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.
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
