there, Fly tipping, drug dealing, cars being left for long periods on the estate by non-residents, some of these cars seemed to be used as places to sleep.

Sarah then expressed concerns about the caretaker who seemed to be doing very little on this estate, stating that she had heard that other estates that were under his remit were experiencing similar problems.

Treasurers Report:-

            John said that there was appx £290.00 in the account to hold an event; he went on to say that HFTRA was prepared to donate an additional £100.00 towards an approved event, this had been confirmed by Paddy at the meeting on the 3rd of September.

Any Other Business:-

                        John Williams said that there were still a number of people he had spoken to who were complaining about the refurbishment of the windows and doors.  We agreed to produce a flyer asking for anyone who still had a problem to contact the TRA, either by email or telephone using HFTRA’s contact details so that a list could be made of those still experiencing problems (please see next paragraph).

                        The flyer was produced and delivered to all of the flats, only four responses were received, all of which have been passed to those in the Council with responsibilities for the refurbishment and ongoing problems. We were told that as it is now over 18 months since the work was completed the contractors were out of their liability period.

                        Pressing further we have been told that the council is approaching another window company to ask them to inspect the windows in the flats that have reported that they are still having problems, and to report back to the council what remedial work is needed to get the windows correctly installed.

                        This action by the Council has been taken because they were not impressed by the performance of the company who originally installed the windows.

There being no other business the meeting closed at 8:15.