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| REACTION TO TMO |
Information has been provided to the Dame, by one of her 'deep throats',suggesting the number of complaints received by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation has possibly DOUBLED in the last quarter.
The Dame is so alarmed about the TMO shenanigans she has instructed her nephew, Ludo, to see who at the TMO is trying hush things up.
You would think the number of complaints would be logged by the TMO so as to be instantly accessible: it seems not.
It appears that as part of its job creation ethos the TMO has a specially appointed jobsworth who is there to delay FOI responses.
So the Dame's 'deep throat' has been told he will have to wait the statutory twenty days before getting a response to this simple request for basic numbers....
It appears that as part of its job creation ethos the TMO has a specially appointed jobsworth who is there to delay FOI responses.
So the Dame's 'deep throat' has been told he will have to wait the statutory twenty days before getting a response to this simple request for basic numbers....
Do you know that National Rail's Train Operating Companies provide information Complaints (and punctuality) more efficiently than the Kensington and Chelsea TMO manages to do.
ReplyDeleteThe TMO does not log all complaints as complaints but rather as "service requests". This is a direct deliberate strategy from above to massage the figures. As a result the issues people are complaining about are rarely addressed or resolved, the complaints procedure is not followed and residents' complaints vanish into a black hole.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why any assurances from the Council that the TMO is being monitored closely are worthless. You can't monitor them properly when they are constantly fiddling the figures.
DeleteI recently came across the TMO's original complaints' leaflet issued in 1996 which says that you complain about absolutely anything you like.
DeleteShortly after Mr Black got a job at the TMO all that changed because the
TMO was getting too many complaints and Robert Black did not want the Council looking at the situation in a bad light.
So the ever so artful TMO Board changed the complaints' policy so that Mr Black could claim that complaints were down under his leadership. The ambit of a "complaint" is now limited to "failure of customer service." The more savvy of us play the game (we shouldn't have to) by complaining about whatever we like but we manage to relate each matter to one of poor customer service in order to get the complaint accepted as a complaint.
It is does feel like tenants have to jump through hoops to complain about anything; on my estate this is resented. It is known on my estate that I will assist anyone with a complaint against the TMO and that I will help people make complaints so that they have a voice and are empowered.
Complaints are seldom upheld. High ranking staff answer letters of complaint, often giving the impression that they agree with what you are saying, and then conveniently fail to mention whether the complaint is upheld or not. One then has to write again to enquire if the complaint is upheld. One member of the Executive recently went to extraordinary lengths refusing to uphold a complaint without any regard to the evidence.
DeleteThe TMO, other council related organisations and council departments routinely wait the statutory 20 working days - effectively a month, to answer FOI enquiries. So the first stage of the process can take 4 or 5 months. It's done in the hope that the enquirer will lose interest. Another technique is to provide detailed answers to unasked questions, so the enquirer ends up with a series of of irrelevant statements. The next step, an internal, RBKC appeal, is similarly manipulated.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the final step: an application to the Information Commissioner, is worthwhile, a year after the process began.
If the Tories win the next election, they may abolish ICO, the Office of the Information Commissioner. It's best that the rabble is kept in proper darkness.
Every year members of the TMO are asked to vote at the Annual General Meeting to say that they want the TMO to continue as managing agent of their homes. Generally about one hundred residents vote in favour. Hardly a vote of confidence in Tenant Management when the company manages around 9, 000 properties but it is enough to keep the TMO, everyone's darling, in existence for another twelve months.
ReplyDeleteSTOP PRES : HEAR THE LATEST : READ ALL ABOUT: NEWS EXTRA
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MORE PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TMO EACH QUARTER THAN VOTE FOR IT TO CONTINUE AS THE MANAGER OF RBK&C SOCIAL HOUSING STOCK.
TMO Members are not given any choice or information about alternatives to Tenant Management when they cast their ballots at the Company's Annual General Meeting. The ballot paper says something along the lines of
Delete'Do you want the TMO to continue to manage the Council's housing stock? yes or no "
No alternative is ever offered so by default people vote for more bad tenant mismanagement because there is nothing else on offer. Some members of the Company's Board have been known to suggest that the only alternative would be privatisation.
CORRECTION: I meant to say
DeleteMORE PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TMO EACH YEAR THAN VOTE FOR IT TO CONTINUE.
However, the TMO must receive a number of complaints because they have a Complaints' Manager who is assisted by two Complaints' Officer. They have an onerous workload I am certain.
Time for a campaign to activate members to vote out Black and his bunch of useless underlings
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Members are unable to vote out Black and the underlings which he has brought in, although it would be very bad news for them if the membership called an Extraordinary General meeting of the Company.
DeleteIn 2008, there were two superb, first class, showdowns of the TMO's membership with the Board and the Executive. The Town Hall had never seen anything like it before,or since. In those days members could petition for an Extraordinary General Meeting on presentation of a petition signed by fifty members of the Company. The TMO didn't like it when people did so, so the Board changed the Company's Constitution and now the petition needs around four to five hundred signatures. Let us not forget that there were, at that time, four Councillors serving on the Board when the TMO changed the Company's Constitution. I think we can safely say that the Council does not want anymore showdowns so if there were one, it would be very bad news for the TMO.
I remember those showdowns in 2008. They were amazing - the police could not contain the situation. Juliet Rawlings and Helen Evans could not keep order. Helen Evans was much stronger than Robert Black and he would be out of his depth if there were another one.
DeleteThose showdowns were against the ancient regime of Juliet Rawlings and Helen Evans. The Augean Stables have been cleaned out lot since then.
DeleteThe TMO is worse under Black and a showdown would certainly set the record straight. A residents' showdown with the Black regime is long overdue.
DeleteDoes anonymous 11.02 work at the TMO?
Anonymous 11.02 is referring to the stables of Augeas which housed a huge number of cattle and were not cleaned until Heracles came on the scene. The stench from those stables stunk to high heaven. The TMO does not smell like a bed of roses, it stinks, alway has,
DeleteThe TMO does not smell of a rose garden it's more like a sewer farm from the underneath
Delete11.02 suggests that the TMO has cleaned up its act with the demise of Juliet Rawlings and Helen Evans. RUBBISH!
DeleteThe Board meets less than it ever did, and Black has allowed the Board to increase the Resident Directors remuneration which the TMO pays under the label of expenses. Since when did anyone get expenses of
£1, 200 a year for twelve hours work. Paying expenses instead of wages helps the Resident Directors to obtain tax advantages and means tested benefits and flies in the face of probity by anyone's reckoning.
Does anyone remember the showdown that Sheila Murphy had with Reg Kerr Bell at a TCC Meeting? Reg blamed Gordon Perry for turning theTMO in to a mess. Sheila Murphy was furious. If we must have more showdowns, more of the same please.
DeleteI remember the Kerr Bell and Murphy showdown. That was a right showdown.
DeleteA huge story of ineptitude, corruption, inefficiency and squalor has emerged on this blog concerning the TMO. A major "drains up" is required from the Housing and Scrutiny Committee. Unfortunately the Leadership of this Committee is in the hands of two of the most inept and useless Councillors in Hornton Street. Cllr Marshall is Chairman and Cllr "I am depressed" Mackover is Deputy Chairman.
ReplyDeleteHow do they do it in? Warwick and Mackover for Planning and Marshall and Mackover for Housing!
DeleteSort it PB. Get rid of the dross
The Dame has uncovered yet another massive scandal in the Rotten Borough! Does anyone know how many people currently live under this disgraceful TMO regime?
ReplyDeleteDear Dame Hornet,
ReplyDeleteHow bad does the TMO have to get before the Council decides that it must be given up as a bad job? Elsewhere on this blog one woman has mentioned that the TMO has reduced her friend to tears - a truly shocking and disgarceful state of affairs.
I can assure the Dame that it would not be difficult to keep her in copy on the TMO for at least a year. Watch this space.
In the eyes of this council it doesn't matter a jot how bad the TMO is; since it only serves 'poor' people. Such persons are hardly seen as fully functioning human beings.
ReplyDeleteAttention and public funds are very properly lavished on the wealthy patrons of the Holland Park Opera.