Camden Housing Resident Scrutiny Group

The group of council tenants called the Camden Housing Resident Scrutiny Group[CHRSG] are meeting this evening HERE at the town hall, but haven't put the minutes of their 15 March 2016  meeting up on the councils website.

 Meetings
12 Nov 2013 here  

14 Jan 2014 here   presentation on 6 week new tenancy visits
11 March 2014 here  presentation on the initial STAR survey results
13 May 2014 here   presentation on complaints.  72% of complaints the Council received related to HASC and most of these related to repairs and improvements.
10 June 2014 here
8 July 2014 here   the cost of the group was mentioned with officers saying it would be difficult to provide accurate data until the end of the 2014-15 financial year.
12 Aug 2014 here self-assessment forms circulated. members advised to complete and return by the end of the week. Sept for assessment interviews. Members to return their signed Code of Conduct forms by the end of the week. Introduction to the council complaints process
9 Sept 2014 here  further information about complaints. Communications strategy.
14 Oct 2014 here   extent of the groups influence
11 Nov 2014 here  info on complaints.  request to have further training on the councils finances
9 Dec 2014 here information from the last STAR survey. complaints info

13 Jan 2015 here   election of chair and vice-chair .  finance training.
10 Feb 2015 here leaseholders forum. more complaints info
10 March 2015 here 
14 April 2015 here  review of groups documents and ways of working. complaints report.
19 May 2015 here repairs 
9 June 2015 here better homes presentation. Review of Camden Housing Resident Scrutiny Group. The issue of member’s conduct outside of group activities was felt by many members to be beyond the remit of the group and its Code of Conduct.
14 July 2015 here complaints report.  references to members’ behaviour outside of the group’s activities will be removed from the group’s Code of Conduct. better homes.
11 Aug 2015 here complaints report.  better homes. a member shouldn't use the name of the group when pursuing foi
8 Sept 2015 here freedom of information applications. better homes. discussions were also had around conduct in meetings.
13 Oct 2015 here Andrew Pierce (casp member) discussed with the group feedback about CHRSG from casp
10 Nov 2015 here better homes. tenant survey. 
 8 Dec 2015 here feedback on the Croydon Learning Exchange Event. better homes external works. tenant surveys. group review.

12 Jan 2016 here   Election of chair and vice-Chair. better homes. Recruitment Plan 2016
9 Feb 2016 here Overview of anti-social behaviour
15 March 2016 here Code of Conduct. Noise nuisance. better homes.
12 April 2016 here (march minutes not included) 
Mention of members of group being unpaid volunteers. 

10 May 2016 here


Update 18 April 2016 
In regards to the minutes: I'm sure some of this years minutes put up have been amended as I remember reading where the mention of members or a member not to tell others what to do was minuted or words to that effect and the last minutes where one of the groups members threatened staff re to make a complaint but can't find them now.

Any relation to why March's minutes haven't been put up on councils website?

I wonder who the person/s are who tell others what to and who issue threats. Thats a hard one to guess .......

Update 11 July 2016
The group are meeting tomorrow 12 July 2016 HERE  but they haven't put the agenda or minutes of their 14 June 2016 meeting HERE 
up on the councils website. 


Update 12 August 2016
Another meeting ( 9 Aug 2016) HERE but no documents or agenda. Something amiss going on but not being made public i suspect.

some notes 

Despite the CHRSG terms of reference/constitution stating the membership of the group shall consist of 15 members all of whom shall be Camden tenants or leaseholders comprising

• 5 representatives from the District Management Committee (1 per district)

• 1 representative from the Camden Leaseholders Forum

• 1 representative from the Camden Association of Street Properties

• 8 independent members

casp has managed to get 2 casp reps on the panel. One I assume was put up directly by casp, the other by the Gospel Oak dmc who should have put up someone else but didn't and who shouldn't have got past the interview panel [imo] but did. 

How do casp keep getting away with breaking the rules, general taking the pee, throwing their weight around?

I suspect the answer to that is with a lot of help from various council people and other tenant reps who collude with them or who look the other way.

Also, it appears that in collusion with Camden council casp set up a 'gardening project' using public money from tenant rents/charges via various dmc's -  to provide free gardening maintenance to council street property tenants. Tenants on estates have to pay for gardening maintenance as a service charge.

Perhaps the CHRSG would look into such issues?