AyrshireHousing

Ayrshire Housing now has  a silver Healthy Working Lives award to add to its existing bronze. The awards support employers and employees to develop health promotion and safety themes in the workplace. They are sponsored by NHS Scotland.

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.

Ayrshire Housing has given a new social purpose to what was until recently the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Ayr.

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.

Ayrshire Housing’s team has risen to the heat of a highly competitive lunch-time bake-off.  Event organiser Caroline Donald said “I’m stunned at how seriously my colleagues have taken this! It’s also raised a very welcome £80 for the British Heart Foundation”. Hence the “red” theme for all the entrants – from red onions to strawberries!

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.

Ayrshire Housing has donated another £1,000 to the charity Ayr Housing Aid Centre.

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.

Ayrshire Housing are pleased to announce our text messaging pilot scheme is now underway in our Maintenance section.

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.

Our members are invited to attend an Extraordinary General Meeting which will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 25 January 2012 in our offices at 119 Main Street, Ayr. Notice has also been sent to all by way of the latest newsletter.

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.