Estate Issues Update

Firewatch Court Roller Shutter (Job Ref: 2404198) - Parts ordered by contractor on 17/12/2012, and we hope for parts to be in 1st week of Jan-2013. Once the parts arrive our contractor will attend and re-commission the gate.

Horseley Court Roller Shutter (Job Ref: 2408451) - We suspect that an individual remote key is not working, the gate was winded up to the open position and we have sent a job to our contractor to investigate whether there is an issue with the fob receiver or whether it was an individuals key that was not working. Job to be attended to in Jan-2013.

Firewatch Court/Horseley Court Shared Swinging Main Gate (Job Ref:2402974) - Our contractors have attended an inspected the gate unfortunately it has been identified that a specialist contractor will be required to resolve the matter. There is an issue with the gate dropping (currently grinding against the floor and causing the gate to stall). The gate has been left in the open position to allow access and avoid any H&S implications. We apologise for the delay we hope this matter can be resolved in January 2013.

Johnson Lock Court Roller Shutter: The roller has been left in the open position following report from resident that the shutters was not working,  we suspect that an individual remote key is not working, the gate was tested on Friday 14/12/2012 and our contractor confirmed that all is working fine. East Thames has advised contractor to leave shutter in open position to allow access during the Christmas Holidays until we can test the gate with a resident in the new year.

Tramway Court Block 29- 38 rear door - Loss of power. This will be investigated on Friday 21/12/2012.

Mercer Court Block 91- 141 Lift - 12 month contract has been given to the original lift installer 'Stannah' to resolve longstanding issues with the Lift. In addition to the 12 month maintenance contract, Stannah will also carry out 3 key repairs, 1) replacement of the ram seal, 2) install a new pawl device, 3) upgrade the lift programme software.

Mercer Court Roller Shutters (Job Ref: 2407332) - Currently we are waiting for a report from the shutter specialist- job has been placed on a 21 day priority however once we have the report we will have a better idea what works are required and need to be authorised. 

Mercer Court Main Vehicle Gate: Inova (Gate Specialist Contractor) are returning to site on week commencing 17/12/2012 to carry out agreed modification works, these are Health & Safety modifications which are outstanding. Inova may switch the gate off whilst they undertake these works.

Main Gardens Central Gardens - All works have been completed by Fountains as agreed with GUPRA.

Recycle Bags - General recycle bags and food recycle bags can now be collected from Harford Street Neighbourhood Office at 115 Harford Street, Stepney E1 4FG (Monday 9-5, Tuesday 9-5 & Wednesday 10-6)

Remote Fob Keys & Fob Keys - If you find that your fob key is no longer working, please try to change the battery first as this is a common fault related with fob keys. If you have changed the battery and your key is still not working they may be a fault with your key and therefore residents should contact NACD on 01442 211 848 and purchase a new key directly from them.

Security Service at Grand Union Place - East Thames have continued the security service on the estate until further notice. The security team will be on site 3 days per week - Monday, Wednesday & Friday between 12pm-11pm.

Unwanted Bicycles - If any resident has a bike that they no longer need and wish to dispose it, East Thames are currently liaising with a charity organisation called Streets Of Growth based in Tower Hamlets who use abandoned bikes for their charity programmes with young people. Streets of Growth are willing to collect your unwanted bikes and can be contacted on 020 7515 7356.

Security Alert - If you receive a call via the intercom system. Please ask who they are before you allow them in to your block. Recently residents have been letting in youths into the block. If you don’t know the person at the front door please do not let them in. This will help stop unknown persons from entering your block. 

Communal Areas - Please can residents keep communal areas clear of personal items. Please remove any items you have stored in these areas immediately. East Thames will begin to remove bikes,prams and any other items from the communal area without notice under the new disposal of goods policy from Jan-2013. Please contact your Neighbourhood Manager if you are unclear about this matter.

If you would like to follow any of these repairs you can call East Thames on 0845 600 0830 and quote the job reference numbers.    

Christmas @ Candle Street - THANK YOU!

Message from Margaret Fisher (Chair of GUPRA):

"Many thanks to those who gave time, gifts and other things to make our event a success on 8th December. We were fortunate with the weather and I think a good time was had by all, especially the children visiting Santa!

We raised £130 and after expenses we had £59.51 surplus to add to the GUPRA funds. This was largely due to the generosity of several committee members who paid for items out of their own pocket."

GUPRA wishes all residents a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Click here for pictures.

Parking Suspension during Christmas Holiday

East Thames would like to inform all residents that CES Parking Enforcement Service will be suspended for a set time during the Christmas Holidays. Please note that the suspension only relates to the dates mentioned below and at all other times drivers should complete the yellow visitor vouchers/permit according to the parking procedures.  

Parking enforcement on White Tower Way, Candle Street and All Courtyards will be suspended from 7:00am on Saturday 22nd December to  9:00am on Wednesday 2nd January 2013.    

East Thames  would like to wish ALL Residents at GUP a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! 

Street by Street Winter 2012 Edition - Now available

The winter edition is now available. Click here to view the electronic version.

Changes to Parking Enforcement at GUP

On Monday 1st October 2012 it became illegal to clamp or remove vehicles parked on private land. This change in law affects the way our contractor, CES, can enforce parking on our estates. As a result, CES will be implementing a new parking ticketing program which will affect you if you currently have parking enforcement in place by CES on your East Thames estates from 1st December 2012. 

From this date, you will need to ensure you clearly display a CES parking permit or visitors permit to avoid being ticketed. 

You should already have been issued with CES parking permits but if you need additional ones for yourself or for a visitor, please contact your neighbourhood manager.

Vehicles not clearly displaying a valid parking permit or road fund licence, which are causing an obstruction or are parking without authorisation will be issued with a parking charge notice of £75.

For more information about this change please contact the British Parking Association on: 0844 257 8870 or contact your neighbourhood manager. 

Christmas @ Candle Street

Bring some festive cheer to Grand Union Place. Meet your neighbours over mulled wine and mince pieces.

Saturday 8-Dec

2-5pm by the Memorial (canal-side)

Santa's Grotto, Carol Singing, Tombola, Christmas card sale, cake/biscuit sale, and more!

All proceeds go to GUPRA to fund future events on the estate. Children must be accompanied by an adult. GUPRA will have no responsibility for their welfare.

Click here for the poster.

Updates from East Homes

Lifts at Block 91-141 Mercer Court: East Thames, Bellways and Stannah Lifts are monitoring the performance of this lift. We have received the consultants report and are currently going through his findings. We hope to update residents shortly about these findings and set out our future plan for the lift. The lift however is back in service and working.   

Johnson Lock Court - Roller Shutter Gate: Our contractors have identified that the roller shutter control box has become faulty due to water being found in the box. It was then identified that there is a leak emanating from the walls which will require addressing by East Thames. Our electricians will order a new control box however we will need to repair the source of the leak first. Our maintenance team will be raising a job to resolve the matter.  

Firewatch Court/Horseley Court Main Swing Gate: We have identified an issue with the stoppers on this gate. Our contractors have been instructed to resolve the matter, (parts are on order). We apologise for any inconvenience this is causing residents we hope to resolve the matter soon.  

Mercer Court-Scaffolding placed adjacent to Block 91- 141 Mercer Court: Bellways Homes are currently carrying out latent defects works to the roof tiling, unfortunately the works has been delayed. Residents should still park on Candle Street until further notice.  

Security Service: Enigma Security have been instructed by East Thames to continue with their service until further notice. You may re-call that East Thames initially agreed to funding the security until the end of September 2012. This is a discretionary decision taken by The Neighbourhood Management Department. We can confirm that Security will run 3 days per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Patrol time: 2.30pm - 1.30am).          

Mercer Court Sliding Gate Pilot: We informed residents earlier this year that we would trial a new gate at Mercer Court and if the gate operated successfully we would look to place orders for further gates to be installed at Johnson/Tramway Court & Coalstore/Gray Court. The gate trial was set initially for three months until the end of September 2012. This period was initially set to allow an assessment of it's fitness for purpose. The gate pilot has since been extended by a further two months, as it was felt that the 3 months was not an adequate period to assess this gate properly. We have asked Inova Gates to make further improvements on the Mercer Court Gate following an independent assessment by a Health & Safety consultant. We hope that no further extension will be required after the end of November. An assessment of the gates will be made at the end of November as to their suitability and a decision will be made as to whether they will be retained and similar gates installed elsewhere across the development.

Gates/Shutters Update

Shared Swing Gate at Firewatch Court & Horseley Court - Gate has now been repaired and turned on by East Thames.  

Firewatch Court Roller Shutter - New control panel fitted and switch repaired. The shutter has been left on and working.  
     
Horseley Court Roller Shutter - New control panel fitted. The shutter has been left on and working.  
  
Coalstore Court Roller Shutter -  New control panel fitted and tested on 06/09/12. However there appears to be a fault with the transmitter control which belongs to NACD. East Thames will report issue to NACD and instruct them to complete the repair.     
         
Johnson Lock Court Roller Shutter - Contractors has attended and identified issue with the old control box. New control box will be ordered for Johnson Lock Court. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause residents. We hope to have this shutter repaired as soon as the part is with our contractor.

If residents experience any problems accessing the car parks, they should check to see whether their fob key is working by changing their batteries or call NACD to check if there are any software issues. NACD can be contacted on 01442 211 848. If there are any problems with the gate please call East Thames repairs department on 0845 600 0830.  

Do your bit to bring cheaper energy to the Borough

Tower Hamlets residents could see cheaper energy bills, thanks to T.H.E. Community Power, a new co-operative launched by Mayor Lutfur Rahman this summer. By buying energy in bulk, T.H.E. Community Power will give local people the chance to switch energy providers and benefit from a cheaper energy tariff. 

All residents have to do is sign up now to express their interest in switching energy provider. Registration is free and only takes five minutes to do. Once 5,000 households have expressed their interest in the scheme, T.H.E. Community Power will negotiate with energy providers to secure a cheaper deal. There will be no obligation for residents to switch and based on a similar scheme undertaken by consumer watchdog Which?, households saved about £123 a year on their energy bills. 

Mayor Lutfur Rahman said: “I would urge every resident to sign up now because Tower Hamlets Energy will deliver huge benefits for local people.

“By giving residents cheaper energy bills, the co-operative will help to ease the burden and worry of increasing living costs.”

Cllr Rabina Khan, Lead Member for Housing said: “The best thing about the scheme is that the more people that sign up, the more everyone saves. So encourage your neighbours and friends to sign up too.”

I’m really excited about the potential this scheme has to bring the community together to create a scheme for the benefit of all.”

Residents can find out more and register now in two ways:
• online at www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/energy 
• by phone on 0800 5088364 (9am – 5pm on weekdays)

Paper registration forms are also available in council offices across the borough.

Once T.H.E. Community Power is established it will provide additional benefits to members, including free and impartial advice on grants, insulation, fuel debt, and energy efficiency schemes available to help residents keep their bills down. 

CES Services Ltd – Suspension of Service

East Thames would like to inform all residents that CES Parking Enforcement Service will be suspended for a set time during this weekend 18th &19th August 2012 to accommodate ‘Eid’ Celebrations. Please note that the suspension only relates to the dates mentioned below and at all other times residents should complete the yellow visitor vouchers/permit according to the parking procedures.

Parking enforcement on White Tower Way and Candle Street will be suspended from 7am on Saturday 18th August to 9am on Monday 20th August 2012.

UPDATE: Lift at Block 91-141 Mercer Court

East Thames have recently advised all residents about the current status of the lift and their proposed actions. Stannah Lifts (the contractor) have been on site and have fitted some additional parts to improve the reliability of the lift in Block 91-141 Mercer Court. Stannah also tested the effectiveness of the additional parts and whilst this test was being run, they have identified a different intermittent fault with the lift. Stannah managed to recreate the same issue after running it for 2 hours whilst on site. Stannah engineers were unhappy with putting the lift back into service until they had spoken to the manufacturer of the hydraulic drive to get some advice. Stannah plan to return to site soon to fix the problem and return the lift into service. Noticeboard in Block 91-141 has been updated on 19/7/2012.

Stepney Green Neighbourhood Office - Opening Hours during Olympics

During the Olympic period between July and September, East Thames local front of house service at Stepney Green Neighbourhood Office will run on the below days:


Monday 10am-4pm 
Tuesday 10am-4pm  
Wednesday 10am-4pm


It is intended to revert back to the normal hours at the end of September 2012.

GUPRA General Meeting Minutes - 3rd July

Thank you to who attended the last General Meeting on 3rd July.


Click here to read the meeting minutes.

Summer Planting - Pictures

Thank you to those who helped with this year's summer planting around the Memorial Garden, and not to mention the great weather on that day!

Fun Day - Saturday 23rd June

Fun Day

Saturday 23rd June, 12-3pm

Join us around the Memorial Garden for a fun day of: face painting, bouncy castle, egg & spoon races, hula-hoop competition, cake sale, tombola (bric-a-brac), under 5's activities, bike repairs etc

Food: bring & share lunch

50p donation per activity to help raise funds for future events.

East Thames Office @ Hartford Street

The new East Thames office has now opened at the Harford Street health centre. Refer to the letter on your building noticeboard.

Summer Planting

Residents and children are invited to plant summer flowers around the memorial. Join us to improve the landscaping!

Saturday 26th May, 11am-1pm

Grand Union Place @ the Memorial

Note: Children must be accompanied by an adult

Thank you to those who attended last Saturday's GUPRA Annual General Meeting (AGM). A new committee has been formed. Click here to view the meeting minutes.

Make-up of 2012/2013 GUPRA Committee
Chair: Margaret Fisher (re-elected)
Secretary: Millicent Lam (re-elected)
Treasurer: Eddie Murphy (re-elected)
Committee Members: Linda Murphy, Isabel Barbuk, Bernard Hazell, Michael O’Meara, Charlie Metz, Abdul Muhed, Marcin Sikorski, Ruth Jane Starns, Caroline Thomas, Marionne Da Costa, Aya Thompson, Lee Thompson.

Planting with Barclaycard - March 2012

A few residents have teamed up with British Waterways and a group of volunteers from Barclaycard, to improve the plot adjacent to Jonson Lock gate (by the canal side). We sincerely thank Barclaycard employees for the hard work on the day, and for the coordination from British Waterways. Here are just a few pictures:

Introducing Terry "the Gardener"

Did you know we now have an onsite gardener who works 3 days a week, responsible for the maintenance of all garden areas within Grand Union Place?

May we present you - Terry!

Since Terry started in mid-November 2011, GUPRA have received positive feedback from several residents on a significant improvement in garden maintenance.

We sincerely thank Terry for all his hard work and dedication.

Keep it up Terry!

Gates Update from East Homes

Click here to read the letter from Mark Kent, Area Manager for Tower Hamlets, on the latest news regarding gates issue. The same letter will be displayed on all noticeboards.

GUPRA 2012 Annual General Meeting

This year's AGM will take place on Saturday 21st April at 12.45pm. The venue is Harford Street Multicentre (same entrance as GP surgery).

Come and find out what GUPRA has done for Grand Union Place in the past year.

We'll also be electing new GUPRA committee members at the AGM. Please consider becoming a member to continue the work in improving things on our estate, and making Grand Union Place a better place to live.

If you want to find out more information about the different roles in GUPRA, email or telephone GUPRA (contact details listed on our blog).

Street by Street Spring 2012 Edition - Now available

The spring edition is now available. Click here to view the electronic version.

Update from East Thames: Lifts at Mercer Court

The following update was provided by Shaique Choudhury, GUP Neighbourhood Manager.

East Thames apologises for the length of time to repair the lift serving block 91-141 Mercer Court. Normally issues are repaired quickly however we have received reports that the repair is more complicated. It appears that lift has failed at the ground floor level. This means our lift contractor will now need to manually raise the lift car up so they can gain access to lift controls which are located at the bottom of the lift basement. Additional works have been authorised today so hopefully our lift contractor will provide a date to complete the works shortly. We apologise for the delay and inconvenience caused to residents.

Gates Update from East Thames

Following on the recent General Meeting (6th Feb), Mark Kent from East Thames has provided us an update in writing. They will be put up on the noticeboards.

Click here to view the letter.

General Meeting Minutes - 6th Feb

A huge thank you to all those who attended this Monday's General Meeting. Your voices have certainly been heard by East Thames!

Click here for the General meeting minutes.

Any questions, please contact GUPRA.

General Meeting Minutes 29th November 2011

Residents,

Click here to download the previous General Meeting notes.

General Meeting 6th February

Your Voice Matters!!!

Monday 6th February 2012

7.30pm-9pm

@New Community Centre

Join our General Meeting to raise your questions, voice your concerns about Grand Union Place. An opportunity to get updates from GUPRA, and talking to East Homes' representatives.