Ayrshire Housing’s Caroline Donald and Sharon Ritchie were delighted to receive their “silver” at this year’s awards ceremony. It was presented by Chris Moon who has motivated many as he conquered the disabling injuries he suffered clearing mines in Mozambique.

Caroline said “it’s a real honour to receive the award from such an inspirational figure. We intend now to work towards the gold award and hopefully also a Mental Health and Well-being Commendation”.

Everyone at Ayrshire Housing is  committed to achieving the demanding gold award. An early action has been to develop further the office’s very own herb garden.  This provides ingredients for our healthy working lunches or just to take home.

Today, Ayrshire Housing’s Chair Paul Torrance welcomed Mrs Margaret Connor and all her neighbours to their new homes. Mrs Connor has moved to a house especially adapted to her needs.

Paul went on to say “I’m delighted that after 10 years of hard work and false starts, we’ve been able to transform this already impressive building into such excellent new housing. I’m saddened though that this is likely to be our last significant project unless the Scottish Government changes its tune on funding. They’ve slashed new build grant rates to unsustainable levels. If accepted these will undermine the number of new starts, reasonable rents and quality services in the long-term”.

The association has retained the tower and gable of the C listed building. 25 new houses and flats have been erected in a form that respects the legacy of the cathedral building.

Gordon Fleming of Ayr based ARPL designed the new development. Gordon was selected following a limited architectural competition back in 2002. The project is the latest in a series of schemes built by Prestwick based Ashleigh for Ayrshire Housing.

You can read more about the development by following this link.

The photographs show Mrs Margaret Connor with Paul Torrance, our guests and tenants. and Sandra Osborne MP with Ayrshire Housing’s Paul Torrance and Jim Whiston.

The ten entries – nine sweet and one savoury – were tested blind by an unbiased judging panel selected from our maintenance team – Carol and Murray.

The unanimous winner was Michelle Reid with her splendidly generous vanilla sponge cake.

The event is one of a series of regular culinary events in Ayrshire Housing’s offices. To date, these have included healthy breakfasts and lunches as part of our participation in the “Healthy Working Lives” initiative as well as for charity. Further events are scheduled over the next couple of months in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care and Cats Protection.

Housing Aid’s Co-Coordinator John Mulholland said “A major part of our work is to provide advice, information, advocacy, representation and support for people who are homeless or are threatened with homelessness. We are facing an increasing case load so Ayrshire Housing’s continued support is even more appreciated.” The centre’s independent advice service is accredited to the highest levels.

Ayrshire Housing’s David McGivern said “we really value people on our waiting list having access to the quality of service that John and his team offer.”

Recently John Mulholland briefed a joint session of Board and Committee members from Ayrshire based housing associations on the challenges of so called welfare reform.

The photo shows John Mullholland (left) receiving the cheque from Housing Manager David McGivern at the housing aid centre.

It is very important that our tenants provide us with an up to date mobile telephone number as every repair works order issued by our staff will be subject to an automated text message being sent to the mobile number registered to the tenant(s) of the property.

This message will include details of the contractor who has been passed the works order, brief details of the work to be completed, along with a contact telephone number for enquiries.

If you have received a text message in this scheme, we would be very grateful if you could complete our short survey, by clicking here.

A special resolution to make changes to our Articles (our “rule book”) will be voted on.

We are proposing a change in our articles to accommodate a request from South Ayrshire Council to reduce Board representation from 5 to 3. The proposed new articles, which show the changes from the currently endorsed articles in blue are available below. The only  substantive changes are articles no 42 and 43 which deal with the reduction referred to. In addition, our solicitor has taken the opportunity to bring the document up to date in terms of Companies Act and OSCR requirements, in particular objectives clauses have been introduced (i.e. new no’s 84 and 85) which restate word for word those presently in the memorandum.

SAC intend to maintain the current membership of the Board of three Councillors. Up to now, the other two places have been occupied by Council senior officials. Changes in the Council’s senior management no longer make this practical from their point of view (basically there are now fewer heads of service etc). The Council is also proposing to enhance the liaison arrangments with Ayrshire Housing both to assist further our day to day joint work and give support to the three Council Board members.

The AH Board is happy to recommend the change to the membership.

Existing and amended articles- Jan 12 EGM

Every tenant is a member of Ayrshire Housing. In addition, we welcome membership from individuals in the wider community who support our work. You can find details here.

They have designed  images for each of the twelve individual cards. Their striking images were produced at a master class led by graphic designer and Glasgow Art School teacher Neil McGuire.

Neil integrated each of the images into an overall concept which means that the association’s tenants  will receive one of the twelve cards at random.  Head teacher Jackie Blair says “I’m delighted to see the pupils’ enthusiasm transformed into print!” Each of the children received a pack of their printed design.

Here all the finished Christmas card designs!

As in previous years, Ayrshire Housing has been able to use part of its Christmas card budget to support worthy charities. For a second year, Ayrshire Housing has donated to the Ayr homelessness initiative Care and Share. Ayrshire Housing’s chair Paul Torrance was delighted to hand over a cheque for £500. He said “It’s good to see the range of excellent support and friendship that Care and Share provides to the people who visit its busy centre”.

Ayrshire Housing’s long-term designer Neil McGuire of After the News Ltd generously supported this year’s initiative by forgoing part of his fee. Neil says “I really enjoyed working with the children at Tarbolton. I think what they have produced is really good!”

Paul Torrance, the association’s Chair says “we’re aware that most of our tenants are facing real pressure in terms of living standards. For people on modest wages, the costs of essentials are probably rising at twice the Government’s inflation figures. So we have looked long and hard at pegging back the suggested rent increase whilst still being able to guarantee a quality service. We are now inviting comments from our tenants on an average increase of £3 a week. At 4.4%, this is 1% less than the Retail Price Index at the moment. RPI is normally what housing providers take as their starting point for rent increases. Locally,  South Ayrshire Council has recently chosen to increase its rents by 5.2%. We will take full account of every tenant’s view before we finalise the new rent level at our Board meeting in February”

We would welcome your comments here or, if you prefer, e-mail Paul.

The award was presented by Alex Neil MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment.

The noted architect Malcolm Fraser who is the guest chair for this year’s awards said “we really liked what Ayr based ARPL architects have done. They’ve taken a non-descript scrappy bit of ground and created a real sense of place. It’s not only a great bit of architecture but it’s clear from speaking to the delighted residents that the design has fostered a wee community”.

The  project resulted from a partnership between Ayrshire Housing and Kingcase Parish Church. Facilitated by Scottish Churches Housing Action, 10 houses for affordable renting have been provided alongside a major extension to the church’s existing hall. The works were procured jointly with an integrated design and contractor team led by Ayrshire Housing.

Sadly the original contractor went out of business before they could finish the work. The houses were completed though to a very high standard by Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd who are based in Prestwick.

It has been another good year for housing associations at the Saltire awards. The chair’s medal went to Maryhill Housing Association’s splendid Botany scheme.  In addition, Bield Housing Association were commended for an innovative sheltered housing project in Govan.

The awards photo shows left to right : Malcolm Fraser, Ayrshire Housing Board member John Mitchell, ARPL’s Ken Handley and Gordon Fleming, and Alex Neil.

As project managers for South Ayrshire Council’s first Council housing in 30 years, the association extended the programme to the project’s builder CCG.  As a result they recruited two apprentices  - Nathan Brown (to the right  in the picture) and Steven McCallum. They were congratulated by SAC Councillors John Hampton, Nan McFarlane and Douglas Campbell on a recent visit to see progress on the site. Steven  is from Saltcoats and Nathan from Dalmilling in Ayr.

Since in 2004,  Access Construction Ayrshire has helped more than 30 individuals gain employment with linked training in the building industry. Through the programme, unemployed people are encouraged to seek employment with a contractor as an apprentice, trainee labourer or trainee administrator. It targets individuals who are close to job ready but who would not otherwise consider applying for a construction job with a training commitment. Originally focused on its own building contracts,  Ayrshire Housing has extended the model across Ayrshire, leading  a consortium of four housing associations. The development and day to day management of the project is by the Ayr based Social Enterprise Aspire2gether.

In addition to Nathan and Steven, five more trainees have been taken on this year by Prestwick based Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd and maintenance contractor Mitie in the programme’s latest phase.

Successive phases of Access Construction have been made possible by Scottish Government wider role grants.