Taking pride in your neighbourhood

As part of this, we carry out monthly estate inspections of all the neighbourhoods we have homes in. This is a chance for us to check on the condition of the area, pick up on any issues like fly tipping, abandoned vehicles and general tidiness, along with getting out in the community to chat with you, our customers. You can read more about how we’re committed to caring for your neighbourhood here, and check out our Estate Standards here.

Last year, we asked you what mattered most to you about your neighbourhood – a big thank you to everyone who shared feedback during that consultation. One thing you mentioned was that you’d like to join us on these estate walkabouts and once every three months was the most popular frequency.  Since May, we’ve been inviting some customers in areas where we have a concentration of homes to join us once a quarter.

How are we doing in your area?

In the future, we’re aiming to be able to share updates and information specific to your local neighbourhood. At the moment, we’re still developing our regional model approach (you can read all about that here), so we’re not able to get this specific just yet.

But what we can share are the issues we ‘ve picked up and taken action to resolve on the estate inspections and the estate walkabouts in each of our regions during the last three months. It’s worth bearing in mind that the regional model approach is still in development, but we’re already beginning to work and deliver services in a more localised way.

As a guideline, this is the region you can expect to be in depending on where you live. There’ll be some crossover (for instance homes in Dorset might come under the south or south west region) but as we continue to develop the regional model approach, we’ll share more on this.

In the south west:

• Bristol
• Part of Dorset
• Devon
• Somerset

In the south:

• Part of Dorset
• Hampshire
• Surrey

In the south east:

• Berkshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Surrey

What do these figures mean?

Fly tipping – this is the number of cases of fly tipping we identified. Fly tipping is when rubbish is left where it shouldn’t be, and is often bigger items like mattresses or things that are hard to dispose of in your normal household waste, like electrical items. Fly tipping makes an area look really untidy, but aside from that it can cause serious issues with pollution, pests, and poses a risk to wildlife.

Depending on what’s been fly tipped and where, we might be able to raise it as a job to our own communal services teams to clear it, or we might need to get in touch with the local authority to ask them to dispose of it. Both of these options come with a cost, so it’s really important that if you have rubbish to get rid of, you double check how and where it should be disposed of.

Unauthorised items in communal areas – this is the number of items we’ve spotted in communal areas (like internal stairwells and communal gardens, ), that shouldn’t be there. That could be anything from bikes to pushchairs or just bags of rubbish and discarded furniture.

Once the item has been identified, we’ll raise a TORT notice (a legal document which is attached to the item, letting the owner know that it needs to be removed immediately, or we will remove it) it to store for 28 days if it’s an item of value, before being disposed of.  Items left in internal communal areas can present a fire risk because they’re a possible source of ignition or could obstruct exit routes if residents need to evacuate the building during a fire.

Communal repairs – this is the number of repairs that we’ve spotted are needed in communal areas. These could include fixing signs or lights, making sure doors are closing properly, repairing fencing and loads more. We’ll raise the job to our repairs and maintenance team who’ll action it in our usual timescales.

Estate issues –

• Nuisance vehicle – this could be an abandoned or unroadworthy vehicle.
• Overgrown garden – to help keep our neighbourhoods looking well-kept and tidy, we’ll reach out to the Abri resident of that home to agree an action plan to make improvements.
• Parking nuisance – if someone has parked inappropriately on Abri land like a grassed area or footpath.

What else have we done to improve your neighbourhood?

 In the south west:

• We’ve installed two CCTV cameras at Coopers Court in Bristol, to improve security
• Replaced the floor at some flats in Holyrood Street, Chard, helping to improve the appearance of the communal area in the block
• Planted some shrubs at Ron Stone Road, Bristol, to brighten up the outside space

In the south:

• We’ve installed some new fencing around the drying area of Maffey Court in Botley, Southampton, to keep this space secure for residents
• Provided an extra bin to improve waste management at Churchfield Court, Liphook

In the south east:

• We’ve introduced a parking permit scheme and completed the painting of white lines to mark out spaces at Jebb Close, Windsor
• Carried out white line painting of spaces at Chaffinch Gardens, Bracknell to clearly mark where people can park
• Made improvements to the bin store at Sawyers Close, Windsor to support better waste management

How do I get involved in a future estate walkabout?

If you live in an area where we’ll be carrying out an estate walkabout with customers, you’ll receive an invitation by letter. Whilst we’d love to have you all join us, we unfortunately can’t include everyone, so we send invitations to customers living in the most condensed area of the neighbourhood.

There’s plenty of other ways you can get involved in activities in your local area. From Community Action Days to focus groups, we’re always open to involving customers in any way we can. If you'd like to hear more about these opportunities, you can get in touch with us by emailing Resident.Involvement@abri.co.uk