The state of the estate - another update

Hi everyone, I wanted to quickly update you on a couple of things that have happened since I last posted an update about this issue.  Thanks again to those who were able to comment or provide information on their experience with Miller Homes- it's been really useful to have this information when dealing with both them and Chorley Council.

After speaking with both Miller Homes and Chorley Council last week I found out that they were meeting on Tuesday afternoon to review the list of issues that Simon Forster of Chorley Council had identified and those that I had sent on our behalf.  So, I took an hour off work and with Kath Almond from the Parish Council I went to their meeting.

As it stands, Miller Homes are still responsible for the common areas of the estate such as the grass, pond and play area. There is an interesting plan of the estate (supplied by the Council) that shows the areas that Miller are responsible for, these will eventually become adopted by Chorley and the aim is to do this in the next couple of months.

It's fair to say that from the beginning of the meeting Miller Homes were keen to try to start putting things right. I suspect this is influenced in part by their desire to see the adoption completed in the next couple of months (which can't happen until the list of issues is resolved) but David Ratcliffe from Miller Homes came across as positive, helpful and pragmatic.

Before I met them I noticed that on Tuesday morning the grass had been cut on the strip next to the railway and around the children's play area and the trees and bushes in this area were being trimmed and tidied. I'm told that from now on the grass will be cut about every two weeks and the bushes trimmed as needed (but obviously not in the winter!) Hopefully with the drier, warmer weather promised for next week this will encourage the street football to move to the grassed area and away from the roads.

We walked around the estate and went through the list of points I have written about before, covered the emptying of the bin beside the play area (which will be emptied when the grass is cut) and discussed the points relating to the pond. In the main these are in the process of being dealt with and will be completed before the end of the month.

However there are still a couple of points that I raised which need to be cleared up by Miller as part of the adoption process. The first relates to the pond which I'm told is supposed to be a managed wild area that has minimal maintenance and the second is the ownership of the railing that run parallel to numbers 41 to 33 and 43 to 7 Jubilee Way as well as those that also border the pond area.  Miller Homes has committed to provide me with a copy of the pond management plan which should give us more information on how the pond should be looked after (I'll post it when I get it) as well as a response on the points some of you raised about this area. The ownership of the railings needs some input from Miller's legal team and they agreed to get in touch with me about this as quickly as they can.

So, that's about all I have on this for now, I'll update again when I have more information on the adoption process.

Mike

The state of the estate - update

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on my last blog post - the state of our estate and tell you about a couple of things that have happened since I last posted. Thanks once again to Kath Almond for her assistance over the last week or so especially with finding the name of someone at Miller Homes who can make a decision.

First of all, thanks for all of your comments to my post. Time is stopping me from responding to the points tonight but I will try to in a future update.  If you're reading this and haven't yet taken the opportunity to comment I'd encourage you to do so. The more support as a community we have for this the easier I hope it will be to get some change.

Since I last posted I've been able to speak with Dave McDonald who is the Commercial Director for Miller Homes. Dave confirmed that Miller Homes still own and maintain the estate although the process of adoption by Chorley Council is underway. I went through the main points of the last post relating to the work that needs dealing with and he explained that Simon Forster, the Parks and Open Spaces Officer for Chorley Council, had listed 6 items that Miller Homes need to attend to before adoption can complete. Dave sent me a copy of an email he received from Simon dated 3rd July listing these points. I've dropped them into this post exactly as they are in the email so you can read for yourself what was said -

1. Grass cutting – grass and meadow area is getting on to a foot in height and needs urgent attention.
2. Street Furniture – there is damage to the litter bin and some rust damage to the steel benches.  Both need repair / remedial treatment or replacement.
3. Fencing – Gap in fence to railway lines needs urgent repair
4. Play surfacing – new areas of wetpour safety surface in play area has not bonded well to the older wet pour material. Needs repairing or replacing.
5. Entrance planting bed to estate – extensive weeds and lack of overall maintenance. There are sections of retaining wall along this planting bed which are damaged and need attention.
6. Another item I forgot to mention relates to the management plan for the wetland area – I understand Miller Homes are required to provide this prior to adoption.

Items 1, 3 and 5 are on the list in my last post but it seems that the Council have issues with other areas. I will get in touch with Simon Forster and ask him to look at adding to his list the pillar caps and railings so that they can be dealt with by Miller Homes before the adoption completes.

I think we now have an opportunity to present any reasonable demands to Miller Homes for anything that's not listed. So, if you have spotted something, or if you live near the pond and want to comment about how Miller have managed this area please get in touch by commenting on the blog. 

When I spoke to Dave McDonald he committed to prioritising the grass cutting adjacent to the railway and around the play area. If it's not been done by the middle of next week I will contact him again. 

I also contacted Network Rail after I wrote my last post and they have replaced the missing fence board near to the playground and the gap has now gone. 

That's about all I have as an update on this tonight. As always, if you have any comments, whether good or bad I'd really like to hear them.

Mike

Saturday posts

Hi everyone, 2 updates for the blog this week. The first is the latest Lancashire County Council Trading Standards newsletter which you can read here. The second is an invitation to  get in touch with the presenters of BBC One's You've Been Scammed program if you, or someone you know, have been scammed. You can read about it by clicking here.

Mike has also received a handful of comments to his post about the State of the Estate. If you've not yet had chance to look at it please take a few minutes to read it by clicking here and add your comments and opinion.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend

Abby

The state of our estate

Hi, I'm Abby's husband Mike and I wanted to post about how I think Miller Homes, the developer of our estate, seem to have forgotten what their responsibility is to keeping our estate tidy.

This all started a couple of weeks ago when we noticed the grass on the strip in front of the railway fence hadn't been cut for a long time. In the past, this has been cut fairly regularly by Miller Homes and included the grass around the play area but it's getting long and starting to look pretty untidy and neither of us could remember when we last noticed it had been mown.

The grass strip

Abby contacted Chorley Council who told her it was still Miller Homes responsibility to mow the grass.  After a short e-mail exchange with Kath Almond from the Parish Council Kath asked to meet up and look at the common areas on the estate as she has already been in touch with Miller Homes about the state of the 'landscaped 'area on the right of Jubilee Way as you enter the road and wanted to see if there were other areas that they had stopped maintaining and that they needed to look at.

The grass strip

So, I met up with Kath last Wednesday and we started by looking at the area at the entrance of the estate which is looking pretty shabby. It's full of weeds and litter and really needs some attention. As far as we can tell it's a common area and the responsibility of Miller Homes to keep this area tidy and apart from the weeds I cleared away last year when I installed the grit bin behind the pillar I don't think it's had much attention over the last 10 years. It's not a great view of our estate as it's probably the first thing you see as you drive into, or past, Jubilee Way.

The 'landscaped' area at the entrance of the estate

Another view of the 'landscaped' area - spot the missing bricks!

We walked around the estate and it wasn't hard to spot more examples of where Miller have not kept the common areas of the estate in good condition over the years. From bricks missing in the wall adjacent to the parking area behind Moor Road to missing or dislodged pillar caps on the wall next to the grass strip.

Missing pillar cap - Miller were told about this 6 years ago

Dislodged pillar cap

We also spotted missing railings and fencing boards next to the playground - the latter being a real danger to kids playing in the area as they could squeeze through and get onto the railway.

Missing railing - it's fallen off and is behind the wall

Missing fence board beside the railway

The grass next to the playground is above knee height and is as untidy as the grass strip beside the railway.

The grassed area beside the playground

So I wanted to use the blog to let you know that we're in the process of trying to find out who is responsible for the estate. Once this is sorted out I'd like to give them a list of jobs they need to look a on behalf of all the residents and I'd really like to know if you've spotted something that you think should be included or if you've been in touch with Miller Homes or Chorley Council about the state of the estate. This will be really useful to show that I'm not a lone voice on this issue (of course, if you disagree with what I've said about the estate feel free to say so!)

You can add a reply with any information you have as a comment to this post but if if you do please don't do it anonymously as I may need to get in touch to ask you for more details.


Mike