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 About
As you
will hopefully remember from previous newsletters, in order to look into the
idea of setting up a Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) for Bedminster &
Redcliffe, YOUR Board of tenants has had to undergo a lot of training,
policy development, independent assessment, and business planning.
Our draft
Business Plan is now being reviewed by the Council – which sets out our
aims, risks, service proposals and financial projections. Our Business Plan
is a detailed document that has taken us months to put together. It will be
carefully scrutinised by the Council and by central Government before YOUR
Board is declared “competent to manage housing”.
The long and short of our Business Plan, is that we will do things slightly
differently – see further on. More importantly however, we will spend every
penny we have on the housing service provided to tenants. The amount we have
is based on what the Council spent last year. The Council has to transfer
this money to YOUR TMO to spend how it sees fit. This then happens year on
year. There will be NO CUTS under a TMO! We will spend every penny on
improving the repairs & maintenance service, caretaking, grounds maintenance
etc. to Bedminster & Redcliffe tenants. Its as simple as that!
YOUR TMO staff team will provide the housing service to Bedminster &
Redcliffe tenants only, from a local office. We will not be responsible for
rent collection and arrears management, and YOUR TMO Board will never know
personal information about tenants.
Finally, we’d like to remind you that YOUR TMO Board won a training award
last month. We were awarded ‘Winner’ in the Learning & Development group
category.
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Enquiries
Wanted – Board Members!
Join Us! If you’re interested in coming along to see what a TMO is all
about, or maybe becoming a Board Member and actively participating in our
monthly meetings, please contact Gilbert Webster (your TMO Chair) during
office hours on 0784 367 7297. We meet monthly on the second Thursday of
each month at 10.30am in the meeting room in Bedminster Library on East
Street. If you can spare a few hours a month and think you might be
interested in shaping the future of the housing management service in
Bedminster, contact us!
Q - Would a TMO affect my Tenancy Rights?
A - No.
A TMO would mean absolutely no change whatsoever to Tenancy Rights, rents,
and the Right To Buy. TMO’s are about providing a local housing management
service from a local office to local tenants & leaseholders only. There’s no
hidden agenda here – this is Bedminster tenants & leaseholders overseeing a
housing management service to Bedminster tenants & leaseholders.
Any more questions? Just contact us, we're here to help.
Message from your TMO Chair - Gilbert Webster:
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.
YOUR TMO Board is continuing to work - completely unpaid – on trying to set
up a TMO that will provide an improved housing service to our 33 blocks (see
next page for a reminder about which 33).
Our Business Plan is nearly there and we are starting to have some initial
discussion with the Council about the ballot – in which tenants &
leaseholders only will ultimately decide whether or not a TMO will Go-Live
or not. Common sense will decide what will be considered an acceptable
ballot response rate, and simple democracy will prevail – i.e. the majority
view will dictate.
Vanessa Lewis, our Project Worker, will be continuing to carry out
door-knocking over the coming months to offer you the chance to buy a share
in YOUR TMO for 10 pence. The share will never make you a profit though, as
Bedminster TMO is not-for-profit. Tenants buying shares means that tenants,
and only tenants, can OWN the organisation. Please look out for Vanessa
while she's out door-knocking. Please feel free to contact me on 373 6271 or
e-mail me at bedminstertmo@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks again, Gilbert. |
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Downloads
Download previous copies of our Newsletter & other
important documents here:
 Newsletters
Apr 2011
Dec 2010
Feb 2010
Oct 2009
Mar 2009
Oct 2008
BTMO Company Membership Form
Minutes of July 2011 meeting
& August Agenda
Minutes of April 2011 meeting
BTMO
CCC Policy
BTMO code of conduct
BTMO Equal
Opportunities 2011
BTMO
Consultation & Communication Strategy
Don't have Adobe PDF Reader? Then get it here - safely. |
The
Service Plans
Repairs & Maintenance:
We are going to make 2 key changes. Firstly we are going to operate a
‘handyman scheme’ – who will be based locally and on-hand full time
(including Saturdays) to carry out minor repairs. This will be a
fast and responsive service which will prevent many repairs becoming more
major. Secondly the Repairs Contractor will be directly employed by, and
accountable to, YOUR TMO Board. The Council will no longer appoint and
manage the Repairs Contractor.
Grounds maintenance:
We are going to fundamentally review the grounds maintenance contracts in
place at the moment. We know we can reduce costs AND increase quality –
we’ve already got some good advice from other TMO’s across the country about
how to do this.
Caretaking:
We want to make YOUR Caretakers proud to be Caretakers. We want to offer
training & development opportunities to allow them to get back involved in
minor repairs – like they used to be. They will be
directly responsible to YOUR TMO only & we expect them to get back the sense
of community we used to have.
Staffing:
Under a TMO, ALL of the staff responsible for providing the housing service
will be managed by our own TMO Manager – who in turn will report directly to
YOUR TMO Board. The Council will no play a part in this – simple! |
