Estates and Communities Panel - 5 February 2025
Estates and Communities Panel – 5 February 2025
Location: North Tyneside Council offices, Quadrant, Cobalt Business Park
Attendees:
Tenant members – Linda, Eleanor, Margaret, Sav, Christine, Marie Christine, Clare, Gaynor, Mary, Evelyn, Robert, Clare
Toby Hartigan-Brown, Head of Housing Management
Leeanne Rooney, Neighbourhood Manager
Gary Wilson, Neighbourhood Manager
Simon Campbell, Customers Relations Manager
Julie Brown, Operations Manager (Community Protection)
Angela Melvin, Housing Engagement Manager
Apologies: Tenant members – Linda, Clare
1. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
The notes of the last meeting were agreed.
Action log: The panel queried the Tenancy Review letters action point and why this could not be actioned sooner. This will be taken forward in the new financial year and will be covered at the next panel meeting.
2. Terms of reference
Standard terms of reference have been prepared for our tenant panels and are being shared at this round of meetings. The draft was agreed by the panel.
3. Community and Public Space Protection Team updates
JB took up this post in November 2024 and the team recently transferred from the Environment service into Housing.
The team is focused on tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) within communities. They work closely with the police and other partners to help keep communities safe. Their role includes:
- Issuing Fixed Penalty Notices under our Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs), eg for littering, dog control, alcohol consumption
- Community work, including mediation
- Victim support, run by volunteers
- School programmes to prevent youth ASB and help young people understand the consequences of criminality
- Support at organised events
- Community patrols, with mobile CCTV and seasonal campaigns
The team can be contacted on 0191 643 3333 or email community.protection@northtyneside.gov.uk
The team want to be visible, to provide community reassurance and promote how they can help. Their Environmental Crime and ASB Policy is currently being reviewed.
Panel members had the opportunity to ask questions, which covered:
- What action is taken against visitors causing ASB (eg visitors causing problems at the coast during summer)? They are treated the same as residents
- How are areas are selected for patrols? This could be due to a trend in issues being reported in particular areas, community concerns, or a joint patrol with police or fire service partners.
- People don’t realise how many cases are going on, they think it’s just theirs. How many cases are the team currently dealing with? There are 33 active cases.
JB ended by asking the panel whether they felt ‘community protection’ was the right name for the team, please send views to AM. One member suggested that ‘Community’ should stay in the name.
Panel members were asked how they would like to receive future updates about the work of the team, they would like JB to attend the next meeting too. AM to action.
4. Performance update
Ahead of today’s meeting, panel members had been sent:
- A scorecard showing Key Performance Indicators
- A summary of Tenancy Reviews
- Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey results
The scorecard shows that targets around tenancy reviews and tenant visits are not being achieved and panel members asked why that was. LR replied that the targets were based on what we thought we could have achieved, but have come to see that since COVID, things have changed – more people stay at home and don’t ask for support. There have also been staff shortages over the last few months due to illness.
The team is seeing issues like hoarding, and people not looking after themselves or their homes; and it is about the quality of the visits carried out, not just the number completed.
Some visits may require a plan, with the tenant required to do some things to bring the home up to standard. We can refer to Adult Social Care and the Good Neighbour Scheme, or other specialist services, for support for a tenant.
The panel would like to dedicate some time to understanding the tenancy review process and how to improve performance. AM will action.
They also asked that when future scorecards are shared, if context could be given to the figures and why they are below target – eg poor weather or staff sickness. AM will pick this up with the performance team.
Panel members will receive updated scorecards ahead of each panel, with their meeting papers.
5. Estate Walkabouts programme
A briefing had been sent to panel members ahead of the meeting, summarising this year’s programme.
Several Estate Walkabouts are completed in each housing ward, with elected members and any residents who would like to attend. (The 2024-25 programme was agreed before this panel was set up).
Following promotion, numerous requested were submitted to include additional streets / estates. However, we were unable to add to the already planned schedule due to team capacity. Aside from the walkabouts the team have committed to visit every street across the borough.
Staff are on estates a lot of the time, even if it’s not a programmed walkabout, so they will have visited every street – even if not documented as a walkabout – and colleagues from other council teams can also raise issues that need sorting.
- In 23-24, the team completed 57
- For 2024-25, 122 have been planned. Of these, 69 have been done so far.
This year’s target has been challenging. When developing the 2025-26 schedule, GW confirmed they can look at varying the times of day and panel members will be kept up to date.
6. Complaints update
Panel members had received a quarterly complaints report ahead of the meeting. SC explained the process for reporting and handling complaints, and the role of the Housing Ombudsman.
Complaints specifically relating to Neighbourhoods were largely due to garden issues and customer service.
Tenants agreed this type of information is helpful and they will receive updated complaints reports ahead of each panel, with their meeting papers.
7. Any Other Business
Topics for future discussion:
- The issue of ‘no access’, which affects tenancy reviews, tenant visits and repairs
- The tenancy review process
- The new Neighbourhood Strategy
- Unified, the new IT system which will be introduced later in 2025
AM asked if a tenant member would like to volunteer to chair the next meeting, please let AM know.