Community News, March 2017

March 2017 Bron Afon Community Housing Edition 27

Community News

Better together how members are getting involved and making a difference

Meet Alan Brunt, our new chief executive

Join 1200 tenants using My Account

Check out our major work plan Win ÂŁ100 worth of vouchers

If you would prefer to be sent Community News in an email, large print, braille, audio, Welsh or any other language, then please let us know.

The magazine for tenants, leaseholders and Members of Bron Afon Community Housing

March 2017 Bron Afon Community Housing Edition 27

Community News A taster of

what’s inside Customer service standards pg 6

Tenant satisfaction survey results pg 8-9 £30.5m for new homes pg 11

“What my support worker

has done in such a short space of time is incredible.”

“Mae’r hyn mae fy

A fyddech cystal a gofyn os hoffech unrhyw ran o’n gwybodaeth yn Gymraeg, Gallwch wneud hynny drwy ymweld â ni neu ysgrifennu atom yn y cyfeiriad isod neu drwy ffonio 01633 620 111.

Os yw’n well gennych siarad â ni drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg gallwn drefnu i siaradwr Cymraeg fod yn bresennol mewn apwyntiad.

ngweithiwr cymorth wedi ei wneud mewn cyn lleied o amser yn anhygoel.”

We love supporting people over 50 to be in control of their lives Rydym wrth ein bodd yn cefnogi pobl dros 50 oed i reoli eu bywydau

Find out how we could help you • Darganfyddwch sut y gallem eich helpu chi 01495 766447 • gateway@torfaen.gov.uk

Got a story?

If you have a story or photo for this magazine please let us know. Maybe you have a tip you want to share or a letter on an interesting subject? You can tell us your news in lots of ways.

Call Vicki Morgan-Curtis on 01633 620 110 Email communitynews@bronafon.org.uk Write Bron Afon Community Housing Limited, Tyˆ Bron Afon, William Brown Close, Llantarnam Industrial Park, Cwmbran, Torfaen NP44 3AB

/bronafon /bronafon /bronafonvideos Cover stars: Leah Hill, Shannon Brandon and Cameron Knight.

Main photo: Gavin Dando

In my own words...

“It's lovely to be working in South Wales again.”

“I’m very happy to be joining Bron Afon as its new chief executive and helping to build on its excellent reputation for working with tenants and customers to give them the services they need.

“Over the next few months, Bron Afon will be supported by our members to produce its Corporate Plan. This is the important document that will help us make our decisions over the coming years and I’m pleased to be a part of that right at the beginning. I’ve always seen it as important that we work well with tenants and customers to set the future direction for housing associations and I can’t wait to start working with some of you to produce a Corporate Plan that is going to make a big difference to our communities.

Alan Brunt, Chief Executive

“I’ve worked in housing for many years in different jobs and I’ve always been passionate about it.

“I was drawn to this role because I share Bron Afon’s desire to help improve the lives of people in the communities we serve. That desire comes through loudly and clearly in the impressive range of community initiatives and activities Bron Afon supports.

“Sadly, the demand for more high-quality, affordable homes is as high as ever but it’s great to see that Bron Afon will play its part in meeting that need. Just as I arrived, we had approval from our lenders to borrow £30.5m to build 450 homes and you can read more about that on Page 11.

“It’s lovely to be working in South Wales again as I remember it as a very friendly and welcoming place. I hope to see you at an event very soon!”

Nine of our members helped us to recruit our new chief executive. They helped us to come up with questions and took part in the interviews.

Michael Weedall, one of our members, said: “I think it was an important part of the process to have local residents involved in choosing Bron Afon’s new chief executive. We all had a chance to ask the candidates some questions and talk a bit more about their answers.”

Michael Weedall

Page 3

Why is my rent balance higher than it should be?

You will have recently received a letter detailing how much rent Bron Afon is going to charge from April onwards. The amount of rent that Bron Afon charges only changes in April, so for the rest of the year, you can expect to see the same amount being charged each week.

Depending on the method you use to pay and if you receive any benefits to help you pay your rent, then the balance you see may seem higher that you’d expect.

Join 1200 tenants who have signed up to

My Account

Check your balance and recent transactions at any time by registering for My Account. It’s free and takes two minutes. Visit: www.bronafon.org.uk/my-account/.

You’ll need your tenancy reference number, which you can find on your rent statement.

You can also access My Account by using the app on Facebook. Just go to the top of our Facebook page /bronafon and press “Use App”.

“I pay by Direct Debit” Your payments are worked out to make sure your account is clear by the end of the financial year. As some months will have four weeks and others will have five weeks, this can cause your balance to show in credit or in debit depending on when you are checking it. So long as your account is clear by the end of the financial year, you have nothing to worry about. In the last couple of weeks, you will have received details of your new Direct Debit payment for this new financial year.

If you receive help towards your rent payments, then remember that these benefits may not be paid to Bron Afon on a weekly basis, so your balance may seem higher than you’d expect at certain times during the month. If you receive Housing Benefit, check your balance on the same week that it’s paid. If your account is still in debt, you will need to either clear this in full or make an affordable arrangement to clear this amount.

“I receive Housing Benefit” Housing Benefit is only paid by the council every four weeks. This means that the debt on your account continues to increase every week over a four week period until the council sends a payment to Bron Afon. Your Housing Benefit is not a guaranteed payment and can be stopped at any time. If you have a change in your circumstances it may be suspended, which means that you will need to pay your total weekly rent charge yourself until Housing Benefit is back in payment.

Tenants will now receive an annual rent statement instead of one every three months. If we have an email address for the account holder, we’ll use that to send the rent statement. The changes will save thousands of pounds a year in postage and printing costs.

Ryan Dorrian, Bron Afon’s assistant money solutions manager, said: “We have listened to our tenants about how confusing the frequent rent statements can be. The My Account portal is easier to follow and our new-look annual statement will be much easier to understand.

“My Account is so simple to use and it’s better than having to wait three months for your next statement to be able to see your balance.”

We understand some tenants would prefer to continue with a paper statement in the post every three months. If you would prefer this, please email enquiries@bronafon.org.uk, send us a message on Facebook or call our customer services team on 01633 620 111 to let us know.

“I’ve been awarded a Discretionary Housing Payment” Discretionary Housing Payments are only paid by the council every four weeks. This means that the debt on your account continues to increase every week over a four week period until the council sends a payment to Bron Afon. Discretionary Housing Payments are only paid for a short period of time and you need to re-apply on a regular basis. You will receive a letter advising you when your payments are due to expire. If you don’t re-apply, your rent payments will increase.

Page 4

Rent statements are changing

Do you claim Housing Benefit?

Do you pay the “bedroom tax”?

New changes in the rules mean that what you have been paying for your “bedroom tax” may come to an end.

From April 1, an extra bedroom may be allowed when:

• a disabled child or non-dependent

adult needs and has overnight care from a non-resident carer (or group of carers).

• o ne or both persons in a couple are

unable to share a bedroom because of their disabilities.

This may mean your housing benefit could increase so there will be less of a strain on your budget.

If you are affected by these changes, call Torfaen Council’s Benefits Department on 01495 762 200.

Grass cutting

and our

Offer Document We had a lot of phone calls after our letter explaining what rent you will pay during 2017/18 was sent out in March. The Welsh Government requires us to show you the cost of your rent separated from the cost of the services you receive. Last year, we provided a list of services for information, which included communal services within blocks. We have now been able to identify the grass cutting cost and so the appearance of ‘grass cutting’ has been included this year.

We hope this explanation will help.

• If you signed your tenancy

agreement before April 2016, the cost of these services is included within the rent you pay and that part of the letter was for your information only. You are not being asked to pay any more.

• If you signed your tenancy

agreement after April 2016, the cost of these services is added to your rent. This was explained to you when you signed so you were aware of what you would have to pay.

We hope this helps and sorry for any confusion.

Page 5

Bron Afon’s Customer Service Standards Our Customer Service Standards relate to all services we provide to you. This includes: • an enquiry - no matter how you make it.

• a request for a repair and while completing work to your home or in your community.

• a customer case (for example, when providing you with support following a case of anti-social behaviour, an insurance claim or damp in your home).

When you contact us, we want you to: • know that we have listened to you, fully understood your problem and the outcome you are looking for.

• feel valued by Bron Afon and know that your service request is important to us.

• feel that we have given you the correct advice and support.

• understand what action we will take.

• know how and when we will keep you informed about progress.

• feel satisfied with the outcome of your conversation with us and understand the reason for any decisions.

When we are dealing with your case, enquiry or request we will: • keep our promises made at first contact.

• keep you up to date on progress.

• let you know if we need to make changes to actions agreed and explain our reasons for this.

• let you know who is dealing with your request.

• be open and honest if we are unable to do something that you have asked of us, explaining our reasons for this and offering you other options if we can.

• keep up to date records of our contact and communications with you.

• offer you the right advice and support from start to finish.

Whenever we arrange a visit to your home for an appointment or to carry out work, we will: • let you know in advance when we will be visiting.

Check out • turn up when we say we will. the next • do our very best to meet your personal needs and circumstances. page to find out • respect your home and leave it clean and tidy where we have how members completed work. are doing their • finish any work to your satisfaction. a gree any follow up action required and ask you how frequently • bit to help you would like us to update you for on-going cases. us improve • check before we leave that you are happy and there is nothing communities. outstanding.

When we’ve finished a call, resolved a case or enquiry, or completed work in your home, we will: • let you know the outcome within agreed timescales.

• explain the reason for the decisions we have made.

• record the outcome and where necessary, confirm it to you in writing.

• ask for feedback on how satisfied you are with our service.

• ask if you feel there is anything we could have done better.

Page 6 • learn from your feedback.

We're better together!

In the last Community News, we told you how we are making it even easier to get involved with Bron Afon. Since then,

we’ve signed up 214 new members, who have given us 1,492 volunteer hours to improve our services and communities. You’ll see this sign on pages in this magazine to show you more of how we have worked together so far.

Here are some of the events and groups that have been held and set up since last September.

Asbestos information A group of our online members helped us to make sure that our Asbestos information was easy to understand before we published it on our website.

The Valleys Task Force Seventeen of our members and residents took part in a meeting run by the Welsh Government’s Valleys Task Force. It was a chance to tell the minister running the project how they feel the valleys could be a better place to live.

Complaints Learning Forum Last October, 14 members and three staff helped us review our complaints policy.

Karen from Pontnewynydd said: “As a Bron Afon tenant, being involved has made me feel valued and that my opinion matters.”

We have also set up a Complaints Learning Forum, which will continue to work with us to make sure we provide the best service when dealing with complaints.

Training - coming soon!

We are working with our members and community groups to look at any training they would like to carry on making a great difference in their communities. Keep an eye on our website for more information.

Mutual respect.

Mutual support.

Mutual learning.

Mutual goals.

Supporting People communication workshop In November, we met with 19 members who helped us improve how we share information about our services to residents aged over 50. Their ideas are being used in our campaign to publicise our Supported Living Service. You can also see our advert on page 2.

Castle Street Allotment We are proud to have supported Castle Street allotment growers in their successful bid to get £4880 Lottery funding.

They have installed an accessible, compostable toilet, which will help people to use the allotment no matter what their age or ability.

Talk to us about getting involved

• Sign up using My Account •E mail community.involvement@bronafon.org.uk •F acebook or Twitter /bronafon • Call 01633 620 111 • Visit www.bronafon.org.uk Page 7

Annual tenant satisfaction survey:

your views and what you told us

Thanks to everyone who took part in our 2016 tenant “satisfaction survey. Your comments have helped us to make some

important decisions about how we improve our services. In response, we’ve outlined these on page 9. On page 6, you can read our new customer service standards. The page sets out in black and white the standards you can expect from us. We want you to use this to hold us to account if you feel we’ve fallen short anywhere, so please get in touch and let us know if this happens.

”

The results

• We spoke to one in five tenants (1,600 tenants in total)

• 8 2% of you are satisfied with the overall service you

receive from Bron Afon. This has increased from 70% in our 2014 survey.

• 8 2% of you are satisfied with the quality of your home.

This has increased from 70% in our 2014 survey.

• 5 % of you are very dissatisfied with all aspects of the service you receive from us.

82% 5%

Ian Simpson, director of community housing and support

82%

How we compare to other housing associations This table shows how we compare with the average of eight similar stock transfer housing associations in Wales. It’s also useful to see what we have to achieve to be in the best housing associations in England and Wales.

Aspect of service

Our 2016 Satisfaction Survey (% satisfied)

The average of eight similar housing associations in Wales

The average of the top 25% of housing associations in England and Wales

Overall service Quality of home Neighbourhood Value for money of rent Repairs and maintenance Listens to my views and acts on them

82% 82% 86% 83%

82% 82% 85% 82%

92.6% 89.7% 91.8% 90.1%

72%

75%

87.7%

64%

67%

82.3%

Page 8

Help improve our services Our new way of involving residents - The Feeling Is Mutual - makes sure we listen and act on what you are telling us could get better. We hold a Tenant Services Forum and a Mutual Futures event several times a year so that members can challenge how we do things and suggest ways to improve.

Turn to page 7 to find out how easy it is to get involved.

Regular checks If you’ve asked for a service from us recently, it’s likely you’ll have been asked a few simple questions about your experience. This is a chance for us to keep a close eye on your views across our services as we get results every three months. It only takes two minutes to answer the questions and we really appreciate your taking part.

Some issues you’ve told us about in these regular checks and our 2016 tenants’ survey and what we are doing about them

• You wanted more confidence and

certainty on our repairs appointments We’re introducing an appointment system in August, so when you contact us to report a repair, you will be able to choose a convenient time for us to visit your home.

• You’ve told us our customer service

is inconsistent We’ve given all staff the same customer service training with clear standards on how they can provide a better service. You’ll find our service standards on page 6.

• You said we weren’t

communicating with you well or keeping you informed of progress when you reported an issue to us If you report an issue which we cannot resolve immediately, we’ll make an agreement with you as to how frequently you’d like to be updated on progress. We’ve also brought in checks to make sure these agreements are being kept.

• You said you had to wait a long time on the phone

We’ve introduced My Account, which means you can check your rent balance, report a repair and anti social behaviour online. This has helped reduce the number of calls we’ve received, giving time for us to answer more difficult requests.

• You told us you were more satisfied with your

neighbourhood than you were in 2014 We’ve created an on-line form that people can use to report problems with the places around their homes. To help improve neighbourhoods even further, we’re carrying out customer satisfaction surveys with tenants and residents who reported to us using the form. This will be completed

by April and we’ll act on any findings during the year.

Tenant Services Forum Tenants and residents are working with us to look at what you’re telling us so that we can improve services. They’re also making sure that community involvement is at the heart of everything we do.

We have an Equality and Diversity reference group made up of staff and members, who work together to make sure that we are providing services that are accessible to everyone.

Getting to know you better Win £100 of vouchers Thanks to everyone who filled in the survey that was in the last Community News.

There’s still time to win £100 worth of vouchers. All you have to do is fill in the survey and return it to us by post (our address is on page 2) or email it to: Tenant.Profiling@bronafon.org.uk.

We’ll enter your name into a draw to win the voucher. Don’t have a survey? Get in touch and we’ll send you one.

Your information is safe.

We’ll store it on your tenancy record. We won’t share any information that identifies you with someone else. Of course, we’ll respect your right to refuse to give us information.

Page 9

This year’s major work programme: 1 April 2017 - 31 March 2018 We will be spending over £23 million on repairing and improving tenants’ homes during 2017/18.

The work will include day-to-day emergency repairs as well as replacing roofs to make homes more energy efficient. This will help tenants use less gas and electricity.

We will look at the condition of tenants’ homes to make sure we get the most out of the money we have to spend.

How will I know if my home is due to have any work?

If your home is included in our work programme for 2017-2018, we will carry out a survey. We will write to you before the end of May to let you know when this will happen. The letter will also say what the survey will involve (for example, inspecting your roof or windows). Some of this work will be just a visual check from the street, so you may see staff with ID badges in your area.

What happens next?

After we have done the surveys, we will write to you to explain what type of work will be done to your home (if your home is not in our work programme, we will write to let you know why and what happens next).

Once we find the best contractor for the job, we will send you a letter to let you know who they are and when they will start. We will give you plenty of notice of when they will be coming to make sure there is as little disruption as possible for you.

What kind of work is covered in our major work programme?

Adaptations: We have £1m to carry out minor adaptations such as grab rails and level access showers and major adaptations such as extensions.

Improving communal areas in blocks of flats: Work will include new doors and door entry systems, lighting, flooring, electrical upgrades and making the building safe to meet fire regulations.

Blocks of flats and homes in Southville: Our work in Southville will include removing cavity wall insulation, fitting EWI and in some cases, re-roofing and upgrading electrics.

Page 10

Environmental improvements: We have to meet Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) improvement work to communal areas and spaces by next year. This year, we have £500,000 to spend on improving fencing, paths, communal drying areas, car parks and soft and hard landscaping in Abersychan and Blaenavon.

Blocks of flats in Northville: We will be spending £750,000 to improve blocks of flats in Northville. The work will include fitting EWI (External Wall Insulation), re-roofing and electrical upgrades to communal areas.

External wall insulation (EWI) and roofing in Trevethin: We have £800,000 to spend on fitting EWI and in some areas, new roofs.

External wall insulation in Blaenavon: tenants’ homes will be getting external wall insulation in the Ty Fry and Hillside areas.

Gardens: We will be spending £800,000 on work in gardens, previously identified as non-urgent repairs.

Responsive repairs and empty homes: Our repairs service will spend £4,216,800 on repairs and getting empty homes ready for new tenants.

Roofing: We have a very large planned programme of roof replacements for homes right across Torfaen. This will help us to reduce the need for repairs and stop bigger problems happening in the future.

Building homes, creating jobs - an update on our building programme We have secured loans of £30.5m to build new homes: This fantastic news means that we can now plan to build 450 much-needed, affordable homes over the coming years.

Here are some of the projects we have finished and are about to start.

• 37 Clarence Street,

Pontypool: we have replaced run-down offices with two new flats in a building that now helps to improve the entrance to the town.

37 Clarence Street before…

• H enry Hughes House,

Pontypool: in partnership with the council and the Welsh Government's Vibrant and Viable Places regeneration fund, we are about to start work on converting this building into nine one-bedroom flats and one two-bedroom flat.

… and after

• E lmhurst Close,

Trevethin: We will be building two houses and two flats.

• B lenheim Road,

Cwmbran: We are building four new homes. There will be some landscaping work done at the bottom of the slope to create a community meeting spot.

There will also be a new road and space for parking.

Work has started at Blenheim Road

Henry Hughes House, former home of The Free Press newspaper.

Councillor Gwyneira Clark cuts the first sod of soil at Elmhurst Close Page 11

How we are doing A round-up of our performance from April to December 2016

Customer Services

e answered 77,176 calls out of 91,425 we received.

•W • T he time taken to answer a call was on average 64.53 seconds.

Community Environmental work

•

7 09 reports were logged via our Love Where We Live and Work form on our website.

We dealt with 670 reports and the rest were picked up by the council. Thanks to you, we carried out 347 fly tipping clean-ups, sorted out 174 waste and recycling problems and 50 grounds maintenance issues.

Repairs

Re-letting homes

• I t took us an average

• T he average time

•W e completed 93.51%

•W e provded 490 homes

of 12.34 days to complete repairs.

of repairs at first visit.

to re-let a property was 26.19 days.

to people looking for accommodaton in Torfaen.

Members’ satisfaction survey In December 2016, we carried out an annual survey with our active members to find out how being involved with Bron Afon made them feel. Here’s what we asked them and how they answered: Has being involved with Bron Afon: Made you feel that you can influence decisions?

91% Yes Made you feel more involved in matters that are important to you?

95% Yes Made you feel more confident in taking part in activities?

90% Yes Helped you learn new things?

91% Yes Empowered you to make a change within Bron Afon or your community? 93% Yes Made you feel more of a part in your community?

95% Yes Page 12

What’s occurring on the Board?

Hi everyone

Stephen Brooks KSS JP

I’ve been a Board member for the past five years and I’ve seen many positive changes in the way we work and the services we provide. I’m pleased with how the Board has developed and I think we have the right membership and abilities around the table to make a real difference - but we don’t take this for granted. All of us will soon be assessed to find any gaps in our skills and to see if there are any areas for improvement.

We’re working with Bron Afon’s Senior Management Team to make sure that the organisation is on the right track and I’m confident this will continue with Alan Brunt, our new Chief Executive.

Coming up, there will be a lot of challenges for us. Like a lot of organisations, we’re facing difficult financial times. As we start on our new Corporate Plan, this will be one of the key issues for us to think about. We’ll also be asking for your views on what our priorities should be.

Bron Afon is entering a new and exciting phase in its history and with your help, I’m sure we’ll go from strength to strength. There’ll be lots of opportunities to get involved and I’m looking forward to working with you all.

Together, I know we can make Bron Afon’s next chapter our best yet!

Best wishes, Stephen

Making a complaint If you want to complain, we can support you in many ways:

• We can write the complaint for you.

• I f English isn’t your first language,

we can arrange for an interpreter to help you.

If Welsh is your first language, we can give you bilingual information.

Hearing not great? Don’t worry, we have a hearing loop.

Eyesight not great? We can arrange to give you information in large print, in braille or on CD. If you’re visiting us, we have disabled access.

• • • •

February saw our first ever

Mutual Futures event.

Nearly 100 of our members came along to help us look at what the most important things are to our communities. It was a great evening and we got lots of fantastic ideas.

It was the first of many involvement opportunities for members to help us design our new Corporate Plan and there are more to come. We want you to be part of this, so please keep a look out on our website, social media and invitations for details of some special events we will be holding this year.

Page 13

Smart meters are the

new generation of gas and electricity meters which will replace the traditional meters in our homes.

For more information about smart meters and how they can help you visit smartenergyGB.org

Every home in England, Scotland and Wales will be offered a smart meter by their energy supplier, at no extra cost, between now and 2020.

Your supplier will be in touch to arrange an appointment when they are ready to install yours.

Smart meters will enable you to see exactly how much energy you’re using as you use it, and what it is costing in pounds and pence. They take regular readings and share these directly with your energy supplier through a secure wireless network, putting an end to estimated bills and manual meter readings.Smart Energy GB is the voice of the smart meter rollout.

Please be aware that not all homes are suitable to have smart meters installed. If you decide to have one put in, please let us know.

Test your smoke alarms on Test It Tuesday!

• Don’t disconnect your

•

T S

T Y E

•

smoke alarms If your smoke alarms stop working, tell Bron Afon straightaway Don’t forget that a smoke alarm can save your life but only if it’s working - so Test It every Tuesday

For more information on fire safety in your home, go to: www.southwales-fire.gov.uk

DA

Page 14

Enough’s Enough How we are promoting safer relationships for young women through learning and art.

Our Enough’s Enough project has been going on for just over two years. It’s run by Andrea Davies from Cyfannol Women’s Aid and Jon Phillips from Cardiffbased Pippin’s Designs.

Young women aged 16-27, who have experienced domestic abuse, take part in group discussions on how to recognise unhealthy relationships.

Andrea said: “When the young women leave, they have the tools to keep safe and they know that there is support in place to help them.”

The participants also create their own artwork by painting pictures of people who mean a lot to them. Sessions like this work well. They give the young women a chance to talk freely and to share their experiences. Jon said: “When they paint, they often open up and talk about who they are painting - their family and friends, pop stars they like.”

Tamara Short, 20 and Abbie Ponting-Moss, 23, have taken part in Enough’s Enough. Abbie said: “Bron Afon are offering a lot to support people. It’s not just about housing, is it?”

Interested in Enough Is Enough? Check out our video on You Tube:

“Coming on these courses has done wonders for our confidence and self-esteem. It opens your eyes.

It makes you think.”

Tamara

/bronafonvideos to find out more. You can also get in touch with Donna Marsh, young people and families support officer, on 01633 620 111.

Love where we live and work Are you someone who:

• Cares about the area where you live?

• Wants to change the places around where you live and is proud to make a difference?

• Is willing to work with others to solve problems?

• Gets to know people on a first name basis?

• Wants to encourage others to get involved?

If this is you, why not become one of our Environmental Champions?

Contact Steve Caddy, environmental team leader, for more information.

Call 01633 620 443 • Email: steve.caddy@bronafon.org.uk • www.bronafon.org.uk Page 15

Just for leaseholders One bill not two Just to remind you, we are now issuing all invoices for your service charges in April. This is different from previous years, when many of you used to receive a second invoice in the autumn. Only leaseholders whose lease provides a different date to 1 April for their ground rent will receive a second invoice later in the year.

Leaseholder Links our new social media forum coming soon We are developing a social media forum for leaseholders. It will give you the chance to chat to each other and give help by sharing experiences.

The preferred option is a closed group on Facebook, so Bron Afon is supporting a leaseholder to set it up. Interested in joining the forum? Please email LeaseHold@bronafon.org.uk and we’ll pass the information on to the leaseholder who is administrator for the group.

New starter in the team We started the new year with the arrival of Miriam Heare, who replaces Joanna Grenfell as our leasehold officer.

To find out which areas Miriam will be covering and her contact details, Miriam Heare take a look at our page on Bron Afon’s website: https://www.bronafon.org.uk/leaseholders/ You can also call Miriam on 01633 620 434.

March 2017 Bron Afon Community Housing Edition 27

Keeping blocks safe as well as clean - meet Ioan and Steve, community environmental officers Two teams of community environmental officers look after Ioan Protheroe communal areas in and Steve Escott our blocks of flats.

Malcolm Purcell and Jason Harris cover north Torfaen and Steve Escott and Ioan Protheroe cover south Torfaen.

The teams are responsible for making sure that blocks stay not just clean and fresh but are safe for residents, too.

We caught up with Steve and Ioan, who told us about the daily service they provide.

Steve said: “This job is a whole lot more than mopping and sweeping up. We also carry out checks on lighting, fire doors and fire alarms.

It’s an important part of what we do. We have to report back any hazards so that they can be dealt with by our Duty of Care team as soon as possible.”

Ioan said: “Our job isn’t just about day to day cleaning. We also respond to emergency call-outs and report fly tipping.

“Our relationship with tenants and residents is on the whole really good - they tell us if they notice fly tipping and anything else that isn’t right. A lot of them tell us they appreciate our work.

“Some of the things we have to do aren’t very pleasant but I like the variety, being out and about and meeting people.”