Multiple Email Post - Apologies

Hi,

it looks like I have sent out the last email update 3 times by mistake, apologies for clogging up your email inboxes. I have to run Beta versions of both Windows and Office and sometimes they can get a little twitchy.

It also looks like I sent the emails from my work email address, so please dont reply to that for anything to do with City Island, send it to the usual cityislandleeds@googlemail.com.

Meetings

A few people are back from holiday this week and so next week we will be arranging a preliminary meeting to try and organize an agenda, attendees, and venue for a full meeting.

Anything you want including in the agenda if you haven’t told us already, please do so in the next week. Also, anyone you think should attend, or where to have it. We will send out our outline once it complete.

Gatewatch..

The Car Park Barrier

Yesterday, the 27th July 2006, after many months of being out of action, the car park automated barrier was repaired. As you will be aware this does not mean it will stay operational for long, so we need to keep an eye on it and we are asking you to email this email address, cityislandleeds@googlemail.com as soon as it becomes defective so that we can keep a count of how many days it is working/not working and so we can get straight on to the management company and tell them.

Days operational so far... 1.5

Bird Droppings are better than Cranes Falling..

Sean, City Island II Project Manager, has replied to our request to point the cranes and the subsequent bird droppings away from City Island I.

Unfortunately on this occasion he cannot help, as the cranes are left to swing in to the prevailing winds in something called 'Free Slew', presumably to stop them blowing down. So it looks like a few bird droppings are better than a few cranes falling on us...

Seans email response:

I hear your point,

unfortunately the cranes are put in what is called free slew which means they point into the prevailing wind. We are unable to lock them off or we would.

Sorry i cannot be of any more assistance.
Cheers
Sean

Bird Droppings...

Hi,

we recieved several emails about the murmuration of starlings that are roosting on the two City Island II cranes that sometimes hang over City Island I, resulting in bird droppings on windows, balconies, people, etc. So we emailed Sean Brind the Project manager to see if he could help:

Hi Sean,

Had three emails over the weekend complaining about the cranes, or rather the fact that when they are left directly over City Island of a night, at dusk a flock of starlings land on them for the night, and the result is peoples apartments, balconies, washing, and windows are being covered in you know what.

I know it seems a small request, but could you get your guys to point the cranes away from or parallel with City Island I?

Many Thanks,
CIRG

Response from CIty Island Management Company

Below is an email from Guy Willman, the guy who manages City Island on Behalf of Accent Property Management.

It is a response to our initial email to Accent which you can read below in a post called "Frist Email to Accent Property Management Group", and he has addressed each issue in turn, namely, Secure Parking, Illegal Parking, Maintenance, Window Cleaning, 24 hour security, and Recyling.

I suspect we all have a very different view from Guy's perceptions and I will contact him soon to discuss all of your concerns.

Let us know what you think of Guys response at CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM.


Dear City Island Residents Association.

As I think you are already aware I am a Portfolio Manager with AccentProperty Solutions with responsibility for City Island.

May I first of all apologise for not personally replying to your e-mail of28th June 2006 before now. I have been away from the office until this morning and I have only now had the opportunity to respond.

I am very concerned to learn of your disatisfaction with the service whichwe provide - I hope that the following responses to the points raised inyour e-mail are helpful.

1. Secure Parking
I readily appreciate your concern about the problems with the electric carpark shutter. We have experienced a range of problems with the shutter inrecent months. In January the drive motor failed and required replacement -unfortunately it took some weeks for the new motor to be supplied andinstalled although every effort was made to complete the repair as quicklyas possible. More recently there have been repeated problems of vehicledrivers colliding with the bottom edge of the shutter as they try to enteror leave the car park before the shutter is fully open. This has the effectof distorting the "safety strip" on the bottom of the shutter whichdisables the equipment until the strip is straightened. This repeateddamage has led to failure of cabling within the shutter - replacementcabling has been ordered. It was understood that a temporary repair hadbeen carried out pending supply and installation of the replacement partsbut I am informed that the shutter has again been out of operation for somedays. I have instructed the maintenance contractors to re-attend as amatter of urgency.

2. Illegal Parking
I share your concern about inappropriate parking , especially in theentrance to the piazza. I have recently instructed our car parkingenforcement contractor to enforce parking restrictions in this area - youmay have noticed that warning notices are now in place. I am in process of negotiating more frequent attendance by our enforcement contractor and ourConcierge/security contractor will also seek to intervene to require theremoval of vehicles wherever practicable.

As I am sure you will appreciate we are not able to take direct action inrespect of vehicles parked on the highway. However we have been liaisingwith Leeds City Council and they now patrol Gotts Road on a regular basis.

3. Maintenance
I am aware of recent lift breakdowns and lighting problems and I can confirm that as soon as we receive reports of failures, either direct to us or via the Management Suite, we immediately arrange for lift engineers toattend. We have maintenance contracts for all lifts and any malfunctionsshould be attended to quickly. Repairs may of course be delayed ifreplacement parts are required but I am not aware that this has been thecase recently.

I will remind our staff of the need to ensure that lift malfunctions arereported to our contractor without delay.

The problem of potentially loose wooden treads to the stairs leading fromthe entrance foyers has been raised with the developer as a latent defect.

4. Window cleaning
When we were appointed as managing agent we were advised that we were onlyrequired to arrange for the cleaning of windows to communal areas as allapartment windows were capable of being cleaned from inside the apartments. More recently it has become apparent that this is not the case and we are seeking to make arrangements to have all windows cleaned.

Unfortunately many of these windows can only be accessed by means of abseiling from fixedpoints around the development. We have not been provided with details ofthe location of the fixed points and despite repeated requests to the developer, architect and developers agent we have not been provided withthe necessary information. We are now using our knowledge of the site to estimate the location of the fixed points. It will then be necessary to make arrangements with the leaseholders of the relevant apartments to allowaccess for testing of the fixed points and for subsequent cleaningoperations. Our Concierge was making progress with this work but, as youmay know, he has not been at work for several weeks and there has thereforebeen a further delay. I will seek to complete this matter and extend windowcleaning services as quickly as possible.

5. 24 Hour Security
I am extremely concerned to learn of the allegations of marijuana smokingby security staff. I would like, as a matter of urgency to talk to theperson(s) who witnessed this behaviour in order that I may take appropriate action. I have raised this matter with the Security Company which provides our out of hours service but I would very much like to have firm evidence if possible.

I do make spot checks at City Island out of office hours and I have not,as yet, identified any inappropriate behahviour. I do, however take this allegation very seriously and I would greatly appreciate any relevant information.

6. Recycling
Shortly after first occupation of City Island I met with the recycling manager of Leeds City Council to establish what recycling arrangements could be provided on site. Unfortunately due to the very limited refuse arrangements at City Island we were not able to identify any practical provision for recycling as all refuse facilities at that time were not only fully used but were also being seriously mis-used which left us with very little confidence that there would be sufficient committment from residents to use any special facilities responsibly.

We did however agree to reconsider the position if the amount of refuse generated on site allows both in terms of the potential for recycling and the freeing up of suitablespace for the special containers etc. I have recently agreed to support a feasibility study into the potential and practicalities of recycling arrangements at City Island and I am currently awaiting a detailed proposal.

I have also recently commissioned an independent study into the potential for energy conservation measures to be introduced. I have just received the study report and I am hopeful that we will be able to introduce substantial energy saving measures in the near future.

Please be assured that we are committed to achieving high standards of management at City Island. I would be very happy indeed to work closely with a representative residents association and I would welcome the opportunity to meet with yourself and other residents with a view todeveloping a formal relationship. I would be grateful therefore if youwould consider meeting me to discuss these matters further. I would be veryhappy to meet one evening.

I look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted by telephone on 01274 534920.

Guy Wilman
Portfolio Manager

Leeds City Council Progress

Below is an email sent to City Island Residents Group from Elaine Saul, an Environmental Helath Technician from Leeds Council. It basically backs up what we have already achieved, but will add a bit of incentive to the contractors to keep to their word if both the council and CIRG are watching them.

If the contractors aren't keeping to their word regarding noise (see earlier post below, "Progress!!!") then let us know at CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM or ring the council your self and start hassling Elaine!

Dear City Island Residents Association,

I recently received a copy of an e-mail that has been forwarded to our department regarding noise from the City Island (Phase 2) construction site prior to 8am on a morning. On that e-mail 4 residents were named as being affected. I have spoken to Mr **** **** (one of the residents on the list) who informed me that residents had already been contacted by representatives from David McLean (the Construction Company involved) and that they have agreed not to start work onsite till 8am.

I have also discussed the matter with Mr Sean Brind (the Project Manager) at that company and I have agreed to send him a copy of our Code Of Practice for Construction Work, a copy of which I will also send to Mr ****.

In order to further investigate the nuisance should residents continue to be disturbed prior to 8am it is necessary for evidence to be recorded by those affected. I have also sent a nuisance diary to those residents whose names and addresses were provided which must be completed and returned to myself if the disturbances continue.

Please call 0845 124 0113 should you wish to register any new complaints.

Yours sincerely
Elaine Saul Environmental Health Technician

A Good Respose to the Last Flier

Hi,

Since we did the flier drop to every apartment in city island earlier in the week, we have had a good response from you all, probably about 40 responses representing 70 or so people in total. This is encouraging and good enough to make the management company start taking us seriously, but there are obviously more people out there yet to respond so we will attempt to put up some fliers in the lifts this afternoon.

Other good news is that some of the other residents have already started a residents group and so we are going to get together with them in a couple of weeks to see what can be achieved together. The reason it is going to be a couple of weeks is because they are off on holiday, and so we will meet up with them on their return and hopefully set up a residents meeting proper shortly after that.

In the meantime, please keep emailing your concerns and contact details, and if the fliers in the lifts get removed, please feel free to print out and advertise the email address and blog address and stick them up again. All we are going to put on the fliers are:

City Island Residents Group

Email: cityislandleeds@googlemail.com

Web: http://www.cityislandleeds.blogspot.com/

3rd Flier - WE NEED YOUR NAMES!

Hi, if you are new to the City Island Residents Group, please read this Blog:

WWW.CITYISLANDLEEDS.BLOGSPOT.COM

to find out what we have been doing and what we have achieved so far.

However, the main thing at the moment is for you to register with us, so that we can use your name for petitioning purposes. The more people we can include on petition lists the more effective we can be, so even if you aren't that bothered about any of the issues or don't want to get involved, just send us your details anyway, and we will do our best to make living at City Island better for all.

Send an email to CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM including:

• Your full address and postcode
• Names of each person living in your apartment
• Phone numbers for each person
• Permission to use your name on petitions
• Any issues you would like to see addressed

Please read what's been going on in this Blog and what has been flagged as issues so far, and if you have other issues then include them in the email too and we will do our best to do something about it.

Council -Environmental Health- Noise Pollution

In amongst all the activity below, we also contacted the council about the noise from construction and received a reposnse asking for names and addresses of those people are affected -- which I have now provided to them, so expect some contact soon -- I have emailed those names and addresses that I have supplied to let you know I have done so.

2nd Flier

By the way, in the between the below activity, we sent out the following flier highlighting what we had done so far. It is basically an appeal for people to send their contact details for

CITY ISLAND RESIDENTS GROUP

Construction Noise
This has been the cause of most complaint, and we have so far

· Contacted the council’s relevant departments and are awaiting their response. Further action will be formed from their suggestions, and by contacting our councillors directly. Several of you suggested contacting the local press.

· Contacted the Site Manager, Senior Engineer and Project Manager asking for

o Monday – Friday 08:30 start instead of 07:30
o Saturday 10:00 start instead of 07:30
o No Work on Sundays or Bank Holidays

If you would like to see a copy of the email please email us.

Remember just because you are not affected at the moment does not mean you will not be. For residents not affected, those facing the river and canal, work will shortly be commencing on the Green Bank development, and also Wellington Place that will result in exactly the same problems for you.

Therefore, the more peoples names and addresses we have to use when petitioning the council/builders the better – contact us now with your name, address and phone number and any additional issues that you have:

CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM

Management Company
You had various complaints about the management company, and we have contacted Accent, and asked them to respond to the complaints below and suggested that we withhold management fees if no action is taken.

· Secure Parking, the automatic gate is never working
· Illegal, dangerous or inconsiderate parking outside the complex
· Maintenance of lifts, stairs and other areas
· Window Cleaning
· 24 hour security, or the ineffectuality of it
· Recycling, the lack of

If you would like to see the email please email us.

Estate Agents
Jonathan Morgan of Morgan’s Estate Agents responded to our original flier having taken some offence at being compared to a mass murderer. As a result,

· I have provided Jonathan with a summary of the complaints you have levied against his company. If you would like to see a copy of the email, please email us.
· Jonathan has expressed his concern about these issues.
· Jonathan has also offered his assistance in contacting and working with the contractor and architect of the second phase of City Island, both of whom he knows well.

CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM

Progress !!!

I have just received the below email from Sean Brind, who is the project manager for the 2nd Phase of construction of City Island.

He is basically suggesting meeting us half way, instead of what we asked for:

• 08:30 - 18:30 Monday to Friday
• 10:00 start on a Saturday
• No work on Sundays and Bank Holidays

He is suggesting:

• 08:00 start Monday to Friday
• 09:00 start on a Saturday
• No work on Sundays or bank holidays

Sean did not respond to the issue rasied by many of you that all the noisy work seems to take place first thing in the morning, and that things get quieter by about 10:30.

Anyway, here is Seans email response:

Hi,
i will just introduce myself as the Project Manager for the construction work at City Island (Sean).
I have not replied to your e-mail at an earlier date as i have been on holiday.
I have looked through the e-mail and considered the points you have raised.
I will look at the site starting at 8.00am rather than 7.30am Monday to Friday.
Saturdays 9.00am (we do not start at 7.30 am as the workforce is not on site until 8.30 am)
We do not work on Sundays or bank holidays.
I hope that these measures will somewhat help the relationship and I will monitor the activities to try and reduce any inconvenience.
If you have any further comments or wish to meet feel free to contact me.
Regards
Sean

1st Email regarding Construction

This is the 1st email I sent to the Assitant Site Manager. the senior engineer and the project manager for the construction work taking place for the 2nd phase of City Island:


Hi,

The residents of City Island have formed this group in order to have a voice. Following our first meeting, and from the emails received so far, by far the most complaints are regarding the construction noise.

Unless matters can be resolved we will be contacting the council, and escalating to councillors and MP as necessary, as well as contacting the local press. Feelings are running high, and at our first meeting further actions were suggested such as the comic suggestion of throwing eggs at the builders whenever awoken to a more militant regime of disruptive parking to prevent site access and deliveries – a suggestion which has received by far the most support.

Generally the perception is that

· Work starts at 07:30 or earlier Monday to Saturday inclusive and finishes at about 17:30.

Although many residents wanted quite extreme changes (even I think it's a little unreasonable to ask you to stop building altogether), the general consensus seems to be to ask you to

· Start work an hour later at 08:30 and finish at 18:30, Monday to Friday
· Have a 10:00 start on a Saturday instead of 07:30.
· No work on Sundays and bank holidays

Additionally several people have asked why noisy work, drilling, power saws, hammering, etc. all seem to be done first thing in the morning, and things tend to become quieter from 10:30 onwards? Could these noisy tasks not be done last thing of an evening or later in the day instead?

If you could please respond indicating if any of the proposed changes would be possible, and if not why not, we would be most grateful.

Many thanks.
Regards,

City Island Residents Group.

First Email to Accent Property Management Group

After collating your information and sending them to Morgans the next on the list was the management company Accent Property Management Solutions. Below is the email we sent representing the main issues that were raised between you all:


Hi,

The residents of City Island have formed this group to enable us to have a voice.

The main issues we are having are to do with construction noise, which we are taking up with the builders, architect, and the city council. However if you could offer any guidance on this it would be appreciated.

The other issues, however, seem to fall directly under your remit. Many of our members have contacted you directly at various times regarding these issues, but we now ask you as a collective to respond. Feelings are running high about the perceived negligence of your duties and unless some action is seen to be taken our members are keen to start withholding management fees.

Secure Parking – Many residents have paid extra for secure parking, and yet the automatic barrier hardly ever works and has been out of service for months at a time since it was installed.

Illegal Parking – There are often, illegally, dangerously, or inconsiderately parked cars outside the complex. These can be a nuisance when tying to navigate them or a danger as there are often several cars parked in the only place fire engines or ambulances can access the piazza.

Maintenance – The lifts are often out of service and are often without lights, and the condition of the stairwells have been reported on numerous occasions, with one person injured because of them (you may take special note of this as at our first meeting a resident who is a solicitor has offered to provide his services to anyone else who is injured in such a way).

Window Cleaning – So far as anyone knows the exterior windows have never been cleaned. This means that people can hardly see out of their apartment windows due to the muck that has developed over the last year or more. This has been exacerbated by the recent construction work.

24 Hour Security – Seems to consist of two blokes smoking cannabis all night each night. On the occasions they have been called upon they have been ineffectual.
Recycling – Or rather the lack of it.

We ask you to respond in a timely manner,
Yours,

City Island Residents Group.

Further Communication with Jonathan Morgan

We responded to Jonathan Morgan of Morgans City Living with a detailed email listing all the complaints we had received from you concerning his company only (i.e. not other Estate Agents).

Jonathan expressed his concern at hearing such feedback, and promised to take the time to respond properly to the specific issues we had raised, and reiterated that he would be keen to work with us to make "the experience of living at City Island a much nicer one".

Finally, Jonathan stated that whilst he would be prepared to deal with genuine issues he would not be prepared to do so in the public arena. Therefore I am not publishing the email listing the problems you have all had with Morgans on this site. If you want more information on the entire list, email me with your phone number and I will give you a call.

Jonathan Morgans, of Morgans CIty Living Response to the First FLier

I sincerely hope I am not on a par with a mass murderer and I would very much like to know if you or any of your co-residents have any issues with our company or any of our staff here.

On a practical level, please let me know if there is anything I can do regarding the noise from the site- I know the contractor and the architect very well.

Best wishes


Jonathan Morgan
MD
Morgans

First Flier

Hi,

below is the first flier that we attempted to send to all apartments, but probably only got to half of the apartments, on or about the 9th June:

CITY ISLAND ISSUES AND PROBLEMS – RESIDENTS GROUP

Dear resident,

We are sending this mail to try and gather together any residents issues and problems that you may be experiencing with a view to doing something about them by contacting the relevant people on our collective behalf, be that Project/Site Manager’s, Concierge, Management Agency, the councils noise pollution office, our MP or even the government!

THIS IS NOT JUNK MAIL, we are residents in City Island who want to have a voice, so please reply with your concerns and we will attempt to do something about them. The more people who reply and input the more effective this effort will be, so if you are concerned about any of the below or other issues, please email them to:

CITYISLANDLEEDS@GOOGLEMAIL.COM

And include your name, full address, and optionally your phone number.

CONSTRUCTION NOISE
The construction of the second phase of City Island, and the associated noise that goes with it, has started at the front of the City Island complex and will continue for the next TWO years. At the moment work starts at 7:30am and finishes at about 6:30pm every day, Monday to Saturday inclusive, 6 days a week. There have also been occasions on a Sunday when construction work has taken place too, which will only become more frequent as time goes by as the project is attempted to be completed on time.

This means we face TWO YEARS of being awoken at 7:30am to face 10 hours of noise 6 or 7 days a week by pneumatic drills, power saws, hammering, lorries and other heavy plant and machinery. If you don’t think this is acceptable, please email with your concerns to the above address and I will try and contact the relevant people to do something about it. Several of us have lived next to building developments in the past and where residents are impacted the construction company should be adhering to a code of conduct, which our current neighbours are not, and will not unless we do something about it.

PARKING
If you are having issues with parking let us know. Be that someone parking in the space that you paid for, not having a parking space, or the parking enforcement and 24 hour security company not doing enough to protect you, please email us and let us know so that we can contact the relevant people to do something about it.

CITY ISLAND MANAGEMENT
If you have any generic issues about the management company, Accent, the cleaners, the concierge, or the 24-hour security please contact us to get something done about it.

ESTATE AGENTS
Probably less we can do here as we all know estate agents are on a par with mass murderers, but if you have had a particular issue with an agent, be it letting, buying or selling let us know to see if there is something we can collectively do about it.

- ANY OTHER ISSUES PLEASE EMAIL THEM TOO -
- THE MORE INPUT WE GET INVOLVED THE MORE EFFECTIVE WE CAN BE –
- INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS SO WE CAN USE IT FOR PETITIONING PEOPLE -