HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENNY SIMPSON

Kenny Simpson,  good friend and good neighbour to everyone in Petteril Bank, Carlisle, is seventy today

Congratulations, Kenny

Enjoy the day with all your family

And be sure to have lots and lots more birthdays

Thirty of his family and friends entertained Kenny at a surprise seventieth party in the Gosling Bridge. Kingstown Road, Carlisle.
 
Daughter Julie baked a giant truck-shaped  sandwich and cream cake--a reminder of Kenny`s many years spent driving trucks to Afghanistan and many places in the Middle East. Julie`s sister, Joanne was the party organiser.

Back at the family home in Meade Road, Petteril Bank, a large batch of cards arrived, most of them from people in the area Kenny had helped and continues to help.

Everyone in Petteril Bank and  round about knows that Kenny  is always there, plus his car and trailer,  for people to turn to when they have day-to- day problems running their homes.

There were birthday cards too from community transport colleagues- Kenny spends several days a week as a volunteer driver for community buses, taking local groups on days out to the seaside and to other places.

Other birthday cards which arrived  at Meade Road thanked him for his other community work. Kenny  has won awards for environmental work clearing the nearby RiverPetteril.

Then, twenty years ago, he went on to help Carlisle City Council to form a registered  local charity, Carlisle South Community Association  in which he still plays a major par, notably-in the early days of computers- in giving away dozens of second-hand computers to local people

Recently, Carlisle South Community Association has taken the lead, alongside the city council`s  Green Spaces,  in planning big improvements to  Petteril Bank`s Dale End Park play area.

Kenny`s story- and the birthday cards- doesn`t end there.

He is treasurer of  a nearby  community group, Botcherby Forever, and is  also treasurer of a Carlisle-wide community  group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which helps other groups.

Notably at the moment, the Federation is helping Longtown Action for Heat  in fighting the giant  Riverside housing organisation  for affordable heat in the homes of many Riverside tenants in Longtown.

IRAQ CRISIS MISSION AND LONGTOWN CRISIS MISSION

RORY  MP TACKLES 

TROUBLE SPOTS

  HOME AND AWAY

RORY STEWART in Iraq ... crisis zone report for fellow M.P.s

Rory Stewart yet again is at the centre of one of the world`s trouble spots with an important part to play.  Back home  among his Penrith and the Border constituents, the fight  rages at another trouble spot.  

And  there also, his influence is playing a big part.

Mr Stewart  is in the Iraq crisis zone on a fact-finding mission.  He broke off a holiday in America  to make the trip and will report to fellow MPs, also  in his role as chairman of the powerful Commons Defence Select Committee.

Here in his constituency, his role a local M.P. is proving no less powerful in the long-running Longtown heating row.

Mr Stewart is a former Black Watch officer and a former  government administrator.  In recent years he has had other important roles at the heart of  previous conflicts in Iraq and also in Afghanistan.

In Longtown his role over many months as M.P.has been actively  supporting distressed tenants in their battle with the giant  landlord organisation, Riverside Housing  Association.

As the Western  world rallies  against the Iraq extremists, the people of Longtown are  also rallying to help the estimated sixty distressed tenants  in the town who  for two years have not been able to  afford to heat their homes because they are victims of botched Riverside solar panel heating installations  in their homes.

The tenants have formed their own group, Longtown Action for Heat  and this week at  the  group`s well-supported third monthly meeting  there were new revelations of distress.

One tenant reported 43 breakdowns in two years in her heating system.Another tenant said she had been unable to turn her heating off  for two days  despite colossal energy bills of £190 a month.

The meeting heard messages of continued support from Mr Stewart who also cast doubt on the value of yet another report by Riverside about the situation.

Mr Stewart`s support  is crucial because no one else can help. Efforts to help by the three Longtown councillors have come to nothing .

The tenants have now come to realise that  councillors have no power  to influence Riverside, which is one of the largest housing organisations in the country owning 50,000 homes.

Liverpool-based Riverside is also a big property developer,  getting an increasing profit year by year.

Mr Stewart says he wants  to know what Riverside plans to do to put an end to  all the Longtown heating problems.

As he says “without further delay.”

Just in case Riverside do nothing, Longtown Action for Heat has other plans. One is an approach for help to the Bishop of Carlisle.

Another is  a return of the 6.500 Riverside houses to ownership by Carlisle City Council through a claw-back clause said to have been included  in the  Riverside takeover agreement eleven years ago.

At  about that time, another agreement, an international agreement, led to Mr Stewart`s first visit to Iraq.

It was the  agreement by  the Americans and British to invade Iraq.

And that also led to the present crisis and his visit now.


Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is on the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2012.

M.P. BACKS TENANTS` FIGHT FOR SOME HEAT AT HOME

PRESS NOTICE

END LONGTOWN 

SOLAR PANEL 

ROW NOW, 

MP RORY

TELLS RIVERSIDE

Mr.Rory Stewart M.P. wants no further delay  by Riverside Housing Association in settling the two-year solar panel heating dispute with its  Longtown (Cumbria) tenants, he said today in a message to the tenants.

The Penrith and The Border M.P., who  continues to express full support for the tenants, said he had been discussing  with Riverside the latest development- a second independent report on the dispute.

The report has been commissioned by  the Liverpool-based housing association and is due to be published this month.

Mr  Stewart says he is seeking a definitive end to the problem.His message is in an email to Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which is  backing the tenants and  acting for them.

Mr Stewart says:“I have asked to be kept updated on when this second report is released and hope to meet Mr Butterworth, the Riverside regional director soon afterwards to discuss what will subsequently be done to address this issue definitively and without further delay.”

Mr Stewart`s message will be a boost to the  estimated 60 tenants at the third meeting next Tuesday of their Longtown Action for Heat support group which is fighting for  heating they can afford in the homes they rent from Riverside.

The tenants say they have had two winters without heat they can afford –in the face of  rocketing energy bills-and dread the prospect of a third winter.

Riverside is also facing strong criticism from Dalston Carlisle city councillor Michael 

Gee who is campaigning against what he calls “the authoritarian culture of Riverside”.

Councillor Gee asked about this culture last week at a meeting of the city council`s Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel when he said that Riverside leaseholders in Dalston were unable to get answers to letters to association.

The leaseholders were unable to cope with the situation and had asked him to act  for them, he said.

He said he had met Mr Butterworth who had told him that the culture of Riverside  needed to be changed and he had been  attempting to change this culture  among the Riverside staff since his arrival in Carlisle nearly a year ago.

Mr Gee  got an assurance from the Riverside Head of Operations, Mr Paul Taylor that  Mr Butterworth would continue to attempt to change  the culture.

After the meeting Mr Gee said that Riverside was too authoritarian. He said the authoritarian attitude of the staff needed to change.”For too long the attitude has been” We are the great Riverside and we are here.”

Mr Gee said he had been contacted by many Riverside leaseholders and tenants “ from all over Carlisle and district” with complaints about Riverside and was determined to find out what was happening within the organisation.

There was also complaints about the charges being made by Riverside which needed to be investigated.

ISSUED BY CARLISLE TENANTS AND RESIDENTS`FEDERATION

August 5 2014

POWER DRESSING AND A CULTURE UNDER FIRE

Riverside and the three women in 

Power dressing in black...Victoria Beckham

black 
The three Riverside women are always in black, power dressing as it is known. 

Riverside Housing Association`s Three Women  in Black have power. And they use it, naturally.

 But sometimes, Riverside`s Three Women in Black use their power in a way that is controversial and in the past, that power has been   criticised.

Particularly strong criticism was made recently by the Longtown Riverside tenants at the last meeting of their new tenants` group, Longtown Action for Power, which has been formed to fight Riverside following two winters of freezing homes and the dreaded prospect of a third winter.

The Longtown tenants are not the only critics of Riverside.

In fact, Riverside power  as a whole in the Carlisle area is now under  the  critical spotlight.  

Councillor Michael Gee is so concerned about what he calls the “Riverside autocratic culture” that he is now campaigning to get a change in that culture, he told fellow Carlisle councillors this week.

Who then are Riverside`s Three Women in Black? What job do they do, dressed in this powerful fashion? And are they part of that culture criticised by Councillor Gee?

The Three Women in Black are junior bosses of  Liverpool-based Riverside, and they are  a well-known threesome on  doorsteps of the housing estates in and around Carlisle where Riverside owns more than 6.000 homes.

The Three Women in Black threesome always seems to have clip boards as the three move together on calls to those tenants who have problems and to some tenants who have none.

Now the question is being asked: Is this “power” approach to tenants and

leaseholders appropriate, particularly in view of the criticism of Councillor Gee?

Three power-dressed women on your doorstep with clip boards can make for a very unequal confrontation  for a complaining tenant, possibly full of anger,  recovering from having spent a  long spell of freezing nights in a sleeping bag on the floor.

And  three power-dressed women on your doorstep with clip boards can make for a very unequal confrontation for a pensioner in her seventies wondering how she will cope with the next energy bill if it is £4,000 and more, like the last bill.

What  then exactly was the criticism  by Councillor Gee that relates to the “power” approach of the Three Women in Black.

Councillor Gee told the city council`s Overview and Scrutiny Panel that he had received several complaints from  Riverside leaseholders in his Dalston ward.

Coun Gee...  determined on an explanation

He had therefore gone  to see Mr Dean Butterworth, Riverside`s regional director to find out why the leaseholders were not satisfied with Riverside- the leaseholders, he said, were not getting replies to their letters and were unable to cope with this situation.

Mr Butterworth, he said, had told him the culture among the staff at Riverside was not right and he had been trying to change that culture since he took over  at Carlisle nearly a year ago.

What then was wrong with the Riverside culture?

After the meeting, Councillor Gee explained:”The culture problem is that Riverside are far too autocratic- a deplorable attitude among all the staff of... `We are the great Riverside and we are here!`”.

Councillor Gee said that in view of the

 many  complaints about Riverside he had received from all over Carlisle and district, he was  now determined to get a full explanation of what was going on.

There were, he said, other complaints too, particularly about the Riverside charges now being imposed.

Councillor Gee has now gone on holiday. He said he will continue his campaign on his return.

Meanwhile, many people now hope there will soon be a switch  from black oufits in three Riverside wardrobes.

Hopefully,... a switch to pastel shades?.

The Longtown tenants are supported by Carlisle  Tenants` and Residents Federtion which publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on the first post of th
is blog, dated March 25 2013