In Touch autumn 2007 - Teign Housing

NewsChanges to ResourceCentre opening hoursThe Tenants’ Resource Centre isnow closing slightly earlier, at 6pmon Thursday evenings. It is openfrom 10am to 4pm Mondays andWednesdays and from 2pm to 6pm onThursdays.Competition winnerCongratulations to Mr Evans ofAshburton, who had the first correctentry pulled out of the hat for our“Where are we?” competition in thelast edition of In Touch. Mr Evansknew that the photograph was ofthe Library in Newton Abbot. Specialmention goes to all those clever folkswho knew that the building was partfunded by John Passmore Edwards,Victorian journalist and politician, inmemory of his mother who was bornin the town.To take part in this month’scompetition, turn to the back page.Sunflower competitionCongratulations to Cameron Winningof Netherton who has won theSummer sunflower competition forthe second year running. This yearhis tallest plant reached 6 foot9 inches (and is still growing).Cameron won a £25 gift voucher.Improvement programme updateImprovement works completed from April to July 2007Improvement Actual TargetKitchens 166 157Bathrooms 170 187Re-wiring 121 139Windows 97 75External decorations 223 226External doors 345 237Smoke detectors 24 96New heating installations 135 158Boiler training for staffKim and Shelley from the Customer Services Team with Jeff BondIf you had visited Teign Housing’s office on 24th July you would havedriven or walked past a large open-sided training lorry filled with boilers!Worcester Bosch held an open day for all Teign Housing staff to see howtheir new range of boilers operate. Jeff Bond of Worcester Bosch, gavehandy hints and tips to help staff answering repair calls to troubleshootcommon problems. The company will also be providing a troubleshootingmanual for staff and customers.Jeff let staff know that in 10% of repair visits made the problem was thatthe boiler had been unplugged from its electricity supply and just neededto be plugged back in. With the help of the troubleshooting manual staffshould be able to help customers fix more problems over the phone, savingmoney that would have been spend on sending out repair operatives.We install the Greenstar 28i Junior boiler as part of our improvementprogramme works. These boilers are 90% energy efficient, so 90p in every£1 is spent on heating.Board updatesNew chairmanIn August weannounced theappointment ofPeter Wharf as ournew Chairman ofthe Board. FormerChair, Stan Rodliffe,who stood downfrom the role inJuly, was appointedto the position ofVice Chair.Peter Wharf, whoPeter Wharfis recently retired,joined the Boardof Teign Housing in June. His professional experienceincludes 17 years with the Hoskyns Group, a computerservices company.Peter has a wealth of business experience gained in theIT, Telecommunications and Finance sectors, includinga role as the Managing Director of an IT company with1350 employees and a turnover of £135 million.Peter Wharf told In Touch “I am really proud to havebeen appointed as the new Chair of Teign Housing.This is an exciting time for Teign and its tenants.The delivery of the tenants promise improvementprogramme is well underway and we are making realprogress towards delivering the high quality serviceswe aspire to. We are driving ahead with our plans todeliver new affordable housing. I am very much lookingforward to getting started and playing a part in TeignHousing’s success.”Chief Executive, Mike Hanrahan said, “We are delightedto welcome Peter as our new Chair. Peter bringsvaluable knowledge and experience to the organisationand I am looking forward to working with him to makeTeign Housing the local landlord of choice.”Mike Hanrahan also paid tribute to the work undertakenby our former Chair, Stan Rodliffe. “Stan has played avital role for us over the past two years. We are reallypleased that Stan has been appointed as Vice Chair andwe look forward to his continued input on the Board ofTeign Housing.”Claire DoyleBoard member appointmentsAfter careful consideration, Sue Neale made the decisionto stand down from the Tenant Board Member election inJuly. With two vacancies and two candidates, Claire Doyleand Mike Tolchard were automatically re-elected to theBoard.Equality and diversitychampion appointedMikeTolchardDebby Wheatley, independentBoard member, has beenappointed as the Board’s equalityand diversity champion. In thisrole Debby will lead the Board inconsidering how the work thatTeign Housing does meets theneeds of it’s customers and staff.Debby updates In Touch on theBoard’s recent training day…Debby Wheatley“The Board Members’ training on equality anddiversity on 11th August was both stimulatingand thought provoking. We used the opportunityto define our understanding of equality – “fairtreatment for all”, and diversity – “treatingpeople as they would like to be treated”. Welearned that equality and diversity goes muchfurther than sex, disability, and race, extendingit to include faith, sexual orientation, age and,in its broadest sense, literacy and socialexclusion. Fundamentally, we also came tounderstand that as well as the clear legal andmoral obligations there are for us to have highstandards in equality and diversity, it also makesgood business sense for Teign.”45