Newsletter - June 2009
Tenants Quality Panel
The Arawak Walton Board in March agreed to the establishment of a Tenants Quality Panel to work with the association to improve the services it offers.
We asked you in the first survey of the year whether you wanted to be involved in such an initiative and 69 of you stated that you be interested in being involved in some way.
The first meeting of the Tenants Quality Panel will decide what form that involvement will take and what the group will discuss. It will also consider the results of the recent survey on customer service.
This meeting will take place on 14th July 2009 at 5.30 pm at the Breakthrough Centre, on Aked Close in Ardwick. There will be a buffet from 5.30 till 6.00 pm and reasonable travel
expenses will be reimbursed.
We are also delighted that an Arawak Walton tenant, Shirley Whitely has agreed to work with the association on a voluntary basis to administer the panel. Shirley has also agreed to play host to an email group that can discuss these issues independently of the association.
If you wish to come to the meeting please call the office on 0161 272 6094 or email Shirley at swhitely@arawakwalton.com.
Bougainvillea Gardens
Accommodation for the over 55’s
The Bougainvillea in the National flower of the Caribbean. It is bright, vibrant and cheerful. That is why Bougainvillea Gardens is the perfect name for our sheltered accommodation for the
over 55’s in Longsight! Take a look at what’s on offer ...
Bougainvillea Gardens is a beautiful scheme located near Northmoor Road in Longsight. It consists of 32 self contained, one bedroom flats all with their own kitchen, bathroom and living rooms. The are also some external flats available on Antilles Close.
At Bougainvillea Gardens our residents enjoy independent living with the reassurance that help is at hand if they need it. All the flats are filled with a pull cord for residents to contact the scheme manager in the case of an emergency and the main entrance door has a secure intercom system to prevent intruders.
There are also communal areas for residents to make use of if they so wish. A laundry, lounge, & events such as exercise classes and day trips as well as
beautifully presented gardens. The scheme also has a free car park for residents and guests.
If you or a friend or relative may be interested in moving to Bougainvillea Gardens please contact Sandra McKennzie or Jo Moon on
0161 272 6094 to arrange a viewing
To see more photographs download a property sheet
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What you told us about our Customer Service
The first postal survey of 2009 received a great response with 159 (nearly 20%) tenants giving us their views by returning the survey. Many thanks to all those who returned the survey and we hope you will return the other 3 this year.
The aim of the survey was to measure the level of satisfaction with the way the association communicated with you and if you wanted us to change the way we operate.
You told us that 42% of you felt that we should be open outside office hours with 37% preferring evenings, 17.5% mornings and 44.8% weekends.
You told us that we answer your calls very quickly (32%), quickly (60%), slowly (7%) and very slowly (under 1 %).
83.6% of you stated that you were either satisfied or very satisfied with your last communication and 13% expressed some dissatisfaction.
You told us that the telephone was the preferred method of communication 52% with 25% preferring in person communication.
Encouragingly for the newsletter team 85.7% of you rate it as good or excellent and 83.92% for the annual report.
The Tenants Quality Panel will discuss whether these standards are good enough and how we will take the extended opening hours forward. If anyone wants a copy of the full report please ask at the office.
Your Complaints Compliments and Suggestions
We always attempt to get our service to you right first time all the time. However we also recognise that mistakes happen, to address mistakes and to improve what we do we take a very positive attitude to complaints. To ensure that all complaints are deal with efficiently we set response targets and monitor our performance against these. The table below shows the number of complaints over the past 9 years our performance in responding to them in the last 2 years.
An analysis of the complaints received shows that:
· 21 cases relate to disrepair/condition of the property (55%)
· 3 cases relate to tenancy management issues (8%)
· 3 case relate to re-housing/waiting list issues (8%)
· 3 case relates to staffing issue (8%)
· 6 cases relate to a design issue (16%)
· 3 cases were about a range of issues (8%)
Compliments
We also register the number of compliments an suggestions you make to us over the year and the where they came from. We have not logged any formal suggestions made to us this year.
Top Tips competition result
Remember our Top Tips competition from the last edition of Arawak Walton News? Well the winner is …..
“Shop at supermarkets just before they close. This way you’ll get items massively reduced. Supermarkets have to get rid of items before their sell by dates and they would rather sell them than throw them out”
Byron Williams - Hulme
Congratulations to Byron who has won £25 worth of vouchers for Tesco
Positive Policing
The Policing Pledge is a commitment from Greater Manchester Police to provide the public with the best possible service and to make Manchester a safer place to live. Over the past few months, officers from the Metropolitan Division have visited hundreds of homes to better understand what you, our residents, believe are the issues that need to be dealt with in your area.
You may have noticed posters and newsletters within the area advertising police surgery dates and the contact details of your local police officers and PCSOs. Please take the opportunity to attend these surgeries as the problems you identify directly feed into the priorities we set for the neighbourhoods.
To view the policing priorities for your neighbourhood and to find out the dates of your nearest police surgery, please visit www.gmp.police.uk and click on the Neighbourhood Policing section.
By working together, we can make our communities safer and
better places to live and work.
How to contact your Neighbourhood Policing Team:-
Longsight & Ardwick — Inspector Steve Palmer
Address: Longsight Police Station, Grindlow Street,
Longsight, Manchester, M13 0LL
Telephone: 0161 856 4223 Email: b1.npt@gmp.police.uk
Gorton & Levenshulme - Inspector Damian O’Reilly
Address: Gorton Police Station, 11 Garratt Way, Gorton, Manchester M18 8HE
Telephone: 0161 856 4288 Email: b2.npt@gmp.police.uk
Rusholme, Fallowfield & Whalley Range - Inspector Sarah Morton
Address: Greenheys Police Station, Charles Halle Road, Moss Side, Manchester, M15 6NP
Telephone: 0161 856 4423 Email: b3.npt@gmp.police.uk
Moss Side & Hulme (Inspector Niall Pawson)
Address: Greenheys Police Station, Charles Halle Road, Moss Side, Manchester, M15 6NP
Telephone: 0161 856 4466 Email: b4.npt@gmp.police.uk
Arawak Walton Performance
As always we like to keep our residents informed about how we are performing. See for yourself below.
| May 09 | Apr 09 | Mar 09 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voids % (no. of properties) |
1.27% (11) |
0.71% (6) |
0.82% (7) |
| Rent arrears (as a % of weekly rent receivable) |
7.67% |
7.47% |
7.77% |
| Repairs Completion Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency | 98.02% |
94.12% |
100% |
| Urgent | 91.23% |
9.67% |
95.56% |
| Routine | 94.11% |
95.56% |
100% |
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