Draft Agenda / Travellers / Parking Available / Notice Boards / A City Island Resident Troll writes in...

Next Meeting Agenda So Far...

The management meeting is still provisionally due to take place on March the 20th at 7pm in the management suite of City Island. If you would like to attend, let us know, if not let us know what you would like on the agenda for discussion via email. The draft agenda so far is as follows:

• Cleaning/Litter

Cigarette ends, littler, news papers, shoes items of clothing, steps to the canal are a right state

Car park is still in a stateo

Communal areas are still not great in terms of cleaning.

• Maintenance

Missing bulbs inside and out

Knocked down wall

Carpet tiles

Window cleaning

Broken pipes in car park leaking

Entrances don’t close properly

• Security

Fliers through doors every day

Video entrance system has never worked

Police

• Miscellaneous

Fire windows being left open

Inappropriate use of balconies

Car park one way system

Car park mirrors/one way system

Full building inspection of communal areas

Also, we will provide an update from the meetings of the 27th November 2006 and for the meeting notes from the 5th September 2006 to see if any items have fallen off the agenda for any reason.

**Let us know what concerns and issues you want raising or they won’t be raised**

Travellers

As many people have pointed out, and lots of you will have noticed some travellers had taken up residence on the other side of the river close to Wellington Place. The security office were made aware of this and were keeping a close eye on things. They also spoke to the police and local site security. I had also requested that the police attend the next meeting to advise us further.

However, the travellers have now moved on after some proactive site management from MEPG, the owners of the Wellington Place site. Apparently, site management arrived with a JCB and started to pull down large concrete blocks to prevent the travellers vehicles from leaving site. Upon seeing this, the travellers quickly made a hasty agreement to be off site by the next day.

Parking Available

For those of you looking for a parking space, and we know there are a few of you given the amount of requests on the notice boards, parking is available at Leeds Commercial just next to City Island, over the canal on the ring road, next to Majestic Wine Warehouse. The parking is accessible 24/7 (unlike the NCP on Wellington Road), and is also policed by a security guard 24/7.

The parking is flexible, you can pay by the day at £4/day, or by the week at £12/week. So that works out at £48 a month, less than half of what parking spaces underneath City Island currently command, and a lot less than the £60 parking ticket that both the council pass out for double yellow line parking outside City Island, and less than the £60 fines that the enforcers at Staples car park now hand out.....and all for a short walk.

There are up to 30 parking spaces available there at the moment, to arrange one for yourself just go around to Leeds Commercial reception or to the security guards hut.

Notice Boards

The notice boards are well used and sensibly used in the main, and are providing a small sense of community. However, there have been a few grumbles lately about people putting up large fliers/notices, and removing/obscuring other peoples notices or removing drawing pins for their own use. Free to use notice boards were provided on the proviso that they were used sensibly during a trial period. If they are not used sensibly in this trial period, it was always the intention that the free to use notice boards would be replaced with glass fronted lockable ones, whereby the concierge would be required to decide what can and cannot be posted.

At the moment its working well, so don’t ruin it for everyone – be considerate.

Noggin The Nog

CIRG were very amused to hear for the first time from one of our more eccentric contributors responding to one of Sues emails, informing us about a troll that lives under the non-existent pedestrian bridge...

Dear Sue,
In regards to the attached and as a worried and concerned resident of the area, I feel the need to point out to you and other members that this is not only a right of access issue and public domain, I must and feel obliged to inform you that I have noticed on several occasions that there is indeed a troll living under said bridge. You may scoff at this observation, however please walk along said bridge and he will shout out, "who is clip-clipperdy-clopping on MY bridge".

In light of this new information to you and others, it may be worthwhile requesting Mr Singh visit said bridge and walks across whereby I am sure said troll shall gobble him up.

I am currently residing in Norway, Oslo so am an authority on the ways of the troll, please do not assume I am a harmless crack as these issues make my blood boil.

Best Regards

Noggin the Nog

Lighting / Meeting / Door Locks / Monks Bridge / Email Overload

Lighting Going Green
The management company informs me that the contract to install passive infrared lighting has gone to tender. As you will recall, this will mean that lights are activated on movement and will not be on all the time. Although the work will cost approximately £30,000, annual savings would be in the region of £45,000, making us a saving straight away in year one. We would also be saving the planet as it is estimated that each communal light would be on for only 2 hours a day as opposed to the current 24 hours.

Next Meeting with Management Company
Next meeting has been provisionally suggested for Tuesday March 20th. Let us know if you would like to attend, or if not, which items you would like raising and we will endeavour to do so and report back.

Door Entry and Closing Problems
New magnetic locks are now on order which should prevent the entry and closing issues the front doors currently suffer from. No installation date advised as yet.

Noise - Monks Bridge Start Times and Security Light
We have raised your concerns with the Monks Bridge site manager that agreed start and finish times (see below) are not being adhered to. He pointed out that they are endeavouring to do so, but there are other contractors in the area that may not be. If you believe this not to be the case, at the next noise problem make a note of exactly where, who, and what time, and we will raise it with them.

• A start time for noisy activities of 08:00 and no earlier.
• An approximate finish time of 17:00
• No work on a Sunday or bank holidays

Additionally, those who complained about the intrusive security light, Chris now tells me this has been adjusted – let us know if this is still a problem, and if so, exactly which light and why.

Email Overload
We received an email complaining about the frequency of emails lately, and given the large volume of the last few weeks I kind of expected this might happen. The additional volume has been largely part to Sue’s tireless and unrelenting efforts on the Monks Bridge/other developments/Council issues. Whilst we appreciate there has been more volume of late, this has been necessary to allow everyone to comment on Sue’s hard work, so that we are as representative of as many people as possible. However, given the amount of time I spend on CIRG already, I can’t justify the time for the alternatives such as compiling summary emails, as well as detailed emails, or to operate two distribution lists, one for those interested in Sues work, and one for those who are not, etc, etc, etc.

So it’s either all in or all out I’m afraid, sorry. Alternatively, just delete the emails – they should normally have a clear subject line. Let me know if you want removing from the email distribution list.

Improving Car Park Security

In the last year, and at the last two meetings, lots of people have suggested that in order to further improve car park security, it seems strange that a swipe card is not needed to exit the car park as well as to enter it. This would prevent the current situation whereby someone entering the car park illegitimately from one of the seven stairwells (by following someone in to one of the main doors for example), can walk down to the car park, steal a car and simply drive to the exit, whereupon the car park roller shutter will accommodatingly open up allowing the criminal to leave unabated with the vehicle he has stolen. As well as preventing vehicle theft, swiping out of the car park would also make it more difficult for criminals to exit City Island on foot with ill-gotten pushbikes, or other smaller items, such as those possibly stolen from inside vehicles or elsewhere.

The management company, Accent, have obtained a price for fitting such a swipe card and it comes in at £1875 including VAT. Or £4.64 per apartment, assuming 404 apartments. We think this is a no brainer, and should go ahead immediately, but do not want to make decisions on your behalf, so could you please let us know if you would like this work to ahead or not, and if not, why you object, we can then let the democratic choice be made, and we can advise the management company accordingly.

cityislandleeds@googlemail.com

Window Cleaning...will it ever happen?

Well, the answer is yes, but not quite as soon as we had hoped.

As you will recall all the abseil points had to be tested and issued a safety certificate before a full window clean could take place. Well, I have now heard from Accent, the management company, and the good news is that this testing has now taken place, but the bad news is that one of the abseil points failed the safety test and remediation work must be performed on it in order to obtain the safety certificate. This work has been ordered, but will inevitably delay the window cleaning whilst the safety certificate is obtained. Hopefully it will still happen in February. Fingers crossed.