Kingsway Villagers

I read with interest and also confusion regarding anti social behaviour in Kingsway. It seems we all know about it, we all have suggestions on how to deal with it; sadly some of us have experienced it – myself included – but no one has actually dealt with it.

Anti-social behaviour is a very tricky subject and great care should be used when placing blame on people regardless of how they pay for their home. I do wish to make a point though as it seems HA residents tend to get a lot of the blame.

I am HA myself and can honestly say it was a private rented family that caused me distress in the first few months of me living here back in 2008, to the extent that I was going to move and at first thought moving from the village of Randwick to live here was a huge mistake. I am happy here now but this neighbourhood divide still bothers me.

Firstly I would like to point out that all Housing Association tenants are bound by a strict tenancy agreement and do run the risk of eviction if they are anti social. This is made even more of a threat with the proposed plans set out by Housing Minister Grant Shapps on the 11th of January this year… see link.
I do find that most HA residents are very well behaved and cause no problems to other residents because of this fact.

I know that an awful lot of homes in Kingsway are indeed private but not actually lived in by the owners and instead rented out privately. The agreements these tenants have to enter into differ greatly and with most of this being handled by lettings agencies and not the owner themselves, I wonder what stops these people from behaving in an anti social manner. This added with the fact that most of these properties are let on a six-month basis, what stops them from behaving badly in the knowledge that this is not their house and they might not be here long anyway?

I just wanted to point this out and tip the balance a bit in favour of all the decent HA residents. Private renters have no real reason to behave and the threat of eviction is not a real threat to them. They don’t own the house so they tend not to care about how it looks or how they behave. Some of the scruffiest homes in Kingsway are in fact private rented and not Housing Association.

Regardless of how the house is paid for taking pride in how your home looks and the way you conduct yourself is down to the individuals who live there. If you only have six months short term assured tenancy what exactly stops you from behaving in an anti social manner?

Finally private home owners must have been made aware that they would be sharing this little part of the world with people who prefer to rent rather than buy. I run my own business and could if I wanted buy my home. My confusion is merely why do HA tenants get the raw deal, who gives them the bad name and is it just private owners extending there ownership of their homes to the rest of Kingsway?

Kingsway is not a private village and it seems that most of the anti social parking is being committed by private homeowners who believe they have this right because they pay a mortgage. Well hey guess what we pay for our homes too you know, only the bank doesn’t own it, a Housing Association does.

There have been 2 new groups formed, which are concerned with helping us build a “Community” within Kingsway, which should complement the work that the Residents Association is doing.

The First is based on the team that put on the Fun Day in Waterwells last year. We are planning on repeating that event, but are also looking at all the things that can help build a sustainable community and directing effort into boosting those things.

The Second Group is more specifically directly related to ASB and working on reducing the level of ASB within Kingsway.

Both teams have representation from the Residents Association and the Social housing Providers, as well as representation on the ASB group from Police and Project Solace. (Project Solace Chair the ASB group).

Whilst no-one is a fan of the negative press Kingsway has received, one of the advantages is that groups like these are a direct effect of that bad press. I am very keen to make sure that both of these groups work cooperatively otherwise there will be overlap of effort, but that should not be a problem.

Given all the public amenities that should come online this year, as presented by QUVL at the previous public meeting, then these groups have come online at the right time to help us make the most of these things.

As you may be aware, there is now the Police Crime website which shows information about crime and local resources. Looking at Kingsway (For some reason, it is all clumped on Lynham Drive) ASB is by far our biggest issue (12 incidents, as opposed to 8 other crimes), but these are only the reported issues. We know there are many things happen that are not reported, so I would encourage you to report any crimes, either directly to The Police, or through the Community Police Report Form
on this website.

Cheers
Barry

Chair – Kingsway Residents Association

I wish to provide clarity with regard to my recent resignation from the Kingsway Residents Association Committee, after I joined with the clear intensions of finding collective ways forward in stamping-out Anti Social Behaviour in our community – as those who have, and continued to endure serious Anti Social Behaviour…

I have waited until now as I have made every effort to persuade those responsible to investigate the circumstances which resulted in my resignation in protest toward the manner in-which Emily Jones was allowed to make socially dividing & discriminative comments during the last Residents Meeting in Nov’ 2010; comments which were supported by Barry Kirby (Chair) Kingsway Residents Association, and went unchallenged by Cllr: Wood (who was equally present at the meeting). Emily Jones considered residents used “snobbery” when reporting Anti Social Behaviour, and have no idea about the place – nor the Citizen Newspaper!

I registered a complaint with Emily Jones’ Senior Officers within Gloucester City Homes, and the Anti-Social Behaviour Team who are responsible for Project Solace (including Gloucester Police Chief Constable, Mr Tony Melville). Emily Jones was interviewed, and firmly denied ever making the comments. Evidence was later provided – and confirmed by others who recall such comments being made at the meeting (other committee members). Regardless, and thereafter acknowledging such comment was made, Emily Jones (who made the comments in public) refused to apologise in public, or stand down from her highly responsible position of trust in the community after denying she made the comments, and only acknowledged them after considerable effort was made to confirm the comments were fact!

Victoria King-Low (Senior Officer) made no further decision beyond her original interview of Emily Jones. Barry Kirby (Chair) Kingsway Residents Association, acknowledged himself that Emily Jones made the comment – and supported her words. However, he accepted that her comments be removed from the formal minutes of the meeting and rearranged via “discrete wording” in order to prevent them from being seen by the wider community. I made clear my own view of concerns which might be caused if read by the wider community. Mr Kirby stated: "However, I think the point about not necessarily including it in the minutes is fair, in terms of repeating it verbatim, but I think this can be easily achieved by some discrete wording. Her words, whilst right for the context of the meeting, would not come across the same when read cold"!

I was alarmed and totally disgusted by the alteration of the formal minutes of the Kingsway Residents Association, just to protect someone making such disgraceful socially dividing discrimination towards those in the community who suffer, and report Anti-Social Behaviour. I made clear that I wanted no part as a committee member in being involved in this improper behaviour when we are expected to be in place as representatives for – and as part of – this community. I resigned for these reasons, and currently await confirmation from those responsible in providing their final statements, in order for my request for the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate the actions of those who should act responsibly, and not make public statements of this kind or be protected when making such disgraceful statements by their senior officers.

I hope others in this community will consider my actions understandable when having factual awareness of such matters, and equally know that they were receiving selective alteration by others within the committee in order to protect individuals making such comments, instead of protecting those who suffer or need to report suffering Anti Social Behaviour with those who make remarks of this kind and are equally provided a platform by the Kingsway Residents Association, in order to voice them!

Antisocial behaviour when turning into Marham Drive.

I am a resident who lives within the vicinity of Marham Drive and Thatcham Avenue.

I find myself having to address the driver who sounds the horn of his/her vehicle (a dark blue/black BMW) 4-5 times, every time he/she enters Marham Drive:

Rest assured if your behaviour is not corrected then I will report you to the Police… It will not be tolerated!

However, if you would like to speak to me about this, please feel free to reply to me on this website.

Raffles

My children and I live in a new street called Wainfleet Avenue. We’re still waiting for a street sign. We’re just off Thatcham Ave, part of the Lion Court development.

I don’t want to frighten parents reading this but I strongly feel it’s very important to bring this up and alert people.

Just before Christmas my eldest 2 children and my neighbours children were outside playing. My two sons came running in, saying "there’s a man stood outside watching us". I went outside and saw no one, but my neighbour was out there she told me she saw the man and told all the children to go home. She said she saw him stood there staring at them. She thought at first that he was lost, but something didn’t seem right, a gut feeling. She said it’s the way he was watching them, it felt like something wasn’t right.

A week later while bringing my children home from school, stood in the Lion Court show-home car park was the same man. My son said "that’s the man". He was wearing the same clothes.
He walked up the road and I followed him. Don’t ask me why, just at the time it felt right, thinking I might find where he lives. He walked to another show-home, I think it was the Millers show-home office up the road.
I saw my other neighbour drive past, she stopped and I told her what had happened, then I thought to myself "maybe that’s what he is, a potential home buyer". I was going to call The Police just to be sure, but as my neighbour said: "What could they do"? Technically the man has not done anything wrong!
My other neighbour, the one who sent the children home when he was watching them in the street, saw him again back in our street. He always wears the same clothes. When a woman who works in one of the show homes was asked about the man visiting the office, she was quite shaken by him. He was in there for 2 hours and made her feel quite uncomfortable.

Friday 21st, it was brought to my attention on 2 occasions that a man has unsuccessfully attempted to take children from the Kingsway School.
The man in question matched the description of the man in our street. Saturday I spoke to a policeman. I asked him about the school incident and he said he has heard something has happened, but he can’t go into it fully, and area is on high alert. Why has this not been made public? All parents in the area should know about this.

The man is in his early to mid 60′s, with grey hair, which has been dyed black, with his grey hair showing through. He has a long black moustache.
He wears beige trousers with a beige top/jumper and a dark green jacket, and he drives a black car.

AS an update to my earlier post regarding SARA planning (here), I am pleased to be able to report that the SARA plan is now up and running.
There have been 3 areas identified for the plan to be based on, these are:

• Speeding
• Anti Social Behavour in the Big and Little Parks
• Garden Thefts

These were chosen from a combination of the highlighed issues and the police figures.

In the short term, the Police will be monitoring vehicle speed on Kingsway to get some metrics against and therefore set a target, we will be using the recorded incidents of ASB at the parks to determine what target it should be and we will be encouraging people to report incidents of things like garden thefts as I know it has happened, but there are currently no figures within the police system.

This will be reviewed monthly by the Association in terms of what has happened and the figures, and then every 3 months. The areas themselves will be reviewed to see if there is a more approporiate problem to focus on.

I hope that this SARA plan has a positive effect here as it seems to have done in other areas, however that will become evident as the plan progresses.

I think there are two main things everyone can do to help this.
Firstly please make sure you report all crime. It’s harder to see what to focus on without the logs.
Secondly if you have any good ideas how we can reduce the crime happening in the first place, then do share it.

Cheers
Barry

Chair – Kingsway Residents Association