Blog entered 10 April 2014

                       HOMECHOICE PROPERTY REF : 13728

“With regards to property ref : 13728 we have made a nomination to Sanctuary Housing and they are considering this applicant. Unfortunately I can not comment on their processes or timescales.”, unquote, Jon Warner, Homechoice Manager West/Central, Cornwall Housing Limited, on 18 March 2014.

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

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Homechoice property Ref : 13728 was advertised in January and bidding closed on 22 January 2014. The property has not since been re-advertised.

Although there are approximately 28,000 applicants registered with Cornwall Homechoice there are “only a small number of vacancies each week”, unquote, according to the Council.

                                          A FEW FACTS

The property has now remained empty for in excess of 80 days.

The loss of revenue in keeping the property empty now amounts to in excess of £900.00.

Neither Cornwall Council or the “Charity” Sanctuary Housing will confirm who will make up this loss of revenue

TROPHY WINNER HELEN HARDING, SANCTUARY HOUSING, EXETER, 04/04/14

Blog entered 4 April 2014

Trophy Winner for Friday 4th April 2014 goes to Helen Harding, Sanctuary Housing Operations Manager – South West, Exeter.

Helen is awarded the Trophy for supporting her corrupt boss Richard Keeley, Sanctuary Housing Head of Housing Operations – South West, when Keeley stated “Our Estate Services Team checks the bin store on a weekly basis”, unquote, on 21 February 2013. Helen supported this when she confirmed on 29 January 2014, that the Estate Services Team is responsible for checking the bin store every Tuesday.

Both Keeley, Harding, Sanctuary Directors and the CEO himself were then embarrased to learn that I had been reporting dumped household items, furniture, mattress etc., in the bin store to Simon Clark, Managing Director – Sanctuary Housing Services, every week in writing since October 2013, and that their Estates Services Team had missed some 15 opportunities/visits to remove the items. Items which are not permitted in the bin store according to Sanctuary’s own policies.

This proving both Keeley and Harding were lying and that those at Head Office, including the CEO, were happy to take weekly Service Charge payments for services they were not providing.

On 17 January 2014 the items were finally removed including an even greater number of dumped items from further up on the estate.

To save further embarrassment to the CEO and Sanctuary Housing, one would reasonably have thought checks to the bin store were then made every Tuesday thereafter ? far from it.

The picture was taken on Wednesday 2 April 2014. The vacuum cleaner in the back ground was dumped in the bin store soon after 17 January 2014. The papers and rubbish on a bin left of front have been there for months. The floor has never been swept and I noticed empty plastic Cider bottles, empty glass wine bottles, empty Special Brew cans and waste scattered all about. Some most probably from the alcoholics who congregate at a nearby flat day and night. Not that Sanctuary would know anything about that because it has not provided a Housing Officer or Service Delivery Officer to monitor things on behalf of tenants since last year.

Perhaps the most annoying thing is the day before was not only a Tuesday but also April Fools Day and instead of just sending down the usual gardener for a couple of hours or less (at £140.00 + to the tenants) Sanctuary sent 3 Estates Services Team workers altogether to do jobs around the estate. Although one had an open backed vehicle, usually used for removing rubbish, the dumped vacuum remains in the bin store and not one of them went near the bin store. It is no wonder a lot of tenants prefer not to go into the bin store so leave their bags of rubbish elsewhere.

When I named the bin store “Bennetts Rubbish Dump” earlier this year, after it’s CEO David Bennett, little could I have imagined that he would take such a personal interest and responsibility in how it has since been maintained.

This somewhat neglected, smelly, environmentally unhealthy shit-hole of a Trophy is therefore awarded to Helen Harding, Richard Keeley, Simon Clark, Directors and CEO David Bennett for proving there is a profit to be made from rubbish providing you leave it where it is and save on maintainance.

MINUTE BLOG.

Blog entered 2 April 2014

Cornwall Homechoice Welfare Assessment Panel.

If a Homechoice Welfare Assessment Panel decision is based only on the Matrix and non medical issues, why use a Social Worker, Occupational Therapist and a NHS Community Psychiatric Nurse on the Panel ?

And would it not make more sense simply to use mannequins, cardboard cut-outs or bull-shit ?

CORNWALL COUNCIL FIVE YEARS OLD ON APRIL FOOLS DAY 2014.

Blog entered 31 March 2014        

CORNWALL COUNCIL IS FIVE YEARS OLD ON APRIL FOOLS DAY 2014.

A few personal reasons why I think Cornwall Council is possibly the most corrupt Council in the country.

2009 was the year Cornwall Council became a unitary authority.

2009 was also the year my landlord Sanctuary Housing ripped it’s tenants off and the Council of thousands of pounds.

Five years on and we are still being ripped off into paying Sanctuary in excess of £140.00 a week for a gardener to spend 2 hours or less gardening and picking up litter. This equates to in excess of £560.00 a month for just 8 hours work or less, and, as the Council knows, it could be done by a local firm for approximately £10.00 an hour.

Although Cornwall Council has been aware of the criminality and profiteering by Sanctuary Housing since 2009, and Stephen Gilbert MP has been aware of his constituents being ripped off for a number of years the practise continues.

The close partnership between Cornwall Council and it’s Homechoice social housing landlords is not a healthy one based on collaboration but an unhealthy one based on collusion and corruption. So much so that it is unlikely Cornwall Council would ever prosecute one of it’s Homechoice Housing partners whatever the reason.

2010 saw the demise of Cornwall Homefinder for Homechoice which replaced the separate social housing allocation systems across Cornwall and introduced Choice Based Lettings (CBL). “It is an open, transparent and customer-based approach in the allocation of properties”, unquote, according to the Council.

Although I have no personal insight of Homefinder I do have a personal insight into Homechoice as an applicant since 2012, and prior to 2012 when I looked into how it operated.

The notion that Homechoice properties without a preference are never ‘ringfenced’, according to the Council, is not only dishonest but perverse in the way it deceives desperate Homechoice bidders.

I personally know of a number of properties which were ‘ringfenced’ without a preference through Homechoice for certain types and which Homechoice bidders never stood a chance. Some Homechoice properties being left furnished or part furnished or having special adaptions for the disabled but given to certain types with no need of the adaptions.

I recall one Homechoice property near to town being advertised without a preference and which would have attracted quite a high number of bids. Although there are approximately 28,000 Homechoice applicants the property is still empty after 2 months. This because Sanctuary is wilfully keeping the property empty in order to help the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) protect Cornwall Council from being exposed for the unlawful practise.

A misconception about the LGO is they represent the interest of the public by investigating complaints by individual members of the public. A more accurate view, and one put to Parliament, is the LGO “Operate the most perverse and publicly criticised system of administrative justice in the world”, unquote.

Another major problem with Homechoice, and also not in the public interest, is it’s Welfare Assessments to determine priority. My mentally ill wife was assessed 3 times during 2012 because she needed me to resume being her recognised Carer under one roof.

A decision was deferred the first time for more information. The fact there were only 2 Assessment Panel Members instead of 4 was considered okay by the LGO. As a matter of public interest I do not think it okay if other members of the public were assessed that day by an inappropriately short staffed Panel.

The 2nd Assessment included an NHS CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse) on the Panel and 3 Council employees who awarded ‘Low Welfare Priority’ despite them being told her mental health was deteriorating. According to the LGO, the NHS and the Council the award was non medical and the NHS CPN was acting on behalf of the Council. A somewhat economical view when the CPN was acting for the NHS. If it were any other way the Council could quite simply have used another one of it’s career minded employees on the Panel.

Her last Assessment, a First Review Assessment, neglected Council Policy in not using the same Welfare Assessment Panel members which made the original decision. Of the original 4 Panel members only 2 attended the First Review Assessment and which upheld the ‘Low Welfare Priority’. The LGO has chosen not to address this breach of Council Policy other than to say there was no fault by the Council. I consider the First Review Assessment to be null & void.

My wife’s mental health continued to deteriorate into 2013 and she sadly died of late stage Cancer on 27 June 2013 aged 54. She died with ‘Low Welfare Priority’, despite a wealth of internal information held on her by both Cornwall Council and the NHS Foundation Trust but which they never considered.

The LGO indicated my late wife would have got Medium Welfare Priority had a CPN intervened, and also if she was isolated in her home. Apart from the fact there was a NHS CPN on the Welfare Assessment Panel who chose not to intervene, it was the NHS itself which had previously reduced her attendances to a Mental Health Drop-in Centre to only one day a week which made her more isolated. A day centre she had attended regularly for over 20 years.

I think Cornwall Council and the NHS Foundation Trust could and should have made her final year a lot less callous and abusive and I will not rest until I right this wrong. The hunger strike is still on the cards to raise awareness and stop this sort of thing happening again to someone else in desperate need of help.

As for the LGO’s perverse protectionism of Cornwall Council, Sanctuary Housing and the NHS Foundation Trust before the public interest, I hope the LGO does go sooner than later thanks largely to the ever increasing demands upon Parliament for ever increasing demands for greater scrutiny and transparency.

Based on my own personal experience I think Cornwall Council has made April fools out of a lot of people since it became a unitary authority in 2009, with it’s devious, corrupt, unfair and unlawful practises.

Up-Date : Following the LGO’s Provisional View of my complaint on 3 March and Final Decision on 26 March 2014, I will no longer have any further dealings with the LGO. This due to the fact the Council’s reply of 10 January 2014 to my complaint was witheld from me until after the LGO’s Provisional View and Decision was made, a period of some two months or more. I will seek to challenge the LGO’s perversely one-sided and wilfull mismanagement of my complaint.

MINUTE BLOG.

Gordon Bennett it’s David.

Blog entered 30 March 2014

The criminal face behind the corrupt housing Mafia and Charity Sanctuary Housing. Chief Executive Officer David Bennett, who earns £310,000.00 a year.

CORNWALL HOMECHOICE WELFARE ASSESSMENTS, 17/03/14

Blog entered 17 March 2014

There have always been double acts in life such as comedy duos Laurel and Hardy, Morecambe and Wise, Cannon and Ball etc.. Not all were funny though like Burke and Hare, Jekyl and Hyde, Clegg and Cameron etc..

Cornwall Council has it’s own double act in the form of Lytham and Warner of Cornwall Homechoice. Rachel Lytham, Housing Needs Officer, and Jon Warner, Homechoice Manager West/Central, mismanage Homechoice Welfare Assessments in the interest of the Council’s housing agenda rather than an applicant’s welfare needs.

That fewer applicants will be awarded the degree of priority they should be awarded to take the strain off the limited number of properties available and the Council’s legal responsibilities to certain types.

My first contact with Lytham and Warner was in correspondence regarding the potential of Homechoice bidders being duped into bidding for Homechoice properties which were ‘ringfenced’ and already allocated. A practise I believe which has gone on for years.

So how should a Homechoice Welfare Assessment work ?

The Homechoice Welfare Assessment Panel is usually made up of 4 Panel members and most of these are employees of the Council. Career enhancement team players if you will or brown nosers if you prefer. If the applicant disagrees with the decision made by the Panel the applicant can request a First Review Assessment which must be submitted within 28 days of the original decision/letter.

So how did it work in reality :

Background : My wife had had Mental Health problems for about 30 years and I was her officially recognised Carer for about 15 years and before she decided she needed her own living space against my advice. We then spent about 10 years apart but saw each other most weeks and she nearly always came to stay over christmas. Her MH began to deteriorate 2011-2012 and she was not coping and was living in squalor. We discussed a solution and decided to apply through Cornwall Homechoice for a 2 bedroom property where I could resume being her Carer and look after her.

We were first Assessed by a Homechoice Welfare Panel on 10 July 2012 and a decision was deferred in order for Homechoice to have my wife complete and return a Welfare Self-Assessment Form. This despite the Panel already having a completed Homechoice Special Needs Assessment Form.

The disturbing thing about this Welfare Panel is it consisted of only 2 Welfare Panel Members. These being the Housing Needs Manager Jon Warner and Occupational Therapist Angela White. Although our decision was deferred I have often wondered how many other applicants were assessed that day and awarded a level of priority which did not properly reflect their Welfare needs. That if it was appropriate and acceptable to have only 2 Welfare Panel Members conduct Welfare Assessments why should there ever be any more than 2 ?

The next Welfare Panel Assessment was on 16 October 2012 with a full compliment of 4 Welfare Panel Members. Social Worker Tony Grainger, Occupational Therapist Clemence Lincoln-Williams, an NHS Trust employee who cannot be named for legal reasons, and the Housing Needs Officer Rachel Lytham.

Having considered all the information available, including a letter of support from my wife’s doctor Dr Anthony C Hereward, the Panel awarded ‘Low Welfare Priority’ and agreed we met the eligibility criterea for 2 beds, and updated our banding to D.

Because we were unhappy with ‘Low Welfare Priority’ and did not think it reflected the level of need and urgency required we opted for a First Review. We were also unhappy being placed in the same category as Alcoholics and Drug users, who had all made a lifechoice decision, as opposed to my wife who had no choice.

According to Council First Review Policy “First reviews are re-assessed by the Welfare Panel that made the original assessment”, unquote, which was stated on the original decision/letter we received.

The First Review Assessment was on 27 November 2012 but was not re-assessed by the Welfare Panel that made the original assessment. Social worker Tony Grainger, Occupational Therapist Sarah Hill, and the Housing Needs Officer Rachel Lytham made up the 3 Welfare Panel Members. Of these only 2 were from the original assessment, the original OT was replaced and the all important Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) was absent.

The decision of the Welfare Panel was ‘Low Priority Upheld’, which was invalid because of the way it was unfairly achieved which broke Council Policy.

With me in disgust and my wife in despair we decided against anymore Homechoice Welfare Assessment fiascos.

I later found out Lytham twice referred to me as my wife’s “ex-husband” on the Welfare Assessment Panel Forms despite her knowing we were legally married. Something she still refuses to apologise for.

I continued raising questions with Lytham and Warner on emails and in early 2013 Warner suggested we be Assessed in another area where the Welfare Panel Members would not know us. An admission by Cornwall Council that a Welfare Panel in another area might in some way treat our application and assessment more fairly. We declined on the grounds the Council could not be trusted.

Official complaints were made during 2013 and the Council continued protecting only itself in not responding to them until too late. It was one of these complaints in May 2013 which involved the Local Government Ombudsman in this Complaint.

Between December 2012 to June 2013 we bidded for 45 properties through Homechoice without success. Not that any of them should have been successful given our disadvantage resulting from Council failures and the fact the Welfare Panel neglected to implement it’s option of a referral or a home visit for more information.

I understand from the LGO that the only information the Council was interested in concerned the installation of CCTV near where my wife lived. Although a minor issue, neither the LGO, Cornwall Council or Guinness Hermitage have shown any willingness to want to investigate this issue or provide me with any proof CCTV was ever installed.

My wife continued living alone and continued to deteriorate and was frequently tearful and depressed because she felt cheated and neglected and could see no end to it all.

Towards the end of May 2013 my wife was diagnosed as having a tumour on her liver. This was later diagnosed as secondary to late stage Bowel Cancer and Chemotherapy began before she was returned to my cramped and unsuitable flat for me to care for her. Homechoice was kept fully advised of the situation.

On 20 June my wife was rushed to Royal Cornwall’s A&E Department and she died 7 days later. The ‘Low Priority’ status remained with her to the grave.

Although I cannot blame anyone for her death I do blame Cornwall Council’s perverse and wilfull mismanagement of our application and for making the last year of my wife’s life so callous, abusive, unfair and depressing for her.

With regard to the Council, it’s team players, the NHS CPN and the LGO’s amoral protectionism of the Council, I have not finished with them.

With regard to the Trust employee, the NHS Foundation Trust has reminded me the decision of the Council’s Panel was a collective one and that they therefore all had a Duty of Care to my wife and were therefore all to blame. That because the CPN was not under contract to the NHS, and was not representing the NHS on the Panel, really, I cannot pursue an NHS complaint of Negligence against him. Him being the most qualified Panel Member to determine Mental Health issues.

If you or someone you know has gone through a Cornwall Homechoice Welfare Assessment and a First Review and was unhappy with the award you received, you could try a Data Protection Subject Access Request (SAR) to the Council. There is a fee of £10.00 to pay and the Council has 40 days to comply. It is unlawful for the Council to withold any information you are entitled to under the Data Protection Act. Mention Cornwall Housing/Homechoice and request the internal documents relative to your Assessment and First Review. Once you receive the information compare the Panel Members from the original assessment to that of the First Review. If different the decision was and is invalid. I personally believe the Council has probably duped thousands of applicants out of a level of priority they should have been awarded.

In memory to my late wife Alison – 12/03/1959 to 27/06/2013.

HOW CORNWALL COUNCIL CORRUPTS CORNWALL HOMECHOICE.

Blog entered 10 March 2014.

HOW CORNWALL COUNCIL CORRUPTS CORNWALL HOMECHOICE.

The 1 Bedroom Ground Floor Flat at Timber Close, St Austell, was advertised through Cornwall Homechoice between 18 to 22 January 2014, and available to all Bands. As with most properties within walking distance of town bidding would have been keen based on previous records.

The Landlord is Sanctuary Housing and the picture showed houses in Timber Close despite me advising Cornwall Council numerous times in the past the picture was misleading, unhelpful and un-representative of a “Flat”.

So what became of the Homechoice Flat after the closing date of 22 January 2014 ?

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’s website information, this Homechoice property has now remained empty for in excess of 50 days. It has 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. It has just simply disappeared off the radar.

One likely reason for it’s disappearance concerns my allegation Cornwall Council and it’s housing partner Sanctuary Housing have knowingly conned Homechoice bidders into bidding for properties through Homechoice which were ringfenced and already allocated to certain types of applicants not indicated in the advertisement.

Another reason is Cornwall Council has recently been investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman. The LGO’s provisional view is “The Council has not unfairly allocated properties in favour of certain applicants or breached its housing allocation policy”, unquote.

On the issue of ‘ringfenced’ properties Cornwall Council’s Strategy & Initiatives Manager Mark Vinson said “These are generally leased from private sector landlords and not ever advertised through Homechoice”, unquote. Which, in reality, is untrue.

Homechoice Property Ref : 2797 (18/12/2010 – 22/12/2010), Ref : 5090 (06/08/2011 – 10/08/2011), Ref : 6629 (04/02/2012 – 08/02/2012), Ref : 6690 (11/02/2012 – 15/02/2012), and most probably Ref : 13728 (18/01/2014 – 22/01/2014) were all ‘ringfenced’ in favour of certain types of applicants.

On the issue of the Council using the same misleading picture of houses in Timber Close for all the above Flats since 2010, the Council has failed to clarify it’s position. A picture of the Flat in question can be found on Twitter:  pic.twitter.com/x8R9au8CcV  and was taken, loaded and available for net use in less than 10 minutes.

In reply to the LGO’s provisional view I would reject any notion the Council did not breach its housing policy or covertly place certain types of applicants in Homechoice advertised properties, or that the Council did not discriminate against disabled Homechoice applicants in allocating specially adapted properties to certain types of applicants who had no need of the adaption. Adaptions which the Authority itself payed to have installed out of public funds.

Having suffered injustice over this issue, in unfairly being subjected to anti-social behaviour from most of the certain types of applicants which have been covertly dumped here since 2010, I acknowledge Homechoice bidders have been treated even more unfairly in being unjustly denied a home. That Cornwall Council has wilfully and unlawfully abused the housing policy and the rights of those it is supposed to serve.

I would therefore reject any suggestion by the LGO not to take formal action against Cornwall Council and would consider any such leniency as again being one sided and a failure to protect the public interest.

The latter based partly on the fact Homechoice property Ref : 13728 was advertised weeks after Cornwall Council and Sanctuary had been forwarned of my allegations in writing by the LGO.

So why is the Flat still empty after nearly 2 months ? Is there really no demand for a 1 Bedroom Ground Floor Flat within a 10 minute walk from town and with there being thousands of Homechoice applicants in desperate need of a home ? How many Homechoice bidders bidded on the Flat and were any told the property had been withdrawn or for what reason ? Is the Council compensating Sanctuary £77.80 for every week the Flat remains empty out of public funds ? or will Sanctuary recoup it losses and balance it’s books with an already agreed increase to the Rents/Service Charge to Timber Close residents in July 2014 ?

UP-DATE : 18/03/2014. In reply to an official complaint I lodged today, Jon Warner, Cornwall Homechoice Manager/West, stated that the Council had “made a nomination to Sanctuary Housing and they are considering this applicant”, unquote. If this is true I do not think Sanctuary wants to play ball at the moment because the ball is more crooked than round and is in the Council’s net.

30/03/2014 : The Homechoice property is still empty despite all those in desperate need of a home.

Footnote : If I have stated anything you consider libellous you have the right to take legal action against me and you will find my details at the bottom of this page. What you will not do is waste my time threatening me with legal action because I can no longer remember how many times I have been threatened with legal action by corrupt Organisations simply as a means of harassment.

If it is your intention to involve the police please be advised there are already 3 corrupt police officers awaiting investigation by the IPCC for attempting to unlawfully protect Sanctuary Housing, TPAS, Oonah Lacey, and Cornwall Council.

MINUTE BLOG.

“The Estates Team attend weekly for 2 hours every Tuesday”, unquote, Helen Harding, Sanctuary Housing Operations Manager – South West.

Yep, there’s the “Estates Team” now Helen, all one of him, like every Tuesday. Picking up rubbish and gardening at Timber Close for around £140.00 + for 2 hours or less.

I expect the rest of the “Estates Team” must be in the bin bag Helen sifting through the rubbish for any more rich pickings ?

MINUTE BLOG.

The greatest reason I was ever given not to use an Ombudsman was because my Corrupt Landlord Sanctuary Housing recommended I should.

MINUTE BLOG.

“Working alongside a talented team, I hope that my inclusive leadership style and passion will help make a real difference to how the service is delivered”, unquote, Noelle Brelsford.

Noelle Brelsford following her joining Sanctuary Housing from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman where she was Director of Knowledge and Information Management. I kid you not.

(My first contact with Ms Brelsford concerned myself and the tenants each being overcharged by 54p a week for the 2012 – 2013 Service Charge period. Although it was eventually corrected in response to my complaint, an internal memo recommended the amount should have been more than 54p).

If I know Sanctuary, Ms Brelsford has made a real enough difference to be guaranteed a job for life for fitting into Sanctuary’s less than transparent way of doing things.