General Articles
11/08/09
Security Gates
We've been in discussion with Central Bedfordshire Planners and Conservation Officers with regards to the installation of some wrought iron pedestrian gates at either end of the Hall, near the East and West Wings. We believe this will deter non-Hall residents cutting through the grounds and improve general security. Gates will be opened by using a keypad. Obviously the installation of gates wont prevent others from using the grounds if they are left open, but we hope the presence of a gate will make people stop and think that Hall grounds are private.
We've received a number of quotes and need to raise approximately £800 for the supply and installation of these gates. With our current financial constraints, we cannot use service charge funds for this, so we're looking to raise funds from residents who would like to see the security of the hall improved.
If you would like to make a donation for this purpose, please contact a committee member or email us on fhra@hotmail.co.uk. Thankyou.
15/07/09
Service Charge Letter
All residents will by now have received a letter from our FHRA Chairman requesting your help in making sure that all service charges are paid. Residents not paying service charges are breaking the terms of their lease and are now being progressed through the Courts, which will result in CCJ's against their name.
You can see a copy of the letter here.
10/6/09
Bike Store update
We've not had a response from PJL as yet regarding a second bike store. With regards to the problem of items other than bikes being stored in the current location, unfortunately the residents involved have not yet removed the items. To avoid the costs of writing to all residents, we are looking into the practicality of just removing the items. Watch this space or your newsletter for an update. Hopefully we will soon have a bike store that can be used correctly - for the storage of bikes only.
22/4/09
Thermostat information
We've been contacted by a resident who recently had a problem with their central heating thermostat and wanted to pass this onto other residents in case people are experiencing a similar problem. Details from our fellow residents are as follows:
"The wall thermostat in our apartment is mounted on the wall adjacent to the corridor. We have noticed that on cold days our apartment gets extra hot, and vice versa. Also on cold nights (when we turn the thermostat down) we would sometimes wake up and find that the apartment was ridiculously warm, even though individual radiators (except the hall radiator of course - there has to be one radiator which is solely under the control of the wall thermostat) have their own thermostats. The wall thermostat has vents on the top and bottom of its rectangular box, which allow air from the room to pass through it. I discovered on a cold windy day recently that an icy draught of air was coming out of the bottom of the thermostat. Clearly external air was entering the thermostat and triggering it into going on, even when the air inside our apartment was warm. Since I was unable to dismantle the thermostat myself, I contracted an electrician to look at it. Sure enough, the box had not been packed behind with fireproof putty, as apparently regulations since last year now require, and cold air was entering in the considerable space around the wires. The electrician rectified this. I do not know how much money we have lost through this problem, due to unnecessary heating, but I am sure that it is considerable. For this reason, and also because of the safety issue (prior to last year, good practice required the packing behind with fireproof putty, since last year it is mandatory in order to avoid fires spreading). May I also take this opportunity of recommending A.C.E.S Electrics, 07917 225 636, aces_electrics@hotmail.co.uk, who did a good job, charging £65."
9/4/09
Bin Stores
Unfortunately, despite numerous requests, some residents are still putting glass bottles and even worse, sometimes broken glass into black bin bags and orange recycling bags. This has resulted in a number a near accidents when Richard has collected bags. Please take glass bottles to your nearest recycling facility and if you have broken glass to dispose of, please wrap it VERY carefully if you need to put it into a black bag.
Some residents are also leaving large items in bin stores, such as TV boxes or even old ironing boards! Unfortunately Richard cannot dispose of items like this, so in future, they will not be removed from bin stores.
3/4/09
Bike Store
As summer approaches, more and more residents want to have easy access to their bikes in the one and only bike store at the Hall. Unfortunately, despite previous requests, some residents are still storing items other than bikes in the bike store. Notices have now been applied to these items and all residents will be written too to advise that if items are not removed by a given date, they will be removed and disposed of.
20/3/09
Last letter to/from PJL
Following the last response from P J Livesey, we have again written to Mr Livesey asking for clarification on a number of points. You can read the letter by clicking here.
The reply received on the 5th March can be read here.
14/3/09
Stotfold Travellers Site
In case you haven't read in the March Stotfold News, the Traveller Consultation Process, including the site on Baldock Road, has been halted while Mid Beds takes the whole process back to the drawing board to start again. All future decisions will be made by the incoming Central Beds unitary authority. We'll keep you updated if there are any further developments.
14/3/09
Take away
Doughty's have now launched a take-away menu... you can download a copy here.
13/2/09
Latest correspondance
Following the response from Diane Voss at P J Livesey to the Committee's letter of the 6th January, we have written to them again requesting some answers to our initial questions. Our letter and their latest response can be downloaded by clicking on the links below:
Letter to P J Livesey 26th January
Response from Diane Voss
5/2/09
Snagging update
A number of committee members have recently been updating the snagging list for the whole building. You can see the latest version by clicking here. As mentioned in the latest response from Diane Voss, we are now scheduling a meeting with PJL on site to review the list and try to gain some committment for the work to be done.
27/1/09
Letter to residents
By now you should have received a letter from the Residents Association Chairman, Ian Musk, updating you on the current status of the Hall management ahead of the meeting on the 31st January. If you've not seen the letter in your postbox, you can download it here.
24/1/09
Correspondance with PJL
24/1/09
Doughty's
In case you didn't already know, Doughty's Brasserie has arrived at GL-14! Doughty's is a family owned restaurant, offering great food and genuine hospitality. You no longer need to be a GL-14 member or have a membership card to visit Doughty's and they now have their own entrance, just to the right of the main GL-14 entrance.
Doughty's are open as follows: Monday 10am - 8pm, drinks only
Tuesday to Thursday 10am - 10pm (food served from 10am - 3pm and 6.30pm - 9.30pm)
Friday and Saturday 10am - 11pm (food served from 10am - 3pm and 6.30pm to 9.30pm)
Sunday 10am - 5pm (food served 10am - 3.30pm)
You can check out their
lunchtime menu here and their
dinner menu here.
PJL Correspondance
Below are links to some recent correspondence between our FHRA Chairman and PJ Livesey regarding completion, snagging and handover of Fairfield Hall. If you have any questions regarding the current status after reading these letters, please don't hesitate to contact your committee.
Letter to PJ Livesey
Response from PJ Livesey
2008 - Letter from Chairman
Dear Resident
Re: Hazelvine Status update
As you are already aware, Hazelvine, our new Managing Agent is currently in the
process of taking over the day to day running of Fairfield Hall. Unfortunately this
process has not been as straight forward as anticipated and some confusion over
data transfer and administration has caused delays.
Since the handover, a number of contractors have approached Hazelvine for
payment of outstanding invoices going back some months. It is for this reason and
with our agreement, that Hazelvine has reduced some services at present so we can
more accurately control expenditure and get up to date with the outstanding costs.
I should add that grounds maintenance and waste removal will be maintained at
it’s current level, whilst internal cleaning will now be done once a week.
Once Hazelvine has fully completed the handover and processed the previous
year’s accounts we will be holding an open meeting for residents to ask any
questions or voice any concerns they have. I will advise you of the date of this
meeting as soon as possible.
In the meantime, I would urge you not to with hold any requests for payment of
maintenance monies as this will obviously exasperate the current situation.
I would also ask that you direct any further general questions to your committee at
present, so as not to swamp Hazelvine with routine calls and delay the main task in
hand – to complete the handover. However, if you have questions that are specific
to your account and the amounts demanded please do not hesitate to call
Hazelvine’s accounts department as they are keen to resolve outstanding queries as
soon as possible.
I can assure you that the Committee Business Team are working very closely with
Hazelvine to ensure that we can bring this to a satisfactory conclusion as quickly as
possible, but if you have any concerns in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to
contact the committee by writing to fhra@hotmail.co.uk or to myself directly at Apt
018
Finally, please accept our apologies for not updating you with this information
sooner, but we were hoping to present as complete a picture as possible to you but
this is unfortunately taking slightly longer than anticipated.
Kind regards
Ian Musk
FHRA Chairman
7/10/08
Travellers Update
There have been several meetings recently regarding the proposed Travellers sites, detailed information from which has been posted on the Park website. A taskforce has been set up, which your FHRA committee are involved in so further updates will be posted on both websites as and when they are available. In the meantime, here is the latest information:
"As you will probably be aware, over the last eighteen months, Mid Beds District Council (MBDC) has been preparing a Gypsy and Traveller Development Plan Document (DPD). The requirement is to address the needs of the Gypsy and Travellers in Mid Beds; identifying sites and including planning policies against which development will be determined. This equates to allocating sufficient land for 22 pitches across the District to accommodate local Gypsy and Traveller groups and Travelling Showpeople.
Two rounds of Issues and Options consultation have taken place on sites submitted for consideration. MBDC are now putting forward 6 sites in the District to provide the 22 pitches including both the West Drive and Arlesey Road sites. Vision Twentyone (an external consultant) will now undertake a further consultation on the Draft Gypsy and Traveller DPD, originally scheduled to run for a 6 week period - from September 29th – it has now been postponed for 4-6 weeks whilst MBDC and Vision Twentyone finalise the documentation.
A briefing session on the forthcoming consultation process is planned prior to the consultation, led jointly by Vision Twentyone and officers from Mid Beds District Council. FPRA, FHRA and the local Councillors will be represented at this meeting and we plan to share any information obtained.
Following a meeting with Alistair Burt MP and the local District and County Councillors, we understand that as well as the written consultation process, public consultation events are planned, at which the public will be able to meet representatives of Vision Twentyone and record their views. Details of these events are to be announced.
Over the last few months Fairfield Park Residents Association (FPRA) members have been reviewing the publicly available information of Mid Beds District Council’s Local Development Framework Task Force (hereafter referred to as MBDC LDF TF) in relation to these proposed sites. The purpose of the FPRA review was to obtain as much information as possible relating to the process and activities undertaken to date and to make this information available to the local community so as to be fully informed.
FPRA also submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking responses to questions arising from the review of the MBDC LDF TF meetings of 6 December 2007, 10 April 2008 and 8 May 2008. We have received responses to all the questions raised and the associated documentation will be made available online shortly. We ask that those with an opinion on the location of these sites use the available information to have their say. Any assistance in reviewing this information in detail is very much appreciated."
2008
Cigarettes
We've had some complaints from residents about fellow residents who smoke outside the main entrance doors and drop their cigarette butts right outside the door when they're finished. Could we ask that if you smoke outside rather than in your apartment, that you dispose of your cigarette butts with consideration for others. Thank you.
2008
Planning application from PJL
PJL have now submitted a revised application to MBDC for the Orchard in front of East Wing, the Tennis Courts, Ickneild House and changes to the West Orchard. The key information in this application is that the proposed junior football pitch has been moved from the East Orchard to a site next to the forthcoming community centre, which we believe is an option that the majority of residents will be in favour of.
To view the relevant PDF files containing documents for this planning application, please use the following web link:
http://www.midbeds.gov.uk/Planning/Planning_
Document_Search_Pages/default.aspx
Tick the box agreeing to the copyright notice at the bottom of the page
Click <Submit>
In the Case Number Box type: 07/02185
Click <Search>
Should you wish to comment on this application, we understand that any representation must be received by MBDC Planning Dept by 11-Feb. Comments will only be considered on certain issues, e.g. amenity, design, highways, policies and history.
We have not as yet had the opportunity to scrutinize this application in full, especially in respect to the Fairfield Hall curtilage, and would be very interested in hearing comments from residents. We can provide a MBDC leaflet on request that may help with comments.
2008
Security
We'd like to just remind you again about the risks of keeping external doors open at the Hall, perhaps whilst you pop into GL-14. We've already experienced non-residents gaining access to the Hall corridors through an open door. Fortunately, to date we've not had any trouble as a result. However, to make sure it stays that way, please don't leave ANY external doors open when you leave the Hall. Also, please make sure doors close properly behind you and if you notice that they don't, please inform the Managing agents, or email us at fhra@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks.
25/11/08
Travellers Site
As you may already know, the proposed site at the bottom of West Drive is Arlesey is no longer going forward to the next stage of the consultation, although there is an alternative site being proposed. There is also an alternative now being proposed for Stotfold.
You should shortly be receiving a leaflet from Mid Beds explaining the proposals and how to comment. You can also go to www.talktomidbeds.co.uk for all the information, site plans and ways to comment. We'll also update this website as and when we have any more information.
There is an additional website also available that contains information about the proposed sites at http://sites.google.com/site/gypsyandtraveller/
20/12/08
Sky+
We've received some more information from a resident in Bedford Wing about how you can improve your Sky experience, without having the full functionality of Sky+. The solution does allow people to set and record different channels automatically - ie the box changes channels when you are out of the house, as this is the main problem at present.
It does mean you can still only watch or record one channel at a time.
1. Go into manual record (services then 7).
2. Set up a dummy recording for an unused channel, pick an obscure radio station
3. Set recording for 24 hours – say 0500 am to 0459 am
4. Set frequency for daily
5. Save
This means your box will search for this recording each day, but this leaves your one working satellite feed to search for all other channels and they will be recorded. You will have to delete the dummy recordings after each day but this takes no time.
2008
Further Travellers update
Should you wish to contact our local MP about the Travellers site proposals, you can download a draft letter that you can use as a starting point by clicking on the link below. This can either be sent to the following address, or emailed.
Alistair Burt,
Member of Parliament for North East Bedfordshire,
House of Commons,
London,
SW1A 0AA
(email - burta@parliament.uk )
2008
Travellers update
Following queries raised, District Councillor John Street has kindly provided this update:
"May I assure you that your councillors are doing all we can to get the current proposed Travellers sites in Stotfold and Arlesey refused. Neither of them make any sense and they appear to have been 'approved' by councillors from other parts of the District.
Let me try to tell you where we are. Some district councillors, including four from Arlesey and Stotfold, visited each proposed site about a month ago. The voting members of the LDF for Traveller sites were also present. There were around 15 - 20 members in all.
The following week the LDF members held a committee meeting at which the Stotfold and Arlesey councillors attended and made our views known. We were overruled and a recommendation is now going to the Council to allow 6 pitches on the Arlesey site and 5 pitches on the Stotfold site. This recommendation has to go to the Executive next month and then to the Planning DC committee in November. We now have until November to over throw that recommendation.
I can assure you that a lot is going on in the background and we will do all in our power to stop these sites going ahead. There must be better alternatives in the District."
Further to the above, Mid Beds District Council ("MBDC") have also been contacted and have advised that their Preferred Option Report will be published in July 2008. As noted by Cllr. Street above, the two sites in Stotfold have been recommended for inclusion in this report by the LDF Task Force to the MBDC Executive which next meets on Wednesday 18 June. The publishing of the report will open a further round of public consultation, the results of which should be taken into consideration in the preparation of the final draft of the Plan, which is expected early 2009. This again will be subject to consultation and will be considered at a Public Inquiry.
2008
Homewatch scheme
We’ve been in touch again with the local Homewatch officer and would like to get a scheme up and running within the Hall as quickly as possible. Here’s some information from Brendan Murray, the Homewatch Co-ordinator for Bedfordshire Police:
“Everyone in the Community would like the vicinity they live in to be a safe and secure environment. We at Bedfordshire Police are committed to the Homewatch Schemes, which can go a long way to achieving this desire. With residents and the police working together, the opportunities for crime to occur can be greatly reduced.
So what exactly is Homewatch? – In brief, the following:
1. Reduce opportunities for crime, deterring would be thieves and vandals.
2. To establish a spirit of co-operation & communication, looking out for each other & working together when confronted with problems.
3. Encourages people to keep a watchful eye on the more vulnerable residents such as children and the elderly.
4. Support of the local Police Beat Manager
The questions most asked are ‘What will it cost me’ and ‘How much time does it take’. The answers are little or no cost and very little time.
If you or your neighbours would like to find out more, please contact me at Dunstable Police Station on 01582 473158 or by email at Brendan.murray@bedfordshire .pnn.police.uk “
If you want to register your interest in joining a Fairfield Hall Homewatch scheme, please contact Terry Glockler at 78 West Wing.