Wednesday 11 February 2009

Time To Talk Rubbish?


Have you ever noticed just how dirty Leabank Square is?

Grab yourself a cuppa, put a coat on - and take a short walk around the Square. There is so much litter, empty cans, plastic bags, dog poo, newspapers, even used nappies (!) lying around.

I am positive that hardly any of this is the fault of the residents of Leabank Square - there is NO WAY that anyone would do this right outside their own doorstep deliberately!

It is really down to the extremely bad management of the separate ares of Leabank Square.

All the residential estates surrounding us are managed by one exclusive management company - and that means that the services are all done by one company.

Leabank Square, however, is manged by 5 different management companies - all with their own separate agenda, timetable & set of standards. And this isn't even a large residential square!?!

The most illogical aspect of all this - is that the separate management companies all come to maintain & clean up on different days. This means that when on block is cleaned - there is still rubbish & litter lying outside the others - which the wind blows back to the newly cleaned block!!

Why can't we get all the separate blocks & terraces to be cleaned & maintained on the same day? That way - we will have at least 3 or 4 days a week - when Leabank Square looks beautiful! That way too - when every resident sees something lying around - we can simply pick it up and bin it.

As you all know - the Community Association was re-launched last month - and we will be seeking a meeting with all the separate management companies together - to see if we can arrange this simultaneous weekly clean-up!

We will also lay down minimum standards for the cleaning. This means that we need to say what it is exactly - that we want done in Leabank Square - on this common day.

How often do we want all the bins in the blocks of flats disinfected?
How often do we want sweeping of all the sidewalks done?
How often do we want the windows cleaned in common stairwells & corridors in the flats?
How often do we want the communal grass areas mowed?
How often do we want the hedges along Berkshire Road trimmed?
How often do we want all the litter picked up all around the square on the same day?

Let's chat.......

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sóna

I agree! How have PMMS got away with this extremely shocking mismanagement of Leabank Square for ALL THESE YEARS?!

Maybe because there haven't been enough residents complaining!

Well - we are going to start NOW!!

What is needed is one single cleaning company to be contarcted by all the seperate management companies. This one single company will have enough cleaners to clean the entire square on a single day - everything!!!

The litter, the bins, the flats (hoovering, window cleaning, cleaning banisters, etc), the gardens, the far corners of the square (even if no-one goes there - litter still blows around!), the sidewalks all along each terrace, the car parks - EVERYTHING!!!

But it has to be done by ONE SINGLE CLEANING COMPANY!! THE WHOLE OF LEABANK SQUARE!!

Matt

Anonymous said...

Why can't we all just pick up stuff around our doors every day?

Think of the money we'll save if we didn't have to pay for cleaning. These cleaning companies are all just money making rackets anyway!

They pay the staff nothing, and don't ever monitor what they are supposed to be cleaning. They wait for residents to make complaints, and then they half-heartedly come back & clean up.

Come on Leabank Square, let's do it ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Sóna
we sometimes get embarrased when we have friends & family over to visit because they have to wade through a lot of rubbish to get to the back block.

Please don't let PMMS near the tendering process for a cleaning company - we'll only end up with rascist ignorant imigrant-haters again! I can't believe Leabank Square has this bunch of unproffesional bigots as managers!?!

The tendering process has to be done by some of the residents - not PMMS!!! And then we have to make sure that whichever company wins the tender - that they are monitored!!

Another (of the MANY) problem with PMMS is that they do not monitor what is going on by their contractors - relying on us to ring up and report shoddy work.

Remember that geezer who kept fixing one light in the flats corridors - and breaking another - so he had to come back 3 times each week for 2 weeks?!?

Maria heard him calling PMMS in the corridor blatantly lying about 'all' the lights not working - in order to come back again & again!!

Anyway - we need to get 4 companies all giving tenders - and then choose the best one!!

Jose

Anonymous said...

Sóna
we sometimes get embarrased when we have friends & family over to visit because they have to wade through a lot of rubbish to get to the back block.

Please don't let PMMS near the tendering process for a cleaning company - we'll only end up with rascist ignorant imigrant-haters again! I can't believe Leabank Square has this bunch of unproffesional bigots as managers!?!

The tendering process has to be done by some of the residents - not PMMS!!! And then we have to make sure that whichever company wins the tender - that they are monitored!!

Another (of the MANY) problem with PMMS is that they do not monitor what is going on by their contractors - relying on us to ring up and report shoddy work.

Remember that geezer who kept fixing one light in the flats corridors - and breaking another - so he had to come back 3 times each week for 2 weeks?!?

Maria heard him calling PMMS in the corridor blatantly lying about 'all' the lights not working - in order to come back again & again!!

Anyway - we need to get 4 companies all giving tenders - and then choose the best one!!

Jose

Anonymous said...

I agree Jose
We have got to go through the process as profesionally as possible.

Just the same as any estate - we need to invite tenders, and then decide amongst ourselves - which is the best company to go with.

That way - we can actually fire them when anything goes wrong! As the largest landlord in Leabank - Mosaic shoul also have a say in who we hire - but definetly no PMMS. As soon as they get their greedy little mits on something like this - we're stuffed!!

Paul

Anonymous said...

You have to be very careful with cleaning contracts and tendering processes due to the TUPE Law as it can get very complicated. What we need to do is find out who manages what contract and with which company, then find out the end of contract date and give notice to terminate (check T&C's) but not before finding a new Reliable firm, I can recommend one. We all then need to agree on a day and time when we would like the cleaning carried out. For example, Monday afternoon once the bin men have been round or Wednesday afternoon once the Recycling team have been. An agreed cleaning specification and fixed price would then be agreed as well as the amount of time the cleaners will spend in each block/Communal spaces etc. A very important piece of information which everyone should already know and adhere to is that each House IS RESPONSIBLE for the outside of your own home. THIS MEANS FROM YOUR FRONT DOOR INCLUDING, PAVEMENT TO THE ROAD is your responsibility to clean at all times.

Anonymous said...

Leabanksquare.blogspot.com
As someone on another PMMS managed estate, and also about to do the same, please don't make the same mistake we did.

Even if a resident recommends a specific cleaning company, do yourselves a favour, and still go through the tendering process.

Competition is good for business, especially in these credit crunching days. Get the best company after considering all the tenders, and then sit on them. Make sure you start off by monitoring them hard.

Over here, we got diddled by a company that a fellow resident recomended, and now he feels so embarrased about it. We are now putting the job out to tender.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Good luck!!

Rick

Anonymous said...

Sóna

Thanks to Rick for that info - we really shouldn't make the same mistake here.

These PMMS scammers have cornered the market for too long, we don't want another PMMS doing the same.

Don't worry about taking our time getting a replacement company, just get it right.

Mo

Anonymous said...

Hi Everyone

The meeting with Mosaic went very well!! We now have the majority in Leabank Square.

We just need to get the legal matters sorted, and soon we can get these issues sorted out the way WE want them sorted.

Mr Black