Improvements start on the Kingsmead Estate

As a result of residents' hard work, Sanctuary Housing have started to make changes to services on the Kingsmead Estate. 

Following the residents’ meeting with Sanctuary Housing last year:

• Sanctuary have employed a dedicated repairs team for the estate, based in the office on Kingsmead Way. You can now report your repairs in person in the Kingsmead Office, as well as via the usual phone number – 03001233561 – or email kingsmead.residents@sanctuary-housing.co.uk.

• The Sanctuary repairs team are also holding twice-weekly surgeries in the estate office between 5pm-7pm on Tuesdays and between 1pm-5pm on Thursdays so that residents can discuss any issues about repairs. There's no need to book an appointment, just turn up.

• A maintenance team will begin repairs and renovations of all blocks on in early February, including work to fix blocked drains, leaking roofs and flooding balconies. Sanctuary plan to complete the work by end of March.
• A new cleaning rota, started on 2 February, which Sanctuary say will increase cleaning on the estate. From this date there will also be a weekend cleaning service to make sure the estate is kept clean. 
  
• Work to ensure entry doors are more secure has started and will be completed by the end of February 2015. Over 400 bulbs have been replaced in the communal lighting and Sanctuary are currently assessing the work needed to fix lifts.
• Sanctuary are carrying out a "stock condition survey" of all properties to find out which properties need work to address issues, including  damp. Savills have been commissioned to carry out this survey and have written to all residents with further details. 

Hopefully you will have seen the new Sanctuary newsletter? You can now contact the local Kingsmead team, Natasha Pin, Stephen Wells, Nyomi Alexander and Samson Sunmonu at kingsmead.resident@sanctuary-housing.co.uk or by telephone to 0800 1313348 or 0300 1233511 to discuss issues relating to Sanctuary.  

As your ward councillors, we are very aware that there is much more that Sanctuary need to do to improve the estate, but we hope that these improvements are a start. We want to see them sustained and to ensure that support for residents is improved. We are of course still here to support you - you can raise any issue with us. 

There will be a meeting in March with Simon Clark, the managing director of Sanctuary Housing to discuss progress on the estate. We'll circulate details as soon as a date for the meeting is fixed. We hope to see you there. 

In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you about how changes are progressing. Have you noticed anything different on the estate?  Please get in touch at: kingspark@hackney-labour.org.uk.