GLERA annual general meeting 2025

19 June 2025 @ 7.00 – 9.00 pm | Community Centre downstairs

All residents welcome! Some of our senior City of London officers will be in attendance – we have invited them to share their thoughts and response to the report generated as a result of our GLE Action Day! in March. From the many photos taken at the event, fifty were chosen to illustrate some of the worst problems, and there is also an interactive map showing the detailed comments that were made. More info here.

We’ll then review the last year and discuss the challenges we’re likely to face going forward.

We’ll also elect our new committee for 2025/26. Do consider joining. There are many ways to contribute which don’t have to be too time consuming – everyone is busy…

Just email secretary.glera@gmail.com with any questions, caveats…

running order

1. Welcome and apologies
2. Update from City of London officers (30 mins)
3. Annual report of the GLERA committee
4. Financial report for year ending 30 April 2025
5. Election of the 2025-26 Committee
6. Any other business to include:
   – As part of Action Day residents also discussed the running of Estate Services and the Estate Office in general
   – House groups

chair’s report

The Golden Lane Estate Residents’ Association represents all residents on Golden Lane Estate; City of London tenants, leasehold tenants and sub-let tenants. Membership is automatic and free to all residents

The GLERA committee is made up of a small group of residents juggling work, family and other life demands, whilst doing what we can to improve life on the estate, working closely with our Councillors and using our recognised status as a resident association as best we can.

So what have we been doing:

In November we had our first general meeting and introduced Peta Caine, Greg Wade and Beverley Andrews – all new starters – and agreed follow up once new repairs contract established.

We have set up regular meetings with Judith Finlay, Executive Director of community and Childrens’ Services, and the outcomes and topics discussed are shared at GLERA meetings and posted on the website.

In February we updated on the meetings we had had with Judith and Peta’s team and we started to plan our Action Day that was planned for the end of March.

Held our first meeting with COLPAI school business manager Charlotte Rous and hope to have another one before the term finishes. We continue to press for noise mitigation measures and that they conform to the planning conditions.

GLEE, Golden Lane Estate Events, was formed to bring together residents who are keen to organise or participate in events and to help them to find grant funding to finance these events. The first event will be the Summer Picnic with music in July.

In March Jacqueline Swanson produced our first ‘zine’ which was distributed to every household. Jacqueline has also created our own GLERA website and produces newsletters for GLERA and the community.

At our General meeting in April the food co-operative Cooperation Town talked about setting up our own food co-op. Although there was interest the difficulty of collecting the food from the depot was seen as a problem as we are not a car owning community.

Because of the number of issues facing residents on the estate including the worries over the ‘GLE Investment Programme’ the committee felt that we needed to have one consolidated mailing list for residents who wanted to sign up to regular information about estate issues and sent out a letter to all residents and absent leaseholders. This list will ensure that we comply with GDPR and if you haven’t already filled it in please do. More info here.

We do not want leaseholder issues to dominate GLERA and had a first meeting at the end of May to look at creating sub groups or working parties including a leaseholder group to share the load and ensure that we could tap into the knowledge and skills we know are on the estate. The result of that and the subsequent meeting I will share at the end of the meeting when we discuss our plans for the future.

Before I finish, I would like to thank Julie for doing a really excellent job as our Honorary Secretary for the last year. Julie has agreed to stand again as a committee member. And an even bigger thank you to Jacqueline. She has decided to stand down from the committee for a while although she will, in the background, continue her amazing work in developing our website and work on newsletters and more copies of our ‘zine’.

Sue Pearson

election of committee

Committee members elected for 2025/26:

Sue Pearson | Chair | chair.glera@gmail.com
Ros Diamond | Secretary | secretary.glera@gmail.com
Tim Godsmark | Honorary Treasurer
Vernon Ashford
Miguel Casteneda | !GLEE!
David Cox
Julie Crofts
Paul Lincoln | Imagine Golden Lane
Emma Matthews

CoL presentation

CoL Officers Kindy Bansal-Shah (GLE Lead) and Beverley Andrews (Head of Repairs and Maintenance) responded to residents’ Action Day report and provided a Repairs and Maintenance update (see text quoted below / download slides).

Note:
Q1 refers to first quarter April – June
Q2 July – September
Q3 October – December
Q4 January – March

GOLDEN LANE ACTION DAY REPORT | Kindy Bansal-Shah

BROKEN WINDOWS
Chigwell are attending site on 20 June 2025 to commence works on all windows highlighted in the report. 

LIGHT FITTINGS
Studio Partington was commissioned in 2024 to develop a Lighting Design Framework for the entire estate, in conjunction with specialist consultant Graham Festenstein. This will be used to inform the long-term Investment Programme, given that the future works packages are intended to incorporate electrical upgrade works and communal lighting. The second part of Studio Partington’s commission will be to develop a range of short-term solutions, to address the problem of maintaining the existing lighting in the interim period before the major works are undertaken. This includes rectification of existing light fittings. 
The fee proposal was received at the start of June 2025, has since been reviewed and we’re in the process of placing order so that Studio Partington can be suitably engaged.   
We will update on progress once a programme of activity with clear milestones has been agreed with Studio Partington.

PAVING
Uneven/damaged paving within the curtilage of the estate is being reviewed by the Head of Operations who is leading on the quality issues and rectification. We will have an update by end of Q1 on next steps.
The paving to the public highway will be managed by the highways team who will provide an update by end of Q2. 

PAINTWORK
Communal decorations are being provisionally included in the Investment Programme works packages, which means that all previously painted surfaces in the communal areas of the blocks (internal and external) will be addressed. 
However, as this programme stretches over 10-years, the interim works will be progressed via Chigwell, with consideration to practicality and cost efficiency. We will engage key stakeholder residents to agree a scope by end of Q2. 

WALLS AND CEILINGS
External fabric repairs are being provisionally included in the Investment Programme works packages (to go hand-in-hand with the communal decorations), but again this is spread over 10-years. 
Rainwater goods, balcony outlets are also provisionally included in the revised scope. 
However, high priority, health and safety matters will be addressed through the standard repairs and maintenance routes.

PLACES THAT COULD BE GREENER
Greg Nott, estate services manager, has been working with City Gardens who provide the gardening to the Barbican and The City’s public spaces, to identify what they can offer for the Golden Lane Estate. 
The initial contact is to review improving the grounds maintenance at Golden Lane in the first instance. 
Greg will be making contact with the resident groups at Golden Lane to further discuss the proposals set out in the Golden Lane Action Day report.  

PLACES FOR REPAIR AND RECYCLING
The housing team are in the process of concluding a full stock audit of all garages and sheds.  This will be completed by the end of June 2025. There is a waiting list for these facilities, and once concluded, we will review any options to use these as community workspaces. We can also explore other suitable options. Liam Gillespie will lead on next steps and identify a suitable project manager.
Pond: Aquaneo, a specialist pond maintenance contractor, was engaged last year to ensure the continued maintenance of the pond pumps. We also discussed options to improve the ongoing quality and filtration of the water to support the eco-system. This include use of specialist plants with natural filtration qualities and suitable coverage. The work is being progressed with City Gardens and will be discussed with residents as part of the improvements to the general grounds maintenance. 
Trees: A new tree will be replaced in the autumn of this year as part of the annual tree planting cycle by the City’s arborist team. 
Car park barrier: We are reviewing options for a more robust barrier with Chigwell.
General repairs: These have either already been completed or are being progressed.  A full update will follow.

PLACES THAT COULD BE USED DIFFERENTLY
Many of these items will be covered in the wider discussions on making use of the spaces around the estate. 
Roof garden:  The roof garden to Great Arthur House is not available to use as an amenity terrace as it does not comply with current health and safety regulations.

REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE UPDATE | Beverley Andrews

MOBILISATION OF CHIGWELL
We are now 3 months into the contract with Chigwell and remain in the stabilisation phase and expect this to continue through to the end of Q2.

What has gone well

• The co-location of Chigwell at the Barbican Estate Office has seen positive results in expediting repairs queries and decision making when discussing complex issues. 
• Collaboration between Chigwell and the repairs team has improved understanding of the repairs process and is showing signs of improving the diagnostics of repairs at the first point of contact. There is also a better understanding of what information is required from our residents to ensure right first-time fixes.
• We are making good progress with the integration of the 2 IT systems. Whilst not fully complete, we are still seeing improved real time repairs information which is supporting the customer experience.
• Repairs performance indicators for April and May 2025, all non-emergency repairs were completed within the KPI agreed targets.
• Repairs performance indicators for emergency repairs have been slightly below the agreed KPI targets, however, they are significantly improved from the previous contractor. We have identified the areas for improvement so targets can be met and are working with Chigwell in meeting targets.
• We are continuing to focus on robust contract management to ensure quality standards and value for money are being achieved.

NEXT STEPS
In Q2 we expect to have a full KPI reporting suite available, with a key dependency on completing the system integration.
Handyperson service
The provision of a handyperson service will be progressed through Q2, commencing with engagement from key resident stakeholders on scoping the service. We are aiming for a go live date by end of Q3.
Awaabs Law
We are carrying out significant work with Chigwell in readiness for Phase 1 of Awaabs Law due to go live in October 2025. This includes:

• Focused training for all frontline teams and repairs operatives on identification of damp and mould
• Improving the damp and mould reporting process and how we respond to initial reports
• Improving the information data captured on our systems to allow for a proactive approach