Event Day Parking.

Today I attended a meeting at the Rugby ground regarding illegal parking of taxis, limousines and coaches in summerwood road on Rugby days.
Also present was Nigel Cox from the RFU, Cllr Paul Fisher, Chris Smith - Richmond highways and transport, Fiona King of Hounslow Homes, Tina Howe ex URA chair and Simon Earle from Hounslow Police.
Thanks to negotiations on behalf of the URA and Ivybridge residents, Cllr Fisher was able to put into place an experimental scheme which involves restricting entry for vehicles to Summerwood road from both of its junctions with Mogden Lane unless gaining access to premises in Summerwood Road. Both entries will be manned by snt officers during Rugby events in November. The scheme would operate between 10am and 5.30pm and only residents with permits and genuine visitors would be able to gain entry.
This should mean no need for parking wardens on the estate to ticket residents.
I will let residents know more, nearer the time of the first match.
Depending on the experimental schemes success this may be put into place on a more permanent basis. Look out for posters and flyers for more info.

URA Committee meeting

Tonight the URA held their monthly committee meeting which i attended as chair.
Jen from positive futures gave a presentation of what they were doing on ivybridge which was very interesting. I was very surprised at the number of Ivybridge youths involved in activities organised by them. To help them continue their work she asked that together with bridgelink and themselves we apply for another chunk of the Rainbow money, as some of their funding is about to end. Ron is meeting up with her to sort something out along these lines.
Although George and myself were not in favour, the committee decided to give the Bridgelink
£100 towards the Halloween Party, firework display, childrens xmas party and the senior citizens christmas lunch. The reason given was it was done in previous years. A decision to give a further £25 towards these events was deferred until the next meeting, after our treasurer Mary has had time to check our bank balance. I was under the impression that the Rugby Ground funded the senior citizens lunch, but was told only part of it.
Two Hounslow Homes officers invited to the meeting did not turn up. One stated that he could not make it and the other did not reply.
Arrangements were made for me to meet up with Fiona King tomorrow for a meeting at the Rugby Ground relating to traffic issues on rugby days. I will expand on this after the meeting.

It was decided that our next Open Meeting will be held on Tuesday 16th December at 7pm at the bridgelink. All residents of Ivybridge are welcome to attend.

Tower Block Lift Alarms

Within 24hours of reporting to a Hounslow Homes Officer on Wednesday that the present arrangements in place, for residents stuck in a broken down lift was not satisfactory - a visitor to a block was stuck in a lift for over one hour.

The present system involves anyone stuck in a lift pressing the alarm button. This connects them to the HH's call centre where one is told you are waiting in a queue - once connected and your details taken the call centre calls the lift engineers. The engineers in this case took 1.1/2 hours to arrive and if someone had not phoned the Fire Brigade who was there in 10 mins the chap in question could have been stuck for much longer.

I tried phoning the call centre and received no reply. Also a call to Easdale House concierge was not answered as it was their lunch break.

However if you get stuck in the lift between 8pm - 8am first you are connected to the call centre where a recorded message tells you that the call centre is closed and will open between 8am - 8pm and to phone the out of hours number which of course you are unable to do. You are then told if you do not get a response to press the alarm again. This time you should be connected to the Lift contractor.

Both daytime and night time after this you are told that the number you have called is not recognised at which time the system then takes 15mins to reset - so if something goes wrong and your details are not recorded the first time you have to wait a further 15mins before you can begin the above procedures once more.

In the days prior to Hounslow Homes the council had these alarms directed to Link Line who immediately contacted not the lift engineers but the Fire Brigade. Anyone stuck in the lift was freed within 10 - 15 mins Linkline also talked anyone that appeared to panic through their ordeal until the Fire Brigade got there.

Firemen i spoke to at the scene agreed that they should be the ones called out in the first instant to release anyone. The lift engineers afterwards to fix the lift.

However Hounslow Homes for reasons beyond logical thinking do not agree with the alarm going to linkline and then the Fire Brigade. They would rather residents have to suffer this ordeal.

Hounslow Homes AGM

On Thursday evening Hounslow Homes held their AGM .
I went along to see what they had to say and to sample the food they provided in the form of a buffet.
The food was excellent and in Hounslow Homes view the service they provide to tenants also excellent. I hope in the next few months to put them right on some matters, as i find it far from excellent.
Anyway the next few months is going to be a busy time for the URA trying to wade through some of HH's red tape.
May i remind tenants and leaseholders on Ivybridge that the URA is there for them, so please report to us any problems you have regarding repairs, caretaking, cleaners, concierge, communial lighting, neighbours and any other problems you may have that involves Hounslow Homes that you are not satisfied with. You can telephone/text us 24/7 on 07983772558. or email us at ura.ivybridge@yahoo.com
I should like to point out that as far as the estate management team headed by Fiona King as team leader is concerned they are most helpful and work closely with the URA to the best of their ability.

The Rainbow Project.

Together with Tina Howe and Ron Robinson (URA Secretary) I went along to the Rainbow Project Launch Event, held at the Civic Centre on Wednesday 1st October. For those who do not
know what this is all about, Cllr. Phil Andrews and the LBH have released £1.5 million of reserve funding for community, enviromental and regeneration projects around the borough.
Residents associations have the chance to bid for part of this money for a project they are
keen to get underway for its residents. The event which marked the beginning of round 1 of the
application process prooved a great success with entertainment, demonstrations, refreshments and information stalls to answer any questions regarding the Rainbow Project.
Ron completed an expression of interest form in the hope that we may get a slice of this
money to carry out the long awaited refurbishment of the childrens play area near Easdale.
So lets hope our bid is successful.

A Great loss for Ivybridge.

Tuesday 31st October saw the resignation of our previous Chair Tina.

Tina and Bryan are moving off the estate to pastures new. We would like to thank Tina for all the hard work and hours spent serving our community and we wish them all the best in their new home.

However, the new executive committee together with the full URA committee will continue to fight on behalf of the residents of Ivybridge with vigour and determination.

At an EGM to announce Tina's resignation, a vote was taken to elect

a new chair and subsequently a new vice chair. The revised executive committee is now as follows.

Chair: Tony Smith, Vice Chair: George Burrell, Secretary: Ron Robinson and the Treasurer is Mary Laidlaw.

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Here you will find what we have been up to and what is happening within your residents association.