Neighbours And Neighbourhoods News
Maidenhead & District Housing Association Residents’ Association AGM
Monday, December 15 2008
Thank you to all of those of you who took the time to vote for who you would like to represent you on the Residents’ Association Executive Committee. Over 200 people voted. Those with the highest votes were elected at the Annual General Meeting on 11th December, at St Joseph’s church hall, Maidenhead.
The 6 nominees with the most votes were Glenys McGraw, Fred Simmonds, Doreen Compton, Brian Shanks, Nicholas Drennan and Helen Doman. Their names, photos and details will be added to the Residents’ Association page shortly.
Thank you to all the nominees who put themselves forward and everyone who voted or made it along to the AGM.
Keep an eye out for details of what the Residents’ Association Executive Committee will be up to in the year ahead. They’re keen to have your feedback on what your priorities are. If you’d like to speak to them please contact Rachel Bonner, Chair
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Who do you want to represent you?
Thursday, November 20 2008
All voting cards have a unique reference number. There is one vote per household. You can only use one voting method. If you have voted for more than one person your votes will not be counted. Voting closes on 9th December 2008. Votes received after this date will not be counted. VOTING HAS BEEN EXTENDED AS SHELTERED HOUSING SCHEMES RECEIVED THEIR VOTING PAPERS LATER.
There are five vacancies on the Executive Committee for MDHA residents and two vacancies for residents from Bridgewater Housing. There are no nominations from Bridgewater Housing. All the residents, who have put themselves forward for election, are MDHA residents.
Four members of the existing MDHA Residents’ Association Executive Committee will be retiring at the AGM. They can stand for re-election if they wish.
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Free activities for 13 to 19yr olds during half term
Friday, October 31 2008
The activities were all being held at the new Youth and Community Centre 4 Marlow Road, Maidenhead. 13 to 19 yrs olds took part in Inflatable Sumo Wrestling, DJ Mixing Workshops, a Film Making Taster Course, Sailing, Street Dance and a whole host of other activities. On the Friday there was a trip to Thorpe Park for the Fright Night!
To see the pictures go to the Picture Gallery and select the ‘General’ category
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Eid ul-Fitr celebration at Ellington Park School - 3rd October 2008
Friday, October 03 2008
This event was organised by MDHA with the help of PACT, an Asian Women’s Group in Maidenhead and Community Multi-Services.
Eid ul-Fitr, often abbrieviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.
Eid is an Arabic word meaning ‘festivity’ while Fitr means ‘to break the fast’
All the children from the shcool were involved in a morning of celebrations with all the parents invited to attend and join in.
The morning started with a wonderful assembly led by children from Year Six with stories, poems and a song about Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr.
After the assembly every child in the school walked down a lit-up catwalk in pairs to show off thier traditional clothes.
The teachers also came in traditional Indian clothes to take part in the fashion show and kindly provided Isabel with an Indian scarf so she could take part as well.
MDHA had setup a stall to give out leaflets and information and we were also offering to help residents fill out their Service Information Forms.
PACT had prepared traditional Indian food including samosas, pakoras, dips and curries.
Community Multi-Services brought with them four Dholki drums and two guitars. As well as performing Indian songs to the children they also got the children singing along with them.
The school’s music teacher took the lead in one of the songs getting all the children to stand up and join in. MDHA’s very own Harpreet Pangali sang beautifully in her Sari.
The children were all encouraged to get involved and have a go at playing the Dholki which was really enjoyed by all the children and teachers.
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Larchfield Fun Day, 31st August 2008
Thursday, September 18 2008
A successful Fun Day despite the wind and rain, visited by the Royal Borough’s Mayor Councillor Dorothy Kemp and attended by nearly 100 people. This event was held in partnership with Larchfield Community Group, who held a number of different stalls and ran activities including cake decorating, which the children really enjoyed.
There were two clowns there to entertain the children with spinning plates, balloon animals, and much more. MDHA provided the barbeque and offered stencil tattoos for the children, and the RBWM Community Wardens were also at the event to help out.
The Fire Brigade came to the event to let children have a look on their engines, before they had to hurry off on an urgent call out!
MDHA also provided an inflatable assault course, which was put up quickly every time it looked like it was going to be dry for a while. The children had lots of fun, especially jumping down the slide at the end of the assault course.
Take a look at the pictures in the gallery.
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Arborfield Fun Day, 30th August 2008
This was a really fantastic multi-agency effort from the ‘Project Home Front’ and the whole day was sunny and hot. A fantastic barbeque was supplied, and every burger and every sausage was eaten by the end of the day!
Over 200 people attended the event and we received a lot of good feedback.
The stalls for face painting and stencil tattoos had queues the entire day, and our giant Connect Four and Buttons the clown were both very popular, with lots of children coming away with balloons shaped as bugs, aliens, flowers, poodles and much more! There was also a human skittles activity (involving a row of soft mats, skittles at the end, some soapy water, and lots of people taking turns to skid down the mats and knock all the skittles down!).
The MOD Police provided advice and gave away goodie bags for the children and Rachel our steel pan soloist was also there to provide entertainment.
Have a look at the pictures in the gallery.
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MDHA Residents’ Association is looking for new members
Tuesday, September 02 2008
MDHA Residents’ Association represents you as a resident, to make sure that your views are heard. They’re currently looking for new members. Any resident can apply to join the group.
The group currently has 14 members and can have up to a maximum of 20. Some of the existing members are due to retire, but can stand for re-election if they wish. The group aims for its membership to be reflective of the residents it serves, so it is keen to have members from all areas where we have properties.
The Executive Committee generally meet every month and are involved in making decisions about new policies, initiatives and changes to services. They also help to monitor the performance of the Housing Association. As part of this role members often join working groups with staff members to review services.
Five members sit on the company’s Boards to make sure that residents views are represented in key decisions about the work of the company.
Here are just a few examples of things that MDHA Residents’ Association Executive Committee have been involved in recently. Members:
o Sat on a panel to agree who should carry out the grounds maintenance service
o Helped to write a Resident involvement strategy setting out how we will involve residents in decisions over the next 3 years
o Pushed for the 4 hour emergency callouts for elderly and vulnerable residents when their heating and hot water breaks down
o Helped design this website so that residents can find out about activities in their Neighbourhood, find out more about the role and members of the Residents’ Association and give us feedback
If you would like to be a member of the Executive Committee please email me with your:
Name, Address, Telephone number, Email address, brief information about why you would like to join the group and brief information about you, e.g. how long have you been a resident, what are your interests, hobbies, what skills do you think you could bring to the group?
Please email me no later than 12th September 2008
Details of all residents who express an interest will be put on this website and sent out to all residents with an invitation to the Residents’ Association Annual General Meeting. (Date to be confirmed, likely to be late Oct/early Nov) Residents will be invited to elect new members from the information provided. Following the Annual General Meeting successful candidates will become new members of the Executive Committee.
Note: Addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses will not be published. We will only list the town that you live in.
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Basingstoke fun day was a great success
Friday, August 22 2008
Here are some of the things our tenants were saying to each other:
“I think this is really great, we’ve been walking past each other every day for ages, and this is the first time we’ve actually properly spoken to each other”
“It was really nice meeting you, you’ll definitely have to come by for a beer and chat sometime”
“It’s been good to meet you, now we know we’ve got children of a similar age we’ll have to meet up again”
We had Rachel, the steel pan soloist, providing entertainment, which was very popular. The barbeque was lots of fun, between around 20 and 30 people came out, and everyone mingled with everyone else. The children enjoyed the stencil tattoos and the colouring, and everyone took away some energy saving light bulbs.
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Fane Way Hot Street with Fire Service
Tuesday, August 12 2008
We’ve teamed up with the Fire Service to carry out free fire safety checks in Fane Way, Larchfield, Maidenhead. A team of fire fighters will be door knocking homes in Fane Way to provide free checks and advice. Our staff will be on hand with the mobile office to answer any queries you may have. This is a great event and an opportunity for you to make sure your home is safe. Have a look at the Gallery to see photos of the event last year in Cox Green.
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Knowl Hill Clean up and BBQ
Monday, July 28 2008
This event was really well attended and we received a lot of positive responses from all who came along.
The residents taking part in the Clean Up were mainly from four families, with the mums out with their children. A couple of other families joined in at different points during the Clean Up to help out. The children had a really good time, running off with the rubbish pickers and coming back to put what they found in the rubbish bags being held by their mums.
Feed back from the Clean Up was that although the estate is well maintained and kept clean, the mum’s found that we were picking up more rubbish than they had expected. One of the boys even found an abandoned tire!
We were very lucky to have some great entertainment throughout the event provided by Rachel a steel pan soloist. Rachel started off performing by the shops where we meet everyone at the start of the litter pick. She then moved all her equipment down to the grass where we had our BBQ. The music was well received by the residents there, and along with the weather, which was very sunny and warm, we had a really good summer atmosphere.
Once the litter pick was over and all the children had washed their hands we gathered everyone to start the BBQ. While we waited for the food to cook we got the children to draw and colour pictures of things about their neighbourhood. This activity was also well received, and nearly all the children had a go at drawing a picture.
Friends, neighbours, the play park area, and space to play football were the main themes from the pictures of things the children did like. Rubbish, cars going too fast, and neighbours having their bonfires in the middle of the day were the main themes from the pictures of things the children did not like.
People enjoyed the BBQ and most stayed for over an hour, which gave us a chance to get a couple of our census surveys filled in, and for Lyndsey the Area Housing Officer to answer a couple of residents’ queries and take down a couple of complaints and neighbourhood issues. Although the Mobile Office was present at this event, as the weather was so nice and people were happy to sit outside residents did not feel that they could give overly informative feedback on the Mobile Office. However people did comment that it was good to have something there with all our logos on, and people could use the toilet facilities on the Office if they wished.
Friends, neighbours, the play park area, and space to play football were the main themes from the pictures of things the children did like. Rubbish, cars going too fast, and neighbours having their bonfires in the middle of the day were the main themes from the pictures of things the children did not like.
We also gave away a number of our free energy saving light bulbs and held a free raffle for all the residents who had participated in the Clean Up. We had three sets of gift vouchers valuing £5, £10 and £15, and residents felt that these prizes were generous as a thank you to their help on the litter pick.
The children stayed for quite a while around the BBQ area and got involved in some of the other games we had with us like the giant connect four.
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DIY workshop at Pinkneys Green
We’re holding our DIY workshop at Pinkneys Green Fun Day this year, Saturday 16 August 11am – 6pm. Last year’s DIY workshop was a great success with residents learning how to build a wall, lay a patio, decorate and carry out minor repairs. Our human resources staff were also on hand to give advice about getting back to work. For pictures of last year’s event see the gallery. This year we’re teaming up with Pinkneys Green Community Forum, a residents group who run an annual fun day, to make sure that even more residents can gain extra DIY skills. If you want to know more contact .
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Ellington School Fun Day
Monday, July 21 2008
Our staff attended Ellington School fun day in Maidenhead on 11th July. We were there to support the event with a Tombola and activities for the children. We asked children at the event to draw pictures of what they liked and disliked about the neighbourhoods they live in, so that we can work with other agencies to improve services. You can see some of the pictures in the Gallery.
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Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
Friday, July 18 2008
Gypsy Roma Traveller History month was celebrated by us on the 26th June with a BBQ at Pool Lane. The residents talked about their histories and heritage, and lots of old photographs were brought out, and stories of the past were told.
Gypsy and Traveller groups are often victims of prejudiced views and attitudes towards their culture. The older generations of these communities did not necessarily attend school due to frequent moves between sites, and instead were trained by their families in skills and trades in order to make products that could be sold. As they did not attend school many Gypsy Roma Travellers cannot read or write.
Anyone travelling to Pool Lane is immediately impressed with how decorative and well kept the properties there are, and the residents are very proud of their skills. In the gallery you can see a photo of Phyllis, a resident at Pool Lane and her cut-paper and carved wooden flowers.
Gypsy and Traveller groups have developed their own traditions in music, story-telling, poetry, art and design, and dance, many of which have had a much greater influence on our own culture than most people would realize.
All the photographs are in the General Picture Gallery.
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Mobile Office
Tuesday, June 24 2008
We have recently bought a mobile office! This is a motor-home which we can use to bring our services right to your doorstep. A range of staff will be out and about in the office, including representatives from other agencies such as the police and community wardens. If you see the office in your neighbourhood pop in and have a cup of tea or coffee and a chat, log repairs, check your rent account, ask any questions you may have, or have a small meeting.
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