Our regular
estate diary.
Why not check
back frequently
to see what is
going on at
Kingsholm?
Back Issues
A relatively quiet day! But having said that, the row over the railings is brewing again!
The TCC is in the middle of a four to five year replacement programme where all the railings on the estate, all of it around 30 years old and most of it battered, broken and shabby! The railings bordered the grass areas (that 25 years ago the council called "lawns") and the paved areas.
The money is coming from the £5,000 we are allocated annually for estate improvements.
Everything was going well until a few months ago! The residents of the estate were appreciative of the efforts and the new black railings helped to smarten the place up a bit.
Then we came to replace a few meters of really battered railing! The estate residents in the immediate vicinity were overjoyed.
Now the railings in question come right to the kerb at the edge of the road and then follows the kerb for a meter or so before curving round and providing the "boundary" between the grass area and the "hardstanding" that is part of the 10 terraced "town houses" in Sherborne Street.
The hardstanding goes the length of the terrace of homes, and there is no pedestrian pavement on that side of the road.
There is an "outcry" by one nearby resident (not from the estate) as children walking up the pedestrian pavement have to go onto the road itself to get past the new railings before walking up the hardstandings at the side of the road!
We are, frankly, puzzled! The new railings REPLACED railings that had been there since the terrace of houses was built in the early 1970s!
There ARE children who walk along that side of the street from the Kingsholm Primary School.
But it is only in the last couple of years that the children have been doing this as the entrance to the school was moved to Sherborne Street to enable building works to be undertaken at the front of the school in Guinea Street, which is on the other side of the estate!
Building work has now finished, but Sherborne Street entrance is still being used - so the children (not to mention parents) are still using the hardstanding as a pavement!
The public right of way for those insisting on walking on the side of Sherborne Street where the terraced "town houses" are is to follow the paved footpath that runs behind the houses and then rejoins the street!
The "head honcho" of council's highways department visited the site a month or mor ago and proclaimed that the replacement railings were fine and that no regulations were being breached - and we have that in writing!
But the complainant appears not to be taking "no" for an answer! The matter has been raised again and officers are trooping down for "site visits"!
Today, things came to a head when the complainant wrote to our treasuer expressing shock that the TCC knew all the details of the complaint!
It is someing called "tenant participation"! It was our money which provided the replacement railings, and the council "consulted" us about the complaint! We don't see where the problem is! But sparks are flying.
Anyway, the complainant collared our chairman before writing to the council, so we were bound to know who it was, anyway!
Oh yes, in case you are wondering, the fencing is only around 18 inches high! As soon as we can get a photograph, we will post it in the Diary.
One of our committee brought a "works magazine" to the office today. It contained a column "E-Mail from America ...." which, it is said, originated in a little enclave of the UK in the heart of Washington DC.
Incase you have never heard of the "Only in America ...." gags, we offer this from the magazine of RAF Innsworth.
Only in America ... can a pizza get to your house quicker than an ambulance.
Now, how about some "Only in social housing ... " gags. Publishable ones emailed to us that make us chuckle will appear in this Diary.
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.