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estate diary.
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Back Issues
On Friday, we contacted our Housing Office regarding caretaking. At the best of times, our caretaker cannot cope on his own. The contract specification was written back in the days when the Housing Department supplied two caretakers for our estate on the basis that there should be a caretaker for every 150 properties - the "norm" we were told.
The Housing Management CCT contractor (yes, the Council's "in house team") felt that they could meet the specification with just one caretaker! But they have failed to perform and a lot of what is in the specification simply is not done.
Anyway, the leaves are starting to fall. This is, as all tenants know, and annual event! Alas, the Council (or their contractors) appear not to realise this.
So we are awash in leaves on the walkways.
Anyway, last Friday, our Housing Manager said she would email the office that allocates work for the "estate service workers" and ask that someone be send down daily to assist with leaf clearance for a couple of hours.
At the time, we suggested that we would not hold our breath. You see, one of these "estate service workers" is supposed to visit our estate every day (Monday to Friday) to undertake a litter pick. Alas, the estate service worker appears to have gone the way of the dodo or even the dinosar.
So we spent today looking for said estate service worker who would arrive to assist out caretaker.
Need we say more????
Except, perhaps, to say that something like £48,000 is collected from our estate each year from a rent "add on" called "caretaking".
They take the money off us ... but can only provide one caretaker together with a sack truck and a bucket.
We will put the "Sit Vac" announcement here when the council recruits a caretaker. The pay must be around, by our calculations, £30,000 a year!
Now, when does "best value" come into force?