OPENHOUSE Winter 2014
Crown Simmons Residents’ Newsletter
We’re moving! Following from our successful merger in August we will be operating from new offices in Esher town centre, at First Floor, Aissela, 46 High Street, Esher KT10 9QY, on Tuesday December 16th. This will enable our staff, who have been working out of two different offices in Cheam and Esher, to come together in one single location. The feasibility of modernising Rosemary House to provide more suitable office accommodation was looked into, but did not offer value for money. Alternatively we are exploring the possibility of converting both the Rosemary House and Cheam Court offices into residential accommodation, and expect to make the final decisions in early 2015. The office will be closed to callers Friday 12th and Monday 15th December to facilitate the move. Please contact
the appropriate emergency number for your property on these days (found on the back of this issue). We are keeping exactly the same telephone number as the Rosemary House office (01372 461 440) and email addresses, such as enquiries@ crownsimmons.org.uk will also remain the same. No designated visitors’ parking is available at the new office itself, but public car parks are easily accessible and there is limited free onroad parking close-by.
Residents at Highbury View get new white goods! In spring the Civil Service Insurance Society’s Charity provided funds to buy new white goods for some residents at Highbury View in Islington. The funding allowed us to replace old, energy-consuming fridges and freezers, with new, energy-efficient items.
It’s made a big difference to the residents’ lives, including Mr Hunt from Highbury View, who said of his new fridge; “I can now purchase bargains from Tesco from their reduced price ‘clearance shelf’. I used to see bargains but had no room for them to keep frozen. This is a great saving for me.”
Mr Hunt with his new fridge
Community garden in Molesey wins £1,000 funding! In July we launched the first Iris Simmons Community Award with the help of Elmbridge Borough Council. The award gives funding of up to £1,000 to a community project that benefits older people in Elmbridge. The award was funded through donations made in the name of Iris Simmons, the co-founder of Rosemary Simmons Memorial Housing Association and former Mayor of Elmbridge, after her passing in 2013.
Left - right, Jan Saunders, Jane Pritchard and Jane Worsley present cheque to Friends of Molesey Centre
just sitting and chatting in the beauty that will surround them. We at Molesey Centre are very excited about the whole project.”
The award will help create a new, accessible, dementia-friendly art garden in West Molesey, created by Friends of Molesey Centre, which will allow the community to benefit from the currently un-used space. Jane Pritchard, Molesey Centre Manager said, “We cannot express our appreciation enough, we know that many local groups will enjoy working on the garden while it is being established and then will enjoy walking, pottering around the raised beds or Designer’s plan for the new garden
Fixing repairs
Improving your services
Following a review of our repairs and maintenance service earlier this year, which included holding focus groups with residents about changes they’d like to see, we’re preparing new arrangements for this important service in 2015. It is intended that a single contractor will undertake the majority of all maintenance work in future, and we’re confident that this will provide a better level of service for residents; delivering higher customer satisfaction and better value for money. Consultation with residents about the new-look service is on-going, we particularly wish to have some residents help us evaluate the quality of the contractors who formally bid for
the new maintenance contract. This would include residents visiting the contractors’ headquarters with our staff and meeting some of the contractor’s existing customers to find out how they rate the service they receive. If you’d be interested in getting involved please contact Crown Simmons’ Property Services Manager, Chris Patient on 01372 461459 or chris.patient@crownsimmons.org.uk
We’re looking to make our services better suited to provide support for older people. Throughout the year we’ve been talking to residents at our supported housing schemes to find out what they like about where they live and the services that their scheme managers provide. As part of our new Older People’s Strategy, we’ve been reviewing our properties and looking to see how they can be improved to provide the most comfortable home possible, through adaptations or upgraded heating systems. We want to make sure that our homes are not only comfortable to live in now, but also able to meet the needs of all of our residents in the future.
Getting to know you! Meet the team! Some new faces have joined the team at Crown Simmons Housing in the customer services, repairs and maintenance and housing departments!
Residents at Highbury View with the Pearly King and Prince in Islington
We’d like to get to know our residents better so we can provide you with better services. Enclosed with this issue is a questionnaire and prepaid envelope. The questionnaire focuses on the best way to contact you and also asks for some general information about your household circumstances. You can also fill out this questionnaire online by going to our website at crownsimmons.org.uk – you only need to complete the survey once. Send it to us by the 30th January to be entered into our prize draw to win a Kindle.
Please contact Elizabeth MacLeod at the association on 01372 461 449 or elizabeth.macleod@crownsimmons. org.uk if you have any questions or concerns about how the information in our survey will be used.
Malcolm Holden took the role of Maintenance Surveyor, Rowena Ballard joined us as the new Scheme Manager at Gunters Mead, Pippa Claydon has begun her new position as a Housing Officer, and Anthony Eremie and Tina Firth have joined temporarily as Customer Services Officers to answer calls and help residents and other customers find what they’re looking for.
Left - right, Rowena Ballard, Tina Firth, Anthony Eremie, Malcolm Holden and Pippa Claydon
Cakes for charity This year staff and residents across Crown Simmons took part in Macmillan’s ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ on the 26th of September. Everyone had a great time baking cakes and biscuits for donations to Macmillan; a charity that supports people with cancer and their families. At the end of the day together our schemes; Gunters Mead in Oxshott, Highbury View in Islington, Mole Abbey in West Molesey, and the office in Esher helped to raise over £784! Let us know if you took part in any coffee mornings and share your photos online at facebook.com/crownsimmons
Residents at Gunters Mead enjoy their tea and cakes
Highbury View’s impressive cake spread!
Winter closing This year our office will be closed from 1pm on Wednesday 24th December and open again on Friday 2nd January at 9am. If you need to report an emergency repair during this time, please contact the appropriate out-of-hours repair team: Previous Rosemary Simmons Residents: • Call Smith & Byford: 0800 804 8456
Name our new newsletter and win As part of becoming Crown Simmons Housing, we’re looking for a new name for our newsletter! We’re looking to start afresh for the New Year and so for the next issue of the newsletter (due to come out in spring), we are looking for a name that reflects what we do and who we are!
Previous Crown Residents: • For plumbing, electrical & glazing emergencies, call Trios Property Ltd: 0845 300 5969 • For gas central heating emergencies, call Robert Heath Heating: 020 8336 6767 / 6763 Archbishop Coggan House Residents: • For plumbing, electrical & glazing emergencies, call Trios Property Ltd: 0845 300 5969 • For heating emergencies, call Maracom: 020 7987 8550 / 020 7356 7795 • For lift emergencies, call Amax Lifts: 01708 22022 The Orchard Residents:
If you have a suggestion for the name, please let Elizabeth MacLeod at the association know. You can contact Elizabeth by phone at 01372 461449 or email at elizabeth.macleod@ crownsimmons.org.uk - the person with the winning name will receive a £25 prize!
• Call Panda Service & Maintenance Ltd: 01295 724 222 Residents who live at schemes with a ‘community alarm system’ (red cord): • Pull your red cord if it is for a repair or medical emergency.
Ms Reekie from Imber Cross’ beautiful daisies!
Great green fingers In May we launched the 2014 Great Gardens competition which gave residents the chance to show off their green fingers! The amount and standard of all the entries we received was incredibly high so this year we added a runner-up prize too! Judging was performed by all the staff anonymously and the winning entries received £75-worth of gardening vouchers.
Private Garden Winner: Mrs Ollis from Gunters Mead Runner-up: Mrs Edwards from Imber Cross
Small & Beautiful Winner: Mrs Passmore and Mr Cunnett from Mole Abbey
Runner-up: Mrs Golledge from Mole Abbey We’d also like to thank Mr Spark and Mr Jackson at Belsize House in Worthing for working to clean-up the garden and create a great flower bed and vegetable patch. We hope that everyone who entered will continue to be proud of their garden and we hope to see everyone (and some new residents) enter next year! Mrs Edwards’s beautiful garden at Imber Place
First Floor, Aissela, 46 High Street, Esher KT10 9QY TEL: 01372 461440 WEB: www.crownsimmons.org.uk EMAIL: enquiries@crownsimmons.org.uk
Mrs Passmore and Mr Cunnett’s flower walk-way at Mole Abbey