13 July meeting… updates on repairs, bridge meetings, Planned Works team and Summer of Listening

Next engagement panel meeting: Thursday 11 August 5pm-6.30pm

Update on Repairs

Repairs are currently the main topic and was the running theme throughout the meeting. Claudia Cobban, Customer Service Director reported back to us on the ongoing Repairs Options Appraisal. Progress is being made and we should hopefully have an update by autumn.

Bridge Meeting

Pete Kennedy-Watson (Panel Co-Chair of today’s meeting) spoke next about the Bridge meeting with the Board. The purpose of these meetings is to ‘build a bridge’ between the Residents Panel and the Brighter Places Board to identify ‘Hot Topics’ and begin a conversation around these topics before the residents panel meets, so that we can discuss what’s being done about these at the panel meetings.

The Hot Topics identified are: Communication, Complaints and, yes you guessed it, Repairs.

Update from the Planned Works team

Steve Selfe was up next. He’s head of Planned Works and Major Projects and reported on two new contracts they are looking to replace. These are the ‘Kitchen and Bathrooms contract’ and  the ‘Internal and External Decorating’ contract. Again, we’re hoping to have these in place by the autumn.

Summer of Listening

Lastly we talked about the Summer of Listening which is taking place between the 18th of July and 24th of August. Brighter Places will be out and about meeting residents and listening to what you’ve got to say. It will be a good opportunity for you to tell them what you want from them, what kind of help you need on a range of things.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 11 August, and we would welcome any observers. Contact engagement@brighterplaces.co.uk

Jon Kent, Panel member