P.E.P.
The Lunches Continue
(Shurely, The Articles Continue; Ed)
Stakis Grand Hotel
Training Day
23rd April, 1992"Starting from the Beginning"
10:00a.m. -- Introduction
Priority Estates Project Trainer, Ann McLaughlan, welcomed us to what was, for many, the fifth PEP Training Event since those first humbly held public meetings back in the mists of January. PEP, for those who still don't know, are an independent organisation who have been brought in by the City Council to explore the feasibility of giving tenants more power in the running of their estates, in the areas of Abbey Hulton, Blurton, Meir, and of course, Bentilee. Past copies of The Bentilean Mini-mag, giving more info on the progress so far, can be seen at Hanley Reference Library, Bethesda St. One of those articles has even been used by them in an estates wide PEP bulletion -- with due credit given to this mag.
10:10a.m. -- Questions
Now it was time to get together in our separate estate groups (Bentilee, Abbey, & Meir) to decide on exactly what questions we wanted answering by the end of the day. We wanted to know how to form an estate committee; how much time would it involve for us personally; what would be the problems and drawbacks; what is an estate committee; the scope of its powers; where the funding would come from; and its relationship with the council.
10:30 - 11:30a.m.
Now was time for the three invited 'tenant activists' to their little presentations of how they had got started, and what they had achieved today.
First to speak was Elaine, from the Freehold (?) estate in Rochdale, and Chair of the Estate Management Board there. No previous involvement in tenant organisation, Elaine had moved onto her estate back in 1971 and told us horror tales worthy of Stephen King of having drainpipes actually running through their bedrooms (lowrise flats), nowhere to dry their washing, poor security, and leaking flat roofs. She told how she and other tenants had jumped at the chance to have an Estate Management Board when PEP had come along to their feasibility study back in '89, and how they had received training to help them in their aims including repairs, arrears, 'voids' (the councils' name for empty properties), ruunning meetings, publicity, and public speaking.
And their achievements to date included getting 'sleeping policemen' to slow the through traffic, more street lighting, and improved signposting. The story is not complete yet though. Their Management Agreement with their City Council has yet to be formally ratified by the Dept of the Environment, though it was sent to them in Feb '91.
NEXT was Mike, of the Hollin estate, also in Rochdale, whom some, not I, had had the pleasure of visiting. They got started with a Tenants' & Residents' Association with 700 members, and now have an estate committee of 5 (including 1 councillor). An estate committee being a sort of intermediate position between a Tenants' Association (with no power, but some influence), and an Estate Management Board (an equal partnership with the council). Its powers being specified by the Council.
The first thing they did was to set up a newsletter to let residents know what was going on, and their first major task came when their council gave them three months to come up with a plan about what to do with a block of 100 flats (main tenants being students) which were due to be demolished after a deal with a private landlord fell through. Amongst their successes has been reducing local burglaries by 50% by installing 6ft high fences (after getting the money direct from the Dept of the Environment, who were reluctant to give the money to their council!); getting themselves a local council neighbourhood office for reporting repairs, paying rents, etc; and establishing a 'Quick Response Team' for repairs that take less than 2 hours (local council take note: it can be done). They now have 2 "Sub-EMBs" for their environment and an "editorial" board; and hold fortnightly meetings with their Community Policeman to monitor youth crime. Even their local Housing Staff are happy as their jobs are more secure from central office cuts. Their only bugbear was a local councillor who was convinced that the local residents were "too thick" to run their own estate, and spread untruths about them (it'd never happen round here).
FINALLY spoke Majorie Gallomore (OK, I admit it, she was the only one I caught the surname of), from Liverpool, and a long term 'Tenant Activist', going back to the '60s.
(This had been when the tenants of her neglected highrise flats had rebelled after their council decided to increase rents by the massive sum of 75pence -- back in 1968, when 75pence was thirty bob -- and got it reduced to 50p following a meeting with their then Tory Council Leader.)
Unlike everyone else we'd met, they weren't going for an EMB, but a HAT (Housing Action Trust), which involves leaving the council altogether, being run by a board set up directly by central government (they have successfully fought for four tenants places on the board). The main benefit to them will be a massive £128Million for the 71 blocks involved, to refurbish them. The disadvantage would seem to be the need for a tenants' group in each of the 71 blocks. At the present time they had still to vote on the HAT, that being scheduled for 8th June.
Meanwhile, her advice to us was to find a "visible goal", something we could get done on our estates which other tenants would notice and see the benefit of getting organised.
11:45-ish
Now came the time to split into our estate groups again to decide what to ask our three guests, when we got to interview them following lunch.
12:30p.m. -- Lunch
Hors-d'oeuvres: Mmmmm...; Main Course: Great stuff!!; Dessert: Well, if you insist; Coffee: Errrr.....
1:45ish
Too lethargic for note-taking following that lunch (I shouldn't have had that coffee), I have no notes to prompt my poor memory, so the afternoon alas is a blur. Much of the information was simply a repeat of their morning presentations, but some points do filter through the blur: the need to get the support of local councillors (locally, Cllr Peter Kings was very supportive of Chell Heath's EMB), having a "visible goal" (like getting a brook cleared up -- the Bentilee Valley Project of the '70s), the need to keep in touch with other resident groups so that you can learn from each other's failures and successes, and to be optimistic about getting around, if you know where to look.
PEP told us that their next step was to write their feasibility study findings up in a report for the City Council (recommending whether or not they think there's enough interested, committed tenants to make their involvement in running their estates feasible or not), by June. The results of their study will then also be made available to local residents, through a public meeting. Alas, no more lunches Training Days can be planned until the results are known.
3p.m. -- 4p.m.
The rest was summary.
(Coming home via the cramped streets of Meir...
...and we thought Bentilee was badly designed!)
Copyright John Steele 1992, 1999
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