The future of the CPAs - meeting 21st Oct 19:30

The City of London is going through another round of using their accounting model for the car parks to justify cutting Car Park Attendant (CPA) services.

Below is an update from Mark Wheatley in 3 parts:

• A covering letter
• A call to a meeting:  Frobisher Suite, level 4, Barbican Arts Centre Thu 21 Oct - 19.30 to 21.00
• A BRC resolution on the matter

Location of the Frobisher Suite

The Covering Letter

Dear All,

Again, thank you for corresponding with me to share your concerns about the two consultations over the car park attendants and future service models for that area (with regard to the 'concierge +' aspects of the CPA work).

As before, this email is sent on a personal basis rather than 'for' the Corporation of London or the Barbican Residential Committee (BRC). It has three parts and is quite long (apologies). After this introduction, I share the notification which Corporation colleagues are sending through formal channels and then attach the resolution submitted to the BRC.

As I believe you will be aware a resident-led task and finish (T&F) group has now led deliberations and presented a resolution to the Barbican Residential Committee (BRC) which I chair.

I am pleased to say that proposal - copied below this email - was accepted by the BRC last Friday.

So, we can now invite you to join the public meeting which was promised some weeks ago. The meeting will be jointly chaired by me and Adam Hogg of the Barbican Association.

This meeting is to enable us to listen to your views before decisions are taken on the resolution copied below (presented by the Residential Consultative Committee to the Barbican Residential Committee of the City of London Corporation).

The meeting will not be filmed/live-streamed but - per below - we will capture comments made in person and will be happy to take your thoughts into consideration if you prefer to email them to me.

We do also intend to hold formal resident consultation on final proposals before any implementation, so this will not be your only opportunity to shape the future service model.

We very much welcome your input. I hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Very best regards,

Mark


The call to a meeting

BARBICAN RESIDENTS' MEETING
Frobisher Suite, level 4, Barbican Arts Centre
Thursday 21 October 2021 - 7.30pm to 9.00pm

The Chair and Deputy Chair of the Barbican Residential Committee (BRC), Mark Wheatley and Michael Hudson, cordially invite residents of the Barbican Estate to join them for an open 'public' meeting. The meeting will be co-chaired with Adam Hogg of the Barbican Association.

The purpose of the meeting is essentially to give residents the opportunity to raise and discuss any areas of concern they may have with the City of London Corporation's (the Corporation) management of the Barbican Estate especially, in light of the recent proposals put forward for the future management of the Barbican Car Parks. We will also update attendees on the current situation and plans for moving forward.

We are particularly keen to hear your ideas on how we can work together collaboratively to bring about real improvements to the condition and future management of the Barbican Estate whilst, at the same time, identifying opportunities for both achieving the cost savings required by the Corporation and, addressing the significant annual losses incurred by the Corporation in managing and maintaining the much underused Barbican car parks.

In order to allow everyone to attend safely and not arrive all at once, doors to the Frobisher Suite will open from 7pm, for a prompt 7:30pm start.

The venue holds a maximum of 160 people and in order to keep a track on numbers, anyone wishing to attend, please

RSVP the Barbican Estate office using this link

Maps are attached above showing the main entrance where people would usually enter, and directional signage will also be displayed around the Barbican Centre to get people to level 4 where the meeting rooms are located.

For anyone not able to attend, we will be capturing comments and these will be shared with everyone after the event.

We very much hope you can join us for what we hope will be a useful, open and useful discussion.

Mark Wheatley, Chair of the BRC
Michael Hudson, Deputy Chair of the BRC



The BRC Resolution

The Resolution:

RESOLVED, that –The Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee are asked to note that the terrace block representatives on the Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee (RCC) have voted in favour of retaining the current number of Estate Concierges.

'We will support the City of London Corporation in levying a one-off surcharge on terrace block leaseholders, to cover the pro-rata share (for the remainder of the 2021/2022 financial year) of the direct costs of employment of the 6 Estate Concierge roles scheduled to be removed, pending more detailed negotiations between service charge payers and the City Corporation. These costs were estimated by the Barbican Estate Office to be approximately £232,000 per year.

This is being offered as a matter of goodwill and is not an acceptance that the City Corporation would be entitled to reduce services in this way, or of the calculation of the terrace block car park inputs and outputs used to arrive at service charges. If an agreement is reached with the City Corporation, service charge payers will ask for a commitment (from the City Corporation) to that agreement in writing.

In consideration of accepting the one-off surcharge, service charge payers would ask City Officers to work flexibly and imaginatively with the RCC to find a longer term solution to this issue, within the structure of the current lease and freehold transfers, and to assist the RCC Service Charge Working Party in finding ways to significantly reduce service charges, without materially affecting the level or quality of front line services offered by the Barbican Estate Office'.

The representatives from Cromwell, Shakespeare and Lauderdale Towers asked for their abstentions to be recorded.

See the RCC on YouTube

The Residents' Consultation Committee (RCC) is an information gathering body which supports the decision making body, the Barbican Residential Committee (BRC).

The RCC members are appointed by residential groups such as house groups.  The BRC members are elected councilors.

___

Invitation to Attend Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee
Monday 30 November 5.30pm

Dear Residents

Please click here for the agenda and link to the next Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee meeting on Monday 30 November at 5.30pm.

This meeting will be broadcast via YouTube.

Underfloor Heating - More heat now, less heat in Jan

From the BEO:
____

Updates: Background Underfloor Heating 2020 Survey

Following the recent residents’ survey we have now begun the implementation of the seasonal load shifting trial. We’re aiming to have around 20 more hours heating over the month of October, compensated by 20 hours less heating in January. We’re keen that, as near as possible, this trial will be cost neutral. Then in February we’ll have another 20 hours less heating compensated by 20 hours more in April.

We will start this for October, by telling the temperature sensor that determines when the heating comes on, that it is 1 degree colder than the real temperature. We have modelled this shift on last season’s heating data.

Clearly this is not an exact science as the external temperature profile varies from year to year, but by monitoring the heat load each day we can make sure that we don’t deliver more than 20 hours extra in October. In January we will tell the sensor that it is warmer than the real temperature. Again we will be carefully monitoring the daily heat load to keep within our 20 hours. This should ensure that there is no additional cost to residents, on which the Barbican Association Meeting was agreed.

This is one component of the Underfloor Heating Working Party’s attempts to make the heating system match better the needs of residents.

I understand that these changes cause concern for some residents and the Working Party will be looking at those concerns. Please note that it is a one year carefully monitored trial. We welcome your feedback and comments and in particular any suggestions to improve the heating system.

You can contact me via email on mary.durcan@cityoflondon.gov.uk I look forward to hearing from you.

Mary Durcan
(Chair of the Underfloor Heating Working Party)
Common Councillor
Cripplegate Ward
City of London Corporation

Fire Safety - Flat door replacements

Posts to Barbican Talk pointed out that the matter of the fire safety of the doors to flats had come up in the 16th March BRC committee meeting. See item 10 on page 5 of the (draft) minutes:

The Assistant Director, Barbican and Property Services reported that some extensive destructive fire testing had taken place with doors tested in their existing and upgraded state. However, even those that were upgraded did not meet the required standard and the recommendation was that these therefore be replaced. The advice of Counsel had been sought on this matter and the advice received had indicated that lessees could not be charged for improvements. The cost of replacement would therefore need to be met by the City of London Corporation.

Car Park Price Rises - New BRC Proposal & Meeting

The matter of price rises for the car parks came up at the 4th June meeting of the BRC.  There was significant opposition to the proposed price rises and the BRC sent the matter back to a sub-committee for further thought.

A new set of proposals will go before the BRC on Thursday 21st June.  Here is the agenda and information pack which details the new proposals:

Click to read the whole pack

... and here is the detailed Lauderdale Tower response:

Click to read the whole Lauderdale response

Notes from the BRC on June 4th

Three members of the Ben Jonson House Group committee attended the BRC meeting on the 4th June, and a big thank you to them.  Here are notes from the meeting:
___

After some discussion about the rules on who could vote and/or speak on the car park and stores charging proposals, in fact almost all the resident members did speak out querying various aspects of the proposals presented by the Working Party. Only one member of the Committee spoke strongly in support.

As I understood, it was resolved to refer it back to the Working Party to resolve the difficulties and inconsistencies. The problem is that it all needs to be resolved before the next meeting of the Court of Common Council on 21/6/18 and this time scale was much too tight for the WP to achieve a rethink. At the same time, if new stores were to be built the BEO needed to commission them very shortly so they could start to bring in income. BEO would also need to inform residents of changes in charging well in advance.

Points made by CCs were:

1. That the income from car parking and stores in the car parks should be accounted together.
2. That the expense of the CPAs should reflect the fact that they now spend a greater proportion of their time on concierge duties
3. The increased charges may result in fewer people renting and lead to further losses
4. No account had been taken of the mobility needs of older and frailer residents who may well be less able to afford increases and cannot realistically move their cars to cheaper parking elsewhere. There we're equality issues involved.
5. The security committee was not happy with security issues and if non residents were to have a different key as recommended, it would involve more work for the CPAs.
6. The proposed rents were not based on comparable spaces. The CoL run car park on London Wall was less than half the price suggested for Barbican Car Park spaces. Any increase should be based on CPI. Stores charges would be more per sq ft than for a Barbican flat.

Summing up, the new Chair, Michael Hudson, drew attention to the comparison with sum of £800 pa charged to residents by CoL at an adjacent car park, where commercial users pay more. An increase by CPI would be reasonable. Higher charges proposed were likely to lead to losses as people stopped renting. Although advice is to treat car parking and baggage store income separately, it would be more sensible to treat them as one. It was important to include an equality assessment.

Speaking for BEO, Michael Bennett asked for an immediate decision because the Stores policy had expired in March 2018.

When put to the vote the majority were in favour of referring the report back to the Working Party.

NB Mention was made of parking availability at Seraph Court EC1 for £1,300 pa and it was proposed that the Lauderdale proposal be considered.

Car Park Price Rises - The City's legal view

Here are the responses from the Comptroller and City Solicitor in respect of the questions on the Car Park Charging Policy from the Residents Consultation Committee

They can charge what they like?  Click to read the whole document.

Car Park Price Rises - the view from Lauderdale

The Lauderdale Tower House Group submitted a comprehensive and insightful paper (to the RCC meeting last Monday) in response to the City proposals to raise charges for car parking and storage, and they have given me permission to post it here.

Click to read the whole paper

BRC Fire Safety Report

The chair of Breton House kindly forwarded this report which briefs members of the Barbican Residential Committee (BRC) on fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire:

Click to read the report

Parking Price Rise, but not 63%

The BEO have announced new car parking charges.  The Barbican Residential Committee (The BRC) rejected the proposed 63% rise and proposed a rise closer to inflation and asked for another review.  You can see the minutes of the BRC meeting here, go to point 9.
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Barbican Charging Policy for Car Parking

The Barbican Residential Committee have approved that the car park charges for 2016/17 be increased, in line with the Consumer Price Index.

The effect of this will be that the following charges will apply:

• Annual residential car parking licences increase from £1225 to £1258
• Daily car parking increases from £10.00 to £10.27
• Motorcycle parking licences increase from £229 to £235
• Annual fees for bicycle lockers increase from £86 to 88
• Administration fees for new car bay licences increase from £60 to £62 

These charges will come into effect as from 28 September 2017 and your service charge account will be adjusted accordingly.

If you have any queries regarding this increase or if you wish to surrender your bay, please call 02070293921 or email barbican.estate@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

The Barbican Residential Committee also approved that a Member/Officer Working Party be established to review the charging policy of the present and potential uses of the car parking areas of the Barbican and to report back thereon with recommendations.

Parking Fees: 63% rise deferred, BRC ask for new report

The BRC decided to defer a decision on the price of parking on the Barbican Estate and have asked for  new report to be produced.

See a archived copy of the minutes here.  See item 9 for the car parks discussion.

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

RCC Working Parties - volunteers needed!

From the BEO:
____

Dear Resident,

We are seeking volunteers who would be willing to join some of the Residents' Consultation Committee's (RCC) Working Parties. At their Annual General Meeting in February, the RCC reviewed all of the Working Parties and identified a number of vacancies.

The RCC is keen to hear from any resident that feels they have the time and interest to join either of these two Working Parties:

Leaseholder Service Charge Working Party - this Working Party will comprise 8 resident representatives and relevant officers from the Barbican Estate Office. The RCC will nominate 2 members and we are looking for 5 more volunteers. The objective of the Working Party will be to monitor and provide input into the management of the resident service charge account, which will include budgeting, planning, forecasting and cost control. One aim of the Working Party will be to make recommendations on how to ensure financial decisions achieve a balanced outcome in ensuring services are well provided and the estate continues to be well maintained, while looking for opportunities to achieve these at the best price for residents. 

There is already an established working party which provides a similar role in relation to the Service Level Agreement and service delivery, and this has been highly successful in maintaining good quality in the services provided to residents, and in bringing forward suggestions for improvements, many of which BEO officers have been able to implement. The aim of this new working party is to achieve the same ongoing input at a detailed level into the financial management of the Barbican Residential Estate, which is not always possible in the context of a full RCC meeting where finance is one of many agenda items discussed. 

Asset Maintenance Working Party - this Working Party comprises 8 resident representatives and relevant officers from the Barbican Estate Office. There are already 5 serving members and we are looking for 3 more. This Working Party has just been re-launched and will have an oversight of and provide comment on the Asset Maintenance of the Barbican Estate. The objective of the Working Party will be to maintain the Estate in a very good condition, to avoid unplanned costly major repairs and to plan future financial commitments both for the landlord and residents with a view to saving money in the long term. A copy of the Terms of Reference is enclosed.

The Working Parties are likely to meet four times a year but there may be additional meetings in the first year. Residents are normally appointed to working parties for a period of three years. Meetings are likely to take place in the early evening at 6.30pm at the Barbican Estate Office and members must be able to attend the majority of the meetings. 

We anticipate there will be more applicants than we will be able to accommodate on the Working Parties. In order to help us to form a group that brings a diverse spread of interest and experience in the subject, if you wish to apply, please send us a short supporting statement. This should ideally be around 200 words, in which you set out what is your interest in joining the Working Party, what you think you can bring to this Working Party, and any relevant experience. The Leaseholder Service Charge Working Party is not expecting everyone to have a qualification in accounting, but is important that all members are comfortable in examining financial statements and budgets. Please send your application to: Julie.Mayer@cityoflondon.gov.uk by Monday 18 April 2016. We will inform all interested parties of the outcome of their application.

Increases: Car Park & Baggage Store Charges 2015

Dear Residents

This is to inform you that during the recent Barbican Residential Committee it was decided that the following increases (calculated by reference to the Retail Price Index) would take effect from 25 March 2015:

Car Parking Charges:

Residential

• Car parking licences increase from £1,183 to £1,210 per annum
• Daily car and motorcycle parking increases from £9.67 to £9.89
• Motorcycle parking rental increase from £221 to £226 per annum
• Administration fees for new car bay and motorcycle bay licences increase from £58 to £59
• Electrical mobility scooters licences increase from £394 to £403 per annum
• Bicycle locker licences increase from £83 to £85 per annum
• Purchase price for a car bay on the estate will increase from £8,405 to £8,598.

(The estimated service charge is currently £925 per  annum)

              Commercial (Non-Residential)

• Car parking licences increases from £5,195 to £5,314 (including VAT) per annum
• Daily car parking charges from £20 to £20.46 (including VAT).

Baggage Store Charges:

Rental

• Standard stores will increase from £303 to £310 per annum
• Transportable stores will increase from £362 to £370 per annum
• Large stores will increase from £426 to £436 per annum

Purchase

• Standard stores will increase from £6,500 to £6,650
• Large stores at Thomas More House £10,000 to £10,230

      (The estimated annual service charge for a store is currently £20 per annum)

Transportable stores and the large stores at Brandon Mews remain unavailable for purchase.

Key deposits will also increase from £150 to £160 per lock with effect from 25 March 2015.

If you are interested in a Car Bay/Baggage Store or if you wish to surrender, please call 0207 029 3955 or email barbican.estate@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Further information about the current prices (before the change on 25 March 2015) and the application forms for the above services can be found on:

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/housing-and-council-tax/barbican-estate/resident-information/Pages/Residential-Parking-on-the-Barbican-Estate.aspx

With regards

Barbican Estate Office 
barbican.estate@cityoflondon.gov.uk

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/housing-and-council-tax/barbican-estate/Pages/default.aspx

Fwd: City of London Consultations with residents

Two documents were sent out with the following message:

• City Residents Consultation
• A guide to consulting in schemes in and around the Barbican Estate

This email is sent on behalf of the Chairs of the Barbican Association and the Residents' Consultation Committee:

City of London Consultations with residents

From the Chairs of the Barbican Association and the Residents' Consultation Committee:

As you may have read in the most recent BA Newsletter, the City is in the process of revising its consultation processes with residents, and formalising this into a protocol and a series of steps it intends to follow when consulting with us. In the attached letter we wish to introduce the process to you, and explain the principal changes, as we see them. Also attached is a sheet prepared by the City that sets out the consultation protocol in diagrammatic form. We would like to hear what you think about these proposals, so we can pass these on to the City. 

Please take a moment to read through both attachments, and then let us know of any comments you have to make. We have set up a short feedback survey to make it quick and easy to respond, which you can access from this link: http://eSurv.org?u=BAconsult13 

Please provide any feedback to us no later than the 23rd January 2014. 

We wish all Barbican residents a happy and peaceful 2014. 

Jane Smith, Chair, Barbican Association

Tim Macer, Chairman, Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee

RCC committee papers

From the BEO:

Dear Residents
The December committee papers for the Barbican Residential Committee (which includes the Residents' Consultation Committee papers and minutes) are available to view via this link:

http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=153&MId=936&Ver=4
If you would like the name of your RCC representative or have any queries about the Committee papers, please contact your House Officer.

With regards

Barbican Estate Office

Pre Meeting Q&A for RCC 23 Nov Meeting

The RCC (Residents Consultative Committee) is one of many committees representing residents to the City.   The RCC works as an information gathering part of the BRC (Barbican Residents Committee) which is the internal City of London committee which has the real power (and money!).  The RCC is really important as a tool to influence what the City does with respect to the Barbican residents.

Most house groups have a representative on the RCC and Ben Jonson is represented.  If you want to raise something at the RCC talk to your house group (e.g. the the email form at the bottom of this page).

In the lead-up to the meeting on 23rd November several questions were put by RCC members.  The responses from the City are here.

Note in particular questions 1, 2 and 4, about Victor's seats, the new film school building and the state of the tiling of the plinths on Ben Jonson Highwalk.

Heating: Current EDF deal expires in a year

From the minutes of the BRC meeting of 16th Sept I read that EDF have agreed to let us stay on the same deal until next winter (i.e. this time next year) at which time we'd better have another deal in place or we'll freeze!  From the minutes:

Officers advised that the City of London had negotiated an extension with EDF until next winter. However, the Chairman advised that the working party would need to act quickly as residents would be leading on this work and it would be within their remit to allocate funds for consultants and the cost of the works, as it was a service charge item.

BRC September committee papers

From the BEO:

Dear Residents
The September committee papers for the Barbican Residential Committee (which includes the Residents' Consultation Committee papers and minutes) are available to view via this link:

 http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=153
If you would like the name of your RCC representative or have any queries about the Committee papers, please contact your House Officer.

With regards

Barbican Estate Office