Winchester Tower Inspection - March 2024

Work continues in several area identified during the inspection.

The No Smokeing Signs will be added shortly. The letterboxes are still an issues for the Property Services team and is a component of the new fire doors which have started to be rolled out.

It has not been possible for the picnic bench nor the resurfacing of the parking area due to budgetary restrictions.

However, the garden has been tidied up using the Community Payback mechanism.

Also, the request for a water tap to be installed has been requested and should be actioned soon by the Estates Aesthetics team. This has been delayed due to technical reasons which have now been resolved.

The walkaround audit/inspection of Winchester Tower took place 2pm on the 20^th of March. Joining the inspection were six residents of the tower block. Also present was a local Councillor, the area Housing Officer, the caretakers, two Service Improvement officers and Jamie Winter the Housing Team Leader – Estate Management.

Each element of the inspection was reviewed by the group and a consensus score agreed, often by a vote by the residents including the online/paper views.

It was a great opportunity for the residents of Winchester Tower and the City Council to work together to improve the estates in the areas considered important to the people who live there. Various actions were identified:

• - No Smoking Signs
• - Tree team - tidy trees to the rear.
• - Increased Car Park signage
• - Car Park resurfacing including enforceable emergency area.
  
• - Rear garden clear up
  
• - Communal Bin clean
  
• - Litter bins out front
  
• - Rear garden picnic bench
  
• - New letter box improvements

Updates will be provided as the work progresses in these areas so keep an eye on the Get Talking Norwich page for Winchester Tower and the various notice boards and screens.

This walkaround was a very valuable experience which will used to improve future inspections. The preparation and execution of this project shows how much can be achieved for tenant engagement when people work together in joint ventures against a common target. Add improvement ideas to the Get Talking Norwich page or feedback through the caretakers or housing officers.

A big thank you to everyone who helped to make this a very productive day.

Walkaround Results.

Converting to numeric score based on Housemark system gives 81%. * indicates double score.

The Community Pages HUB is for residents of Winchester Tower, Suffolk Square and Melbourne Cottages.

https://gettalking.norwich.gov.uk/hub-page/townclose

Whether you're new to the area, a familiar face, or just interested in your area, this hub is for you! This is a chance to make a difference in your community. You can tell us how to improve council services and connect with other residents.

Register now to get involved.

Hello,

We have a received several survey results this week - thank you for all you contributions. The information will integrated into the walkaround inspection results.

Please look at the attached help document which shows what the grades look like in practice. This will help us obtain consistent inspection results as the gradings will all be based on common definitions.

Please remember to add comments to the "Your Ideas" section so we can improve the inspection process. We would like your input into the survey, walkaround request process and anything else you can think of to make these inspections more effective.

The walkaround is on the 20th of March and there is still time to request to join the team. Please come and say hello if you see us!

We have some very interesting comments in the Map section.

There was a comment about the garden area and the desire for some seating to be installed. This is currently underway with a new furniture supplier being hired.

It was also reported that some shed doors were rotten - individual problems like that can be reported via the Report It page on the main Norwich City Council website.

It was also suggested that there was drug dealing in the area. We will be having discussions with the Community Safety team regarding this and instances can be reported as Anti-Social Behaviour on our website.

Discussion on the cleanliness standards you can expect from our brilliant caretaking service will be provided at our walkaround. Remember, there is still time to request to join the walkaround on March 20^th.

There was a concern about the move to WIFI telephones. There is no communal WIFI provided in council run buildings and residents should provide their own internet/WIFI connection. However Winchester Tower does have excellent 5G coverage.

Once the walkaround has taken place the results will be placed here along with the improvement progress.