ACTION

1.

Election of Chair

Bryan Kennedy chaired the meeting in accordance with the decision made under item 5a) at the October meeting.

2.

Apologies:

Mrs Ivy Matkin, Mrs Jill Excell, Ms Sheila Seabury.

Sue Goldman stated with her apologies that she will probably be unable to attend until September. The committee discussed the lack of attendance and noted that this was the second inquorate meeting since the AGM. Tarja Kanzen was asked if she was interested in becoming a HAWK TRA Committee member as she had attended previous meetings. Tarja Kanzen stated that she was interested but was unlikely to attend all the meetings.

Agreed to co-opt Tarja Kanzen as a committee member subject to agreement by a quorate committee meeting.

Agreed that the Tenant Support Worker contact other residents who are interested in being TRA Committee members with a view to co-opting them at the next committee meeting.

Tenant Support Worker

3.

Minutes of 8th January - Accuracy

Item 4.7 iii) Letter from Arthur Ringrose - Second paragraph first sentence: Should read "Paul Sprenger left the meeting as he was unwell".

Item 4.7 iv) Letter from Arthur Ringrose - Paul Sprenger pointed out that the statement made by Ivy Matkin should have been reproduced in the minutes. The Minute-Taker stated that he had made no record of the statement. Members stated that Ivy had made the same points as in previous meetings.

Agreed to alter first line: Change "Ivy Matkin made a statement" to "Ivy Matkin re-iterated her position as recorded in paragraphs the minutes of 4th December".

Item 8.1 Service Level Agreement with Haggerston Area Trust - Line 6: Change " fund allocation so that only one organisation" to "fund allocation to only one organisation".

Monique Carter proposed agreement of minutes with above amendments, seconded by Pat Phillips, agreed.

4.

Matters Arising from 8th February:

Item 4.1 - Report Back from Canalside, Soundproofing - Sue Goldman not present. The Tenant Support Worker reported that Canalside were to do some tests on the proposed soundproofing.

Item 4.2 iii) - Newsletter, Distribution - Distribution has been done to all blocks except those in Haggerston West.

Brian Kennedy

Item 5.3 Incoming Post, HAWK TRA Representative for Haggerston Area Trust Board -

The Tenant Support Worker reported that he had not put an item asking for volunteers in the newsletter because it would be unlikely to produce results. He suggested that someone could be voted on at the next HAWK TRA General Meeting to be held soon. Brian Kennedy had cleared up the criteria and status of nominees from the HAWK TRA Committee: They could live in any HAWK TRA property including Whitmore Estate as long as they represented HAWK TRA at the Trust Board meetings.

Agreed to discuss General Meeting date under Any Other Business

Item 4.4 Letter to Haggerston West Estate Committee Regarding Drains and Empty Flats -

The Estate Committee had discussed the letter, minutes of the meeting were available. Pat Phillips reported that the residents and Tenant Support Worker had done a "walk around" inspection of the estate. The residents had noted 8 points that needed attention at the walk-around: 1) Water over flow to 4 Harlowe House Balcony; 2) Scaffold poles left on ground outside Harlowe House; 3) Water over flow to back of Community Centre; 4) Mattress on green outside 23 Harlowe House; 5) Burnt out car outside Samuel House has been there for 2 years; 6) 3 new paladin bins to be ordered for Harlowe and Pamela House; 7) Drains to be cleared throughout estate; 8) Blue metal screens from void flats left outside Harlowe House and not removed. Only items 4) and 7) had been done to date. The estate manager, Beatrice Bellot, had stated that due to the increased size of her patch she did not have time to walk up the stairs and check the balconies during the inspections. Beatrice Bellot had said that she had not realised what a state the estate was in.

Agreed that for the next inspection residents should do a full walk-around to note the defects on the estate before the estate manager arrives.

Residents of Haggerston West

The next Haggerston West Estate Committee meeting is due in April.

4.5

Item 4.7 Letter from Arthur Ringrose -

Brian Kennedy has replied to the letter. The Tenant Support Worker has lost the copies but Brian Kennedy will print some more out. Arthur Ringrose has written 2 letters back. One letter, received at the meeting, noted the omission of Ivy Matkin’s statement (discussed under item 3.2 of these minutes). The other letter, replying to Brian Kennedy’s letter had been left in Brian Kennedy’s tray but has not been read.

Brian Kennedy added that the HAWK TRA policy is to oppose building on the LEB site - the HAWK TRA has been inactive on this issue and left things to the EDMC. If Arthur Ringrose feels they should be more pro-active then he could suggest actions that the committee should take.

Paul Sprenger re-iterated his position that TRA Committee members should not vote against TRA policy when on other committees, even if elected as individual residents and not as TRA nominees.

Brian Kennedy felt that the HAWK TRA Committee was more democratic than the Canalside EDMC. The Tenant Support Worker felt there was a problem with the democratic representation of tenants views at the Canalside Community Board. The surveys of residents surrounding the LEB site showed that residents reps who had been elected to the Canalside Community Board and the EDMC could vote against residents wishes.

Members present still felt that the Arthur Ringrose and Paul Sprenger should not be focusing attention on individual members.

4.6

Item 6.2 - Report Back from Other Organisations, Ascent 21 - There has still been no response from Ascent 21 to the HAWK TRA Chair’s letter asking for minutes of meetings.

4.7

Item 7.2 - Food Co-op Report - Monique Carter wanted to raise the matter under "Report Back" on the agenda if there was enough time.

4.8

Item 8 - Service Level Agreement with Haggerston Area Trust - Lorna Meade reported that she had not had a further meeting with Jill Excell.

Lorna Meade, JE

5.

Incoming Post Received

The Tenant Support Worker reported that the Metropolitan Police were looking for volunteers to help with race awareness. Volunteers would be reimbursed for their time. Anyone interested to contact the Tenant Support Worker.

Any interested Residents

6.

Report Back

The Tenant Support Worker had laid out copies of reports, letters and recent minutes of various organisations for anyone who wanted to read them.

CANALSIDE - all committees

Motion Opposing Proposed Reduction in Standards to the Refurbishment programme.

i)The Tenant Support Worker stated that the HAWK TRA Committee had passed a motion in December last year on this matter and asked if members wanted to send a delegation to the next Canalside Board meeting. Tom Seabury stated that this meeting was where the contracts for refurbishment were likely to be discussed, he pointed out that the residents had succeeded in reducing proposed cuts to Orme House by sending a delegation.

ii) Monique Carter presented a petition opposing the cuts which HAWK TRA residents had started and asked the HAWK TRA to endorse it.

iii)Agreed to endorse the residents petition against the reduction in standards of Canalside’s refurbishment.

iv)The Tenant Support Worker stated that the next Canalside Community Board meeting is to be held on Tuesday 13th February. Committee members felt that there should be a delegation and that residents from Haggerston West should attend as they were due to ballot on Canalside as a possible landlord.

v)Agreed that Monique Carter, Colin Bailey, Tom Seabury, Brian Kennedy and Paul Sprenger to attend the meeting.

See left

Tom Seabury reported that there had been a water shortage for 6 days on Whitmore Estate due to lack of water pressure. The Canalside contractors had been unable to locate the problem which was due to a leak. Canalside had agreed to reimburse tenants for a weeks rent.

Tom Seabury reminded residents that major works were imminent on Whitmore Estate, including the LEB site. The works had been due to start in January. There will be major disruption to residents.

HAGGERSTON WEST

Pat Phillips stated that some of her report about the estate matters had been covered previously (see item 4.4 under "Matters Arising").

Estate Committee - Council Vandalism of Empty Flats

Pat Phillips stated that the Council had started getting court orders against squatting but others were moving in. The Tenant Support Worker reported that the Council were proposing to destroy the insides of the flats to make them uninhabitable by squatters and that the Estate Committee opposed this.

A discussion followed, residents made the following points:

i) One member felt that the repairs would be too expensive and reported that London Fields co-operative had already turned down the flats for short term lettings because they could not be repaired.

ii) The Council is avoiding even minimal expenses.

iii) The flats should be re-let to homeless people.

iii) Pre-letting of empty flats would also allow proper eviction of the squatters with no subsequent re-squatting.

iv) The flats could be made inhabitable with basic repairs and some homeless people would take them if offered.

v) Landlords talk about sustainable communities which means moving in tenants not leaving flats empty.

vi) The flats were originally planned to be transferred to Canalside for refurbishment along with Haggerston East and were now planned to be refurbished under new proposals - the Council had used the planned refurbishment as a reason not to let the empty flats.

vii) Some Council housing staff were saying that it would not be fair to let the flats to tenants if they were soon to be transferred out of Council ownership.

viii)Agreed to support the Estate Committees opposition to the Council deliberately vandalising the void (untenanted) flats and to support the letting of the flats to homeless people.

EDMC and HAT not discussed.

OTHER ORGANISATIONS

Not discussed

7

Projects

IT Project

Minutes from December and report available. Not discussed.

Food Co-op (verbal report, Monique Carter)

Monique Carter proposed that the food co-op be registered as a separate organisation in line with the HAWK TRA’s commitment of last year and that £1,000 of Food Co-op funds be put aside for this purpose. Brian Kennedy stated that he had been telephone by Nick Strauss (ex-Treasurer) who had several reservations about the scheme and he did not want to make a decision at this meeting.

Monique Carter felt that she should give the reasons for her proposal:

i)That the food co-op was obliged to carry out a number of functions which had not been done in line with expectations (outreach to the community, door to door delivery, research into health).

ii) The HAWK TRA could be liable if the funders did not accept the outcomes.

iii) There has been no real staff line management and no real interest from the committee.

iv) The co-op committee had residents on it from outside of HAWK TRA area but the HAWK TRA committee would still be responsible if anything went wrong.

Brian Kennedy stated that he had been unhappy with the setting up of the food co-op as he feared it becoming a separate body and moving its operations somewhere else to get funds.

Monique Carter reported that Michelle Asbury (the Food Co-op manager) had left her post at the end of January but had stated that she would be working from home to clear up paperwork with funders and look for new funding.

Agreed that:

i) The co-op should put in proposals to the HAWK TRA committee at its next meeting and that these should be to either wrap up or to become independent.

ii)If the co-op wraps up then HAWK TRA should support the fruit and vegetable stall continuing at Haggerston.

iii)Michelle Asbury provide a report to the next co-op and TRA committee meetings on: How far she had got with reporting to the current year’s funders; what further work needed to be done; whether the TRA was likely to be asked for any return of funds; whether there was any certain funding for the future and how much.

iv)Monique Carter to write a letter to the food co-op committee stating her proposals and asking members to vote at the next meeting.

8.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Haggerston Area Trust (HAT)

Not discussed.

9.

Any other Business

Signatories to HAPTRA

HAPTRA (representing tenants of estates in Hackney transferred to Housing Associations) requires 2 signatories from HAWK TRA.

Agreed that Nick Strauss and Tom Seabury be nominated as signatories to HAPTRA.

Next General Meeting

Agreed that:

i)The next General Meeting of HAWK TRA be held on Monday April 2nd at 7-30 pm.

ii)Harsha Amin (from the Council) and Robin Hawkes (from Canalside) be asked to attend for questions, each person under a specific agenda item.

iii)2 Turkish speaking interpreters be present at the meeting.

Tenant Support Worker, TRA Secretary

iv)The meeting needs someone who would be a strict chair.

Committee