Author: Dayal

Minutes from Residents Group Meeting 29/10

Minutes

Councillors: Liam, Anne

Location: Chad Gordon Campus

Agenda:

  • Updates from TGRG, FoTGP, 100TG/TGCC
  • Council updates:
    • Inc. Empty houses, New houses, Work on Council houses
    • Estate maintenance, ie points raised by Ruth C about cracked walls, etc.
  • Discussion on inviting others to meetings eg Council waste engagement officer, Estate manager, …
  • Councillors raised Draft new local plan
  • AOB

Notes (and actions in Bold)

  • Updates since last meeting in June
    • FoTGP
      • June picnic was self-funded, and a great success. TGRG co-sponsored.
      • Lots of productive working sessions.
      • TCV conservation sessions improved the woodland path, and more.
      • AGM in October: Alternate Sundays and Saturdays, aim for minimal Council reliance.
      • Promised a used playground, and a finance request for a new one next year.
    • TGCC
      • Event in Sept: A lot of work, but very fun and lots of engagement. Had over 230 on first day and 30 more for Open House. Again co-hosted with TGRG.
      • Cllr. Ruth Gordon put us in touch with finance/properties team. Discussing a purchase of building for community. Need to put together Business plan, have a valuation and survey and find capital funding… 
      • Help welcome! A few workshops should happen soon to discuss plans.
    • TGRG
      • Updates mostly overlap with previous ones.
      • Have a contact in Planning team about conservation area.
  • Council
    • Updates on housing
      • Empty properties in Tower Gardens
        • 280 Tower Gardens Road: Tenant scheduled to move in in September.
        • 230 Tower Gardens Road has been sold; council decided to dispose of it. Liam to report back on Council’s policy on selling council homes.
        • Other empty houses on estate: waiting for a start date for works to bring them back into a habitable condition; intention is for them to be used again as council homes. 
      • New builds on Risley Ave
        • Reason that the homes are unfinished is that the builders are waiting for the utilities to be installed by contractors: Thames Water, BT, etc. Installation is meant to take place this year but it depends on contractors.
      • £3M investment in Tower Gardens
        • This amount was earmarked in last budget for capital works. Due to start in January. Doesn’t include any public realm works; only investment in restoring council housing.
        • It will involve roof repairs in particular, but will also be spent on remedial works to structure of buildings, repairs to external fabric, upgrading entrances, loft insulation, and improving paving.
        • No consultation; there will just be planning notifications prior to the work commencing.
        • It was asked whether private freeholders can use the same contractors as the council eg to replace windows. Liam said he would make enquiries. It was noted that this was the case when double glazed windows installed in 2012, but also that quality of council contractors/work not always great.
    • Estate maintenance
      • There is an estate officer but general frustration at how complaints and requests seem to go round and round without ever being resolved. Role is maintenance support for council tenancies, not conservation area.
      • The council’s ‘Planning Enforcement’ team are responsible for enforcing Article 4, but most of their time is spent addressing ‘Houses with Multiple Occupancy’ issues.
      • Liam said that it might be useful to take a series of case studies / examples from residents of issues that have not yet been addressed.
      • It was noted that during the Open House tour earlier this year, participants were shocked by how many obvious violations of Article 4 there were.
      • Residents Group noted that Council does not inform their tenants that they live in a conservation area, example given of a recently rented void that now has a satellite dish on the front. Councillors questioned how easy it would be to coordinate getting leaflets to houses/new tenants.
    • Update on Haringey Local Plan
      • Tower Gardens was not mentioned in the plan. 
      • The priority in the Local Plan was on residential housing. New property being built by the council is focused on people with larger families and additional needs.
      • The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller sites near the Roundway and Broadwater farm were mentioned in the plan. The planning application for these sites has not yet been submitted by the council.
      • TGRG to coordinate a response to the local plan.
      • Liam to refer us to the parts of the local plan which are applicable to Tower Gardens (as it’s a long document). 
      • The consultation period on the local plan is still open.
    • AOB:
      • Observed that weeding pavements is being done less often by the council.
      • Lime bikes: Liam said he would like to see the rules changed so that you need to park in designated parking spaces more often. Each council has its own bargain with Lime; Liam would like to see there be a London-wide agreement.

Minutes from Tower Gardens Residents Group AGM – 4 June 2025

Minutes

Councillors: Liam (Apology), Anne (Apology)

Location: Chad Gordon Autism Campus, Waltheof Gardens

Agenda: 

  • 1. Report on activities of TGRG over the past year
  • 2. Quick report on finances of TGRG  
  • 3. Election of management committee
  • 4. Amendments of constitution
  • 5. Discussion of how TGRG meetings should be conducted going forwards.  
  • 6. AOB

Notes:

  • Introductions
  • Report on activities:
    • Four TGRG meetings over last year: 16 Dec 2024, 28 Feb 2024, 10 June 2024 and 20 Jan 2025.
    • Topics covered included 100 Tower Gardens Road community space; conservation area requirements on the estate and extent to which they are disregarded; concerns around antisocial behaviour on the estate. 
    • Meetings also used to promote events on and around the estate, including tree planting in Waltheof Gardens on 23 March 2024 (Trees for Cities), and Great British Spring Clean (coordinated by Karen), etc. 
    • TGRG supported the event at 100 Tower Gardens Road on 17 May 2025 where residents were encouraged to share their ideas for how the building could (if used as a community space) be used by residents. 
    • Councillors have made an effort to attend TGRG meetings. Our 20 Jan 2025 meeting was attended by all three ward councillors; however none made it to the AGM. 
    • Residents’ whatsapp has been turned into Tower Gardens WhatsApp Community with a few sub-groups (thanks Andrew P and others!)
    • Tower Gardens website has been updated and maintained by Karen and others.
    • Dan thanks Ruth for being an advocate for Tower Gardens including by speaking at two recent events, one of which Dan attended: a conference about the London County Council and a lecture at the London Archives.
  • Report on Finance:
    • Balance in account: £1349.97
    • Income: £0
    • Expenditure:
      • Room hire and print cost: £100.74
      • Events insurance (Hiscox): £89.60
      • Total expenditure: £190.34. 
  • Election of committee: New committee:
    • Dan – chair (previously secretary, replacing Fiona)
    • Friedrich Ernst – treasurer (continuing)
    • Dayal – secretary (new)
  • Amendments to constitution:
    • Constitution to be added to TG website 
    • 5(d): Requiring management team to meet 10 times a year to be removed. This does not affect general meetings.
    • 7(d): Requiring accounts to be audited yearly to be updated to instead say that accounts will be shared at AGMs and will be available to members to review throughout the year.
  • Discussion of TGRG meetings, and aims
    • Context: Dayal noted that we could be more structured in having a quarterly meeting with date known in advance; that we often have a busy agenda and cover too many topics without clear actions; that we don’t necessarily come back to points from previous meeting and don’t get updates from Councilors; and that we could do with updates from various groups (Park Friends, 100TG), and Council at meetings
    • Further ideas & discussion:
      • People to invite: Christian Q (Estate manager), MP, Safer Neighbourhoods team, Homes for Haringey; possibly only for specific dates/agenda items. Council officers have come in past.
      • How do we prioritise estate/TGRG concerns:
        • Could go back and look at previous minutes, use the current survey for 100 Tower Gardens replies. Karen, as part of the Great British Spring Clean, has been through LoveCleanStreets reports for last years and has data on what people report.
        • Could have TGRG meetings where we use first 30 mins to discuss issues amongst residents and how to prioritise, and then Councillors and Officers join for second half (rather than having some meetings with councillors and some meetings without them). 
        • Action: Collate and share, decide next steps
      • Point raised that people feel Councillors often come without answers, and instead learn about issues from meetings rather than being informed by council/officers, and concerns then not actioned
      • Other meetings:
        • Safer Ward meetings haven’t been scheduled regularly for a while
        • Councillor Surgeries, and other meetings – we do not want TGRG meetings to duplicate any existing meetings, eg people should go to Surgeries if they have something urgent/individual.
      • TGRG being more proactive, and thinking about what we can do around the estate that doesn’t need Council input? What could we do re. hedge clippings, making sure people do hard trim at correct time of year, as collection would still be an issue/council matter.
      • Many people don’t know about TGRG – would a notice board help? Can we be more active in FB group (one new person can from post in group). Some people don’t use WhatsApp, so we need all means of communication.
      • Aim of group being clear/open. We could set some themes for the group – this might attract more people.
    • Decision: Put more structure into meetings, collate concerns and prioritise, think about communication channels. 
  • AOB
    • Community Picnic in the Park 14/6 12-3PM – flyers and posters shared
    • 100TG survey still open – flyers shared for TG events and survey
    • Talks on TG Estate (Ruth C) – Having given London Architecture School talk on LCC/Estate, she was invited to give a talk about TG at the London Archives (28/5), and has now been approached by Bruce Castle Museum and Letchworth Garden City group
    • Maintenance issues around the estate (Ruth C) – How can we make sure council prioritises? How do we share info with people living on estate? Some info on website already, and Emmanouil M and Dayal to look into adding more. Topic to be picked up/thought about more.
    • Linking up with other similar estates (Ruth C) – Old Oak interested in linking up with us and learning from us, eg how we got TG correctly listed on Ordnance Survey. Could we also invite people to a meeting to share their experience/info about their estate?