ATHENS POWER, DAVOS POWER AND THE POWERLESS

ATHENS POWER, DAVOS POWER AND THE POWERLESS

Our fire station`World Economic Forum `

Sorry, but we don`t have the power of Sunday`s Greek voters. Or the power of the world`s richest, now just returned from Davos. We in fact are powerless.

But as community activists, we are as determined to change things for the better as much as the people of Athens who have changed things so dramatically in  their historic general election.

As for Davos, the world`s richest and most powerful - such as Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft - chose this Swiss luxury resort for their annual World Economic Forum.

                             Our `World Economic Forum` venue... Eastern Way Fire Station

Sorry  once again, Davos was too expensive for us. Next year, possibly?

 We have a community room in a fire station for our `World Economic Forum`

A community room  can be as cosy as any  luxury chalet in Davos.

And  a community room suits us because  the room costs us nothing and we have only a few pounds in the kitty, all of it  contributed by ourselves.

It was at the community room at Eastern Way Fire Station in Carlisle that we met this week for the annual meeting of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents Federation.

We discussed all  our work in the past year and our plans for the coming year. Our annual report lists  much of this work and is reprinted below.

Our fire station community room  meeting and our report did nothing to shake Europe as it has been shaken in Greece.

But hopefully, in the  determination of those at the meeting and the  success of the year`s community activities listed in the report, there are echoes of the message  that came so strongly from the streets of Athens.

 Rallying support for 

major changes at 

Riverside and

major support for

community efforts

Report for the year 2014/15  presented by the Chairman

at the annual meeting of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation on January 22 2013

The Federation has had another very successful year with  regular  monthly meetings and Sub Group meetings held in the Family Church, Petteril Bank. Carlisle, by kind permission of the Church Elders, and at the excellent free facilities at the city`s Eastern Way Fire Station. All our meetings have been stimulating and enjoyable and have attracted people from other groups in the city.

The following are the highlights of the year:

Open-ness and accountability: The Federation has welcomed the government`s plans for increased open-ness and accountability by public bodies. A gigantic increase of open-ness and accountability is sorely needed on the housing estates of the Carlisle area as far as the principal landlord, Riverside Housing Association, is concerned. The Federation continues to campaign against Riverside for proper open-ness and accountability. Riverside, in the view of the Federation is accountable to no one but itself.  It is no longer a housing association but is in effect a profit-making  property development company.

Links with other campaigning organisations: The Federation has this year continued to strengthen working links with the North West Tenants` and Residents` Assembly. Nationally, housing stock transfers continue to be questioned and successfully challenged, Locally, questions  persist in the city and  district about the wisdom and legality of the Carlisle transfer of its housing stock to Riverside twelve years ago.

City Council and questions for Riverside:  The Federation has continued to hold Riverside to account with the  very small number of  written questions allowed (two, and possibly  three)about its activities which were due to be addressed to the  chairman of the the city council Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel a month after each Riverside six-monthly report to the council.

However, during the year the Federation found that, like previous years, it continued to be increasingly difficult  to get these questions accepted by the council.

On the last occasion, the council Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Darren Crossley  ruled that the Federation`s questions were not  to be allowed. The Deputy Chief Executive  in his ruling said: “The facility for questions is an opportunity for residents to  engage with the council and not to provide organisations with a platform to make statements of discontent”

The Federation considers this ruling to be offensive and  asked that the ruling be withdrawn. The Federation is not in the business of making statements of discontent. The Federation is in the business of holding Riverside to account.

The council has decided not to withdraw the ruling of the Deputy Chief Executive.

In view of this deplorable ruling which effectively blocks the Federation from further questioning, it seems  that  there will no further opportunity  for the Federation to question Riverside`s activities via  the panel.

Riverside campaign of hostility to the Federation:  The Federation has continued to challenge Riverside`s  campaign of hostility to the Federation which started  when Riverside provocatively, deplorably and outrageously, told the city council that the Federation would cease to exist This  statement was noted  by the council and entered in the minutes.

Riverside followed this  statement by twice attempting to block the Federation `s participation in the business of the city council`s Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel. Riverside has  still not explained why it wishes the Federation to cease to exist and how it proposes to ensure that the Federation ceases to exist.

Council nominees on the Riverside governing board:The Federation continues to challenge the city council arrangement  of four council nominees on the Riverside board. It appears that  these nominees cannot be held to account by either  organisation.The legality, the purpose and the effectiveness of the four nominees continues to be questioned. During the year it was estimated that Riverside had an interest in twelve per cent of the council`s elected members through employment by Riverside or through membership of its governing board,

Appointment of Mr Dean Butterworth as regional director of Riverside Carlisle: During the year Mr Butterworth arrived from Sheffield and has made various statements about improving Riverside Carlisle following the resignation of his predecessor Mr Patrick Leonard.The Federation has noted that since Mr Butterworth`s arrival, there has as yet been none of the promised improvement.

Mr Butterworth inherited a very difficult legacy. During his ten years with Riverside, his predecessor gave no encouragement or support to the Federation and more than once refused to have dealings with us. Mr Leonard`s lack of judgement  was criticised by the Federation and others after he  stood for  election as Labour candidate for the post of Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner and amazingly said through an article in the Press that if elected he could do two jobs, the commissioner`s job alongside his Riverside job.

Mr Leonard`s  very difficult  legacy also persists through Riverside`s continued deplorable use of incomprehensible gobbledgook in communications with tenants and others. His legacy also persists in  Riverside`s failure to  adopt an acceptable effective complaints procedure and its failure to to have any democratic arrangements available for effective tenant and leaseholder community representation on the Riverside board. It is a scandal that all the previous tenant  and leaseholder community groups that existed before Riverside  arrived on the scene were abolished at the takeover and their grants terminated.

Mr Leonard`s very difficult  legacy also persists through its deplorable bossy culture which has been publicly criticised by a Carlisle city council member. It has been reported that Mr Butterworth  agrees with much of this criticism and  is  actively working to  change this..

Riverside`s excessive rents and unfair charges:A lot of time has been spent challenging Riverside about its excessive rents and  unfair charges.

Federation blog: Most of the issues raised in this report have been previously covered by the Federation blog and  the blog`s viewing figures have risen consistently since the blog started  in March  2013. The blog is increasingly seen as a very useful Federation publicity tool.

The blog is  named Community Voice Carlisle.The link to the blog is:http://carlisleruraltenantsfederation.blogspot.co.uk/

Lobbying councillors and M.P.`s:    The Federation has continued to hold meetings with councillors and has  been in touch with Mr. John Stevenson M.P. for Carlisle and Mr Rory Stewart M.P. for Penrith and the Border.

Longtown Action for Heat: Most of the Federation work during the year has involved much active  help for the  very unfortunate tenants of Riverside who live in Longtown.

An estimated sixty of them are victims of appalling Riverside mismanagement following the installation in their homes of dodgy heating systems  which are so expensive to run the tenants cannot afford to use them.

These tenants are suffering, living in unheated homes, some of them crippled financially after paying astronomically-high  heating bills, in some cases running into thousands of pounds.

A year ago - two years after the dodgy installations - a delegation of four of these tenants approached the Federation for help. They were desperate because there was no effective help from  Riverside or from  the two local authorities  or from the local councillors.

Since that time, the Federation has organised and helped to run numerous  joint  tenant and Federation  meetings at Longtown Community Centre and at places in Carlisle. These meetings have been well supported by the local and national press and the local ITV  and  by the Longtown community with attendances of up to thirty.

After several of these meetings the tenants decided to form their own community action group, Longtown Action for Heat which now meets regularly every month in the community centre under the chairmanship of Jimmy Robb.

Jimmy has played an admirable leading role working with the tenants and the Federation to ensure the success  of Longtown Action for Heat

Cumbria Riverside Action Group/Carlisle Leaseholder Action Group:  Over the years, Riverside  leaseholders have been active supporters of the Federation and the Federation has attempted to support various efforts to form an effective leaseholders` organisation which would hold Riverside to account.

Sadly, these efforts failed - or were sabotaged - and Riverside continued with its haphazard management and incomprehensible excessive charging for services which have been continuously  challenged and opposed.

Following this Riverside policy,  two leaseholders who were defendants in county court cases were supported by the Federation.The two won their cases after very humiliating  comments about  Riverside by the judge.

Now the leaseholders have again come together with Carlisle Leaseholder Action Group. led by Malcolm Craik of Brampton, which is getting active support from  the Federation.

At the same time, a new leaseholders` initiative by Billy Lyon of Upperby led to an approach for help to the Bishop of Carlisle. This in turn resulted in three meetings in Carlisle Cathedral Close, at the home of Canon Michael Manley, the Rural Dean,  and the formation of Cumbria Riverside Action Group. Another meeting is  planned for next month.

These meetings were attended by Riverside tenants and  leaseholders and participants in Riverside shared ownership schemes, together with councillors and others wishing to challenge Riverside. Canon Manley is acting as chairman  and the Federation Secretary, John Barker is acting as secretary.

Carlisle South Community Association: The Federation continues to  be actively involved in the work of Carlisle South Community Association   which does excellent work supporting communities, particularly in tackling dog fouling and improving  the facilities in Dale End Park.

A new group, Friends of Dale End Park, was formed by the association and during the year, the Friends worked with the city council on a £80.000 improvement scheme for the park`s children`s play area. The play area was opened during the year and is now much enjoyed.

The  Friends are now planning further improvements to the park, particularly the provision of soccer facilities and a BMX Track. The association continues to have the active co-operation of the NHS in Carlisle and the  city council Green Spaces  and  Environmental Health.

Botcherby Forever . The Federation has continued to give active support to those members of Botcherby Residents` Action Group(BRAG) who were banned from BRAG meetings following the takeover of the group  by  a group of Durranhill residents and other residents living outside the original Botcherby estate.

These  banned members formed a new community group. Botcherby Forever, which meets  monthly, helped by the Federation.

Botcherby Forever has spent much of the year helping local author Pat Hitchon who is writing a history of Botcherby. Pat has attended all our meetings along with many residents, all very keen to help the planned publication.

Altogether, Pat has had help from more than 50  local people, many of them  linked together  through Botcherby Forever meetings. Botcherby Forever has had  many difficulties in finding suitable places  to hold its meetings and has met in five different places-including one member`s home.

However, with kind  and helpful cooperation from all members, all meetings have been a great success and are now held regularly in Eastern Way Fire Station.

Thanks to everyone: I wish to thank everyone who has helped the Federation during the year and thank all who have attended our meetings and contributed to our many interesting discussions and debates. Special thanks to the Elders of the Family Church, Petteril Bank who  made available their church, with its excellent facilities, with no charge to the Federation.Sadly, the church is no longer available.

Thanks too, to members of Carlisle South Community Association who have helped at our meetings, particularly Joan and Kenny Simpson and their friends and family who continued to provided excellent  buffets and refreshments at all meetings throughout the year. 

The Federation is entirely supported financially by contributions from its members.

                                     


 Carlisle  Tenants` and Residents`Federation.

Chairman Denise Moses  Vice Chairman Tony Clifford

Treasurer Kenny Simpson  Secretary John Barker

THAT GUILTY FEELING AND STATEMENTS OF DISCONTENT

PRESS STATEMENT

Council deputy` s 

comments "offensive",

says community group

Statements of discontent not allowed..Darren Crossley

The deputy chief executive of Carlisle City Council, Mr Darren Crossley is criticised today for   comments which  a community group says are “offensive”. The group says it  was trying to engage with the council but has been made to feel guilty. The group has  asked Mr Crossley to withdraw the comments but he has refused, says the group`s annual report.

Some years ago , Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation was encouraged   by the council to attend meetings of  its  Community Overview and Scrutiny  Panel and engage with the council by asking oral questions which the panel chairman answered.

The  Federation says in the report that it now finds it increasingly difficult to do this because the council  has  not been allowing the questions without a lot  of alterations. 
On  the last occasion, the Federation`s  questions were blocked by Mr Crossley.

The Federation protested but Mr Crossley in his ruling  said in an email: : “The facility for questions is an opportunity for residents to  engage with the council and not to provide organisations with a platform to make statements of discontent”.

The federation report says that this  ruling is offensive.

A spokesman for the Federation said today:” We are not in the business of making statements of discontent.

“We are in the business of supporting tenants and leaseholders of Riverside Housing Association because Riverside cannot or will not  properly support these people and tenants find it impossible to get Riverside to change things.

“Asking questions  at panel meetings   is one of the few ways we have of  bringing  these matters to the attention of the council and to the public of Carlisle.

“We are  surprised and offended by Mr Crossley`s  offensive ruling, particularly as thequestions we asked are about specific issues raised by councillors at panel meetings. They are certainly not statements of discontent.

“There has been a complete turnaround by the council .We were encouraged a few years ago to ask these questions and were made very welcome at panel meetings, probably because no one else was asking questions. Things have now changed and with Mr Crossley`s curt and unhelpful ruling we have been made to feel guilty for attending.

“That is not the way to encourage taxpayers to engage with the council.”

The questions blocked by Mr Crossley were:

Concerns were expressed by Councillor Michael Gee at the last meeting of the Panel about the failure of Riverside Carlisle to reply to letters from leaseholders in Dalston and the failure of Riverside to adequately address problems raised by these leaseholders. Councillor Gee said he had raised these issues with Mr Dean Butterworth, Regional Director of Riverside Carlisle and it had been agreed at a meeting between them that  what Councillor Gee called “the culture of Riverside Carlisle “ had to be changed. Councillor Gee later said that the culture of Riverside was “too authoritarian.” Does the Panel agree with Councillor Gee and if so, is it satisfied that Riverside Carlisle is dealing adequately with these concerns?

The concerns of Councillor Gee, mentioned in the previous question, have been replicated at Longtown for two years and latterly at meetings of Longtown Action for Heat, a community group formed  in recent months to address these concerns which in Longtown  are those of an estimated sixty Riverside tenants who are unable to afford to adequately heat their homes.These concerns have also been raised with the two elected members for Longtown and also the elected Cumbria County Council member. These concerns have also been raised with the tenants` M.P., Mr Rory Stewart . Mr Stewart has given the tenants strong continuous support and has now called on Riverside to finalise, what is a very serious situation  for the tenants, without further delay. It   appears that the elected members of both councils have no power  to influence  this situation. Is the Panel satisfied with  the elected members` lack of power in dealing with Riverside and Riverside`s consequence lack of accountability,  and if not, what remedy does the Panel propose?

Issued by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation

Enquiries to 01228 522277 or 01228 522277

QUESTIONS FOR THE `BLIND EYE` COUNCIL

`Shop the park

vandals and shop

 Riverside too!`    

          Malcolm Craik

A leading Carlisle councillor`s appeal  for the public to shop the yobs who are vandalising  the city parks is welcomed by  community activist, Malcolm Craik.

But there is also vandalism on a much larger scale going on in the city and the council  is turning a blind eye to it, Mr Craik claims in a letter to the editor.

This vandalism, alleges Mr Craik has been done to a village green by the city`s biggest landlord, Riverside Housing Association. Like the park vandals, Riverside also should be shopped and that should be done by the city council, he says.

The letter to the editor has been submitted to the Cumberland News, Carlisle.

Mr Craik is a former member of the governing board of the Riverside company. Carlisle Housing Association. He now is very active  with Carlisle Leaseholder Action Group  and Cumbria Riverside Action Group in long-standing disputes with Riverside.

 This is his letter:

Elsie Martlew is to be congratulated for her stance on the vandals who drove across the grass at Rickerby Park and Richmond Green. 

She urges members of the public to shop these park yobs and pledges a £200 reward for information leading to a successful prosecution of the offender or offenders.

While I have no information on these most recent park related outrages I would like to shop  Riverside Carlisle housing association  to Elsie for creating a memorial garden at Seatollor Close in Morton last year on land which has been designated as a village green and as such is protected from such vandalism by an act of parliament.

Planting trees there, I understand, contravenes the Open Spaces Act 1906. Remarkably the city council took no action against Riverside Carlisle  over this blatant disregard for the law which leads me to wonder if councillors were aware of it.

In another case involving Riverside Carlisle  leaseholders and tenants have been forced to accept new front doors that are narrower than those they replace.

These doors appear to contravene building regulations because of their narrowness and because of the need for front doors to provide disability access now and in the future for residents.

Leaseholders have raised this issue with the council whose officers tell us that Riverside Carlisle  doesn’t need to get building consent from the council and they have refused to force the landlord to comply with the regulations even though they have a statutory duty to ensure compliance throughout the authority’s area of governance.

Perhaps Elsie will want to look into the reasons why the city council seems so unwilling to prosecute the Riverside organisation whenever it breaches law or regulation.

 It is especially important that the people of Carlisle observe that everyone in the city, especially electorally unaccountable housing associations, are subject to the rule of law.

Housing will almost certainly be a major issue on the doorstep during the coming election; let’s hope our elected representatives can provide some plausible answers- 

Malcolm Craik M.A., Carlisle Leaseholder Action Group, St Martin` s Place, Brampton.

THATCHER AND `SONS`

Getting an answer

                                                Hinchingbrooke  Hospital

 to the basket cases

 

The first NHS  hospital contract to be handed to a private operator has just failed, but sadly, the news has been squeezed out  of the headlines by the Paris terrorism.

That  hospital failure was  significant . It was a failure not much different  from what many people consider the failure of a similar Thatcherite back-to-private operation here in Carlisle, pioneered by the same Labour government.

This was the privatisation of the city  council houses, initiated and supported with cash  by John Prescott, Tony Blair`s deputy and environment secretary.

It was  Mr Prescott`s  cabinet colleague,  health secretary Andy Burnham who decided to go ahead with the now-failed hospital  contract, that of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire .

The private  company chosen, Circle Holdings has now  pulled out of the Hinchingbrooke contract early,  after mounting losses and heavy criticism of its performance.

In Carlisle, the privatised council houses were handed to the giant Liverpool property organisation, Riverside Housing Association.

Since then, like  Hinchingbrooke , there has been heavy criticism of  Riverside`s performance, particularly its failure to ensure proper  care for  its 6000 tenants and 270 leaseholders.

Circle  blamed its failure on rising numbers of accident and emergency patients and a ten  per cent cent  cut in funding from the government.

But the chief inspector of hospitals has just delivered a damning assessment of Circle` period in charge of  Hinchingbrooke and  decided  to award the hospital a rating of inadequate.

Many Carlisle and Longtown tenants and leaseholders would give  a similar inadequate rating to Riverside.

The failure at Hinchingbrooke has dashed the hopes of those people wanting a national change for the NHS through greater involvement of private firms in what it does.

The failure at Riverside Carlisle has  also dashed many hopes. But many people had warned:we told you so.

The Riverside victims are still suffering in the winter cold, faced with astronomic heating bills they cannot afford and astronomic repair bills they cannot understand.

Critics said Hinchingbrooke  was “ a  basket case” hospital before it was  handed to Circle.  Critics said  the same  about Carlisle council housing before it was privatised and Riverside took over.

Mrs Thatcher and her “sons”,  John Prescott and Andy Burnham all said they had the  answer to the basket cases.

They said they had the answer?

Yes, that is what they said. 

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 532803 or 01228 522277.

ALL MUST GET FREEDOM, BUT SOME MORE FREEDOM THAN OTHERS

Secrecy,

scandal

and Riverside 

gobbledegook

Bizarre report.....forner Riverside boss Patrick Leonard

Ten years on, and freedom of information  is now  accepted as    a right  for everyone. But it is a  right that needs strengthening. And that strengthening is needed urgently by thousands of householders up and down the country. They have been let down by freedom of information

The Freedom of  Information Act  has  been a great success for most of us. The act, for example was used  to expose the MPs` expenses scandal a few years ` ago.

Now,  almost every day other scandals are exposed, some by the Press and some by individuals making use of the act and the

  information that  it frees.

This information, by public bodies such as local authorities has  been made  readily available to everyone.

But despite the act, many scandals remain hidden. And that is a worry for thousands of tenants and leaseholders because they get no benefit from freedom of information.

They get no benefit  because the big landlords, the housing associations   are not included in  the provisions of the act.

And housing associations just love  it that way. Because they are not included in the provisions of the act, all their activities, all their costs and charges can remain secret.

Housing associations can go merrily on, unchecked by anyone, charging what they like, doing what they like...accountable to no one but themselves.

That is the situation here in Carlisle  where the massive Liverpool  property organisation, Riverside Housing Association  charges tenants and leaseholders what it likes, installs dodgy  heating  boilers in Longtown which tenants cannot afford to turn on- so they shiver in ice box homes- closes sheltered housing homes without proper consultation and generally  goes its merry way as a profit making  property developer.

And amazingly, Riverside  has gone  further than all of that.

While the rest of us continue to enjoy the benefits of freedom of  information, Riverside, in the opinion of many people, has actively  gone out of its way to hide what it is  doing.

Riverside did this on one occasion in a unbelievable written  report by using jargon or gobbledegook  which no one  could understand.

The report was to Carlisle City Council  following an inspection of Riverside by the government`s Audit Commission.The author of the report was Mr Patrick Leonard, regional director of Riverside Carlisle.

 Mr Leonard`s report  was bizarre. It contained 35 oblique abbreviations or  jargon that none of the city councillors could understand.

These included such obscure items  as tp trackers, FTA processes, HHSRSs, and SHAIPs

 And  the report also included phrases such as: ‘develop TRG wide customer segmentation through profiling project with CACI’, and ‘carry out review of group VFM strategy to set strategic framework and approach to service reviews’.

Not surprisingly, the city councillors were critical of the report. Mr Leonard  responded by saying that he would ensure that  reports were less confusing in future.

(Mr Leonard did not write  many more reports for the city council...confusing or not confusing.

(He decided  he wanted to become the Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner and offered himself for election as Labour candidate.

(More confusion-and other reactions- followed during the election campaign when Mr Leonard said that if elected he could combine the police commissioner`s job with his Riverside job as regional director.Mr Leonard was not elected. He resigned from Riverside a few months later.)

There was no confusion in what followed Mr Leonard`s bizarre report to the city council. The story got national attention from the influential social housing publication, Inside Housing .

Riverside refused to apologise for the report to Inside Housing saying that it was not written for the  general public. 

Riverside said: “The report is an internal action plan that was submitted as supporting information with a report to Carlisle Council’s overview and scrutiny committee and was not primarily written as a direct communication with tenants or residents.

"Riverside prides itself on ensuring that any commmunication that is written fortenants is easy to understand and written in clear English."

Easy to understand and written in clear English?

Inside Housing did not seem very impressed.So they published a quiz for readers listing the ridiculous gobbledegook and jargon used by Riverside and other housing associations

Inside Housing readers were in absolutely no doubt that they actually preferred  freedom of information to gobblegook and jargon.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 532803 or 01228 522277