| Attendees: | Jonathan Isaacs (JI), Claire Johnson (CJ), James Needham (JN) Chair, Anand Patel (AP) Revolution, Susan Swientozielskyj (SS), Laura Walker (LW) Revolution. |
| Apologies: | Ian Forrester, Tim Gardner, Katherine Harrison, Tracey Langford |
| Agenda item: | |
| Minutes of last meeting: Not discussed. | |
| Actions from last meeting:All outstanding actions have been rounded up into 3 critical items for discussion at today’s meeting. | |
| AP wanted to address the Committee at the start of the meeting in response to the letter of complaint and the results of the recent residents survey submitted to Revolution by the Chair of the Residents Committee, JN, on 6 October.Revolution recognise that there is a problem with the management relationship to our building and to rectify this they have established a new team to actively deal with the issues at Islington Wharf now and going forward. The new team consists of:Laura Walker – responsible for the day to day management.Tim Jacomb – responsible for contract management. He is a senior property management manager this is his area of expertise.Tom Greenwood – responsible for project management. This includes the latent defects and liaison with Waterside Places.John Ramsden – responsible for operational management of facilities.Anand Patel – responsible for overseeing the whole team.There will be a weekly team meeting to catch up on progress of issues at this development.The contact details of this team will be released to the Committee this week. Toms key tasks are the leaks at apartment 200; the cladding; heat gain; water ingress and the glazing. Dedicated team facilitator is Emma Wilson who reports to Lee Pratt. There will be better oversight of all issues and better information to the Committee. JI challenged AP that Tom is just one person seemingly now accountable for all the latent defects. AP assured the Committee that each area listed has other people working on it and Tom will work with each of these to ensure actions are kept on track and communicated. JN challenged AP on Revolutions processes or lack thereof when contractors are on site and doing work at Islington Wharf. There should be better use of Matt and Colin and they should know when [a contractor] is expected, who is in the building, what they are doing and how long were they on site. Also, there should be a log of all this information including a written report on what was done and any other actions required eg ordering of parts. AP acknowledged this and it will be actioned. AP informed the Committee that Waterside Places (WP) are going to make good on the repairs and correction of the latent defects; they are expecting settlement with Laing O’Rourke at the end of November this year. SS asked what is Revolutions confidence factor in WP actually coming good on getting this building sorted out given they have done nothing to sort any of the issues these past few years, a key example being the water ingress damage in apartment 200 and that of CJ. AP said that confidence is high and that work to rectify the issues on the balcony of apartment 200 is now ongoing. JI asked about recourse if a solution doesn’t work. And also could the Committee have a copy of the settlement between Laing O’Rourke and WP? In particular the Committee has significant concerns about what the financial settlement will be and what if it isn’t enough to cover the costs of fixing the latent defects? AP assured the Committee that this lies with WP to manage. JN asked that Revolution ensure the legalities have been checked to ensure there will be no shortfall in the funds required. SS wanted to know that a full and proper project plan will be put in place with timelines, costings and outcomes to which JI again echoed the issue about recourse if a ‘solution’ put in place doesn’t solve the problem [it was designed for]. JN commented that reports are not shared with leaseholders and this will be changed. | |
| 3. | Lift Incident Review and update: 3.1 Getting the SLA’s in place and associated costs need to come to the Committee for review; 3.2 A dilapidation survey is scheduled to take place to determine what needs to be done to rectify the problems left by Schindler and Otis. 3.3 Schindler and Otis are being held to account for all costs incurred as a result of their failures. In terms of costs back to Otis, including compensation – AP advised that any compensation received will be offset       against the service charge. In addition, LW informed the Committee that a portal is being created that will have all relevant information on works planned/carried out and this will be made available to all Committee members to give oversight of what is being done. |
| 4. | Cladding and Crash Deck Review and update:AP confirmed there is no date yet for removal of the scaffolding but that it is a priority to get resolution to the problem asap. In the meantime, they are proposing to clean up the area, improve the lighting and security until it is removed. |
| 5. | Revolutions Management – review and update:The results of the residents survey were discussed. Revolution are committed to improving their performance. JN will re-run the survey in 6 months. |
| 6. | Questions from Residents:None. |
| 7. | AOB 7.1 – Garden: LW has done costings on clean up and re-painting of the communal decking and the garden fencing. This is coming in at £1545 + VAT; costings have also been secured for the private gardens to be done in the same way for consistency. JN asked Revolution ask WP to replace the fencing to match the new development and therefore improve the overall aesthetic of the development. The residents gardens should also be matched. JN flagged up that the cladding on block A is green mouldy and there is some general dilapidation for example: a tile that came off in the garden area has been replaced with wood. This is making the building look shabby. These issues need to be rectified asap. Action Revolution.LW confirmed that the bean bags have arrived but the chairs that were selected for the garden were continually out of stock. All agreed that this is not a priority; bring forward in the Spring. 7.2 – Lighting in the alleyway separating Islington Wharf and the new build. Revolution are checking the wiring to ensure that the supply of electricity to this area is not coming from Islington Wharf. Action Revolution. 7.3 – Bin management – Matt has reported that this is working ok on the slip road with the bins from the new development. JN updated the Committee that the provision of the food waste bin is being stopped because of repeated cross contamination. When this happens, the Council refuse to remove the bin which has created a health hazard due to excessive flies in the bin area; also, we have had to pay twice to have the food bin removed. 7.4 – Welcome pack – JN asked revolution to ensure there is better distribution of this pack to new residents and recognising the good work done by Matt in developing this. Action Revolution. 7.5 – The commercial units – the committee wanted to know what is happening with Unit 7 (the large commercial unit) which is in quite a state and with no work going on for many months. LW informed everyone that she has been in touch with the owner; apparently they are awaiting some special kind of air conditioning units which need to be in place before works can continue. They have been on order since May.AP also informed everyone that action will be taken to clean up the Block A shopfronts including the erection of bollards in front of these shops to stop cars parking there. 7.6 – Plants – the Committee now agree that the planters throughout the building should have fake plants as the real plants continue to die. Action Revolution. 7.7 – Car Park – LW confirmed the SIP signs will be removed this week and JI commented that the self ticketing is also working very well. He also flagged that there is a car parking space on level 1 that is currently a dumping ground for pots and tubs of plants and there has also been some spray painting of something in that space. Action: Revolution to investigate and rectify. 7.8 – window cleaning – Revolution are working to address the access issue for window cleaning of Block B. |
| Date and time of next meeting:Monday 4 November at 19.00hrs. |