Out and about with Carol Jan 2025 Watson Court

Yet again I managed to pick a currently rare and beautifully sunny day to visit the home of the Hornets (AKA Watford Football Club) at the end of January. Actually, my visit was to our housing scheme there, Watson Court, which was built by Origin right around the stadium itself around 15 years ago. Its development name was, appropriately, The Wrap. There are a couple of hundred flats here over 6 or 7 floors providing rented homes for general needs as well as shared accommodation for Watford General Hospital staff, located next door. 

As soon as we entered the building Olisa explained that a big issue for residents was parcel theft. This is an increasing problem in many of our buildings given the boom in home delivery post-covid and rising crime rates. Given the entrances are used by so many people, with tailgating and sharing of fobs an issue, and CCTV footage rarely if ever leads to arrests, there is a limit to what we can do, aside from advising residents to be at home for their deliveries or have them delivered to a collection point.  We know that’s not a palatable response for many residents.

As we walked around it was clear that the communal decoration and carpets were looking tired and there was some staining due to past water leaks. I said I’d check back with the Assets team as to when cyclical maintenance is due . We also noticed a few items of furniture which Olisa will serve Tort Notices on and get removed. Overall though the corridors were clear, which is good news from a fire safety perspective. One issue which Olisa was keen to highlight was the absence of cleaning of the fire escape stairs. This will need to be picked up with the contract cleaners.  

Residents had been made aware I would be visiting though no one had asked to meet me. However, one gentleman did pop his head out of his flat door to raise concerns about parcel theft as well as children sometimes riding scooters up and down the corridors. I suggested Olisa offer an online meeting or on-site surgery for residents to discuss these concerns further. Having said that,  overall our resident was very happy with his home of 10 years.

Walking along every corridor on every floor meant we certainly got our steps in, as well as picking up on a few things that needed to be addressed.  It is so important that we are out and about seeing what is happening in our buildings and listening to resident’s feedback. After a quick selfie, and thanks to the team for their time, I was off for a brisk walk back to the station and a welcome chance to get some vitamin D on the way.