WATERWAYS MANAGEMENT COMPANY
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING NO 93
Tuesday 23 November 2021 at 7.30pm
Waterways Community Room, Clearwater Place
Present: Adrian Olsen (Chair), Paula Reynolds, Brian Shine, Hilary Sorensen, Raquel Stremme, Liz Wheater
In attendance: Natalie Griffiths, FirstPort Property Services
Minute taker: Imogen Olsen
1 Apologies for absence
1.1 Tao Tao Chou, Ann Hall, Kate Lack, Adrian Mourby, Nicholas Orme, Louise Robertson, Mary Tovey
2 Approval of the minutes of meeting 92 held on 14 September 2021
2.1 The minutes were approved.
3 Matters arising from the minutes
3.1 Negotiations with Berkeley Homes over the transfer of the freehold had not progressed.
The lead director [HS] had that morning chased up Tim Rodway of BH, stressing the fact
that WMC were facing problems in managing the estate thanks to Berkeley Homes’
failure to respond to outstanding queries.
3.2 The car-park T-lines in Complins Close had now been renewed. Remove matter from the
agenda.
3.3 The faulty bin-store light in Complins Close was now seen as acceptable if imperfect.
Remove from agenda.
3.4 FirstPort reported that the stacked window openings in 30-47 Cox’s Ground had been
found to be compliant with the legislation. They would keep the matter under review.
Remove from agenda.
3.5 There had been no problems over bin stores on the estate for the past thirty days.
3.6 (4.2.3) The roof repair at 1-25 Stone Meadow was now scheduled for December. The
consultation process had been speeded up by special dispensation and an order for the
work had been raised that day by FirstPort.
4 AGM review
4.1 The AGM had been very successful and was well attended. Natalie from FirstPort was
thanked for her effective input. The move to autumn had worked well and future AGMs
should be held at that time. Some residents had asked for the AGM to held on Zoom as
2
well as physically, and it was agreed to investigate whether this might be possible.
Another resident had requested that wine be served at future AGMs but it was not
thought that company funds should be spent on this.
5 Electric vehicle charging
5.1 The lead director had reported back after a recent meeting with Phil Tilley at EV Charging
Company, who was going to respond with further suggestions. A director disagreed that
this was a matter for WMC and said it should be up to individual residents to build their
own charging points – as in fact one resident had already done. However, there would be
a problem over remote parking spaces for some terraced houses and for apartment
blocks, and some collective action would probably be necessary, at least in creating the
initial infrastructure. Grants were coming in for apartment blocks. Further discussion
would wait until the lead director’s return.
6 Sub-Committee reports
6.1 Apartment Blocks Sub-Committee
6.1.1 Planned redecorations were now scheduled to begin in Spring 2022.
6.1.2 Tenders were due to come in for lift modernisation at 46-60 Frenchay Road. These will
be reviewed by the consultant who will then liaise with the Sub-Committee.
6.1.3 The damaged front door and surround at 31-39 Complins Close was scheduled to be
repaired by Gerry as soon as possible.
6.1.4 The question of marking and signage of car-park spaces at 2-32 Elizabeth Jennings Way
had been raised at the AGM Q+A session. It was agreed to go ahead with this work by
painting plot numbers on spaces, thereby avoiding associating the spaces with particular
apartments.
6.1.5 A director requested that the car-park marking for 108-126 Frenchay Road be renewed,
and this was agreed.
6.2 Gardening Sub-Committee
6.2.1 Draft minutes for the last GSC walk-around on 5 October had been circulated.
Some railings were in need of repainting and it was decided to formulate a programme
for this work next year. Evergreen would be suggesting a planting plan for the area
around the letter box, and also for the green at the southern end of Frenchay Road.
6.2.2 A problem had arisen over the repaving programme. The original plan was, for budget
reasons, to repave the path in front of some houses in Frenchay Road (terraced houses
nos 49-77) in January 2022 and to leave renewing the paths in Complins Close to the new
financial year. However, the legal advice from FirstPort is that the plans attached to each
transfer document for those houses show that the owners of the houses own the
individual sections of the path in front of them, although it had always been assumed
that this was an area managed by WMC. The legal advice from FirstPort also is that
according to the transfer documents the path is a communal path available for access
3
purposes to “neighbouring properties. This means that each owner is responsible for
their own section of the path, subject to, as indicated in the transfer document covenant
17.9, “neighbouring properties” contributing fairly to the cost of maintenance. It is not
clear which are “neighbouring properties” or how this process of cost contribution might
be managed. The Chair suspected that the plans in the transfer document were probably
a simple mistake made when the houses were first sold, as he thought that all other
similar paths on the estate were WMC’s responsibility.
Several directors believed that WMC should leave this path for individual owners along
that row to manage any repairs themselves and how they should be paid for, without
WMC involvement. Others felt that because the path was also communal as well as
private, the WMC should be responsible for enforcing the covenant in the transfer
document and possibly also in helping to manage any repairs in order to keep the path
safe. FirstPort advised that any changes that individual owner might want to make to
their section of path would need WMC approval. The situation is unclear and further
advice would be sought from FirstPort regarding the transfer documents, the covenants
and the varied rights and responsibilities.
The ownership of the paths in Complins Close would also have to be investigated as they
were the next priority in the repaving programme [subsequently found to be communal
and WMC’s responsibility].
6.2.3 New bench on the Green. The previous meeting had agreed that the new bench could
have a small, credit card-sized plaque from the donating family attached to the front. The
director concerned had been in touch with the donors of the prospective new bench for
the Green who are happy for us to choose the bench and its location (proposed to be on
the gravel under the lime trees). The director will progress this on her return.
6.2.4 FirstPort will be meeting our cleaning contractor in early December and will discuss with
them the cleaning of the car-park area in Cox’s Ground.
6.2.5 A surveyor from Green Hatch had attended to research and mark up the boundaries of
the estate on the north, west and south sides. Wooden marker poles with red painted
tops are now in place. FirstPort are awaiting a detailed report and it is clear that more
permanent markers will be needed as the wooden ones will eventually rot. The markers
will indicate which trees on the borders are our responsibility.
6.2.6 The question of installing extra lighting in out-of-the-way car-parking areas had been
considered and rejected. It would be impractical to install, and more sensible to do some
branch pruning around the current lighting fixtures in Complins Close.
6.2.7 The lead director reported on the latest developments regarding silt removal. A new
potential contractor, McAllister’s, had attended a site meeting but had eventually
declined to quote on the grounds that the job’s complexities; this probably refers to the
need to create a temporary dam to stop the flow of water through the siphon which
Thames Water has always objected to as a threat to the integrity of their inspection
chamber on the towpath. She had therefore approached Dave Stickland at Thames
Water to advise us further, and he had agreed to a site meeting.
Meanwhile FirstPort had found another possible contractor, Maydencroft, and a site
meeting with them will be set up.
4
6.2.8 Over a thousand bulbs (small daffodils and anemones) had been planted by the lake and
behind the poplar stump on the Green.
6.2.9 The Big Rake had been a reasonable success, with eight volunteers. Yellow rattle seed
had been scattered afterwards in parts of the wildlife corridor as the start to creating
more wild flower areas.
6.3 Finance
6.3.1 There was nothing to report.
6.4 Scrutiny Sub-Committee
6.4.1 There was nothing to report.
7 Feedback
7.1 There had been one message, from someone in the process of purchasing a house in EJW
and in need of information. The Chair had answered these queries to her satisfaction.
8 Managing Agent
8.1 There were no urgent items to report.
9 WRACIC
9.1 The Christmas hog roast had been scheduled for 4 December. Father Christmas would
arrive as usual by boat, though this year without books for the children, and there would
be a brass band and carol singing. The newsletter was with the printer and would be
delivered the weekend before the event.
10 Any other business
10.1 The Secretary reported a problem in uploading documents to the WMC section of the
WRA website. It was suggested that Wendy Stone might be able to offer technical advice.
11 Dates of next meetings
11.1 2022: 11 January, 15 March (both at 7.30 pm)