Post date: Jul 21, 2018 2:52:47 PM
Dear Moira,
I refer to your letter to all owners of St Martins, dated 17 July, and I should like to comment on the following four points:
1. You present the letter as a “report” whose purpose is “to present a case for the introduction of parking enforcement .. and to set out the arrangements for .. a survey of the residents .. as to whether they wish to proceed with a parking enforcement scheme.”
2. You then explain the background before concluding that “it would be impractical to manage the situation by enforcing the terms of residents’ leases and some of the issues are not capable of being resolved in this way.”
3. Your “proposal” invites an expression of preference amongst four approaches with a choice between “visitors of residents” and “residents and visitors of residents” and a choice between “first come first serve(d)” and “on equal basis” subject to various factors.
4. You then suggest that “the timeline for progressing matters as agreed at the (AGM)” includes “consultation period to end (on) 3 August” and “voting to close (on) 24 August.”
I would also point out that, in his letter to owner/occupiers of 4 July, Gary Cox stated that following “limited surveys”, FirstPort would “furnish all owners with a working paper outlining what parking enforcement would look like, what impact it would have and what potential consequences it has. There would then be a period of 4 weeks for owners to give their views on possible amendments prior to the RA committee agreeing the final proposal (before) the final paper (is) circulated to owners and a vote taken.”
There are two immediate problems: the meaning of your recent letter and its relationship with Gary’s letter of 4 July. The committee submitted 15 initial questions to you immediately following the AGM (my letter of 29 June). Point 1 above leads us to expect that your letter will set out detailed arrangements but none of our 15 questions are addressed. At what stage are you intending to address those questions please? Can you please explain what is meant by the extract from your letter quote in Point 2? Can you please explain what is meant by your reference to an “equal basis” in Point 3? No timeline was agreed at the AGM. Your suggested timeline (Point 4) does not include any 4 week consultation period. Neither does it include any reference to the formulation of a draft final proposal by FirstPort or any reference to the process by which the SMRA Committee would agree the final proposal for decision by owners.
I must therefore inform you that the SMRA rejects the timeline contained in your letter. It is quite clear that many of our members are understandably concerned by the problems associated with parking and it is also clear that any proposed solution will need to be considered with care and sensitivity. It is the duty and desire of the committee to ensure due process.
As you know, the draft minutes of our AGM and our letter to you of 29 June have been published to all our members and copies were sent to you and published on our website. We are determined to communicate in a consistent and transparent manner so as to encourage mutual understanding and respect between all the parties involved. We would urge FirstPort to do the same.
With regard to communications, I must also inform you that the problems around ‘Your Property Online’ which were mentioned at the AGM have still not been resolved. Might I suggest that an early meeting between FirstPort and the committee might be arranged in order to achieve better communications and greater mutual understanding?