West Bridgwater Villages

Shaping Your Community 2020-2025 Co-created with you

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Introduction

Homes in Sedgemoor manages more than 200 properties in West Bridgwater Villages.

West Bridgwater Villages is made up of Cannington, Spaxton, Nether Stowey, Over Stowey, Fiddington, Otterhampton and Stockland Bristol.

The area sits on the edge of the Quantock Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is popular with residents and tourists alike. Steart Marshes and the National Trust's Manor Park, in Nether Stowey, is also on your doorstep.

Homes in Sedgemoor is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). This means we look after homes on behalf of Sedgemoor District Council, who own the properties. We manage nearly 4,200 homes, including sheltered accommodation for residents over the age of 50 or anyone in need of extra support.

This document has been produced with you. We were so thankful for all of your views, ideas and comments made at our event on June 20, 2019, and have made sure that all of them are taken into account in this, your Shaping Your Community plan for the next 5 years.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with you to identify opportunities to help shape your community. Our commitments to you

Homes in Sedgemoor is committed to working with you to improve the services you want and need from us.

Through our work with you, we have agreed these standards of service:

Repairs - When you report a repair to us we will agree with you if we can do it on the same day through our Same Day Repairs Service. If we can't fix the repair on the same day, we will will make sure we agree with you a date and time when this will be done.

Communication - We will work with you to deliver at least 4 newsletters each year which include information about West Bridgwater Villages and what we are doing about the commitments made in this Shaping Your Community document.

Antisocial behaviour - We will work with you when you tell us about any incidents of antisocial behaviour, to make sure you can enjoy living comfortably in your home.

Help you manage your tenancy - We will support you in any way we can if you tell us you are having any problems with your tenancy. For example, we can offer advice and support around paying your rent, managing your universal credit and maximizing your income.

Fairness and respect - We will always treat you with respect; treat you and your neighbours fairly and do what we say we will.

Complaints - If you are not happy with anything that we do, we will listen to you, and respond quickly and fairly to resolve any complaint you have. West Bridgwater Villages Shaping Your Community 2020-2025 Five year planned programme for West Bridgwater Villages

We have already undertaken a huge amount of work to your homes and communal areas. But, there is always more to do! These are the planned maintenance works that will be done to a number of your homes in West Bridgwater Villages, over the next five years.

What are we Investment breakdown Overall doing? 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 investment

Roofs X X X X X X

Windows X X X X X X

Doors X X X X X X

Porch refurbs X X X X X X

Kitchens X X X X X X

Bathrooms X X X X X X

Wiring X X X X X X

Boilers X X X X X X

Electric heating X X X X X X

Total investment in your area X Communal firedoors refurbishment if required Communal fire alarms replacement if required

Many of these improvements are things you told us you felt would improve your homes and neighbourhood. We cannot do everything straight away, so have tried to make sure the things that will make the biggest difference are done first. We will also continue to fix any repairs reported to us through our Same Day Repairs Service. Already done!

In June 2019, when we held the event with you to find out your views, you told us lots of things you wanted. Some of them we have been able to do during 2019/20, and these are outlined here: "We need more parking at Coleridge Road, Nether Stowey." We have already created more parking in the village by knocking down a number of garages and replacing them with a car park. We hope this helps!

"Homefinder is difficult to use." Unfortunately, we do not have control of Homefinder as it is a nation- wide service. However, we have suggested a number of measures to ensure the website is as easy to use as possible. We have uploaded a guide to Homefinder on our website and your Neighbourhood Officer is happy to help with any Homefinder-related problem. You are also welcome to visit us at Bridgwater House to talk through any concerns.

"Parking in Cannington is an issue." The Neighbourhood Team has worked closely with residents in Cannington by helping them to install dropped kerbs to improve parking in Cannington.

"Commuters park their cars in Cannington which causes issues for residents." We have contacted the relevant companies to ensure their workers are parking where they are permitted to do so.

"We would like better tree management in Cannington." Problems have been caused by leaves blocking the down pipes in the School Fields area of Cannington. We have arranged for leaf guards to be installed as part of the Great Estates work and work with the appropriate organisation to ensure effective management of trees. West Bridgwater Villages Shaping Your Community 2020-2025

Based on the feedback we received from you our immediate focus will be:

Improved communication

Reviewing the different ways we communicate with you to better suit your needs, particularly around planned maintenance works. We will continue to look at ways you can have your say and provide opportunities for you to be part of this process.

Community activity and engagement Working with you to create more community activities, and listen to your ideas about your local area. Together we will develop ways to keep you informed and help you access information about up-and-coming events and opportunities.

Environmentally aware To encourage sustainable living. We are committed to exploring ways of how together we can be more environmentally friendly. We take this into account when searching for new services and improvements to homes and will continue to work with groups and community projects to encourage this in day-to-day living.

Sustainable support to the community Working with you to develop opportunities to access support. We will identify and help you get involved in projects that enable and empower residents to be active and take pride in their community. You also told us ...

At the Shaping Your Community events, you told us lots of things we either can’t directly do anything about, or can’t do anything without your help. These were:

You said more traffic calming measures need to be installed in Cannington. Unfortunately, we do not have control of these services, but will make sure your concerns are shared with the local authorities. We do know, however, that funds have been allocated to install some traffic calming measures in the village.

More general cleaning and grass cutting is needed in Cannington. We will work with Clean Surroundings to improve grounds maintenance in your area.

More parking is needed at Mill Lane, Cannington. Land has been earmarked by Cannington Parish Council to create a new car park. We have worked closely with the council throughout this programme of works.

You said more affordable rent and social rent housing was needed in Cannington. We agree! Although we do not have control of these services, we will continue to work closely with Sedgemoor District Council to fight for more affordable rent and social rent properties. West Bridgwater Villages Shaping Your Community 2020-2025

How you can help

We want to deliver the best service to you, when you want and need it. This is what we ask you to do to make sure we can do that:

Keep talking to us, and telling us about anything you feel we can do together to keep improving your homes and neighbourhood.

Get involved with us to help deliver better services. You can do this by joining our customer involvement groups, getting involved in focus groups or feeding back through surveys.

Tell us if you want us to contact you in a different way – for example, email or text.

Use our online services where you can – it's free and easy to use at anytime of the day or night.

Let us know if you experience any antisocial behaviour.

Let us know if the cleaning or caretaking is not up to scratch and in line with the standards we publish in your notice boards.

As we do the improvements outlined in this document, please help us to look after them for yourself and your community.

@HomesSedgemoor homesinsedgemoor.org 0800 585 360 / 01278 552400 Facebook.com/HomesinSedgemoor