March 2008

CCHA SHARES BUILDING QUALITY AWARD WITH LOCAL BUILDER.

We’re pleased to announce that for the second-year running we’ve won a building quality award at the ‘Built in Quality ‘Awards 2008 organised by Cardiff Council. The awards, which are in their fifth year, are run by the Council’s Building Control team and are recognition of high standards of building quality. Nominations are made by Cardiff Council’s Building Surveyors and award winners are chosen for delivering high quality buildings, excellent construction and customer satisfaction. This year’s award was for the approach taken and the quality of the work in the regeneration of 4 Diamond Street, Adamsdown. We’re particularly pleased to have won this award as it recognises our continuing regeneration work in Adamsdown and as our partner is a local building company, T.G. Harris, with whom we’ve worked for many year’s.

Congratulations are due to Tony’s team and our colleagues here at CCHA.

 To see more news about Award winning CCHA Click Here.

COMMUNITIES FIRST STATUS FOR ADAMSDOWN

It’s been a busy and productive few weeks for our community development team, with a number of projects successfully hitting their target.

For several months we’ve been working in partnership with the local councillors in Adamsdown, the Scarman Trust and Cardiff Council making the case that Adamsdown should have Communities First status. With our partners we submitted a bid to the Welsh Assembly Government late last year and we’re delighted to announce that it’s been successful – the first one in this round.

From 1st February 2008 The Adamsdown Community Project will manage Communtieis First in Adamsdown on behalf of the Council. The Communties First Team has already been appointed and are based at CCHA’s Tenant and Community Resource Centre at Moira Terrace. As part of the submission to the Assembly the group completed, between September-December 2007, a survey of all households in the Adasmdown area to find out residents’ views on local needs and priorities. Action Groups to tackle the key priorities identified of: the environment, youth issues, health and well being, and business and jobs are already established.

Adamsdown is one of Wales’s most deprived areas and one we’re proud to work in. Communities First should provide some of the help the area needs and we’ll be doing all we can to support the project.

For more details on Communities First in Adamsdown please contact Sue West, the Project’s Co-ordinator (telephone: 029 2046 0899) or Sue Anscombe, CCHA’s Community Development Co-oridnator on 029 2046 8417.

The Welsh Assembly Government’s Communities First Programme exists to provide local people with opportunities to play an active role in shaping the future of their community.

For full details please visit: http://www.communitiesfirst.info/

Communities@1 Boost for Community Computers

Another success for our Community Development team has been our work with Communities@1. This Welsh Assembly Government initiaitve helps people in the most disadvantaged communites in Wales get access to new technologies so they can fulfil their social, economic and cultural potential.

Back in Ocotber 2007 we were pleased to annonce that the Adamsdown Tenants and Community Resource Centre, and Trowbridge Mawr Community Hall, were to receive £24k of new computer equipment and training funded by a grant from the Communities@1 initiative. The further good news is that we’ve also received a grant to install computers into the communal rooms of several of our sheltered housing schemes.

The Adamsdown Tenants and Community Resource Centre has already had the new equipement installed and the rest will be in shortly. Part of the Communties@1 package also includes training for the new users. We’re delighted to be part of the Communties@1 project – we actually provide office space for one of their team, and we hope the new facilities will be a great benefit to the community and the tenants of our schemes.

FANCY A TASTE OF WALES?

In work linked to both our Black Minority Ethnic (BME) and Tenant Participation strategies we’ve organised, in partnership with Cadwyn and Taff HAs, a ‘Taste of Wales’ event. It will be held at St German’s Church, Adamsdown on 29th March 2008 between 1:00 and 4:00PM.

The purpose of the event is essentially twofold:

• To provide information on lots of things Welsh for BME tenants of the three associations.
• To foster links with the BME communities with whom we work and to encourage BME tenants to increase their involvement with their landlord associations – in CCHA’s case currently 18% of our tenants are from BME communities .

The event is free and open to the public; so, if you would like to come along it would be good to see you there.

Follow this link for the full details: A Taste of Wales.

CHARTER MARK – RETAINED!

CCHA has successfully retained its Charter Mark status, the government’s standard for excellent customer services. Our service was reviewed by the Government’s inspectors in January; we were assessed as ‘fully compliant’ in four of the six assessment areas and ‘partially compliant’ in the other two - an excellent result. The Inspectors noted that “…CCHA continue to make good progress against all the standards.”

We are committed to providing excellent services to our customers and we’re delighted to have retained our Charter Mark for the next twelve months. Our next inspection will be in January 2009.

EASTER OFFICE HOURS

Our offices will be closed from 4.30PM on Thursday 20th March 2008 and will re-open at 9.00 am on Tuesday 25th March 2008. Over the holiday period you will be able to pay your rent at anytime.

• Emergency Repairs - 01633 214222

and help will be immediately available. For more details on how to use this service, please see page 24 of your Tenants’ Handbook.

Please remember that this service should only be used in an emergency.

NEXT UPDATE: APRIL 2008.