South West Scotland Regional Network
MINUTES
Held in the Studio Glasgow on Wednesday 24th January 2018
Present:
Mary McCartney / Gretna & District Tenants and Residents Association / MMBruce Cuthbertson / East Ayrshire Tenants and Residents Federation / BC
John McKenzie / Campbell Area Tenants & Residents Association / MAC
Alex Younger / Fullarton Tenants Association / AY
Cate Weir / Saltcoats High Flats TRA / CW
Anne Cameron / Treetops TARA / AC
Margaret Dymond / Maxwelton Court Tenants Association / MD
Apologies:
Helen Westwater / Mearns Village Community AssociationHeather Cuthbert / Auchenback TARA
Joan Breckenridge / Quarrelton Area TARA
Ann Marie Stanley / Scottish Government
In Attendance:
Susan McLellan / Scottish Government / SM1.Welcome and Apologies
Bruce welcomed everyone and agreed to act as Chair for this meeting.
The committee took the opportunity to remember Ronald Ritchie who had recently passed away. Ronald was a long standing member and Chairperson of Region 6 and he will sadly missed.
2. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes were proposed by John McKenzie and seconded by Margaret Dymond.
3. Matters arising
Bruce agreed to find out if ex members of Region 6 had received letters of thanks from Ronald. It was also noted that no feedback from the National Event has been received – Susan looking into this.
4. Finance Report
£1091.71 in account
Mary reported that Bruce was looking into changing the details over since the account is held in East Ayrshire. Mary, Margaret and Bruce agreed to be signatories of the new account.
5. Correspondence
Scottish Housing Regulator discussion paper was received and was to be added to next Agenda for completion.
6. Communication Plan
The new plan was discussed detailing a cascade effect to all members, officials, TARA’s and all interested parties. This will be worked on over the next few months and will be up and running in the not so distant future. All members were asked to pass details on to Shona and Bruce and populate as many of the forms as they can.
7. Work Plan
The work plan was discussed and updated to reflect the changes to the network.
8. Chairs and Secretaries
Leonora Montgomery chaired the meeting instead of Bill Chapman who took seriously ill in his hotel and the committee passed on their best wishes to Bill for a speedy recovery.
We had a very good presentation from the new Chair of the Regulator, George Walker and vice chair, Ann Jarvie. This was followed by a lively Q & A session where he was quite positive in his replies.
There was no feedback from the JHPDG meeting as the tenant reps were unable to attend.
9. SHR Liaison Group Update
Members were asked to submit questions for Bruce to take to the next SHR meeting. Could Alex, Anne and hopefully Helen provide them in time for the SHR meeting.
10. AOCB
HRA paper submitted to the Minister by Hugh McClung, a meeting is being held to discuss HRA with interested Tenants and Residents, Hugh will lead at this meeting
Fuel Poverty consultation – the committee discussed this and agreed that it was very detailed and complicated and they didn’t feel they had the time or knowledge to complete this, however if individuals have an interest they are encouraged to respond.
Wifi – Susan asked if anyone knew of any free wifi being available in their areas, this information is to inform the Scottish Government what is currently available in towns and cities, Renfrewshire has free wifi in the centre of Paisley and in the shopping centre, Hillcrest are putting wifi in to new builds, Riverclyde homes supply some free wifi in their area as do East Ayrshire although this is not very efficient and needs to be improved.
AGM – Agreed 2 June 2018, 10.30 for an 11am start, Susan to look into hiring the Sudio for the AGM.
FOI - Bruce to complete and return response by 6 March 2018.
11. DONM
The next committee meeting will be held in the Optima Building,8th floor, 58 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8DQon Tuesday 20th Feb March 2018 with a 10:00 for 10:30 start – please note the change of location.