Stourbridge Area Housing Panel

Stourbridge Area Panel  met on 21st May 2008 this was a rearranged meeting due to the March meeting being cancelled.

The meeting was attended by 2 Councillors, 4 tenant representatives and 2 Council officers.

Items on the agenda included Community Safety bids, election of panel members, re-designations of properties and a briefing note on Choice based lettings.

The Area Manager advised the panel that  inline with the constitution 2 tenants representatives  would need to stand down. The 2 being Bob Mitchell the current Chair and Peter Miles.  Bob Mitchell was unable to attend this meeting and the Area manager advised that she had spoken to the chair and that he did not wish to be reconsidered for re election. The panel asked for their thanks to be passed to Bob as he had been a founder member of the panel.  2 new panel members would be elected at the next Area Forum.
Councillor Adams was then elected as Chair with Bas Yeates as vice chair.

Lettings issues discussed included a possible re-designation of some family size properties, it was agreed that a consultation take place regarding this issues. A Choice base lettings report looked at the current position and the proposed rollout.

The community safety bids were then presented to the panel. There were 20 bids with a total value in excess of £120,000.  The budget this year was £79,000 so bids were individually scored out of 10 dependent upon their meeting the criteria which includes, value for money, sustainability, support from Councillors and residents, support from the police and the benefits to residents. Of the original 20 bids 13 were successful and these are now being processed for completion during this financial year.