We are the Independent Resident's Forum for the Croydon Drive outsourced council estate in Newton Heath, Manchester. M40.
Urgent - Have you received letters from Avro Hollows' TMO about voting for whether they should continue running the estate?
Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation Limited have handposted letters to residents that, in short, tell them, that there will be a ballot. Avro Hollows' say that, if residents do not vote in favour of continuing to have them run the estate, that Commsec Security, who operate CCTV cameras and run security operations, would stop operating and that the Estate Office would also stop operating...
This is not true.
The Director of Avro Hollows' TMO has previously said the same at the last Annual General Meeting. We have checked this with Ingrid Daly, who is the Liaison Officer between Avro Hollows' TMO and Manchester City Council (she works for Manchester City Council) who are our Landlord and she has made clear that Avro Hollows' TMO have absolutely no say if they do not continue to manage the estate. They don't get to take the security gates, cameras and contracts with them - and they were paid for using public funds so they'd just transfer to Manchester City Council.
In reality, Manchester City Council would take Croydon Drive back into it's direct management and we believe that this is better for everybody. If you decide to vote Avro Hollows' TMO out, Manchester City Council will assume responsibilities for the bills, such as security, to be paid. Since Manchester City Council will remain the Landlord in any event, they have a duty to protect residents from antisocial behaviour. The most obvious way is through the existing security gates and CCTV with a 24-7 response to antisocial behaviour, better than we get now - and who would be responsible for providing that would be crystal clear.
Do you know who you are trusting with and in your home - No staff are Police Checked..
A word about crime and security on the Croydon Drive Estate - Did you know, none of Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation staff are Disclosure and Barring Board Checked ("Police Checked")? Can you really afford to trust them? Manchester City Council Employees are Disclosure and Barring Board Checked.
Staffing
The Estate Office is staffed by two individuals, one of which is the Estate Manager. There are 312 flats on the Croydon Drive Estate. Can you really say that anybody else would only provide 2 members of staff for 312 people?
The out of hours emergency repairs service is practically non-existent under Avro Hollows TMO..
The repairs contractor out of hours doesn't even answer the phone the vast majority of the time - can you really say that would continue if Avro Hollows' TMO bit the dust? If you want your repairs done properly, and to get a guaranteed emergency response, vote out Avro Hollows' TMO and give them their marching orders. The grounds will continue to be looked after too.
Targetting older people with misleading information..
If that hasn't persuaded you, please seriously consider how you feel about being lied to by Avro Hollows' TMO where the correspondence was targetted at older people who are more vulnerable. Can you really trust or bring yourself to vote for them? Are they not rotten to the core?
By voting against Avro Hollows' TMO continuing, you strengthen your rights and your security and ensure that you get a proper say in what happens on the estate. Avro Hollows' TMO runs one Annual General Meeting a Year and that is all the vast majority of residents get in terms of involvement. What kind of a say are you really getting? Tenant Management Organisations are supposed to be inclusive and put residents at the centre of decision making.
You are within your rights, without Avro Hollows' TMO managing the estate, to demand an independent resident scrutiny panel from Manchester City Council. That could be us, someone else or a mix of us and others (or not us at Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum at all!). We don't get paid in any way for anything that we do and we are fully independent of Avro Hollows' and Manchester City Council. We have never in any way been connected to Northwards' Housing either.
Who the hell is THA Ltd who are supposed to be running the ballot anyway?
We are also extemely concerned that the ballot is said to be faciliated by THA Ltd. There are no contact details and there is no website that we could find. A check of companies house https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08585095 (opens new window) shows extremely limited information on the activities of this company. A search of the "THA Ltd" in Google produces no further information. How can we be sure that THA Ltd is appropriately trained to run a tenant ballot and that they are impartial?
Please raise these questions, and any others that you might have, as well as your feedback on Avro Hollows' with Ingrid Daly at Manchester City Council and Lucy Powell, our Constituency MP:
You can use this handy form by clicking here (Opens new window) to Email both Ingrid at Manchester City Council and your Constituency MP, Lucy Powell, at the same time.
Unproven suggestion of impropriety
Although we cannot prove the following so you should not rely on the following statement being true, it has been suggested that a person behind this company has done previous work for Avro Hollows' TMO. If this is true, this would be a conflict of interests and wholly improper.
Please ensure that you still vote but please also let us know how you vote so we can keep tally independently by clicking to record your vote here.
Show Avro Hollows' TMO the door. It's one of the best decisions that you'll ever make.
Tenants wondering where the forum is can find that by clicking here and you can read Avro Hollows' TMO propaganda for a laugh here. If you'd prefer to hear it from the Residents then please do read on.
On our estate, we apparently have 312 flats (although one is a lift office and another doesn't exist for some reason). Anyway, what we do have are glorious flats (most with out of date dilapidated kitchens (where did the sink go Dianne?) and bathrooms with no showers into 2020).
You may have noticed that our Corona Virus information has disappeared from the front page. You can find out more by visiting the CDIRF Corona Virus area from the "Resident Links" menu.
Thank you for visiting and welcome.