Our regular
estate diary.

Why not check
back frequently
to see what is
going on at
Kingsholm?

Back Issues

Current Month

Home

First "Diary" disaster! We uploaded diary files and the file containing the Minutes yesterday. But they appeared to have disappeared this morning!

A new "folder" was created for the Minutes. So what happens? Yes, all the files we uploaded when into the "Minutes" folders - and this meant that the "links" did not work! The technical boffins as Globalnet, our ISP, figured it out in a microsecond! Thanks lads .... and we are not really total clowns!

Sorry to anyone who came here in the past 12 hours looking for Friday's episode!

We spent an hour of so visiting every entrance to the blocks in Columbia Close and Sherborne Street that have the new door entry system. We were asked by Louise to "activate" two more pass keys that would get into any doorway.

That meant going into all the cupboards to get to the "gizzmos". And it was a revlation to see just have bad the installation work was.

In some, there is a tangle of wires - including British Telecom's! When we think of the cost of replacing the door entry system (about £500 per property!), a peek in all the cupboards containing the mechanisims is total proof of what is NOT value for money.

Mind you, the entire project, worth some £75,000, was never put out to competitive tender. There was some "clause" in the repairs "contract" between the Housing Department and Gloucester City Services that gave the latter the automatic right to this work, despite the fears of many people. Thanks to the legal requirements that leasehold tenants (though who lived in flats and excercised their "Right To Buy") must be given certain information, we twigged that Gloucester City Services had sub-contracted the work and had added 15 per cent to the bill!

Now that's what we call a nice little earner!