OPEN LETTER TO SIMON CLARK REGARDING THE VOICE MAGAZINE, SPRING 2014.

Pictured is the front cover of Sanctuary Housing’s “Voice” Spring 2014 Magazine.

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Blog entered 21 May 2014

Hello Simon

Re : The Latest edition of Sanctuary Housing’s Spring 2014 “Voice” Magazine.

In reply to “we’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to see and how we can improve the magazine”, I really do appreciate you giving me the opportunity, truly.

I suppose the biggest improvement I can personally suggest is for Sanctuary to stop using so much manure when writing about Grounds Maintenance issues such as that to be found on pages 17 and 18. Perhaps Sanctuary could also stop telling residents how happy they are or should be based on what limited or misleading information is offered to them.

With regards to Grounds Maintenance it would have been more informative to tell readers about the ‘Grounds Maintenance Specification’ which sets out what Sanctuary should do for the Service Charge it takes. That this Specification is available to residents in their areas and which will assist them monitor how well Sanctuary is really doing, or not doing, or if Sanctuary is frauduently stealing from them, as is the case where I live and since 2009.

This would really benefit residents Tell You What They Really Think on pages 15 and 16.

As you know Timber Close has of some 50 properties and Sanctuary’s in-house Maintenance Estate Services Team, a gardner (singular) visits on Tuesdays for 2 hours. The tasks specified in the Specification are usually ignored and the weekly Service Charge amounts to in excess of £140.00 per 2 hourly visit or in excess of £560.00 per month for 8 hours work.

You will recall I can only give a conservative estimate because you, for and on behalf of Sanctuary and CEO David Bennett, have refused to let me know how much weekly service charge my neighbours pay.

I was particularly interested in the reference ‘Communal areas cleaning’ regarding ‘bin storage areas’ cleaned of any rubbish.

As both you and Bennett have been made fully aware via weekly emails, both Richard Keeley, Head of Housing Operations (South West) and Helen Harding, Operations Manager – South West, lied when they stated the bin store, now renamed “Bennett’s Rubbish Dump”, is checked on a weekly basis according to Keeley and every Tuesday according to Harding.

In reality “Bennett’s Rubbish Dump” is not checked or cleaned at all as demonstrated yesterday when the “Estate Teams” gardner visited and once again left “Bennett’s Rubbish Dump” looking like an uncleared, uncleaned, unhealthy and hazardous shit-hole when I had to use it this morning.

You will recall a series of emails not so long ago when I advised you and Bennett of items other than household waste which had been dumped in the store. That the series of up-dated emails ran every week for some 15 weeks before the ‘Maintenance Team’ finally entered into “Bennett’s Rubbish Dump” and finally removed the items.

I am particularly annoyed the gardner was not observed doing anything yesterday other than pick up litter and that Sanctuary had again wilfully engaged in fraud in not clearing and cleaning “Bennett’s Rubbish Dump” or carrying out the tasks indicated in the ‘Grounds Maintenance Specification’, but which Sanctuary still benefited from financially.

Need I remind you and Bennett that Cornwall has a serious rat problem at the moment and that you pair of rodents risk only making matters worse.

Finally, I am drawn to the article’s closing statement that “As with any service, we aim to deliver the best service possible, so if you have any feedback please pass it on to your local Housing Officer”, unquote.

You will recall every member of Sanctuary’s Board and the CEO himself have received written feedback from me regulary as far back as 2009 when Sanctuary ripped the residents off big time and wilfully broke the law. Are you therefore suggesting a Housing Officer is in some way more responsible and accountable than the Directors, Executive Officers, Board Members and the CEO himself ?

I know you would want to take a personal interest in any feedback resulting from the “Voice” and know you will not mind me giving out your email address so residents who do contact their Housing Officer with praise or a complaint can also copy you at Simon.Clark@sanctuary-housing.co.uk

Yours sincerely

Geoff McLaughlin

MINUTE BLOG.

Blog entered 18 May 2014

              DEVON & CORNWALL CONSTABULARY

What do you call a Sargeant who did things he should not have done ?

You call him Crooked.

What do you call 2 Officers who also did things they should not have done ?

You call them Corrupt.

What do you call 2 Sargeants and 2 Officers who did things they should not have done ?

You call it a Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice.

(But not according to D&CC and the IPCC)

MINUTE BLOG.

Blog entered 17 May 2014

            A Housing Rhyme

Little Jon Warner,

Sat in a Corner,

Eating some Humble Pie,

He put in his Thumb,

And pulled out a Bum,

And said you are much more deserving than someone with Mental illness !

TROPHY WINNER, SANCTUARY HOUSING. 12/05/14.

Picture shows one of the hedgerows being trimmed during an earlier visit to Timber Close.

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Trophy Winner for Monday 12 May 2014 goes to the Sanctuary Housing’s ‘Estates Team’ who attend Timber Close weekly for 2 hours every Tuesday, according to Helen Harding, Sanctuary Housing Operations Manager – South West, Exeter.

Pictured is the ‘Estates Team’, that’s right all one of him, which Sanctuary charges in excess of £140.00 for attending for 2 hours every Tuesday, or in excess of £560.00 for attending 8 hours a month, or in excess of £6,720.00 for attending less than 100 hours a year.

Sanctuary’s “Grounds Maintenance Specification” is a document which sets out what tasks should be done every week, every fortnight and every month etc., and is Sanctuary’s part of the deal so to speak.

The 2013 – 2014 “Grounds Maintenance Specification” indicates 5 x weekly tasks, 1 x fortnightly task, 3 x monthly tasks, 1 x quarterly task, 2 x 6 monthly tasks and 3 x yearly tasks.

The ‘Sanctuary Housing Idiot Trophy’, S.H.I.T. for short, is awarded today only for ‘Hedges and Bushes’, a task which should be done every month. This because the gardner did the hedges and bushes last Tuesday 6 May 2014.

According to the Specification the “Performance Standard” for ‘Hedges and Bushes’ is as follows : “To be carried out in accordance with standard horticultural practice for bush/hedge type, to remove dead/diseased/excess plant matter and branches/foliage overhanging in a manner which interferes with the use of the footpath/highway/roads/paths/car parks etc. Remove all trimmings from site”, unquote.

So what did the residents get for their weekly Service Charge ?

Hedges and bushes were trimmed and the trimmings were then blown underneath the hedges and bushes with the aid of a petrol driven blower, hardly “standard hoticultural practice”. This then prevented the weekly tasks of removing all leaves from the grass, and all areas to be left clear of rubbish, litter, leaves, etc. and all trimmings to be removed from site.

Because some hedges have never been trimmed adequately enough to prevent them interfering with some Rotary Driers, the “Grounds Maintenance Specification” has remained a fraud in the way it has continually and wilfully failed to maintain and provide the Services the residents have been paying for every week since 2009.

With further regard to the Rotary Driers this has been further compounded with the introduction last year of “Bennetts Folly”, a white elephant of a construction which has meant 2 Rotary Driers are no longer fit for purpose despite the residents still having to pay for them every week.

This somewhat trimmed, blown away and two green fingered fraud is therefore awarded to Sanctuary’s ‘Estates Team’, Helen Harding, Richard Keeley, Simon Clark, the Board Directors and the CEO David Bennett for proving if you are big enough and corrupt enough you can get away with anything. (Moreso if Cornwall Council has anything to do with it).

Footnote : For those of you who think this is a trivial issue I would ask you to consider the following.

A Cornish gardening firm would charge in the region of £10.00 per hour per man saving in excess of £120.00 a week from just over 50 properties. Sanctuary owns some 95,000 properties with a proportion of those residents most likely paying excessive Service Charges for what they get. A high proportion of these residents will be in receipt of benefits with their Rents and excessive Service Charges being met by local Authorities. This amounts to Profiteering on a Grand Scale Nationally.

MINUTE BLOG.

Picture shows the actual item which may well have been a dummy, or ‘placebo’ in medical terms.

Blog entered 7 May 2014

New Wonder Cure For Deteriorating Mental Health.

The new wonder cure is a Guinness Hermitage CCTV camera according to Cornwall Council when it then awarded the tenant ‘Low Welfare Priority’.

Being a bit hard to swallow, the Guinness Hermitage tenant with deteriorating long term mental illness eventually died of neglect and cancer.

(Another Cornwall Housing Partnership Collusion)

MINUTE BLOG.

Blog entered 6 May 2014

Simon JR Mansell MBE, Principal Legal Officer Corporate Governance, Cornwall Council.

I have no idea why he was awarded an MBE, I only know why he should do the honourable thing and give it back.

CORNWALL HOMECHOICE PROPERTY EMPTY FOR 100 DAYS UP-DATE.

CORNWALL HOMECHOICE PROPERTY EMPTY FOR 100 DAYS (UPDATE).

Blog entered 2 May 2014

      HOMECHOICE PROPERTY REF : 13728 (UP-DATE).

The 1 Bedroom Ground Floor Flat at Timber Close, St Austell, was advertised through Cornwall Homechoice between 18 to 22 January 2014. The property is owned by one of Cornwall Council’s Homechoice housing partners Sanctuary Housing, also my landlord, and the picture shows the flat in question.

Although there are currently over 28,000 applicants registered with Cornwall Homechoice and only a small number of vacancies each week according to the Council, this Homechoice property disappeared off the radar so to speak.

The property had not been declared on the Council’s ‘Recent Lets’ ‘Outcomes for CBL’ website information to assist Homechoice bidders and it has not been re-advertised.

According to Jon Warner, Homechoice Manager West/Central, Cornwall Housing Limited, on 18 March 2014, “we have made a nomination to Sanctuary Housing and they are considering this applicant”, unquote.

According to Helen Harding, Sanctuary Housing Operations Manager – South West, on 8 April; 2014, “With regard to the void property in Timber Close and the length of time it has remained empty ; I can assure you that we have followed the correct procedure in this case”, unquote.

The lost revenue on this property now exceeds £1,000.00 and it is not known if the Council will reimburse Sanctuary, a Charity, or if Sanctuary will simply recoup it’s losses by increasing it’s Rent or Service Charges in July 2014.

In response to my blog of 28 April 2014, I lodged a formal complaint with Cornwall Council yesterday regarding the lack of transparency regarding this property and I await a reply.

Since yesterday the Council’s ‘Recent Lets’ ‘Outcomes for CBL’ website information has been up-dated to include an entry for the property.

(a) The total number of bidders was higher than I thought it would be at 160 bids.

(b) The effective date was earlier than I thought it would be at 04/12/2013.

(c) The ‘Preference / Eligibliities applied’ is indicated Y (Yes) and the property was advertised without any preferences and was open to all bandings. ‘Band D’ is indicated.

I visited the property during the writing of this up-date and it is still empty. Only time will tell if the property was ‘ringfenced’ for certain types despite false statements made by Vinson and Mansell MBE for and on behalf of the Council.

It should also be acknowledged that the Local Government Ombudsman was “Investigating” the Council at the time this property was advertised and ruled “The Council has not unfairly allocated properties in favour of certain applicants or breached its housing allocation policy”, unquote.

The truth is the Ombudsman did not investigate any of the evidence offered to her regarding Homechoice properties being covertly allocated to certain types of applicants. That genuine Homechoice bidders were deceived, some advertised properties were coverty furnished/part furnished and that disabled applicants were also discriminated against as specially adapted properties were awarded to these certain types of applicants, namely the homeless and alcoholics, without a medical need of the adaption.

The above charade was a wilfull conspiracy by the LGO, Sanctuary Housing and Cornwall Council to protect the Council and Sanctuary. Cornwall Council because it was it’s agenda and it’s responsibility to re-house these certain types and Sanctuary because it agreed to the Council’s covert nominations which meant both wilfully broke the law, both wilfully abused Homechoice  and both wilfully decieved Homechoice applicants and bidders.

As for the LGO even the Government and politicians know it is a perverse institution but one which makes dirty Councils look clean. So much so that I am reminded of the following quotation : that the Local Government Ombudsman “Operate the most perverse and publicly criticised system of administrative justice in the world”, unquote.

A corrupt Ombudsman who made her ‘Final Decision’ in favour of Cornwall Council before I had even read the Council’s reply to my complaint. An Ombudsman I accused of cultivating corruption rather than ending it in the public interest.

I will provide a further up-date once Cornwall Council responds to my formal complaint.

MINUTE BLOG.

Blog entered 2 May 2014

               OYEZ   OYEZ   OYEZ

Received Election Communication recently from the Lib Dems.

Front cover “News and views from across Mid Cornwall”, “Delivering for Cornwall”, “Protecting Local Jobs”.

Back cover “Delivering Jobs For Cornwall”.

Communication brochure printed in :

                    “SOMERSET”