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The talk in the TCC office this afternoon by a handful off the committee was again about the "Choices" debate.
The chair of Matson Tenants Association has been in contact with us and we are thinking of hosting an informal get together of tenants groups at Kingsholm to pool our idea, our fears and our aspirations of the future of our homes - and who should be the landlord.
On the Matson estate, the council are working on the long-awaited "stock condition survey". This was something that Tenants Forum in general, and Gordon Jackson of the Coney Hill TA in particular, has been asking for since "the stone age".
No one really knows what needs doing in the council's housing stock of around 5,500 homes. In addition, it is difficult to prioritise!
But what raised alarm bells up at Matson was the fact that some of those actually doing the survey were aparantly telling tenants that the work was being done so that a value could be put on the stock for a "sell-off"!
Of course, any sniff of a "sell-off" in Gloucester will bring back memories!
Matson TA said that they had already spoken to the Director of Community Services at the City Council. Aparantly, the council will be issuing a press release on the "choices" debate.
From the tenant perspective, the debate has barely began - but some housing officers tenants and councillors, under the guise of SHADO (the Social Housing Amateur Dramatic Organisation) - presented a "play" on the options available a few months back.
But the specific debate has not yet begun, as far as the Tenants Forum is concerned.
This worries Matson and other groups (ourselves included). And some suspect that the debate is almost finished in the "smoke-filled" room of the controling political group who can out-vote the combined opposition.
Any help from other tenant groupsrelating to their experiences of any "Choices" debates they might be involved with would be most welcome. Please email us or write to us at Kingsholm TCC, The Estate Office, Clapham Court, Gloucester, GL! 3DD.
One of our committee members, Len Harris, was recently in hospital to have a heart by-pass operation. During the past few days, we have been pleased to see him taking a gentle stroll around Clapham Court, where he lives.
Today, he ventured into the residents' lounge in Clapham Court for the regular coffee morning.
Last night, the youngsters were hanging around the Columbia Close/Alvin Street area again!
And what a mees there was this morning! They were even leaving messages for each other - again - in the form of grafiti.
Grafiti is nothing new, and it can be seen the world over! But it is annoying and, more to the point, costly and difficult to remove. We are told that grafiti is criminal damage! But we cannot remember seeing anyone in Gloucester prosecuted for this sort of criminal damage!
Above is a sample of their handywork - a publishable sample! Now really, shouldn't that be "Tasha and Becky WERE here"? Which school do they go to?
We had five emails today - one of them from a landlord! At least we are being read. And our spies at the City Council tell us that print outs are circulating. What have we started?
Just a quick reminder that we DO know about the problems with the guest book. The problem is being worked on, but we suspect that the snag is at TenZero, the company that provides the guestbook at no cost to us. Some of you are Emailing us instead - and thanks for the comments.