Out and about with Carol - August 2024

This month I was delighted to join our community event at Magpie Close in Enfield where our resident and community engagement team and a host of Origin volunteers welcomed residents to an afternoon of socialising, fairground games with prizes, bouncy castle and face painting for the children (and some of the grown ups too!). Sustenance was provided in the form of freshly cooked crepes. Alongside this was the opportunity for residents to talk about issues in their homes and the wider estate with teams from across Origin as well as representatives from Gilmartins. It was great to meet people face to face and we learned a lot from their feedback which will help resolve some individual issues and improve our ways of working.

The following week on a sweltering day (we could have done with some of that sunshine at Magpie Close the week before) I popped along to a small scheme at Bayes Court in Primrose Hill with Rita Chudasama, Neighbourhood Manager and Jonathan Kirk, Estate Services Manager. Rita knows many of the residents well and clearly works hard to make sure they get a good service.

We had a look round and were able to visit one of our lovely residents, taking away some repair issues that need addressing, and we met another for a brief chat as she returned from work. Although there has been some recent work renewing paving in the rear courtyard and repairing stairway floor covering, the building is in need of external and internal communal area repair and re decoration. Now that we are starting to accelerate our programme of planned works, we expect to give Bayes Court a refresh in the course of the next year.

All in all both were positive experiences, as always with some important learning.