WATERWAYS MANAGEMENT COMPANY
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
Minutes of meeting 94 held on Tuesday 11 January 2022 at 7.30pm
Waterways Community Room, Clearwater Place
Present: Adrian Olsen (Chair), Kate Lack, Nicholas Orme, Paula Reynolds, Louise Robertson, Hilary Sorensen, Raquel Stremme, Mary Tovey
In attendance: Natalie Griffiths, FirstPort Property Services
Minute taker: Imogen Olsen
1 Apologies for absence
1.1 Tao Tao Chou, Ann Hall, Adrian Mourby, Brian Shine, Liz Wheater
2 Approval of the minutes of meeting 93 held on 23 November 2021
2.1 The minutes were approved.
3 Matters arising from the minutes
3.1 (3.1) The lead director reported on her negotiations with Berkeley Homes over the
transfer of the freehold. BH were now using a new law firm, Foot Anstey, who had
contacted the WMC lawyer on 9 December asking for a copy of the draft transfer.
Nothing had been heard since, but as we now had the email address for the relevant
associate at Foot Anstey, we would be able to contact her direct for a progress report.
3.2 (3.6) The roof repair at 1-25 Stone Meadow was now complete, as was the interior
redecoration.
3.3 (5.1) The lead director had set up a small working party to investigate Electric Vehicle
Charging, and FirstPort had supplied essential legal information. Things would have to be
taken one step at a time, and it was proposed to set up a pilot scheme, possibly at 115-
141 Frenchay Road. Allocated parking spaces would have to be changed to visitors’
spaces: this would require a lease assignment costing around £500 per apartment. An
alternative pilot scheme could be set up in one of the car-parking areas for houses in
Frenchay Road. There was some discussion of the problems that might arise in Complins
Close.
4 Sub-Committee Reports
4.1 Apartment Blocks Sub-Committee
4.1.1 The damaged front door at 31-39 Complins Close had still not been repaired. FirstPort
explained that the contractor was waiting for the danger of frost to be over, and agreed
to provide residents with a definite date possibly for March.
4.1.2 The ABSC and the Chair had held a very successful Zoom meeting with Steve Webb, a lift
consultant, to discuss the lift modernisation programme for 44-60 Frenchay Road. SW
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had investigated all the lifts on the estate and produced a list of work required in order
of priority with estimated costs. The most urgent was the lift at 44-60 Frenchay Road,
and work to bring this up to modern standards has been tendered with four companies.
SW advised that the quote from one company was his recommended quote. There would
be enough money in the reserves after April, so it was decided to start work in May. SW
would liaise with the contractor and supervise the operation. There would be a review
carried out by SW after a year and 5% of the contract price would be retained subject to
that review.
FirstPort had produced a useful list of what was needed financially for the lift
modernisations at other blocks. There is currently a predicted significant shortfall at 1-17
Clearwater Place, but this lift would not need repairs until 2029 so there was time to
prepare financially and if necessary increase the contribution to reserves sufficiently.
4.1.3 The car-park markings at 108-126 Frenchay Road would be renewed by Evergreen when
the weather was suitable.
4.1.4 FirstPort were waiting for prices for the planned redecorations.
4.2 Gardening Sub-Committee
4.2.1 Repaving works were being carried out successfully in Complins Close. The contractors
were praised for their exceptionally hard work. There is a small section of about a yard at
the end of the northern end of the western path that cannot be paved because
foundation levels cannot be laid; as this area will be used to access the car park the Chair
asked FirstPort to ask Evergreen if this small area could be shallowly excavated and filled
with gravel or bark. It had been suggested that the area outside the bin store should be
repaved at the same time, but it was decided that the cost was too high.
4.2.2 The path along the front of 49-77 Frenchay Road had proved to be a complex legal
matter. The plan attached to each transfer document shows that each individual house
owner owns and is responsible for the section of path in front of their house, and so
WMC has no responsibility for the path. Plans to repave it had therefore been cancelled.
FirstPort would write to the owners to explain the situation, but offering to help facilitate
the work at the owners’ expense if that is what they all agreed.
It was agreed that other such paths should be examined for possible damage, e.g., in Lark
Hill near the canal.
The path by 12 Stone Meadow had been badly damaged by contractors working on that
house. FirstPort would write to the owner asking them to have it repaired.
4.2.3 Negotiations were in progress for a new hardwood bench on the Green. The family
donating this bench had been asked to order it and to find someone to install it in a fixed
position. The plan was to have it ready by June in a place now agreed on by WMC and
the WRA.
4.2.4 FirstPort were waiting for our cleaning contractor to supply a price for the cleaning of the
car-park at Cox’s Ground.
4.2.5 FirstPort were investigating the possibility of changing some of the visitor car-parking
spaces at Cox’s Ground currently being used as permanent spaces by some residents and
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thereby requiring those residents to contribute to the car park schedule. However, there
is a 20-year time limitation on our ability to do this in relation to “squatters’ rights”, so
quick action is required.
4.2.6 A group of directors had walked round the north, west and south boundaries of the
estate as established recently by the surveyor from Green Hatch and marked by redtopped posts. There were a few apparent oddities, and FirstPort would ask Green Hatch
to supply some sort of map or explanation or report. The red posts might need to be
replaced eventually by permanent metal ones. One benefit of this exercise is that WMC
now knows which trees we are responsible for.
4.2.7 FirstPort has commissioned a new tree survey of the whole estate based on this
boundary information. The survey would include a report on the health of each tree.
4.2.8 The lead director reported on progress regarding silt clearance. Dave Stickland of Thames
Water had helpfully agreed that we could damn off the silt trap for clearance purposes,
as long as we gave him notice and chose good weather for the operation.
Maydencroft had been contacted and had proved to be very impressive but expensive
and probably geared to larger projects. They would insist on doing a silt analysis first, at a
cost of about £4000. We will wait for other quotes before deciding on this. However,
they had suggested the possibility of installing a sluice gate instead of using a temporary
dam of sand bags or whatever at the siphon outlet. It was agreed that this idea should be
investigated as it would mean that sand bags or other barriers would never be needed
when clearing the silt.
Meanwhile another company, OnSite, recommended by Dave Stickland, had been
contacted and the lead director is trying to set up a site visit, when we could possibly ask
their opinion on the sluice gate suggestion.
The lead director was thanked for her perseverance and hard work on this thorny
problem.
4.2.9 It was agreed that a survey of the railings needing repainting should be carried out and a
rolling prioritised programme established.
4.3 Finance
4.3.1 There were no financial issues to report. It would be time to look at the budget for 2022-
23 in March.
4.4 Scrutiny Sub-Committee
4.4.1 There was nothing to report.
5 Feedback
5.1 There was nothing to report.
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6 Managing Agent
6.1 There was nothing to report.
7 WRACIC
7.1 The Christmas hog roast had been a great success, despite Father Christmas’s canal boat
breaking down, requiring him to walk up the towpath. It was hoped that the next event
would be the traditional Easter egg hunt. There would be a litter pick in March.
The possibility of some sort of Jubilee celebration for the whole estate was discussed.
7.2 Cllr Landell-Mills has relayed to the Chair an offer from the council of a possible financial
contribution for community activities from the budgets in the control of each councillor.
This had been passed on to the WRA, who would ask if it could be used to pay for moving
the Complins Close community noticeboard to a more suitable place at the bottom of the
EJW bridge near the post box. The City Council had already been approached on this
matter and were sympathetic but the officer in charge had not yet found the budget. The
Chair had also suggested to the WRA the money might be used to fund a new bench on
EJW next to the pavement by the cricket pitch.
8 Any other business
8.1 A director mentioned that the double glazing seemed to be deteriorating in apartment
blocks. FirstPort agreed to investigate, and also to look at the ageing front door
communication systems.
8.2 The Chair mentioned that the potential purchaser of a house had approached him with
concerns about eviction for non-payment of maintenance charges. There was a request
from their lawyers to modify or eliminate the clause in the transfer document relating to
our right to re-possession if the service charge is not paid. The Chair has referred this to
FirstPort lawyers and had had no more information. FirstPort explained that eviction
would always be the last resort in a lengthy process, and it was generally agreed that
WMC could not limit the ability of the management company to insist on payment of
such charges.
8.3 A director had queried the placing of one of Green Hatch’s red boundary marker posts
behind Cox’s Ground reflecting the Land Registry estate plan which apparently excluded
most of the garden of a Cox’s Ground house. The Chair explained that FirstPort had
obtained the transfer document for this house and the attached plan clearly shows that
the whole garden legally belongs to the house. It is not clear why the Land Registry plan
for the estate was not updated to reflect this.
9 Dates of next meetings
9.1 2022: 15 March.
It was agreed that an earlier start of 5.30 pm should be tried at this meeting.
9.2 Dates for future meetings post 15 March 2022 were suggested as follows:
10 May, 5 July, 6 September, 15 November, 10 January 2023, 14 March 2023
Possible date for the AGM: 1 November 2022.