December 2023 Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

Please find below an update on Estate-related matters. We hope it’s helpful.

Board Changes

There have been two recent Board changes.  Paul Vasili left the Board on 20th November 2023.  We are very grateful for Paul’s contribution to the running of the Estate over the last c. 2 years.  Paul had also previously served on the Board from 2013 until 2015.  David Cope has taken over responsibility for the current project in relation to the drains CCTV survey and the development and implementation of a remedial plan for the Estate’s drainage system.

Mark Mayhew rejoined the Board on 16th November 2023, having also briefly served on the Board previously during 2021. Mark will be sharing the load with Graham Marr in relation to both Security (CCTV/ANPR) and Planning.  Mark will also be overseeing the installation of the new 8 additional streetlights, whilst Graham will continue looking after the Estate’s gates.

Security: CCTV & ANPR

Operation of systems

We continue to work with Lantec, CloudPass and Ava Security to improve the performance of the systems and, in particular, to reduce the incidence of cases where the VRN is either not read or is read incorrectly by the ANPR cameras.

Openreach (and their civil works subcontractors) have begun work on the installation of the broadband connections to the 5 gates and the 3 footpath locations and we expect these connections to become live early in January, at which point we will switch from 4G to broadband connectivity which should improve the speed and reliability of the performance of the CCTV and ANPR systems.

Further Traffic Analysis is included in the recently circulated newsletter.

Gates

A bracket attaching the motor arm to the left-hand gate at Mizen Way/Leigh Hill Road failed on Sunday 10th December, but is being replaced this week.

Work is also in progress this week to make all the gates “safety compliant” by replacing broken safety edges (and adding others where they were missing) and also carrying out other recommended repairs or improvements that were identified during a recent survey of the condition of all of the gates.

Roads

A road sweep is booked for Saturday 16th December. As usual, please could all residents make sure their cars and wheelie bins are off the roads to ensure we get the best results achievable from the sweep.

Drains

We have now had a full CCTV survey of the Estate drainage system.   Many of the drainpipes that go from the gulleys to the Thames Water system were blocked with tree roots and much of this has been cut out.  The survey also showed that the some of the main rainwater drains owned by Thames Water were damaged or blocked.  In some instances, the County Clean contractor was able to rectify these which has improved the flooding problem we had in the middle of Mizen Way.  Much of the Estate pipework leading from the gulleys to the main Thames Water system is damaged and this will need to be replaced or repaired.

The next steps are:

1. To contact Thames Water with our findings and arrange for them to repair the main system

2. To go through the full report in detail and agree a prioritised list of gulley and pipework repairs 

3. To have this work costed and built into a phased plan.

We expect that the total costs of this will be significant and envisage bringing this to the 2024 AGM for approval.

Trees & Verges

Our tree surgeon, Mark Lindsey, will be carrying out annual tree maintenance works on the Estate after Christmas. These works were agreed in June and will take about a week. Mark will also be planting some new trees during January to fill in gaps and increase the diversity of the tree portfolio. Our gardener, Enzo, will be removing stored leaves from the Estate entrances during January.

Finances

The 2024 annual contribution of £525 was requested from residents on 30th November and is payable by 31 December 2023. We have received 70 contributions (c.34%) so far.

Communications

We are constantly considering different ways to communicate with you as efficiently as possible and, to this end, we have decided to set up a Board-managed WhatsApp group. The aim of this group is to enable us to inform you on a ‘live’ basis of issues such as gate malfunctions and storm-related tree damage, and provide timely reminders of events like road sweeps and road resurfacing works.

The group will be on an opt-in basis (via the link emailed to you all) and member-responses to team communications will be disabled. The objective of this is to create an arena where important messages don't get buried under residents’ replies, enabling members to easily refer to recent notifications.

Please note that we are still committed to using email as the primary source of communication between the management team and residents so the news that we currently provide via this channel will continue to be communicated in that way, but we believe we can improve information flows with this tool.

Social Committee

Our social committee organised another successful event for the Estate last weekend. Christmas drinks took place on Mizen Way and were well attended despite the wet weather. The team collected a trolley-full of donations for the Cobham Food Bank who were very grateful. If you wish to join the social team to help with future events, please email me on verity.peatfield@owra.co.uk.

Finally, we wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year!

Best wishes,

The OWRA Board.