Mini-minutes: November 2022

Residents’ service and repair issues

• Tenancy checks have now resumed and 70 have been completed

• Resident Service Officers are no longer permitted to use WhatsApp – please do not try to contact them this way

• We are working to better track repairs that have been undertaken in the previous month

Fireworks

• Everyone was shocked by the firework battle that led to a shooting in October

• General advice continues to be to report incidents at every opportunity

• We will be contacting the police and inviting them to attend our meeting in September next year to provide advice and guidance

Friends of St Francis school

• Two residents of another estate with connections to St Francis School attended the meeting

• The school lacks funds meaning activities and events have to be cancelled. The two have created a ‘Friends of St Francis’ to raise funds

• The Friends of St Francis would like the help of the TRA and any interested residents to help raise money

• If you would like to get involved with Friends of St Francis or support the cause, please get in touch with Paul Wright and he can put you in touch with Hasbleydy and Val

New homes

• Members of the TRA have raised major concerns about the proposed development:

  • There is no date when the children’s play area will be re-provided, leaving the estate without any play space for up to 5 years (despite promises otherwise from the council)

  • The revised plan of work removes trees that were not part of the approved application

  • There is concern that the temporary community centre will not be adequate for SGTO and the many other uses for which it is required

• Cllr Cleo Soanes was unaware of these issues and concerns. She has offered to take them up with the council project lead

Activities and events

• Knitting classes will continue until 16th December

TRA meeting - December 2020

The meeting took place on Zoom. The next meeting will be Jan 11th 2021.

The main points:

1. Meetings next year: We will plan on having Zoom meetings on the second Monday of each month.

2. AGM: We will postpone the AGM due to COVID. PW will ask Southwark Council for advice.

3. Treasurer: Children’s activities volleyball and tennis: funding approved, waiting for DBS before activities can begin. Will do outdoors by football pitch.

4. Treasurer: London Community Response Fund, food distribution: applied for £9000.

5. Treasurer: SGTO offer £100 grants for vulnerable individuals, but we don’t know who our vulnerable residents are and Resident Services Officer cannot share their contact details that are confidential.

6. Raffle: CM will perform the drawing of names tomorrow and film it for accountability.

7. AOB: Recycling bags: BM has not received any, CM had to request them. PW had some delivered automatically.

8. AOB: New bins have appeared on the estate. CM hasn’t had any reply from Southwark council to his request for update and will walk around to note the new bins.

9. AOB: Picnic table PW to nudge Southwark guy.

10. AOB: MR asked about the New Homes. CM will discuss further on WhatsApp one to one.

End of year newsletter - November 2020

We recently sent out our end of year newsletter. You can read it here

Hello!

2020 has been a different, weird and stressful year to say the least and we hope that you have been keeping well.

Despite the pandemic stopping us from using the community hall, we’ve continued to put on events where it's safe to do so. These have included the Get Fit Classes in the park and also the Summer Fun Day where we were lucky enough to hear The Cavaliers steel band play and see Orvil limboing! We’ve also carried on applying for funding for events and improvements.

Next year, the Get Fit Classes will continue together with neighbouring Lindley Estate, whom we are also working with to put on more events for kids. We will strive to help to resolve residents' issues and push for improvements for the estate.

Thank you Orvil and George for your efforts during the summer event, all of the residents involved in the New Homes project, Paul and Bernice for your huge help with everything TRA related and everyone who got involved in the Covid Mutual Aid efforts or came along to our TRA meetings. This newsletter is dedicated to Sue and Paul who sadly passed this year. Big love.

Chris - TRA chairperson

Win up to £75 in our end of year raffle

Unfortunately it's not possible to have an end of year party this year so instead we are having a raffle. We’re giving away 4 × £75 vouchers, 10 × £50 vouchers and 20 × £30 vouchers from your choice of Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's or Tescos.

More information and enter here

Get Involved

Our next online Zoom meeting will be on December 7th at 7pm - everyone is welcome. We also have a WhatsApp group which is a good way to keep up with whats happening. If there is anything you would like us to help with or if you have any funding or event ideas please let us know. Our contact details are below and on our website.

Bins and Recycling

We’ve been working with Southwark Council to try and bring improvements to the estate for the way waste and recycling is managed. It’s a slow process but we’ll keep at it. If you have any views on the bins from where you are we want to hear from you.

New homes - Our view

You should have recently received a newsletter from Southwark council about the new homes. The process has been long, time-consuming and at times frustrating for the residents who have taken part. We have tried very hard to get the most out of it for the estate including fighting for green space and trees, play-space and reducing the number of units being proposed.

• Read more about the planned new homes here

• Take our survey about it

• View Southwark Councils website about it

Committee meeting - 21st September 2020

We had a committee meeting on Monday 21st September on Zoom. The following things were discussed:

• Our RSO gave his monthly report.

• We discussed and voted on which funding to pursue. These included tennis and volleyball for the kids and knitting classes.

• We decided to cancel the Christmas party but to think about other ways to connect with the residents at that time.

• We discussed the possibility of reopening the hall.

If you have any ideas or want to discuss any of these issues please let us know.

Our next meeting is on October 12th at 7pm (on Zoom - join our WhatsApp group to be notified.)

Summer Event 2020

Yes, it’s happening!

Come along with your family and friends for good food (vegetarians and meat eater options), music, entertainment, and more!

Sat, 29 Aug 12:00 - 16:00 

Between Edwin House and Neville Close

Please respect the latest social distancing guidelines … and have fun!

Committee meeting - 10th August 2020

We had a committee meeting on Monday 10th August on Zoom. The following things were mentioned or discussed:

• The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) has resumed face to face drop-ins sessions from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm 5 days per week at its 3 offices: Peckham - 97 Peckham High Street, SE15 5RS 

• Repairs have now been resumed and Southwark have set up a separate form which doesn't require a "MySouthwark" login: https://forms.southwark.gov.uk/showform.asp?fm_fid=1985 

• Southwark wanted us to highlight the "Race to Health at home" thing they have got going on throughout August https://www.southwark.gov.uk/leisure-and-sport/sport-and-physical-activity-news 

• The development at UAL at Whitten Timber / Eagle Wharf

• Our RSO gave his monthly report

• The upcoming meeting with Southwark concerning refuse and recycling

• The Summer event

If you have any ideas or want to discuss any of these issues please let us know.

Our next meeting is on September 21st at 7pm (on Zoom - join our WhatsApp group to be notified.)

New bins approved

Will from Leontine Close successfully applied for some new bins for the estate through Southwark Council’s Cleaner Greener Safer fund. He picked seven sites at the entrances to the estate as well as high foot traffic areas. Hopefully we will see the bins soon. Thanks Will.

New homes project group: meeting 1

We met on Wednesday 17th April at the Community Centre.

The first part of the meeting was run by Neal Purvis, who is the independent chair from Open Communities. He went through the process of building new council homes, which starts with consultation with residents before going to a planning application. There are many, detailed requirements for good design, for example:

• Minimum space per dwelling

• Building height must fir existing buildings

• Preserving trees and green space

• Design considers children, elderly and disabled people

• Communal space for play

• Adequate daylight - must have multiple windows and not all north facing

• The building's external appearance is tenure blind

• Avoid overlooking and overshadowing existing buildings

• Plan for impact on local transport

In the second part of the meeting, architect Will Durston presented three initial layouts:

1. Street edge

2. Street edge and mews

3. Linear park

Will Durston presents the architect's initial ideas

Street edge

Street edge and mews

Linear park

For each design, the new community centre is located away from its current location, so that the new one can be built before the old one is demolished. Each design includes space for the multi use game area, but there is not yet a specific place for the children's play area. This would go in the green area.

You can see more detail of each design

here

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A view of each design over the houses on Buller Close. Top: linear park. Bottom left: street edge and mews. Bottom right: street edge.

View past Bunbury House of the mews (top) the linear park (bottom left) and the street edge layout (bottom right).

Public Health in the Community

A meeting was held on 13th of March, 2019 between members of Southwark Council’s Healthy Communities Scrutiny Commission and Bells Gardens TRA committee in order to help the community to develop an idea of good health.

The meeting involved the Commission Chair Councillor Barrie Hargrove, Council Officers Julie Timbrell (Scrutiny Project Manager) and Tizzy Keller (Public Health), Bells Gardens TRA chair Paul Wright, public health researcher Shayda Kashef from King's College London, and myself Abiola Salako.

The aim of the meeting was to look in the areas where Southwark Council can help the community to Become Healthy and stay healthy.

Introductions were made briefly. We agreed on the Public Health Context being Health Inequalities among the community and came up with these priorities:

1. To get people involved to make the things go on well in the community,

2. To develop a project to improve good health.

3. To create job opportunities for the community.

4. To identify the people who need help by engaging them with some activities (loneness).

5. Health education to maintain a calm environment.

6. To involve health workers among the community into the program.

7. Good Nutrition, giving advice and health education on how to prepare healthy food, and involving the community in the action.

8. Educating people on how to get adequate health check.

9. Good Sanitation: People to make correct use of refuse disposal.

10. Identication of vulnerable people in the community to refer them to appropriate places for proper management.

11. Make the people realised the importance of exercise in order to avoid any disease conditions such as obesity.

We aim For the TRA committee to stay involved in these activities.

Mrs.Abiola I. Salako.

RGN, BSc Hon. (Health promotion and Public Health), MSc. (Public Health).

Discussion about management of the proposed new community centre

On Tuesday 19th February a group of us met to discuss how the proposed new community centre should be run. These are my informal notes from the meeting.

Present at the meeting

• Paul Wright, Chair of Bells Gardens TRA (making these notes)

• Amanda Johansson, Chair of Lindley TRA

• Cris Claridge, Chair of SGTO

• Amanda Carey, SGTO administrative officer

• Danielle Patton, Project Manager for the new homes and community centre, Southwark Council

• Ian Brindley, Community Premises Officer, Southwark Council

Background

In the past, the community centre was run by the Bells Gardens TRA. SGTO used office space at the community centre. In this period of time, the TRA was having difficulties and eventually folded (we eventually relaunched). The community centre was falling into disrepair and disuse so Southwark Council asked SGTO to take over management. SGTO have a "tenancy at will" at the community centre from Southwark Council, although this arrangement gives them minimal rights. SGTO keep strictly separate accounts for the community centre, and any income pays for Jerry the caretaker and running costs.

Since SGTO took over, Amanda Carey was given the job of managing hall bookings. This was never part of her job description, but the council did not give SGTO extra funding to employ a hall manager.

Cris is also involved with Nunhead's Voice, the group that runs The Green community centre. Unlike our community centre, which is owned by the Housing department, The Green is owned by Properties. This means the community have a much greater financial burden for upkeep and have to make this money by hiring out halls. This means community events may be priced out. At Bells Gardnes, the TRAs currently enjoy free use of the halls, with priority over paid rentals.

Views on management

I summarised two contrasting view among Bells Gardens residents. On the one hand, we are very grateful for Amanda's work keeping the halls working, and recognise that we would not be able to manage this as volunteers. On the other hand, there are those who think that decision-making about the community centre should be in the hands of the TRAs that use it, especially now the Bells Gardens TRA is back up and running. I suggested this could be achieved by having TRA members on a centre management committee, with a paid staff member handling day to day running.

Amanda J broadly agreed with both these contrasting views.

Cris was emphatic that SGTO are not defensive about keeping management responsibility for the centre. If they were to carry on this responsibility in the new centre, they would want funding from the council for a centre manager, so that Amanda can do the SGTO work she was hired to do.

Project Groups

The design of the new community centre and decisions about its management will be discussed by a project group made up of centre users, people from Southwark Council, and an independent advisor. There will be a separate project group for the new homes. Danielle said she currently had few volunteers for the community centre project group. Paul and Amanda both expressed an interest in taking part. Amanda had already been involved in a project group for the Lindley Estate redevelopment. We reviewed the dates for the project group meetings. Cris was unable to attend the first two, so she will find an alternative representative from SGTO. We agreed she should be able to attend the later meetings as an extra, since she has valuable experience from The Green.

Funding the new community centre

Daniel explained that Southwark Council usually build new blocks with100% of the units for council tenants. Because the community centre has to be funded separately, they will raise the money by selling 30% of the units privately. Amanda was concerned that this be kept in to a minimum and asked if the percentage could be reduced if the project group were able to design a community centre with a lower budget. Danielle explained that the units for private sale would be the same design as the council rent units, so this should be possible.

We discussed how the upkeep of the centre would be funded. Ian explained that this is complex and would need to be discussed in detail at the project group. Paul raised the principle that currently the community centre is free at the point of use to TRAs and that we did not want to be in the same situation as The Green, with use of the halls dominated by groups that can pay. Cris said that if SGTO were responsible for a new centre, they would not want to sign a lease, because they would be responsible for major works bills, which they would not be able to afford. Ian noted these concerns and principles in preparation for the project group meetings.

Other discussions

We discussed a number of issues that were not specifically about managing the community centre.

Amanda J said she understood this is the only new home project that is on green land, as opposed to former garages etc. Danielle said that the Haddenfield Estate redevelopment was on green land, although it was a much smaller project. We all agreed that we would need to save as much green space as possible.

We discussed light and overshadowing. This is an issue that architects always look at in detail. In one project, the block was designed with fewer floors in the centre to allow light to an existing block.

Southwark promise no loss of amenity to community centre users. This means alternative space must be provided before the current centre could be demolished. Amanda asked about details: would this mean the same square footage? Danielle said this had not been defined, but would be decided at that project group: for example they may find that they prefer a design with less square feet to preserve more green space, depending on the current day use of the community centre compared to when it was designed back in the 1970s.

Paul and Amanda J expressed concerns that building the new community centre in its final site before removing the old one would constrain the design choices for the project as a whole. In particular, it would mean the new centre would have to be set back from the road. Paul asked about the possibility of putting up portacabins for a temporary centre to allow a new one to be build on the same site (this had been mentioned at previous meetings). Cris thought partacabins would not provide enough space. The only other space would be between Edwin House and Neville Close, which residents would not like. The practical solution will have to be worked out in detail by the project group, but all agreed that providing continuous amenity had to be the priority. Ian added "How to provide continuous amenity" to his FAQ list for the project groups.

Amanda asked whether the wider communtiy were being actively engaged, for example residents of roads neighbouring the estate and other groups that use the community centre. Danielle said her colleague Helen Laker had sent letters to the neighbouring road. We suggested Amanda C could email community centre users inviting them to the project group, if Danielle wrote a message. The message would have to come from SGTO because of GDPR rules about how you can use email lists.

Review of 2018

Chair's Review of the Year

2018 Chair Paul Wright

What did the TRA achieve for our estate in 2018?

We got doors for Edwin House. We were one of only three estates in the whole borough to get funding for new doors over the next two years, and our bid went to the top of the list. This took years of persistent campaigning and speedy submission of a strong bid for funding with the help of our Resident Services Officer.

Wentworth Crescent now has upgraded doors, after we told the council about problems with people breaking in.

The cleaning regimen was improved thanks to our feedback.

Our Residence Services Officer is now presenting a monthly repairs update, with photos so we can make sure repairs are done on time.

We brought the community together for a summer barbecue.

We promoted wellness with keep fit and meditation classes.

We built skills with those who attended sewing classes.

Was it easy? No way!

We survived a year without a treasurer. Other committee members had to take up the slack.

We had to cancel our end of year party. We had the funds but not enough volunteers to run it.

Southwark Council announced they want to build new homes on the estate. This is a contentious issue. The TRA provided a space for people to air robust disagreements and separate fact from rumour. The challenge continues in 2019.

Let's do 2019!

We are in dire need of more volunteers. Most of us in the TRA have full time jobs. Even if you can only come only once or twice a year, we still need you! Come to the AGM. Find out about the many ways to get involved. Share your ideas. You can help lead our community. "Be the change you want to see."

New Homes: Our Concerns

We have had several meetings to discuss our concerns about the new homes project. I have compiled a list of them. This blog post is to allow everyone to comment, so I can make the list as inclusive as possible
~Paul~

• Right to say no

  • The residents want the right, if we fell our wishes have not been accommodated, to say no to the planned new homes.

• Minimize overlooking

  • New home have the potential to overshadow Wilmot Close and Leontine close

  • Wilmot Close already has limited light and new homes may restrict this further

  • Both blocks may lose privacy if the new home overlook their windows.

• Preserved green space

• Minimal disruption during construction

  • Maintain predestrian access between different parts of the estate

  • Maintain fire brigade access to every part of the estate during construction

• Parity between new and old home

  • Equal repairs services for new and old homes

  • Edwin House doors and other upgrades

• No loss of amenity

  • Community centre or temporary space available throughout

  • Football pitch

  • Play area

  • Parking

• Proper involvement of residents throughout

  • Meeting schedule inclusive as possible

  • Clear communication between meetings

  • Coordination with the Lindley estate project group

• ASB and crime with increased population

• Integration of new residents with existing community

• Shared ownership to be avoided

Are you ready for GDPR?

"What is GDPR?"
GDPR means "General Data Protection Regulation". It is a new law that comes into effect on 25th May and it affects how TRAs handle people's personal data.

"I don't handle anyone's personal data!"
If you help run your TRA, yes you do! If you take an attendance list, you collect personal data. If you take, distribute, and/or publish minutes for your meetings, you share personal data. If you collect phone numbers, emails, or any other information about your members or people who come to your events, you handle personal data.

"What will I need to change?"
Possibly nothing. But you should review how you get your data and what you do with it afterwards to make sure you are following the new rules.

"They'll probably never do anything about it!"
You can never be sure. Although it is impractical to inspect every small organisation on a regular basis, all it takes is for one council officer to have a few extra boxes to tick, and you may end up having to show you are in compliance.

"What's the worst that could happen?"
If you break the rules, you face a fine of £20 million or 4% of turnover, whichever is greater.

"OK, you have my attention. Tell me how it works."
Here are selected points from a useful intro from the Information Commissioner's Office. If you are responsible for data at your TRA, you should read the original guide in full and get to know the ICO site.

Information you hold - You should document what personal data you hold, where it came from and who you share it with.

Communicating privacy information - Whenever you collect data, you need to show people a privacy notice, saying what you are collecting, why, and who will have access to it.

Individuals’ rights - The new rules bring in a set of rights including the right to be forgotten ("delete all the data you hold on me") and the right of access ("give me a copy of all my data that you have"). You will need systems in place to deliver those rights.

Lawful basis for processing personal data - You need to write a legal justification explaining why you need the data you collect. It must relate to the purpose of a TRA as defined in your constitution. For example, you may collect email addresses for the purpose of notifying members about meeting dates. You need to mention the reason you need the data in your privacy notice.

Consent - Under GDPR, people must opt in when they give you consent. You may need to update your attendance sheet, mailing list signup and other forms to have the right consent wording. A simple tick box saying "don't send me a newsletter" is not enough. A minimum should be something like "by providing my details I consent for xxx TRA to collect my data according to their privacy notice". Read more about consent on the ICO website to see what you need.

Children - You should start thinking now about whether you need to put systems in place to verify individuals' ages and to obtain parental or guardian consent to use personal data about children.

Data breaches - You should make sure you have the right procedures in place to detect, report and investigate a personal data breach. A breach could be a hacker stealing data (less likely) or a committee member losing data or accidentally sharing data with the wrong person (more likely).

Data security
Make sure anything kept on a computer is secure. Follow best practice for computer security. This list below is a summary but you can read more on the Government's Cyber Essentials website.

• Have a strong password for your computer, your email, and any other account that holds other people's personal data. It should be hard to guess and contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

• Do not share your password with anyone. If several people need access to an email account or a shared computer, there are ways of setting up access for each person with a separate password. SGTO is there to help you with things like this if you need it.

• Do not keep data on a portable device that could be stolen, or if you do, encrypt it. USB sticks can be encrypted with a password. Laptops and tablets can also be set up to have their stored data encrypted.

• When you send an email containing personal data double-check the recipient(s). Emails sent to a misspelled address are a common type of data breach.

• If you are sending an email to a group of members, always use the BCC field for the members' email addresses. If you use TO or CC, then everyone who receives the email can see the full list of recipients. You would be effectively broadcasting confidential information to everyone on the list.

Getting our concerns about new homes heard

In last month's Southwark Tenant I wrote about Bells Gardens TRA's initial response to the proposed new homes. At our General Meeting this month the discussion continued with vigour. We have a range of concerns about what the building plan will look like and the impact on residents while it is carried out.

As well as the concerns I wrote about last month, meeting attendees raised concerns about losing the football pitch and play area, about the reduction of green space, and about quality of life during the construction being impaired by noise, scaffolding etc. A deeper concern was the degree of distrust of Southwark Council. This was stronger for some than others, but nonetheless undeniable. Distrust stems from both Southwark's treatment of residents in the Heygate estate and other estates being redeveloped and also from their neglect or at least lack of urgency about issues affecting our own estate, not least the lack of secure doors for Edwin House.

By the end of our meeting we had agreed three key points. The first was that we need to formulate a clear and explicit list of demands that we can present at future consultation meetings about the new homes. We will be working on this before our next meeting. The second was that ongoing communication is critical. Not only does Bells Gardens TRA need to keep talking to residents, but the stakeholders in the community centre - the TRAs at the Bells Gardens, Lindley and Oliver Goldsmith estates and SGTO - all need to keep in regular communication, share their particular concerns, and present a united front to Southwark Council when the time comes. We are in the process of organising a meeting between the three TRAs and SGTO to get the ball rolling.

The final point was one I emphasised last month and bears repeated emphasis. Every one of us residents must remain engaged. The Council have full time staff working on this regeneration scheme. We are all individuals with our own jobs and family responsibilities. It would be easy for us to become fatigued in repeating our demands and holding the council to account. It would be easy for the brunt of the work to fall to a few individuals, reducing both their effectiveness and the credibility of their mandate when facing the council. We need to recruit more active TRA members if we want a voice that is both strong and enduring. If you are not already involved, I encourage you to get in touch with your TRA and find out what level of involvement that can suit your availability and abilities. If you are already involved I encourage you to talk to your neighbours about the TRA and invite them to come with you to meetings. It is easy to get a packed meeting room when there is a crisis to cause complaints, but if we can sustain engagement once the crisis ends then we can go beyond putting out fires to bringing positive change to the space where we live.

New Homes concerns (Mar 2018)

For the last three years Southwark Council has been scouring the borough for places to build new homes. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to Bells Gardens. London has a housing crisis and Southwark made it their goal to address this by building 11,000 new homes by 2043.

This is a worthy goal and an ambitious one, but we must ask ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. To their credit, Southwark consulted on these issues and came up with six rules to make sure we citizens have a say in where they chose to build, what kind of homes are built, how the building process is managed and how well the new homes are constructed and maintained. Bells Gardens TRA wants to make sure we hold the Council to their rules and that our concerns are heard.

This is the area where Southwark Council want to build new homes.

Community Centre

The Council have promised there will be no loss of amenity, so before knocking down the community centre they will build a new one or provide temporary amenities until a new centre is built. We are not sure how they will achieve this. Where in the proposed area will they put a second community centre? What will happen to the playground and football pitch in the interim?

Antisocial behaviour

Our councillors fully acknowledge that Bells Gardens has a problem with antisocial behaviour. This must be addressed before the additional homes make the estate more densely populated. A critical problem is that Edwin House has no doors. Rough sleepers, drug pushers and prostitutes can and do come and go freely in Edwin House, and the whole estate suffers. The TRA have an ongoing campaign to have secure doors installed in Edwin House. With all the funding coming in for new homes and a new community centre, the plan should at a minimum include new doors for Edwin House. Other blocks have out of date doors that are frequently broken into (in particular Hastings close). The new homes will likely have the latest security, so the other blocks on the estate should be brought in line.

Community integration

Will the people who move into the new homes consider themselves part of our community? Given the likely disparity in the quality of the new homes and existing homes, there is the potential for division in the community. Southwark Council promise that at least 50% of the new homes will go to either people on the estate or people living nearby. This is another promise we will need to monitor closely.

Shared ownership

Southwark Council may want to offer a number of the new homes for shared ownership to cover the cost of a new community centre. The new homes fund only covers residences, so money for the centre must come from elsewhere. Concerns have been raised about offering homes for shared ownership, not least that it removes units from the pool available for council tenants. We want the council to look into other ways of funding our community centre.

Loss of light

The Wilmot Close block already has poor light due to its position in relation to the sun. Since this block borders the area for new homes, we want any plans to take this into account and avoid blocking the light to Wilmot Close.

Having our voices heard

A frequent refrain in discussions about the proposed new homes is, “Our opinions do not matter.” Despite assurances from Southwark Council, there is a common belief that plans to build new homes will proceed regardless of input from residents. We have a number of means available to us to make ourselves heard. If the council approve the Bells Gardens project (to date it looks like they will) then there will be community meetings to discuss the design of the new homes. Second, before any building takes place they must obtain planning permission, which is again subject to public comments. Finally, our ward councillors, while they must support the 11,000 new home goal, have an interest in being seen to represent local voices in this matter.

For the TRA, our priority is mobilising residents to engage in the process. We must recruit new, active members to make sure we have large numbers attending any community meetings about the new homes. Despite an air of scepticism about whether our voices will be heard, if we do not speak then we can be certain no one will hear us.

As Chair, I encourage readers to get involved in the TRA and to encourage their neighbours to do the same. You can find our meeting times posted on noticeboards around the estate, here on our website at or on our

Facebook page

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