Do you smell anything from Côte?

There are reports of cooking smells from the Côte restaurant in the cinemas complex. Côte installed pong filters for their kitchens in 2013; perhaps they need some maintenance after almost 4 years?

If you are getting Côte cooking smells in your flat please do let us know.

Water Checks - long term agreement

The City has given notice that it is about to enter into a long term agreement for water checks and monitoring. The costs of this will find it's way onto our service charge.

Click to read the letter

Pretty much the same letter was sent out in early 2015.

Estimated Service Charges for 2017/18

The BEO have sent out their estimate for service charges payable by long leaseholders in 2017/18.  Note that the per-flat estimate here only covers one type of flat, the M2B:

Click to read the estimate letter

It's worth reading the letter and the estimates to understand the range of services for which you are being charged, and also so you can spot if the costs run over budget (as they did in 2014/15 when they went 85% over budget on maintenance... the house group is still trying to get to the bottom of that one).

BMH Demolition - Scaffolding from Tue 30th

Raj Mandair of "Westbourne" (who we're told are the communications entity for Taylor Wimpey) tells us (see text below) that the scaffolding needed for the demolition of Bernard Morgan House will be installed starting on Tuesday 30th May.

This weekend is the last time you'll be able to see Bernard Morgan House in the flesh:

Soon to be gone

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The City of London’s Planning and Transportation Committee met on Tuesday 23rd May and granted planning approval, subject to signing of the s106 agreement, for the demolition of the existing building and construction of a new residential building to provide 99 new homes.

In preparation for the demolition works, we anticipate commencing the installation of scaffolding on Tuesday 30th May. The necessary and appropriate licenses have already been agreed with the City. It is expected that these works will last four weeks. Thereafter, and until demolition is complete, the scaffold structure and building will be wrapped in protective sheeting to minimise dust and noise pollution.

Taylor Wimpey Central London is committed to working with the community to reduce the impact of construction works for our neighbours. We are in the process of setting up a Construction Liaison Group and will look to meet with you regularly to share information and engage in balanced discussions about construction and operational aspects of the site’s redevelopment.

Taylor Wimpey Central London want to make a positive contribution to the area and keep disruption to an absolute minimum while construction works are taking place. Should you have any further questions about the development and proposed construction works, please feel free to contact me on raj.mandair@westbournecoms.com or 020 3397 1874.

Bryer Pond - Blue Lagoon

From the BEO Estate Wide News email:
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The Mystery of the Blue Pond

Have you wondered why Bryer Court pond has turned blue? The solution was revealed to members of the Garden Advisory Group at their quarterly meeting earlier this month. Extensive growth of blanket weed had become a problem and a harmless vegetable dye has been put in the pond to filter the sunlight and so prevent the weed photosynthesising. The dye has been used in the lakes for some years but is more noticeable in the pond.

Weed free

Lift 63 out of service June 5th - 9th

The BEO posted notice that lift 63 will be under maintenance from June 5th to June 9th.  The lift will not be available during working hours on those days.

Click to read the whole notice

I'll note here that this is another example where the BEO slips a notice onto the notice boards without passing on a copy to the house group, despite our asking them to send us a copy of all notices they post.  Such is the power of the house group ... that our requests are ignored.

Remember:  When the next BEO survey comes out, mark communications down and ask that they use a blog, like the Ben Jonson House blog, for notices (and also print them out and post them, as they do now).  Running a blog would be an easy way for the BEO to improve communications.

BMH Objections in the news

A day before the committee meeting which approved the Taylor Wimpey application to demolish Bernard Morgan House and redevelop the site, this article appeared in the Evening Standard:

Click to enlarge

BMH - Taylor Wimpey application approved

Fred Rogers, who has put an huge amount of effort into representing residents during the planning process for the replacement for Bernard Morgan House reports:
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Just to confirm what a lot of you will know already, Taylor Wimpey's planning application was approved by 13 votes to 10. The only change the Committee made was to amend the proposed conditions in an attempt to increase the affordable housing contribution, if the total sales of the flats exceeds the total anticipated in the Viability Appraisal.

Concrete Repairs - Schedule

Following on from the concrete survey and the concrete report, the BEO have produced a schedule of works to address the issues found.  The schedule covers the whole process from survey to repair, so most of the items on the schedule have already happened.  The outstanding one are in bold at the bottom.

Regarding costs, the schedule says that the exact costs will not be known until later this year, but the current estimated costs for Ben Jonson House are ~£140 per flat.
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Most recent timeline of events is below:

• December 2015 - Gateway 2 report approved the testing (and the "making safe" of any concrete whilst testing was being carried out but not any repairs)
• January – June 2016 – concrete testing 
• Summer/Early Autumn 2016 – collating, analysis and review of concrete testing results with recommendations provided by the consultants 
• October/November 2016 – reports provided to the BEO by the consultants and also sent to RCC members and House Group Chairs
• December 2016/January 2017 – preparation of Gateway 4 committee report on detailed options appraisal for the concrete testing 
• February 2017 – Gateway 4 report presented to committee – this was approved Feb 2017 
• February – June 2017 - Procurement as per City's Procurement Code - Consultants estimate is £28, 473 inclusive of fees & staff costs for Ben Jonson House, but this is an estimate and final figures will be confirmed once the tender process has been completed 
• March 2017 – Stage 1 pre-tender Statutory Consultation with leaseholders - This went out in April 2017
• July/August 2017 – Stage 2 Statutory Consultation with leaseholders (following review of tenders) - This is when we will be able to give residents exact costs involved. 
• August 2017 – Gateway 5 report with delegated Chief Officer approval for commencement of works - This is now planned for September 2017 
• August/September 2017 – commencement of works - This is now planned for October 2017

Please keep fire exits clear

A sharp eyed reader spotted several items left in one of the building fire exits:

Please don't do this

I'm joking about the sharp eyed bit, but it would be no joke at all if someone with mobility problems, or a mum with a child were desperate to get out of the building in a fire and ran into this.

Fire exits are not storage areas.  Please never treat them as storage areas.

Storage area beneath Shakespeare Tower?

Directly in front of the westernmost south facing part of Ben Jonson House there is a view of Shakespeare Tower, including an area at the base of the tower which seems to be use as a storage area for decorators working on the estate.  It looks like this:

A storage space?

A Ben Jonson House resident with a fine few of this area has asked the BEO if this area really is intended to be used as a storage area.  The answer was that decorators working on the estate had been told they could use the storage room (behind the blue door at the back in the photo), but that they should not use the area outside the room to store their stuff.

An update as of 2017-05-17:  Our house officer had a word with the contractors using the space and it is now all cleaned up:

Much better, thank you.

Parking fees - up 63% from £1,225pa to £2,000pa?

The Lauderdale house group spotted an item on the RCC 22nd May meeting agenda and BRC 5th June meeting agenda regarding a proposed increase in the annual cost of parking in estate car parks from £1,225 per year to £2,000 per year.

This has also been discussed on BarbicanTalk.

Here is a letter sent by the Lauderdale Tower Hose Group committee to residents which explains their understanding and suggests that residents get in touch with their common councilors if they object to the proposals. (I suggest the best way to contact your representatives is to use WriteToThem).

Click to view the whole Lauderdale house group letter

Here is the agenda item for the RCC and BRC meetings which includes the recommendations being put for the information of the RCC and for the agreement of the BRC:

Click to read the agenda details

Here is an appendix to the agenda document which gives details of the proposed price increase.

Click to read the appendix

Bernard Morgan House - Planning Meeting now on 23rd May

The planning meeting on the 2nd May overran and some items on the agenda had to be adjourned, and that included the item on the conservation area and Taylor Wimpey's application for Bernard Morgan House.

Both items will now be heard on the 23rd May.  The planning meeting will start at 09:30.

No agenda has yet been posted for this meeting.

Westminster Mile Run: Road Closures

On Sunday 28th May and Bank Holiday Monday 29th May roads will be closed in the City and in Westminster for the Westminster Mile running event.

It's not really close to the Barbican, but just in case ...

Click to read the details

Flat work, especialy noisy flat work

If you are carrying out works on your flat, even if you're just drilling a hole to hang a picture, you should refer to the estate rules regarding works and noise.  This has come up (again) because a resident (edit: actually, more than one it seems) decided that the Easter weekend would be a really good time to do some work in their flat.  The disturbance from that work resulted in quite a few complaints from those who had been hoping for a quiet Easter spent in their homes.

The incident prompted the estate office to post the following notice ... which is mostly right, except it should make clear that bank holidays should be treated in the same way as weekends.  You can find the rules explained on the Housekeeping page of the blog (see the tab at the top or click here).  Here is the notice from the BEO:

Click to read the whole notice