Join the Garden Advisory Group

From the chair of the RCC, with preamble from the chair of the Ben Jonson House Group:

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Barbican Gardens in the news

 

From the Ben Jonson House Group chair:

Dear All,

For many years the Garden Advisor Group has worked with the BEO to maintain our gardens to the highest possible standard.

It's a labour of love and not only brings joy to the residents, but also to the many visitors, who come specially to the Estate, to enjoy the colour and variety of planting.

The gardens get noticed by the press as well, and when I saw a copy of Garden in the dentist's waiting room a few years ago, I forgot all about the impending pain!

The RCC is keen that the GAG continues with this good work and as part of the campaign to Make the Barbican a Better Place, the Chair has asked me to circulate his note below.

Kind regards,
Chair Ben Jonson House Group



From the Residents Consultative Committee (RCC) Chair:

MAKING THE BARBICAN A BETTER PLACE

Click to read the flyer

Dear Neighbour,

Please help create a Better Barbican by volunteering to join the Gardens Advisory Group (GAG) that works with the City Gardens team and residents to enhance the presentation and future development of the Barbican's hard and soft landscaping. This includes the Speed and Thomas More private gardens, plus the planted podium raised beds and planters.

Membership is for three years and residents with specialist knowledge and experience are particularly welcome.

The GAG's work covers six key areas:

1. Strategic – including details of any future plans for the landscape in the Estate including making recommendations for changes to the Residents' Consultation Committee (RCC)
2. Quality – contribute to establishing standards for new projects and the on-going maintenance of the current gardens
3. Operational – see that the agreed quality outcomes are delivered day-to-day and oversee active contribution from residents and other volunteers.
4. Encouragement – encourage residents to 'green' their personal space on balconies and patios by use of troughs and pots as well as involving them in the communal areas by, for example, resident planting days.
5. Links – provide a means for links with organisations with a common interest in managing, developing and promoting the Barbican landscape.
6. Communications – ensure that information about the development of the Barbican landscape is communicated to all residents, that details of how residents can contact the GAG are published in appropriate places and prepare quarterly reports to RCC.

If you would like to know more, or would like to volunteer, please email chairspeedhouse@outlook.com by Friday 5 November stating:

• Your name
• The skills/knowledge you have to offer
• The areas of the working party's activities to which you aim to contribute
• That you will take the Minutes on a rotational basis
• If you are a current/prior member of this or another Barbican Working Party

Current and prior members of the GAG are welcome to apply as their valuable knowledge will complement the fresh perspectives brought by new members. Decisions on membership will be made by residents delegated by the Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee.

Thanks for helping to create a Better Barbican.

Chair Residents' Consultation Committee http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=188

Seeking Volunteers for the RCC Asset Management Working Party

Here is notice distributed by the Ben Jonson House Group for the Asset Management sub-committee of the RCC (Residents Consultative Committee).

The RCC is looking for volunteers to join the Asset Management Working Party.

Read the notice for details ...

Click to read the whole notice

Make the Barbican a better place

From the chair of the RCC:

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Make the Barbican a better place

During 2021, residents will be invited to join the five working parties of the Barbican Residents' Consultation Committee (RCC), which represents us in our relationship with the City as our managing agent and landlord. By creating an open and transparent volunteering process, we aim to engage more residents in the work of the RCC and to access the skills and talents of the greatest number of contributors.

Watch out for your invitation, via this bulletin, to volunteer to join an RCC working party - underfloor heating; service charges; major works; gardens and service levels - as they are offered.

If we have more volunteers than places, the RCC will review the volunteers' information and select Full Members of the working party and Associate Members. Associate Members will be sent the working parties' papers and minutes, be encouraged to contribute by email and form a reserve group if a Full Member resigns.

In order to ensure past experience is not lost, at least two current members of each working party will be retained. This underlines the importance of existing members’ knowledge and their valued efforts to date, which will be complemented by new volunteers' ideas and skills.

The paper approved by the RCC can be seen here: Working Party Participation 

If you have any questions, please email me at chairspeedhouse@outlook.com.

Chair RCC 

RCC committee details

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.

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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.

Podium lighting upgrade

Many of the walls which rise to the sides of the highwalks contain lights which shine down upon the walkway, or at least they should.  Many of the lights are not working at the moment, but the City has launched a programme to fix that.

Here is a map which is intended to be used with the text from the RCC below, though it's not clear to me how the map should be interpreted.

Click to see the whole map

From the house group RCC rep:
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P. 30 Podium Lighting.

A number of lights have been off for a considerable time. City will replace this lighting between April and July with long-lasting LEDs. The City states that the work to remove the old lighting and install the new should not be too noisy. RCC would like HGs to look at map attached, which it the plan, to see if all areas have been covered.

If you note any missing areas please email the Highway Manager, Giles Radford, who is managing this task.

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:
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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

Car Park and Storage price rises - BJHG response

The issue of the proposed price rises for car parking and storage is of great concern to Ben Jonson House residents.  The house group has received a significant number of messages expressing dismay and outrage.

The chair of the house group has written to the chair of the RCC:
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{to the chair of the RCC}

In accordance with your request, we circulated the information about the City’s proposals for car park use and charges to Ben Jonson House residents but, as I am sure you will understand, the official timescale for responses was very short. As a result I have not been able to meet the deadline of 16th May and there may well still be responses to come from residents. However, at the BJH group committee meeting yesterday we were in complete agreement in terms of our objections to these proposals. Our objections relate to three aspects in particular.

1. The proposal to let stores to non-residents

We see this as a real risk to our security. The stores will be available to people unknown to our CPAs and they would be able to acquire easy access to all the residential parts via the doors to the staircases. (In the interests of fire safety these doors can be opened without an ASSA key.) The use of stores by strangers would also present an opportunity for terrorists. Has police advice been sought on this proposal?

We are also concerned about the extra duties required of the CPAs in order to monitor the increased use.

2. The proposed increase in charges for stores and car parking

The level of increase for car parking is exceptionally high and the rates do not bear market comparison with local commercial car parks (£800 pa on London Wall). In the case of the stores, the proposed increases are frankly exorbitant, with the large baggage stores at almost 4 times their current rate. Residents with smaller flats are very dependant on their stores and we know of at least one who would be priced out.

3. The function of the car parks

A clear definition is required. As most residents understand it, the car parks were originally built as an integral part of the Barbican blocks to provide secure, off-street car parking for residents and their visitors. In other words, they exist as an amenity for residents. The CoL website states that Barbican car parks are also staffed with 24 hour concierge to maintain resident and visitor safety. On the other hand, the City of London appears to have defined the car parks at some point (when?) as an asset which they should use to generate profits.

The purpose of these new proposals is to maximise profit from charges made to residents and others in order to raise funds for use anywhere in the City of London, including the Barbican. The charge thereby effectively includes a tax, which we understand needs authority from Parliament. Normally, local authorities are not entitled to charge more for a service than the cost of providing it.

We request the RCC to respond robustly to these proposals from CoL and to make recommendations to the BRC which take full account of the concerns that we have as residents.

Kind regards,
Chair, Ben Jonson House Group

Car Park & Storage Price Rise

A letter from the chair of the Ben Jonson House group:

Click to read the details

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

Roofs & Overcharges Saga - Nov RCC

The saga of the leaking roofs, poor administration and opaque accounting goes on.

In the latest episode, a report is made to the RCC in November 2016:

Click to read the whole RCC document pack

... in which the RCC is asked to note the progress made by the [latest] Working Party.

You really should read the document for yourselves, but here are some things which struck me:

Note the entry in Appendix A regarding the warranties for the roof works:

Ben Jonson House Warranties still active ... in theory

Good news for Ben Jonson House, except that we understand that the warranties have been invalidated because the BEO tried to fix the leaks themselves without notifying the guarantor.  And indeed the City seems to admit this in point 8 of the report.

In point 11 the City also admit to other administrative issues: "there has been no system in place to systematically record roof repairs and their causes", so they don't even know what they themselves have done, or why.

The report then seems to go on to cost-justify the actions which were taken in the past (even though they don't have a record, remember), concluding that, actually, by doing everything wrong they ended up saving us money.  I may be paraphrasing.

But surely it was either wrong to get the warranties in the first place, or it was wrong to mis-administer them.  It can't be both, can it?

The report then says "members of this Working Party are satisfied that systems are now in place to ..." make the world a better place.  Lovely.  But no real details of what will be done.

Point 21 then says " see if anything can be done economically and sensibly to reinstate the warranties that have not, as yet, expired". But why bother if the above revisionist cost-justification is reasonable? ... this leaves me confused.

The house group will now try to get a description of what the BEO actually plans to do.  Wish us luck.

The mighty powers of an RTA

In the "public document pack" for the 2016-11-28 meeting of the RCC the status of the recognised tenants association (RTA) was reported.  See agenda item 5 on pages 23-26.  In this section we see that the Ben Jonson House Group is indeed recognised, we also see listed the set of powers RTAs have:

An RTA can, on behalf of its members :

• Ask for a summary of costs incurred by their landlord in connection with matters for which they are being required to pay a service charge; 
• Inspect the relevant accounts and receipts;
• Be sent a copy of estimates obtained by the landlord for intended work to their properties;
• Propose names of contractors for inclusion in any tender list when the landlord wishes to carry out major works;
• Ask for a written summary of the insurance cover and inspect the policy;
• Be consulted about the appointment and re-appointment of the agent managing the services.

The GAG (Gardening Advisory Group)

Here is a brief report from the house group gardening lead.  If you are interested in getting involved with the estate gardens please do drop us a line using the email form at the bottom of the page.
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Helen Davinson of the Barbican Estate Office says that the Gardening Advisory Group (GAG) is an RCC (Residents Consultative Committee) working party.  The GAG does not require representatives from each block, but for those who are interested, membership is decided at their AGM, the next one being in January 2017.

The house group representative on the RCC can ask her to put forward anyone that we would like to have on the Gardening Advisory Group.  The Group meets quarterly,  and their minutes are presented annually to the RCC.

I haven't found anyone, so far, who would be willing to attend these meetings for our House, but I shall keep asking around.

RCC: Roofs, Leaks & Overcharges

In the ongoing saga of the roofs and the 80% maintenance overcharge the latest news comes from the minutes if the RCC meeting on the 6th June:

Click to read the whole document

So, the report which the City (in the form of the BEO) took 9 months to produce is deemed to be deficient, and officers have decided to withdraw it and spend another few months working on a new one.  This time they will work with resident representatives and will have the new report ready for the November RCC meeting.

Prior to the June 6th RCC meeting the Ben Jonson House Group committee discussed this.  Our feeling is there there should be an external audit.  It seems that the BEO has trouble fixing the leaks (there are still leaks), managing the accounts (the BEO took ages to work out how much had been spent on what) and reasonably using warranties which cover works done in that past (not one claim seems to have been made on the warranties, and even getting a copy of the warranty took months, and the now withdrawn report said that actions by the BEO had invalidated any warranties we thought we had (... but perhaps that last bit is not quite true which is why the report has been withdrawn?)).

We have a representative on this newly formed committee and they will be making the case for the house group.

The 80% 2015 Maintenance Overspend - A Report

This is a follow up to the maintenance overspend saga from last year.  The actual amount of money charged to residents was 80% higher than forecast, with a significant portion of that being related to water penetration (leaky roofs).

A report on this has been produced and will be put to the RCC on 6th June.  It'll be agenda item 9 which is at page 73 of the meeting information pack (or read just the report by itself).

The roofs were repaired by 2003 and warranties were put in place, but the warranties have been invalidated.  The report says:

Roof Warranties Invalidated.

In just the last two years over £30,000 has been spent on fixing roof leaks:

... and £31k to pay

The RCC is being asked to "note the report" and make comments.  If you have comments the contact information for the RCC says to email Julie.Mayer@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

RCC Working Parties - volunteers needed!

From the BEO:
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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.

CCTV for the Barbican

Sent on behalf of the chairs of the Barbican Association and the Residents' Consultation Committee
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The City of London is considering installing CCTV in the area of the Barbican. The City has asked for comments from the Residents' Consultation Committee at its meeting on the 18th May. As we know this is something that many residents will have views about, we would like to know what views people hold, so we can make appropriate recommendations to the City. 

Attached you will find some briefing notes we have prepared on the background to this proposal, how it is to be funded, and the proposed locations for the CCTV cameras and some key questions and answers.

Please review the attached information before you complete our short consultation survey, so that you understand what is being proposed. 

To access the survey please follow this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N97JFT7

We will treat your response in confidence – we will not pass on names or any other information that could identify any individual.

We have also made printed copies of the briefing notes and consultation form available via the Estate Concierges for any residents who cannot access the Internet. 

Don't delay if you wish to respond! The deadline for responses is Thursday 30 April, which we cannot extend because we need to report the results to members of the RCC the following week. The deadline for responses on paper is Tuesday 28 April, due to the extra time required to process written responses.

We regret we cannot accept responses to this consultation by email. Please use the online or paper form to respond to this consultation.

Thank you in advance for sharing your opinions with us.

Tim Macer, RCC Chairman
Jane Smith, BA Chair

RCC Working Parties - volunteers needed!

Sent out by the BEO:
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Dear Resident,

We are seeking volunteers who would be willing to join some of the Residents' Consultation Committee's 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:

Gardens Advisory Group (GAG) – this Working Party is made up of 8 resident representatives. There are already 5 serving members and we are looking for 3 more. The Group meet 4 times a year and the meetings take place during the daytime in the week. The GAG carries out joint inspections of the gardens, helps prioritise planting schemes and comments on the garden maintenance. A copy of the minutes of one the last meetings of the Group is attached.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Working Party - this Working Party is made up of 8 resident representatives. There are already 6 serving members and we are looking for 2 more. The Group meet 4 times a year and the meetings take place on weekday evenings. The SLA Working Party focuses on the quality of resident services and their delivery by the Barbican Estate Office. Suggestions for changes or improvements across the Estate made by the RCC go into an Action Plan, which this Working Party then monitors and reviews. It also reviews the performance of a range of services delivered by the Barbican Estate Office, as measured by a number of Key Performance Indicators that are updated on a quarterly basis. A copy of the last report to the RCC with the action plans and Key Performance Indicators is enclosed.

If you wish to know more or would like to put yourself forward, please contact the RCC Chair, Tim Macer at Tim@Macer.com. Please include a short personal statement, setting out (a) why you would like to join the working party and (b) what you could bring to the Working Party in the way of skill, expertise or interest. Please reply by Friday 1 May.

With regards
Barbican Estate Office