North Region News
Alison takes a trip to Blackpool
Chief Executive Alison Dean paid a visit to various Great Places schemes around Blackpool and the Fylde Coast recently.
Alison was joined by Executive Director for Growth Helen Spencer and Blackpool South MP Chris Webb at Foxhall Village West, the final phase of the 282-home development.
The party met children from Revoe Learning Academy, who created artwork adorning the hoardings at the development.
Mr Webb then went on to visit Windmill House to meet with customers and answer questions over a cup of tea.
Alison then met up with Jodie Wilson, Neighbourhood Services Manager to go on visits. First up was Winnipeg in Bispham before meeting up with Mathew Derby, Property Services Manager.
They then moved on to Ryscar Way, a new development of two and three-bedroom affordable rented homes in Bispham.
During their time at the new development, Jodie and Alison dropped in on a customer who had recently moved in and was delighted with her new home.
Bringing incredible art to the Fylde coast
Great Places is backing a project on the Fylde coast aiming to engage people in creating incredible works of art.
We have been working with Blackpool native Christian Fenn (Seca One) and Hayley Garner (Aylo), founders of the Big Heart Project who create stunning murals across the globe.
The one in Fleetwood, which depicts a pair of hands cradle a model boat, the Harriet FD111, which has a deep historical significance to Fleetwood. The stormy sea surrounding the hands symbolises the challenges and uncertainties that have always been a part of life both on land and at sea. The hands hold the boat securely, representing the community’s resilience and the way it has always protected its traditions and looked after one another, especially in turbulent times.
The piece was nominated for best global street art piece of 2024.
Following on from this piece, Great Places is supporting Blackpool Council, local businesses and with applications to the Arts Council to create several pieces across the town and engage local people in helping to create stunning artworks.
The first one is being planned for the Station Road Carpark.
Accrington charity gets £5,000 boost
Great Places has provided £5,000 funding to an Accrington charity to help its customers access counselling services.
The money has been given to Maundy Relief, based on Abbey Street, where it offers a range of services including:
- Adult and young people’s mental health therapy including anger management, one-to-one counselling, group work, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Wrap-around support with welfare benefit issues
- Nurse-led physical and mental health support and advocacy
- Housing support and outreach to rough sleepers
- Food parcels and help with household items
- A community lunch, six days per week
- Groups and volunteering opportunities
The funding will help support 25 Great Places’ customers access counselling therapies. CEO Lucy Hardwick said: “It’s fantastic to build a relationship with Great Places as we need the support of good organisations to provide the much-needed services that we do. Demand for our services has increased dramatically over the past few years. Our adult mental health therapy service has seen referrals increase by nearly 50 per cent in the six months to September 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Our counsellors are all volunteers, so the pressure on us to source funding is huge, which is why pairing with an organisation like Great Places is very important.”
Blooming brilliant work at Lennox Court
A customer has made the gardens at Lennox Court in Blackpool his own after Great Places helped create a green area at the scheme.
Prior to lockdown a number of residents enjoyed developing a planted area in the communal garden at the scheme into which they invested their own time, money and effort.
This was an area in which apples and grapes were grown and a bench was placed for residents of the scheme to enjoy the surroundings.
Sadly over the course of the pandemic , due to ill health, the people who had developed the area became unable to maintain it any longer and at a scheme inspection we noticed that it had become largely overgrown and unsightly and in urgent need of attention.
The Community Investment Team arranged and paid for a local Community Gardening Project to visit the scheme who undertook the work needed to get the garden to a maintainable standard and all residents were invited join and help out on the day.
After consultation with the original gardeners we opened the ongoing maintenance of the area to the other residents at the scheme and a new customer happily took on the role at the end of last year.
Now the garden is flourishing where it could have been danger of removal had it been left to become unsightly.
Great Places customer brings stardust to Blackburn
A Great Places customer has sprinkled a little bit of stardust on a formerly unused piece of ground in Blackburn to create a wonderful communal garden.
Steve Conchie, who lives in Blackpool and runs a landscaping Community Interest Company, has worked with our Community Investment Team and Neighbourhood Services Manager Mary Brown to create a Celestial Garden on land off Blackthorn Close.
Mary has been working on reinvigorating this land for years and said she was delighted to see it finally come to fruition.
The garden features planting areas in the shape of the moon, sun and stars, filled with a range of fragrant herbs and spices and a water feature, either side of a bamboo-lined pagoda seating area.
Steve’s team has worked tirelessly over the past couple of months to create an amazing space that the community will be able to enjoy.
Great Places backs Burnley initiative
Great Places Housing Group has helped a Burnley social enterprise gain £180,000 in National Lottery funding to help people in two of the town’s most deprived wards.
Enterprising Habits, based on Abel Street, will use the money to help 150 people who are either economically inactive, unemployed or people in low paid jobs over the next three years in Daneshouse and Stoneyholme.
The area has a large immigrant community – mainly Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Syrian - so the centre helps people with language and cultural challenges as well as helping people to apply for jobs and prepare for interviews.
Great Places has supported the organisation financially in the past and has now helped them to access funding from the National Lottery.
Programme Director Ibrar Syed said: “We are very grateful to Great Places for all the help and support they have given us over the years because we are working incredibly hard to ensure people get the help they need whilst grappling with life crises. The service users have reported how the service has impacted their life and is so beneficial.
“This additional funding will help us to help local people gain training and qualifications including coaching and mentoring which will help them gain employment.
“The funding will have a profound effect on the community and for that we are very grateful. We are particularly indebted to two of the staff members who have been instrumental
''My purpose in life is to help people build the best life possible and unlock their true potential''
North Repairs Update
Your latest repairs update from your Head of Property Services.
In quarter two, the North Repairs Team has seen an increase in first time fix, and a slight decrease in repairs completed in time for certain trades, which are continuing to be reviewed and monitored. We have a few large scale projects which are being worked through with our project managers and we are continuing to review our damp and disrepair cases. The cyclical gutter team is now live and they are supporting the North region for two days a week on general gutter cleans whilst building up their cyclical program.
How we’re doing at a glance in quarter two:
- Customer satisfaction: The average customer satisfaction rating for the North region was 8.8 out of 10.
- Repairs completed: 3,181 repairs were completed to enhance customers’ homes.
- Timeliness: 82% of repairs were completed within target time frames.
- First-visit fixes: 84% of all repairs were successfully completed during the first visit.
- Empty properties: 71 empty properties were prepared for new customers, with an average turnaround time of 13 days.
- Disrepair cases: At the end of the quarter, 12 disrepair cases were still active.
These surveys are in real time – upon completion of repairs – and different to the TSM surveys.
Continuous improvement
At Great Places, we’re dedicated to continuing to enhance our performance and services for our customers. Here’s how we’re making a difference:
Ongoing improvements
We are also working on reviewing our overall Repairs Service as part of our Corporate Plan priorities, to ensure we have the best model for our repairs service.
We have been working towards a new communications platform which offers more streamlined routing of calls, and a single platform for web chat, emails, and social media.
Our enhancements to simplify the way repairs are reported and logged through our Hub are now live, which aims to reduce call handling times for customers.
We are continuing to work with our customer service teams actively seek your feedback to improve our services and to help us introduce new measures to continue to provide you with the best experience.
Thanks for your continued support and remember if you have any questions or need any further support you can contact us via Chatbot on our website or email: customerhub@greatplaces.org.uk.
Louise Smith, Head of Property Services, North Region