repair service is getting worst.

One of our residents in the ground floor is constantly having problems with drain blocckage when it rains hard for a while.

Whilst just on New Years day a drain in the bath completely blocked, which also affects all waste water from the kichen, the repairs service does nothing to fix the situation. They sent a man with a large palstic plunger, which didn’t help, than a man with a drill, that couldn’t go around the bends of pipes from the kitchen to the bathroom. The tenant has been told they can still use the bathroom sink, to do

• washing
• washing up
• laundry
• personal hygiene
• and all other things you need to do.

Apparently even the washing machine is connected to the same wastepipe as the bath, so that kitchen sink, washing machine waste flows into the bath/shower, making them unusable and THH wants to leave the tenant waiting for 9 days to have this repaired.

This is intolerable as the tenant is elderly with arthritis problems.

The councillor Eve McQuillan promised to contact Head of Repairs but why should we have to go to that lenght to get a blockage removed that is not due to negligence by the tenant?

Obviously the architecture of the block is complicated and out-dated and makes it very difficult to carry out repairs. A kitchen unit has been built in by the landlord to cover the waste pipes, which now needs a carpenter to remove to carry out pipe repairs.

Who suffers the endeffect? The resident.

New Unity doors

Let me thank all the operatives who work very hard to instal the new doors for all THH tenants and those opting to have them installed.

Whilst I now have first-hand experience of the new door, I must make recommendations to all who also have had them installed or plan to have them installed.

The doors comply with the latest national Firesafety regulations. Please see a data-sheet enclosed.

unity-doors-data-sheet-solid-fd30s-v1Download

The doors have a more secure lock and key, the latter looks distinctly different from the previous standard type Yale key.

I would like to recommend that you lock your door with your key each time you leave your dwelling, even for a short time. The door remains open unless it is locked either from the inside or the outside.

The automated closing with the latch will only bring across bolts, but they do not lock the door, even if it sounds like your door is shut, it is not.

If you share your dwelling with others and those remaining inside whilst you leave cannot immediately lock the door from the inside, you are strongly advised to lock the door from the outside every time you leave as – if the person/s remaining inside cannot secure the door when you leave, – the door remains open.

It is similar to a car. You would never leave your car door open. I suppose it would invalidate a home burglary insurance if you failed to lock your door, even for a short while and then somebody enters your dwelling without your permission.

Up-date on liveable streets

tonight we had another discussion round on the proposed Liveable Streets changes to our area.

Making the roads around the estate triangle one-way will reduce traffic and the pedestrianisation around the shops will make it safer for pedestrians to cross the Bonner Road and also crossing Bonner Street over Old Ford Road gets easier as the round-about gets removed.

Most through-traffic gets channelled through Old Ford Road, Mile End Road towards the East and North of London.

Hopefully no change to the bus stop on Bonner Road will result as many residents rely on that bus stop to get to a super market because we do not have one in walking distance. Pupils from St. Elizabeth also rely on the bus to bring them.

Once the Chest Hospital gets developed even more people will use the bus. Traffic calmin through Sewardstone Road will calm the area and also improve air quality, especailly also for the school children attending Gatehouse school.

We did get paper consultations posted through our letter boxes but the consultation is which is now live online

A big thank you

Just to say a big thank you as well to our local SNT Team of officers who tirelessly work on keeping us safe. Our PCSO John Murphy has been with us for a long time and most of us know him well.

Martin, our RA chair has put new posters into the display cabinets and distributed the Parkview Life newsletters.

Bethnal Green SNT newsletter

The latest SNT newsletter was sent out yesterday and it shows that officers now share three wards between them to patrol. Bethnal Green, St. Peter’s and Stepney Green.

It’s good they patrol, stairwells, ASB hotspots; they even check whether people in supermarkets and public transport are wearing their masks and carry out re-assurance visits.

That is all in the face of police budget cut-backs.

We have our next Parkview Neighbourhood Watch online virtual meeting on 1. December 2020 18:00. and I ask all who want to take part to email me to get admitted to the meeting. Email parkview.neighbourhoodwatch@outlook.com please state your address when emailing me, which will be kept confidential and not published anywhere. We work in full compliance with Data Protection laws. We do not share your details with any third parties without your permission. If you want to join Parkview Neighbourhood Watch please register here and apply for membership.

Police distribute their manpower to those areas that get most complained about. If people don’t complain they don’t know. We can only help those who complain. How to complain about crime and ASB please visit our website or the website of the Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Watch Association.

It is very important that people complain because the criminals and those causing problems will always go to the areas where people complain the least.
Anonymous crime reporting:

https://crimestoppers-uk.org
Tel: 0800 555111

traffic calming and Sewardstone Road

The liveable Streets consultation has far-reaching consequences.

However, connecting this to the ongoing Government Ombudsman complaint, which has now been re-opened because Tower Hamlets Homes have appealed, I think this links in to the Liveable Streets issues.

Seeing how badly rusted the metal railings are alongside Sewardstone Road between Rosebery House and Sewardstone Road and how badly the wall underneath Sewardstone Road near Rosebery House is damaged, I wonder whether that would be addressed by the Liveable Streets program.

The wall is either crumbling because of the many very mature tree roots damage it or perhaps because of vibrations from traffic, the wall is being damaged or even both.

The proposed plans do not specify any remedial works within Parkview Estate. I can imagine that even a contraflow cycle lane on Sewarstone Road would suffer from the severely rusty metal railings on the Sewardstone Road.

I strongly recommend that all take part in the survey, which is now live online and look at the proposals, which have been popped through our letter boxes and state in their responses also the need to fix damage to the wall between Rosebery House and Sewardstone Road.

A small section of the damaged wall between Sewardstone Road and Rosebery House. The rusty railings are just about visible. Please state in your survey response that something needs doing about this.

Liveable Streets consultation

The Old Ford Road West consultation is live now. We just received it in paper through our doors. You can complete online and save posting it. Go to this link

Has to be done by Sunday, 20th. December 2020.

Autumn walk-about

Went round the estate today with Chris from St. James the Less church. The church is within the Parkview Estate triangle.

Met others from Gatehouse school and residents in the streets. Observing strict distancing guidelines, as part of social care, we are able to maintain some contacts within the community.

Heard that there will be an accessible toilet in the Glasshouse up-stairs area, a very wellcome addition to the communal facilities. Has been needed since a very long time.

Tower Hamlets Homes will instal a car gate at the entrance to the estate from the top of St. James Avenues, letters are being sent as we speak.

The basket ball hoop in Sewardstone Road had to be removed due to abuse of the area issues.

And there are crime issues around the place, which are best resolved by constant reporting to the local police.

We have a reporting form people can use. Send directly to your SNT team unless it is an emergency, which you always must report with 999.

If you already have received a crime number for your particular complaint you can add further reports using this online form.

We do have a Neighbourhood Watch meeting using Microsoft Teams on 19. November 2020 but can only admit residents, which are known to us. If you want to take part please contact us using the form and/or send us proof of address with your email.

Door replacement program

Yesterday, 2nd November 2020, I had a visit to the AD Construction Group site to inspect those new doors, THH tenants have to have and leaseholders have an option to also instal.

The doors comply with British Standard 476, which I understand to be compliant to a 30m fire resistance inside and out. Unfortunately our current Masterdors do not hold out longer than 15 mins.

The new regulations in force and in light of the Grenfell tragedy require all front doors to comply with fire safety standards. This includes that fire doors no longer are self-locking. This means in practise all residents who have these new doors can never forget to lock their doors manually when they leave their dwelling for any amount of time.

Leaving those doors unlocked will allow anybody to enter the dwelling by pressing down the door handle, unless it has been locken with a key.

I enquired about smart locking, e.g. like cars, with a smart key that can also be used for smart services like Alexa, which enables us to voice activate and program our applicances. Unfortunately this option is not available with those dooors. I would strongly support it.

Also it has to be noted that the letterbox flap on the inside of the doors does not open furhter than around 45 degrees, which doesn’t allow the pushing through of larger and thicker envelopes.

We will be notified when Parkview is due to have the doors renewed.

New online chat

Whilst Covid-19 is getting worst and the risk levels are rising, Parkview Neighbourhood Watch can now provide those who are already members of the watch group with an online chat and messaging facility.

Also those wanting to join the Parkview Neighbourhood Watch group can join.

However we need to ensure that some verification takes place first. This is to ensure the safety and security of our members.

You must be registered with Ourwatch to get access.

Whilst the Covid 19 cases are rising and meetings are only allowed outside with no more than 6 people, we can now hold meetings via Microsoft Teams. We have an online meetings space. We generally reserve this group for people who are formally registered with Ourwatch as members. This is to provide security of verification, which is generally quite hard for Neighbourhood Watch to achieve, as we have no access to the data any of the providers use.
Our Microsoft Team is accessible here: 
https://teams.microsoft.com/join/xlwshd29bih5
If you click through you will receive this page (see pic on left) prompting you to insert name and email. But as previously said, we prefer if people are registered with Ourwatch first. You can join on this web page. First join here.

Once on the system you can have face to face online meetings with each other or the coordinators to discuss your situation if necessary.  

Our online Teams web team is available to join here: https://teams.microsoft.com/join/xlwshd29bih5 copy and paste this link into your browser and you will receive this web page asking you to enter your name and email address. We will compare your details with people registered with Ourwatch.