The AGM of the SHRA took place on 15 July 2009, here is the Chairman’s Report.

I must start by welcoming you all here tonight for the Annual General Meeting of the Sylvan Hall Residents’ Association, I particular I should like to warmly thank our guests for coming to support us tonight – Cllr. Keith Taylor, who always takes a keen interest in our affairs, John Bain our Community Participation Officer from Oxford Street, ever a source of good advice and help, Colin Sayers our Community Warden a most practical supporter at the sharp end, where it matters, thank you Colin for all your efforts to keep up standards at Sylvan Hall. And of course a warm welcome to our PCSO friends, John Sharman who we know and a new colleague PCSO Rob Simonette.

Sadly we also have to note some regrettable apologies for absence. Cllr Maria Caulfield, the Cabinet Member for Housing cannot attend as she is in London, Annabel Tate, our estimable Housing Officer, is unwell. John Vickers is in hospital having undergone surgery and I am sure that we wish him a speedy recovery and Roland Maby is working in Bristol and cannot be with us tonight.

Now down to business. It has been a busy year and I suppose the most significant move has been the restoration of a static (that means resident) cleaner. Cleaning is always a major topic and David Hodson has been effective in turning a negative into a positive. He really has made a difference and his cheerful presence has been welcomed by all. Regrettably David is leaving us and is going to take up a course at college, we wish him well and we are hopeful that his replacement will be equally efficient. To make his or her task a bit easier we bid through the Estate Development Budget to have our bin rooms steam cleaned and hopefully this work will soon be started.

Which brings me on to the Estate Development Budget. Each year we bid, alongside other Resident Associations from the North and East Area, for works that you have indicated should have priority in addition to routine maintenance.

This year was different in as much as we were urged to submit our bids to a tight deadline – what is not different is that once the bids were agreed the work seems to take ages to be put in place. One has to learn to be patient but the City Council grinds exceeding slow – as an aside, take our lights as an example. We commissioned a lighting survey in 2007, by March 2008 the new lamp standards were erected but it took 20 weeks to get light to some of them and indeed it was only last month, June 2009 that they were all working – shine a light as some might say,

Anyway, back to the Estate Development Budget, or EDB as we call it. We bid for a number of items and were successful with the following:

We are going to renew the non-slip paint finish to Holly Bank.

We are going to decorate the bin store at Rowan House.

Paint a white safety strip on the step by 5 Holly Bank.

Touch up the paintwork of front doors damaged by the bin men.

Refurbish the porches of the older style blocks, such as The Cedars.

Refurbish and repaint the railing to the East Side of Hazel Bank and apply for a small works grant to provide a handrail to the top steps.

Repaint the wrought iron gates to Ditchling Road and Princes Crescent.

Steam clean the floors of the bin stores.

There is a reserve in the overall EDB and we will bid for small works grants if needed – you are all invited to contribute ideas as to what we might go for.

The long awaited refurbishment of the windows to the common parts, such as the Cedars has started and all the blocks will be done in due course. We had suggested that those blocks exposed to the prevailing wind such as Elm Lodge and Firbank should be regarded as high priority but we still have yet to confirm the precise schedule.

Talking of schedules, some of us should soon be getting new doors, the survey has been done and my understanding is that the new doors should be fitted very soon but the Council’s idea of very soon will probably apply. No doubt Linda will touch on how this will affect Leaseholders.

As a measure of how long things take to happen can be found in the proposed new Tenancy Agreement. I was elected to the Tenancy Agreement Focus Group early in 2008 and we tabled our proposals many months ago. I understand that the new agreement will start going out to tenants and others for consultation at the end of this month so there is no prospect of a new Tenancy agreement being in place much before next April. Hopefully the new agreement will bring the terms and conditions of the Tenancy Agreement into closer alignment with the terms of the lease – an important consideration, particularly on Sylvan Hall.

We continue to monitor anti-social behaviour – an element in thankfully short supply on our estate. We’ve had one eviction during the past year and the neighbours who stood and were counted by appearing in Court are to be commended. The whole process in very lengthy and tiresome behaviour tests the patience of all concerned.

Finally your committee all strive to be good communicators and I think it is incumbent upon us to embrace all forms of communication available to us. There is nothing better than face to face exchange of information but in the next few months I hope that your association will have its own web site and to that end I am currently undergoing training in building and using such a site – I look forward to involving as many of you as are e-nabled as possible.

J Barry Hughes

Chairman