Resident Panel Meeting
Time : 10.30am
Tuesday 15thMarch 2016 / Venue Residents Zone
Present: Apologies:
Jan Harris (In the Chair) Toula Pearson
Mark Gibbons Mervyn Baker
Edna Lewis
Rose Matthews
Christopher Byrne
Clive Jenkins
Lyndon May
In Attendance:
John Lewis
Craig Cheedy
Daniel Lewis
Owain Roberts
Louise Kingdon
Owner / Action
Housekeeping:
JL updated everyone on housekeeping / JH / ALL
Presentation to Craig Cheedy
Jan welcomed Craig to the meeting and presented him with a cheque for £100 to give to his chosen charity Brain & Spinal injuries. Craig will be running the 2016 London Marathon for the Charity.
Minutes of the last meeting:
The minutes were discussed; Rose proposed and Edna seconded that the minutes were accurate. All were in agreement. / JH
ALL / 15/3
Matters arising:
Chris still has a problem with his printer-Lamia will be contacted to discuss this.
Mark gavehis apologies as he is unable to attend Data Protection on 19th April / JL / 12/4
Treasurers report
Jan will speak to Matthew as there may still be more payments and accruals to be entered. An end of year figure will be given to the Panel at the next quarterly meeting on 12th April
Correspondence
A request was received from Carol Wheeler for a donation towards the purchase of plants for the garden at Ty Siriol Ward, Panteg Hospital. The Panel agreed to pay £60 towards to cost.
Julie Young requested £250 for planting new plants in the communal area at Beech Wood, Chepstow. The Panel agreed to this request.
Several months ago the Panel had given the Residents Association at Llys Ebwy £500 to pay for a new pool table. The table had been purchased but was faulty, this was replaced and the second was faulty also. As a good will gesture Tesco agreed to let the Association keep the table and refunded the £500. The Residents Group asked for advice from the Panel as to what to do with this money.
Following a discussion the Panel agreed that the Residents Association may keep the money on the basis that:
  • The Association provide details to the Panel on how the money will be spent to benefit the residents of Llys Ebwy
  • The money will be kept in a separate account to their normal funds so that it can be easily monitored
  • No other funding will be requested of the Panel until this money has been spent and accounted for.
A request was received by David Watkins of Roderick Hill Court for the sum of £80 to purchase a second hand pool table for the communal area of the Scheme. This was agreed on the basis that the Panel will not be responsible for any future repairs that may be necessary to the table.
Complaints
Several complaints were brought to the Panel by Mark on behalf of one of the residents of Taliesin. These complaints are to be given to Melin staff, the results of which will be reported at the next Panel meeting
Any other business
The minutes of February away day were discussed- Mark proposed and Clive seconded that they were correct. This was agreed by the Panel.
There were no matters arising from the minutes.
The Panel discussed the forthcoming Queens birthday celebrations and whether the Panel can support residents in sheltered schemes with any events. Jan suggested to the Panel that they wait until Caroline returns from leave and see what Communities Team had planned to do before any decision was made. This was agreed by the Panel.
Lyndon May discussed the work that he was doing with his Walking Football Tournament, raising money for Prostate Cancer. The Panel offered to purchase a megaphone for the tournament to the sum of £19.06; this will then be donated to Communities Team.
The Panel also agreed to donate £100 towards the fundraising for the Walking Football Tournament.This was suggested by Edna and agreed by the remainder of the Panel (Lyndon did not vote)
The open day at Ty Siriol Ward at Panteg County Hospital will be at 1.30 on Wednesday 23rd March. Panel members have been invited; Mark has arranged his transport and will attend. Clive hopes to attend and will confirm with Jan so that she can inform Carol Wheeler who is organising the event.
The Panel agreed that the codings in next year’s budget should be looked at and simplified. It was suggested that a budget code be created for donations.
Grant funding applications were discussed. Where possible residents should be encouraged to plant/propagate from seed to save money. It was also agreed that grant funding for communal gardening be distributed as widely as possible and residents encouraged to contact the Panel. This will enable each area to have an opportunity to bid for funding. These points plus a suggestion to cap the amount funded for each Scheme is to be discussed at the next meeting.
There was a discussion about Fire drill. The Panel requested that Ian Hall be invited to attend the next meeting to talk to the Panel regarding the fire drill procedures.
Each member of the Panel were given a report by Dave Cook on the Third Sector Strategy. At the Interview Training session on 23rd February the Panel took time out to discuss the document and the Panel agreed to support the Strategy.
The Panel were also given a report on the Growing Spaces project. After discussion they agreed that the project could be beneficial to residents and would be happy to support it going forward.
The Star Survey
Daniel Lewis-Business Intelligence and Performance Manager gave a presentation of the Star survey.
The Panel members asked Daniel several questions regarding the survey statistics, how they were captured and how representative the survey was of residents’ views.
Daniel explained that the survey was carried out by an external company and replies were dealt with objectively. The responses were deemed to be representative of the replies received and reflect an accurate account of the views of residents.
The Panel thanked Daniel for coming in to speak to them.
Corporate Clothing
Owen Roberts Assistant director of Customer Services- Owen fetched a selection of corporate clothing for the Panel to look at. The lack of visibility of staff on site was an issue from last STAR survey so Melin are looking at providing standard logoed clothing for staff.
The Panel asked that the logo be clear on the clothing so that residents are able to see it.
The Panel thanked Owain for coming in to speak to them
Internet Standards-Louise Kingdon, Digital Officer
Louise came in to discuss Digital Service Standards, Louise explained this was a Torfaen Council initiative and that there is a need for a standard for people going online. Louise produced a document of what the standards could look like and discussed the proposals with the panel. Data protection was also discussed.
The Panel thanked Louise for coming in to speak to them
Date of Next Quarterly Panel meeting:
Tuesday 12thApril 2016 / JH
JH
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JH
JL
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JH/CM
ALL
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JL
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ALL / 12/4
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15/3
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12/4
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