Woolavington, & Polden Villages

Shaping Your Community 2020-2025 Co-created with you

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Introduction

Woolavington, Puriton and Polden Villages are located in central and have history going back to the Domesday Book of 1086.

Homes in Sedgemoor manages 253 properties in the Woolavington, Puriton and Polden Villages.

There are a mixture of general needs homes and sheltered housing within these areas that range from 1 bedroom bungalows to 3 bedroom houses.

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 May 29, 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 Woolavington, Puriton and the Polden 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. Woolavington, Puriton & Polden Villages Shaping Your Community 2020-2025

Five year planned programme for Woolavington, Puriton & Polden 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 Woolavington, Puriton and Polden 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 £37,270 £191,100 £459,610 £48,165 £107,720 £843,865

Windows £2,500 £2,500 £40,000 £0 £0 £45,000

Doors £0 £2,226 £23,863 £0 £0 £26,089

Porch refurbs £2,200 £12,920 £12,980 £0 £0 £28,100

Kitchens £31,338 £6,964 £52,230 £3,482 £0 £94,014

Bathrooms £14,650 £11,280 £48,490 £2,820 £9,010 £86,250

Wiring £20,209 £20,292 £5,444 £0 £330 £46,275

Boilers £48,848 £31,704 £71,448 £2,214 £23,642 £177,856

Electric heating £8,000 £4,000 £0 £0 £0 £12,000

Total investment in your area £1,359,449

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 May 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 would like more things for the kids to do in the holidays.” We have worked in partnership with Avon and Constabulary, SHAL Housing, Flare Youth Group and Young Somerset to create the Woolavington and Puriton Dreamscheme. The Dreamscheme is for children aged 9 to 15 who want to get involved in their communities and get rewarded for their efforts. Please get in touch to find out more.

"We would like more support and help for the elderly residents in the area who are lonely.” We have worked in partnership with MD Group, our contractors, and have set up a telephone befriending service which provides a weekly chat for those who just want someone to talk to. We promote this via our home check services, Neighbourhood Officers, online and in our newsletters which you receive every quarter.

"We want the communal rooms opened up.” We have worked with your new Residents Association to make better use of the communal rooms in a way that supports everyone to get to know each other and share ideas and skills. Woolavington, Puriton & Polden Villages Shaping Your Community 2020-2025

Based on your feedback our immediate focus will be: Safe and secure homes Developing better ways of listening and communicating with you, to identify where improvements can be made in order to reassure you that your homes and communal areas remain safe and secure.

Community activity and engagement Working with you to create more community groups and activities across the villages, 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. We will also help to develop community networks with other organisations and partners to create resident engagement and involvement.

Sustainable support 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.

Support for older people Reviewing our services to older people to create an excellent service that supports residents to live in their home independently for longer. Environmentally aware To encourage sustainable living. We are committed to exploring ways of how together we can be more environmentally friendly. We already 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. 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 want more parking in Woolavington. Most of the land is owned by and managed by the Highways department. However, we consulted with you about parking in Woolavington and created a large car park at Sedgemoor Way and at Polden Walk to alleviate some of the parking issues you have been experiencing. Moving forward we will continue to help raise your concerns and influence some of the decisions made by Somerset County Council and Sedgemoor District Council.

You do not feel the A39 junction is safe. Unfortunately, we are not able to do anything to change this as it is the responsibility of Somerset County Council. However, we will ensure that your comments are passed on to the Highways department and feedback any comments they have on the matter.

You said you wish the skate park was better in Woolavington. We do not manage the skate park or the park in Darkfield Way. However, we will pass on your comments to the Parish Council. Our Neighbourhood Teams will work with community groups if there are any plans to develop the skate park.

You would like more dropped curbs. We are unable to fund dropped curbs and hard standings within individual properties. However, we will support you to make an application to Somerset County Council. Woolavington, Puriton & Polden 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