The fence, ivy and shrubs in front of our front door are still in situ although to the best of our knowledge due to be removed and the fence replaced. But...
The neighbour who lives above us and who is also a tenant received a letter and documentation, an Award, relating to his garden which had the garage walls as part of his boundary. It makes no mention of the fence in front of our front door and the photographs and plan don't include it. As far as I can see, and in light of the fact that properties that did not have the garages forming their boundary wall have had their existing fencing removed and replaced, it appears that we too should have received this correspondence. The letter was dated and posted on 11 June 2008 and gave the recipient 14 days in which to appeal to a County Court if he/she believed that the Award had been improperly completed. The fencing work commenced on the 18 June.
Yesterday the fencing contractors arrived around lunchtime and proceeded to work until 8.15 pm. Today they arrived again just after lunchtime and worked until 5.30 pm. This is noisy work, the holes for the fence posts are dug using a vehicle-mounted drill, it entails a lot of banging, drilling, etc. Normally, where planning permission is applied for, and in this case planning permission wasn't required, one of the conditions of permission is that work should only be carried out between certain hours. The Award states that:
"The work shall be carried out with reasonable expedition after commencement and so as to avoid any unnecessary inconvenience to the Adjoining Owner or occupiers(sic). In particular noisy work shall be restricted to between the hours of 9.00 am - 5.30 pm Monday to Friday and 8.30 am to 1 pm Saturday only... "
Quite honestly I'm past caring although I admit that the past few weeks have made me rather envious of my husband who, despite complaining about the constant noise, is hard of hearing and, assuming that it is within the wavelengths that his hearing impairment effects, probably hasn't been subjected to the full impact.
So what now? I have no idea, we haven't received the documentation relating to the party wall so I suppose we'd better keep away from the area when the fence and associated plants are removed, the Award confers rights on occupiers who suffer loss or injury as a consequence of the work, we have no such protection.
And if I ask myself what the promises I received are worth the only answer has to be absolutely nothing but that is hardly surprising, when you're a large organisation providing a service, albeit a poor service, to people who have very few alternatives if any the "customer" is way down your list of priorities.
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
"We have awards for our communications with tenants."
I think I can be forgiven for looking extremely sceptical when, a few days ago, the Development Manager stood outside my home, the association's property but my home, a home I pay rent for, and informed me that the housing association had awards for its communications with tenants. He responded to my obvious scepticism by adding that the parent housing association was made up of a number of small associations. Quite.
So it wasn't exactly surprising I suppose, when I fetched something from the porch to put in the greenhouse this morning, to find the site manager and someone I hadn't seen before, along with the neighbour from the house at right angles to our, sorry the housing association's, property standing on the path outside our front door. I should explain: the front door is at the side of the property, this is a block of four flats both ground-floor flats having front and back gardens and the first floor flats having back gardens with the entrances located at either end of the block, I'd walked round from the back garden to the front/side door.
The unidentified person was the fencing contractor who I understood was to erect fencing where the garages had formed the boundaries to properties, rented and owned. I hadn't been told that the fence that separated the narrow path at the side of the property from the garage area was also to be removed and replaced. It is, was, covered with ivy and a shrub stands along the front of it at one end. I happen to prefer to look at greenery rather than fencing when I enter and leave my home or work in the front garden, I also like the fact that the ivy and shrub are now very tall and afford some privacy. Hadn't I been told that the fence was being replaced? No, we had been told nothing either verbally or in writing, in fact if I'd walked past the fence later it would have been in the process of being removed without any prior warning.
The roots of the ivy and shrub will now remain but my preferences aren't really the issue, the issue is one of having sufficient contempt for tenants to feel it's not necessary to seek their opinion or inform them about issues that effect their homes and amenities.
Will the association get an award for their communications with tenants about the garages and associated matters? Who knows, one thing I'm certain of though, it's unlikely that whoever dishes out these awards is a social housing tenant.
So it wasn't exactly surprising I suppose, when I fetched something from the porch to put in the greenhouse this morning, to find the site manager and someone I hadn't seen before, along with the neighbour from the house at right angles to our, sorry the housing association's, property standing on the path outside our front door. I should explain: the front door is at the side of the property, this is a block of four flats both ground-floor flats having front and back gardens and the first floor flats having back gardens with the entrances located at either end of the block, I'd walked round from the back garden to the front/side door.
The unidentified person was the fencing contractor who I understood was to erect fencing where the garages had formed the boundaries to properties, rented and owned. I hadn't been told that the fence that separated the narrow path at the side of the property from the garage area was also to be removed and replaced. It is, was, covered with ivy and a shrub stands along the front of it at one end. I happen to prefer to look at greenery rather than fencing when I enter and leave my home or work in the front garden, I also like the fact that the ivy and shrub are now very tall and afford some privacy. Hadn't I been told that the fence was being replaced? No, we had been told nothing either verbally or in writing, in fact if I'd walked past the fence later it would have been in the process of being removed without any prior warning.
The roots of the ivy and shrub will now remain but my preferences aren't really the issue, the issue is one of having sufficient contempt for tenants to feel it's not necessary to seek their opinion or inform them about issues that effect their homes and amenities.
Will the association get an award for their communications with tenants about the garages and associated matters? Who knows, one thing I'm certain of though, it's unlikely that whoever dishes out these awards is a social housing tenant.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Danse Macabre
On Saturday evening a reasonable number of worker bees were attempting to return to the nest and finding their entry blocked. A number again returned on Sunday.
Late yesterday afternoon the polythene was removed and a very few bees returned, they entered the nest and rapidly exited, on their exit a couple took off and danced in the air, twisting and turning as they rose, as do all worker bees, to show the other workers where food for the now dead larvae was to be found.
This morning one returned, she too danced, spiralling, using the sun as a compass, she danced unheeded, the corps de ballet was gone, there were no workers left to follow, she had no audience except me.
I rang the local authority early on Monday morning, I was given the number of the beekeeper they refer all queries about bee nests to. I'd hoped that perhaps the remaining bees could be saved. I left my name and number on the beekeeper's answer phone but haven't yet had a reply. There's no point in ringing again, the nest appears to have been destroyed and at the end of the day people like Dennis act without any thought for the people or anything else that their behaviour impacts on, they don't change, they have no wish and no incentive to, there is nothing the beekeeper could do. Three or four years ago Dennis arrived home one afternoon extremely drunk, his wife was sitting in the garden and she cautioned him to be quieter, he replied "I can do what I like." and he can.
I realised after my previous post that even Dennis knew the difference between wasps and bees, and he'd been assisted by his neighbour from the flat above him, they knew they were killing bees, chose not to get advice and subjected them to a long, slow death. I'd been disturbed by the means of killing when I thought that it was wasps but it wasn't my business, products are available that allow individuals to attempt to do things that professionals can do so much more efficiently and without cruelty. Arguably neither is the destruction of a bee nest my business.
Perhaps I should learn not to care, not to care about the the destruction of a bee nest; the noise that interrupts what I'm doing; the damage to our garden, a story yet to be told; the being awoken by drunken arguments; the television that might just as well be in our home and the fact that I can be sitting in our sitting room 20 metres from Dennis' sitting room, with the door and windows closed, and he might as well be in the same room, there are times when I feel that our home is occupied by three people not two and the kitchen is the only place to sit in peace.
And for all their talk of taking nuisance behaviour seriously, on the rare occasions that I complain to the housing association or ask them to contact Dennis and ask him to turn the television down nothing happens, in fact I've been told to speak to him myself but I don't particularly want to be subjected to aggressive verbal abuse.
And so it continues, until the housing association makes it clear to the Dennis's that live on every estate, the run-down and the otherwise quiet and pleasant, that their continuing tenancy is contingent on their complying with the conditions of their tenancy agreement nothing will change.
Our rent increase notification arrived this year along with an explanation that the main areas of expenditure of rent receipts is on management and repairs, as will become clear later in this blog we see little management and repairs are best paid for ourselves.
When I go out to feed the birds tomorrow I will look to see if there are any Red-Tailed Bumblebees left, I expect to be disappointed.
Late yesterday afternoon the polythene was removed and a very few bees returned, they entered the nest and rapidly exited, on their exit a couple took off and danced in the air, twisting and turning as they rose, as do all worker bees, to show the other workers where food for the now dead larvae was to be found.
This morning one returned, she too danced, spiralling, using the sun as a compass, she danced unheeded, the corps de ballet was gone, there were no workers left to follow, she had no audience except me.
I rang the local authority early on Monday morning, I was given the number of the beekeeper they refer all queries about bee nests to. I'd hoped that perhaps the remaining bees could be saved. I left my name and number on the beekeeper's answer phone but haven't yet had a reply. There's no point in ringing again, the nest appears to have been destroyed and at the end of the day people like Dennis act without any thought for the people or anything else that their behaviour impacts on, they don't change, they have no wish and no incentive to, there is nothing the beekeeper could do. Three or four years ago Dennis arrived home one afternoon extremely drunk, his wife was sitting in the garden and she cautioned him to be quieter, he replied "I can do what I like." and he can.
I realised after my previous post that even Dennis knew the difference between wasps and bees, and he'd been assisted by his neighbour from the flat above him, they knew they were killing bees, chose not to get advice and subjected them to a long, slow death. I'd been disturbed by the means of killing when I thought that it was wasps but it wasn't my business, products are available that allow individuals to attempt to do things that professionals can do so much more efficiently and without cruelty. Arguably neither is the destruction of a bee nest my business.
Perhaps I should learn not to care, not to care about the the destruction of a bee nest; the noise that interrupts what I'm doing; the damage to our garden, a story yet to be told; the being awoken by drunken arguments; the television that might just as well be in our home and the fact that I can be sitting in our sitting room 20 metres from Dennis' sitting room, with the door and windows closed, and he might as well be in the same room, there are times when I feel that our home is occupied by three people not two and the kitchen is the only place to sit in peace.
And for all their talk of taking nuisance behaviour seriously, on the rare occasions that I complain to the housing association or ask them to contact Dennis and ask him to turn the television down nothing happens, in fact I've been told to speak to him myself but I don't particularly want to be subjected to aggressive verbal abuse.
And so it continues, until the housing association makes it clear to the Dennis's that live on every estate, the run-down and the otherwise quiet and pleasant, that their continuing tenancy is contingent on their complying with the conditions of their tenancy agreement nothing will change.
Our rent increase notification arrived this year along with an explanation that the main areas of expenditure of rent receipts is on management and repairs, as will become clear later in this blog we see little management and repairs are best paid for ourselves.
When I go out to feed the birds tomorrow I will look to see if there are any Red-Tailed Bumblebees left, I expect to be disappointed.
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Not So Much Inebriated as Blind Drunk?
Going into the garden to lock up I noticed that Dennis had blocked off the air brick in which the wasps were nesting with polythene. The "wasps" were trying to gain entry. I'd never taken any notice of the "wasps" before but at a glance from a distance of around six or seven metres they didn't actually look like wasps. On closer inspection they aren't, they're social bees, Bombus lapidarius to be exact or the Red-Tailed Bumblebee, they're common nesters round here, we've had them nesting in the paving round the pond. Bombus lapidarius will sometimes nest in brickwork where the mortar is crumbling and the mortar is crumbling next door as was ours until I managed to get the back and side of the property repointed, the bees appear to be entering and exiting via a hole in the mortar and using the air brick as well.
I know the man's a drunk, I know he's pretty ignorant in every sense of the word but to not know the difference between a wasp and a bee, words fail me. And I feel really angry, had he called the local authority in the first place I feel sure that they would have dealt with them appropriately without drenching them and everything in the vicinity in insecticide.
Bee populations are in decline due to disease, bees are beneficial to the environment, these very bees will have been pollinating the flowers in our garden and the surrounding gardens and the soft fruit we will soon be eating, the strawberries, the raspberries, the gooseberries and the blackcurrants will owe their abundance this year largely to them. Without bees to pollinate our crops there will be no crops and there will be no seed for future crops, bees are an essential part of the food chain, while scientists and beekeepers are trying to save our bees Dennis, in his ignorance, is busy trying to destroy a colony.
When I told my 83-year old, normally polite, husband words didn't fail him, he said, "He's a f****** moron isn't he". I couldn't have put it better myself.
I know the man's a drunk, I know he's pretty ignorant in every sense of the word but to not know the difference between a wasp and a bee, words fail me. And I feel really angry, had he called the local authority in the first place I feel sure that they would have dealt with them appropriately without drenching them and everything in the vicinity in insecticide.
Bee populations are in decline due to disease, bees are beneficial to the environment, these very bees will have been pollinating the flowers in our garden and the surrounding gardens and the soft fruit we will soon be eating, the strawberries, the raspberries, the gooseberries and the blackcurrants will owe their abundance this year largely to them. Without bees to pollinate our crops there will be no crops and there will be no seed for future crops, bees are an essential part of the food chain, while scientists and beekeepers are trying to save our bees Dennis, in his ignorance, is busy trying to destroy a colony.
When I told my 83-year old, normally polite, husband words didn't fail him, he said, "He's a f****** moron isn't he". I couldn't have put it better myself.
Dennis the Inebriate Man
Whilst most of the people in our small close are decent, respectable and honest, we have the misfortune to live next door to the eponymous neighbour from hell, let's call him Dennis. Dennis has an alcohol problem, a loud voice as has his wife, is aggressive in and out of his cups and his gardens are dumps, on occasion literally dumps. He's the sort of person that you don't say: "Excuse me Mr X, would you mind turning the television/music down" to because the response will be a hail of invective, I know I've said it. I've learned to shout loudly enough to be heard above the TV/music and the racket of him and his wife shouting/rowing above them: "Will you please shut up. SHUT UP!". This actually works, I think that it's the final "SHUT UP" that does the trick, it's a language that they appear to be familiar with and for a couple of weeks, if we're lucky, peace reigns until they start up again.
Dennis is in trouble with the law. How do we know? We had the Court Enforcement Officer on our doorstep asking if he still lived next door. Apparently the Court Enforcement Officer had tried to contact Dennis over a long period of time but he wouldn't respond. Not only did he still live next door but he and his wife were actually in. What do you do in a situation like this? Do you lie or do you tell the truth, should you be put in this position in the first place? What would I do if it was me or a member of my family the Court Enforcement Officer was enquiring about? I'd tell the truth so that's what I did. I don't know what Dennis has done, I don't care, but he'd broken the law and the Enforcement Officer told me wearily that he'd probably reappear in court and get away with not taking the punishment which I assume, perhaps wrongly, was a fine. I do care about having a Law Enforcement Officer on my doorstep, pleasant though he was he wasn't the sort of person I'd expect to come across and I particularly don't like being put in the position of having to tell on a neighbour however disagreeable that neighbour happens to be.
Dennis is currently waging war against a wasps nest, and the effect of the last "SHUT UP!" has just worn off, perhaps because he looks and sounds extremely drunk. Dennis has a spray can of Wasp Killer and for the past couple of weeks he has being spraying copious amounts at the wasps nest, the wasps and anything else that moves. When Dennis engages in battle with the wasps I enter our property and close the bedroom windows because large wafts of Wasp Killer blow into our garden and our open windows. I'm inside now writing this because the noise and the Wasp Killer has made the garden a rather unpleasant place to sit today. Anyone else would telephone the local authority and ask them to deal with the nest but it looks as though we're about to spend the rest of the summer trying to avoid Dennis' insecticidal warfare.
I sometimes wonder why powerful chemicals are available to the general public, some people simply can't be trusted to use them wisely or safely. And I sometimes wonder what the answer is to neighbours from hell, they have to live somewhere, I just wish this one didn't live next door to me.
Dennis is in trouble with the law. How do we know? We had the Court Enforcement Officer on our doorstep asking if he still lived next door. Apparently the Court Enforcement Officer had tried to contact Dennis over a long period of time but he wouldn't respond. Not only did he still live next door but he and his wife were actually in. What do you do in a situation like this? Do you lie or do you tell the truth, should you be put in this position in the first place? What would I do if it was me or a member of my family the Court Enforcement Officer was enquiring about? I'd tell the truth so that's what I did. I don't know what Dennis has done, I don't care, but he'd broken the law and the Enforcement Officer told me wearily that he'd probably reappear in court and get away with not taking the punishment which I assume, perhaps wrongly, was a fine. I do care about having a Law Enforcement Officer on my doorstep, pleasant though he was he wasn't the sort of person I'd expect to come across and I particularly don't like being put in the position of having to tell on a neighbour however disagreeable that neighbour happens to be.
Dennis is currently waging war against a wasps nest, and the effect of the last "SHUT UP!" has just worn off, perhaps because he looks and sounds extremely drunk. Dennis has a spray can of Wasp Killer and for the past couple of weeks he has being spraying copious amounts at the wasps nest, the wasps and anything else that moves. When Dennis engages in battle with the wasps I enter our property and close the bedroom windows because large wafts of Wasp Killer blow into our garden and our open windows. I'm inside now writing this because the noise and the Wasp Killer has made the garden a rather unpleasant place to sit today. Anyone else would telephone the local authority and ask them to deal with the nest but it looks as though we're about to spend the rest of the summer trying to avoid Dennis' insecticidal warfare.
I sometimes wonder why powerful chemicals are available to the general public, some people simply can't be trusted to use them wisely or safely. And I sometimes wonder what the answer is to neighbours from hell, they have to live somewhere, I just wish this one didn't live next door to me.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Obliteration
It is 4.50 pm on 10 June 2008 and my garage and the block it formed part of no longer exist, 10 minutes ago part of the back wall was still standing, now the block is a pile of rubble. I started taking photographs a while back to record the final hour or so, some of the pictures are stunning. As in all things, out of this thoughtlessness and ugliness something of worth has come, the light was perfect, the scene dramatic. All I have to do now is find out how to post them on here, photobucket here I come.
Demolition Derby - the Final Episode
Yesterday morning a large lorry appeared carrying machinery. Further investigation indicated it was owned by a demolition company. This was rather a surprise as I'd had a verbal promise from the Development Manager, confirmed in writing, that all residents in close proximity to all the demolition sites, not simply ours, would get prior warning of when demolition would commence from their contractors. We'd received nothing neither had any of our neighbours. I made suitable objections including a point I'd made previously that those with small children might prefer the children not to be at home when roofs containing asbestos were being removed.
I was informed by the contractor's representative that we couldn't be notified because they didn't know when the demolition would start so I pointed out that as they were using a subcontractor they must have scheduled the work some days in advance in which case they could have notified us at the same time. At 10.50 am the demolition commenced.
It is well advanced today, to watch sound, relatively new garages being destroyed is, words fail me, but I find myself wondering why I so assiduously recycle everything I can.
So why are the garages being demolished to make way for an equal number of parking bays? In chronological order and all from the same source:
Version 1: The money is needed to meet the government's decent home standards. This seems a little illogical as the rent receipts from the garages exceeded £6,000 and over the years they had needed little maintenance or repair (actually they'd never been maintained, this housing association, as the council before them, only repairs properties, maintenance is one of the many words that doesn't form part of their vocabulary).
Version 2: They are unsafe. In what way? Two have missing roofs. That is true, the roofs blew off four years ago and the association refused to repair them, I was told unofficially that they were considering redeveloping the garage sites. It would be cheaper, the men carrying out the demolition inform me, to simply remove all the roofs and replace them than to demolish the blocks of garages and then resurface the area to provide parking, something I'd already realised. Which brings us to version 3 which I was given yesterday when I queried why if the garage roofs were so unsafe as to require demolition of all the garages it had taken four years to make the area "safe".
Version 3: All the garage sites owned by the housing association are being demolished because of anti-social behaviour. What anti-social behaviour? I've lived here for thirteen years and there's been only one incidence of anti-social behaviour, my car was vandalised when I left it in the garage area without garaging it and this wasn't kids, we know who did it and he's elderly. We've had no experience of graffiti, vandalism, etc., as a neighbour said there are only a couple of out-of-control children in the area, the majority are polite and well-behaved.
So why have the garages been demolished? Your guess is good as mine, cost, safety or stereotypes? Had the HA consulted the final version wouldn't have provided a reason, had they consulted we could have got our own surveyor to dispute the safety issue and to cost demolition versus repair, had they consulted I wouldn't be around £2,000 worse off, the amount it has cost me to purchase sheds, get them erected to make one to fit the available space and to pay for help emptying my garage and replacing fencing we had to remove when the sheds were erected.
The development Manager informs me that I can complain about the way the matter has been handled. I asked him what the point was, the garages are almost gone, I will not be reimbursed and the only time I did complain about another matter I was told that Tracy would ring me on the following Monday and I'm still waiting for the call, the problem unresolved. That was in October last year. When you already feel defeated and disempowered why set yourself up for more of the same.
The way the demolition of the garages has been handled epitomises all that is wrong with privatised social housing: the lack of consultation, the lies, the dissembling, the lack of communication both internally and with their customers and, above all, the absolute lack of any sort of democracy or accountability.
I was informed by the contractor's representative that we couldn't be notified because they didn't know when the demolition would start so I pointed out that as they were using a subcontractor they must have scheduled the work some days in advance in which case they could have notified us at the same time. At 10.50 am the demolition commenced.
It is well advanced today, to watch sound, relatively new garages being destroyed is, words fail me, but I find myself wondering why I so assiduously recycle everything I can.
So why are the garages being demolished to make way for an equal number of parking bays? In chronological order and all from the same source:
Version 1: The money is needed to meet the government's decent home standards. This seems a little illogical as the rent receipts from the garages exceeded £6,000 and over the years they had needed little maintenance or repair (actually they'd never been maintained, this housing association, as the council before them, only repairs properties, maintenance is one of the many words that doesn't form part of their vocabulary).
Version 2: They are unsafe. In what way? Two have missing roofs. That is true, the roofs blew off four years ago and the association refused to repair them, I was told unofficially that they were considering redeveloping the garage sites. It would be cheaper, the men carrying out the demolition inform me, to simply remove all the roofs and replace them than to demolish the blocks of garages and then resurface the area to provide parking, something I'd already realised. Which brings us to version 3 which I was given yesterday when I queried why if the garage roofs were so unsafe as to require demolition of all the garages it had taken four years to make the area "safe".
Version 3: All the garage sites owned by the housing association are being demolished because of anti-social behaviour. What anti-social behaviour? I've lived here for thirteen years and there's been only one incidence of anti-social behaviour, my car was vandalised when I left it in the garage area without garaging it and this wasn't kids, we know who did it and he's elderly. We've had no experience of graffiti, vandalism, etc., as a neighbour said there are only a couple of out-of-control children in the area, the majority are polite and well-behaved.
So why have the garages been demolished? Your guess is good as mine, cost, safety or stereotypes? Had the HA consulted the final version wouldn't have provided a reason, had they consulted we could have got our own surveyor to dispute the safety issue and to cost demolition versus repair, had they consulted I wouldn't be around £2,000 worse off, the amount it has cost me to purchase sheds, get them erected to make one to fit the available space and to pay for help emptying my garage and replacing fencing we had to remove when the sheds were erected.
The development Manager informs me that I can complain about the way the matter has been handled. I asked him what the point was, the garages are almost gone, I will not be reimbursed and the only time I did complain about another matter I was told that Tracy would ring me on the following Monday and I'm still waiting for the call, the problem unresolved. That was in October last year. When you already feel defeated and disempowered why set yourself up for more of the same.
The way the demolition of the garages has been handled epitomises all that is wrong with privatised social housing: the lack of consultation, the lies, the dissembling, the lack of communication both internally and with their customers and, above all, the absolute lack of any sort of democracy or accountability.
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