Neighbourhood Watch – How to set one up

Neighbourhood Watch Schemes

A Neighbourhood Watch scheme can be easily included for your TRA catchment area and can attract new members to your group. As well as having a positive effect on reducing crime and the fear of crime on your estate.

How to set up a group.

If you would like more details on what is involved, or on how to set up a group either of the two people below will be happy to help.

David Whitteron West Yorkshire Police Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator  david.whitteron@westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

Howard Fanning KNH Fire and Police Liason Officer
howard.fanning@knh.org.uk

Community Funding from Skipton Building Society

Skipton Building Society – Community Grants

Skipton Building Society are 160 years old, and to celebrate this, they’ve created the Big 160 Appeal which will provide 160 grants of £500 to assist grassroots groups across the country.

Apply by 31st July 2013 for up to £500

They’re looking for community based groups, and will consider any proposal, with preference given to organisations who struggle to access mainstream funding and receive little support elsewhere.

The deadline for applications is 31st July 2013. Further details are available at http://www.skiptonbig160.co.uk/

New Housing Solutions Service for Kirklees

From 1^st April 2013, we are offering a new service called Housing Solutions Service – bringing together Private Sector Housing and the Housing Options and Support Service

 What support does Housing Solutions offer?

The service’s main focus is on assisting people to find, keep, maintain and live independently in quality, affordable homes.

Customers can access advice and support which includes:-

• Access to housing information and guidance
• Advice on a range of housing options
• Assessment of housing need including the prevention of and assessment of homelessness
• Information and advice to private sector landlords and tenants and some home owners
• Housing related support to enable vulnerable people to maintain their accommodation.

The service adopts a person centred, creative early intervention / prevention approach to solving housing problems, only turning to compliance action as a last resort.

 Where can people access the service?

The service will continue to be provided from the Customer Service Centres, currently Civic Centre 1 in Huddersfield and the Walsh Building in Dewsbury.  The service will move to the new Huddersfield Customer Service Centre when it opens in late Spring. 

 For further information please contact:

 Operations Managers:         .

Cath McGurk – Access to Housing

Steve Cale – Quality Homes

Team Managers:

Lynne Mitchell – Young People and Support

John Marsden – Advice and Assessment

Lisa Allan/Carina Kemp – Access to Housing Solutions Services

Peter Halpenny – Temporary Accommodation

Jeremy Maguire – Access to Private Rented and Compliance

All can be contacted by phoning 221000 or internal 860 1000 and asking for them by name.

KFTRA Delegates Meeting to discuss Mandatory Direct Debits

Thursday April 4th at 1.30pm in Huddersfield Town Hall

KFTRA Statement on Mandatory Direct Debit – 20/03/13

After meeting with a KNH Board representative on Monday 18/03/13, KFTRA have taken the decision to defer the presentation of their petition opposing Mandatory Direct Debits for council tenants, until after a full KFTRA Delegates meeting on the subject to be held on Thursday April 4^th at 1.30pm in Huddersfield Town Hall.

The reason for this is that KNH were under the misapprehension that KFTRA supported their position that ALL tenants should pay their rent by Direct Debit, which is not the case.

While KFTRA are happy to promote Direct Debit as the preferred means of collecting rents, they would still like to see a raft of payment options available to tenants.

Neither the KFTRA Management Committee, nor any other KFTRA meeting or any, outside body on which KFTRA has a representative has ever taken a vote to determine whether KFTRA are in favour  (or not) of mandatory Direct Debit.

KFTRA will be inviting Kirklees Council cabinet member Cllr Cathy Scott and officers from KMC and KNH to present their position on rent payments.

Then at the KFTRA Delegates meeting, representatives from the whole of the Kirklees Tenants movement will be asked to vote on the follwing.

A vote will be taken on whether the delegates are;

1. Opposed to mandatory Direct Debit.
2. In favour of a campaign to oppose compulsory rent payments by Direct Debit.

Of particular concern are the effects that mandatory Direct Debit would have on certain groups of people.

• Older people who wish to continue to pay their rent at the Post Office.
• Bankrupt people who cannot hold bank accounts
• Vulnerable people who would find it difficult to budget a bank account.

KFTRA were also surprised that KMC sent out a letter to tenants informing them of the change to mandatory Direct Debits without discussing this with KFTRA beforehand. KFTRA were shocked at the tone of the letter which implied potential eviction for tenants if they fell behind in their rent payments by not paying by Direct Debit.

That this letter was sent out to elderly tenants who were not in arrears causing them great distress was shocking and we hope that an apology will be given and that steps will be taken to ensure that this mistake does not happen again.

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For more information contact Jill Long KFTRA co-ordinator on 01484 223466 or email jill.long@kftra.net

Lower Energy Bills for Kirklees Council Housing Tenants and Residents

Kirklees are joining in a recently launched campaign to help people switch to lower cost  energy supplies.

Click the link below for further details.

www.communityenergy.info

Main Points

• if you pay by Direct Debit you should be able to save an average of 10% – 15% per year off the cost of your energy bills.
• if you are on a pre-payment meter as long as you have arrears of £500 or less then you can still join the scheme and your savings could be 40%
• You can join the scheme up until April 17th 2013
• For people on a lower income or on benefits this is the only way that you can significantly reduce your energy costs.
• IMPORTANT – to sign up to the scheme you will need a recent energy bill and preferably details of your payments for the last year
• The scheme is NOT suitable for Warm Zone customers.
• The offer is for gas supplies, or gas/electric supplies, but not electricity only.
• Once your offer is made to you, you will have 14 days to decide and then a 7 day cooling off period where you can change your mind. It will then take around four to six weeks for the change of companies to be implemented.
• For the scheme to work a minimum of 3,000 people need to sign up.

Fern Lea Flats TRA object to removal of age designations

Fern Lea Flats TRA (Tenants and Residents Association

Fern Lea Flats is a six storey block of 36 flats located in Lindley, Huddersfield
The flats are currently occupied by people over 60 years old and there is a well established community at the flats. When the TRA (Tenants and Residents Association) learned that the age restrictions on their block of flats was to be removed to allow tenants of any age to apply to live there, they were shocked. Pat Downing the associations Chair said “Young and old people are part of the local community, but they have different lifestyles. In a block of flats such as ours with poor noise insulation, noise travels particularly at night and it is unfair to expect that young people will not play music or make a noise after 11.00 pm and it is also unfair that older people should be disturbed if they do. It would seem much more sensible to allocate flats in blocks of flats to people of similar ages and lifestyles.

Petition & Deputation

Local Ward Cllr Cahal Burke is to go with representatives of the TRA to Kirklees Council Cabinet meeting on Wednesday March 12th 2013, to hand in a petition & speak to Kirklees Council Cabinet members about their concerns. 

Kirklees Council Housing Estates; A Better Place to Live

Getting the Site Right

Netherwood Close TRA 2011

Would you like to be a getting the site right inspector and help make your neighbourhood a better place to live?

Involving Tenants

Involving tenants and residents is essential to the process of managing, monitoring and improving the grounds maintenance service in Kirklees.
Kirklees Council Streetscene aim to ‘Get the Site Right’ in their work on your estate but they are not there every day. They need you to let them know when problems occur or any issues you are aware of.

What is a getting the site right inspector?

It is someone who has the power to report poor work and channel views and ideas of other tenants on how to improve your estate.
You can also attend annual site inspections with a member of the gardening team to discuss work done and put forward ideas for improvement.

What Next

For more information you can attend one of the workshops below

Huddersfield Town Hall, Reception Room on Monday 25th March 2013 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Dewsbury Town Hall Council Chambers, on Tuesday 26th March 2013 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Please contact Nigel on 01484 225064 to register for one of the workshops or to find out more about what is involved.

£100,000 Community Gardening Fund

The Royal Horticultural Society is launching a new investment project in Yorkshire. Working in partnership with Yorkshire in Bloom, a new £100,000 fund will be distributed over the next three years to support grassroots community gardening across the region.

Gardening groups will be able to apply for funds to make a difference in their neighbourhoods. Advice and support will be given to groups by the RHS Regional Development Team based at Harlow Carr.

• Small grants are available for groups that require start-up funding; a minimum of £300 and a maximum of £500 are available.
• For larger projects, the minimum grant is £5,000, the maximum is £10,000.

The RHS wants to ensure that we are able to maximise our support for the projects we fund, so all applicants will be asked to register with

RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Campaign.

Download an application form

The deadline for the grant programme is 15 March 2013. RHS Yorkshire in Bloom aims to make decisions within four working weeks.

Save Money on your energy bills at these free training sessions

Become a Kirklees Energy Hero

Learn how to save money on your energy bills and help others to do the same at this free training and information session.

Click the link below for details

Kirklees Affordable Warmth Workshops

Tenant Committees to lose control of the Tenant Led Budget

Vote on Tenant Led Budget Schemes Given to Kirklees Councillors

In a shock announcement at the Huddersfield North Area Forum on Friday 01/02/13 a KNH Officer announced that it ‘had been decided’ that Kirklees Councillors would in future be able to vote on schemes for the Tenant Led Budget.

Update (06/02/13)

KNH have said that the £1 Million + Tenant Led Budget was at risk of being lost unless Kirklees Councillors were allowed to vote on the schemes put forward.

The four Tenant Committee’s were asked last year whether they would object to this proposal. The two North Kirklees Tenant Committees voted to allow Cllrs to have a vote and the two Huddersfield ones were totally opposed to the only budget controlled by Tenants being removed from their control.

KFTRA have not been consulted or even informed about this decision and will be discussing the implications of this at their next Delegates Meeting on Monday 11th February, 10.30am, Dewsbury Town Hall

Further information will be added when known.

Contact Your Councillor

If you wish to let your local Kirklees Ward Councillor know your views on this issue, follow the link below for their contact details

Find your Cllr