Taff Tenant Fun day 29th July 2011

Taff Housing Association organised a Tenant Fun day on Friday 29th July 2011.

The event was well attended bu tenants and residents and there were lots of fun activities to join in with.

We have captured some photos here .......................

Coastal Topping out Ceremony with Minister Huw Lewis

Minister Huw Lewis visited the £22 million Urban Village of shops and affordable housing midway between Swansea railway station and Castle Square on 21st July 2011.
Hear what he has to say about the scheme and the future demand of social housing and the challenges the sector faces.
The scheme itself is 75 apartments built on a three storey car park based on a series of courtyards that link shops, offices, and food and drink outlets. It will significantly alter the City Centre landscape and provide much needed regeneration in an area of the city that has suffered from the effects of under investment and decay for many years. In addition, the scheme will create over 10 employment and training opportunities for people wishing to secure employment and on site work experience.
The scheme is the centre piece of a regeneration plan for Swansea City centre being driven by Coastal and its valued partners City & County of Swansea and Welsh Assembly Government and is based on the concept of a ‘Creative Cluster' that is designed for people involved in a wide range of creative industries such as advertising and marketing, architecture, computer and video games, crafts and the media.

Article from Newydd - AWARD WON

Housing Association awarded for innovative chapel conversion development

Newydd Housing Association has won an award for their innovative and high-quality development that unusually included a chapel conversion.

Newydd won the Social Affordable Housing category at the Vale of Glamorgan Council Building Excellence Awards 2011, organised by the Vale of Glamorgan Council Building Control Group, with their Court Road development in Barry.

Newydd converted and extended the chapel at Court Road to offer eight substantial 2-bedroom flats over three storeys, with an undercroft to allow vehicle access to the communal parking area. The development also includes four 4-storey terraced properties adjacent to the chapel and was highly commended for its standard of work and energy efficiency levels.

During the design stage of this first chapel conversion for Newydd, the views of the local community were influential in ensuring that the features of the disused chapel were retained in the new homes at Court Road. The commended design emphasises the attractive features of the chapel and includes traditional masonry walls, beam flooring and a conventional cut roof.

Rob Thomas, Head of Planning and Transportation at the Vale of Glamorgan Council, said: “It’s extremely pleasing to see quality schemes being constructed at what is a difficult time for developers. The quality of submissions, including Newydd’s scheme for the conversion of the chapel at Court Road, demonstrates a commitment to quality construction which is excellent news for the Vale of Glamorgan and for future tenants of the scheme. Conversions often pose challenges to contractors but this scheme has been carried out to a high standard and in a sensitive manner.”

As the winner of the Social Affordable Housing category, Newydd will now go forward to the LABC South Wales Building Awards in April.

Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Newydd said, “We are very proud to be accepting this award from the Vale of Glamorgan Council for Court Road, now recognised as an award-winning affordable housing development. The attractive chapel conversion and adjacent terraced properties are testament to the hard work of our employees, the contractor; Tremlett and Griffiths and the rest of the design team. We hope that the local community are proud of the finished article and that our tenants will enjoy living in Court Road for many years to come.”

NB

Shane Jones our apprentice was on site for the period of the build adding even more value to the community by sustaining his apprenticeship.

Partnering in Swansea

Beyond Bricks and Mortar

Here are the "mug shots" of our latest apprentices, Jason above and Byron right.



I meat them on site last week to see how they're settling in at the Urban Village development in Swansea. Coastal Housing are part of the huge redevelopment of Swansea's Town centre. The plans are amazing, you can see them in the Coastal magazine ..... www.coastalhousing.co.uk/pdfs/Winter2010.pdf


The two new apprentices are both Bricklayers and have been on site for three weeks now. It has been a bit cold for any actual bricklaying to happen for an odd few days but both apprentices have done their fair share of what has gone up.



Coastal Housing has linked in with the Beyond Bricks and Mortar Team in Swansea to provide these opportunities for the two lads who are both from within a mile or so of site. We have lent our experience in assisting with interviews and supporting the site manager and subcontractor during the recruitment process. We will continue to offer our support to the team and of course to Byron and Jason.

The Beyond Bricks and Mortar initiative is much like the Targeted Recruitment and Training Project in that it uses the Can Do Toolkit within contracts to procure recruitment and training opportunities for residents in Swansea. So Voila the two new apprentices above.

One Woman Band

This is Naomi.

Naomi is the latest participant in the TR&T project for Cadwyn. She is currently studying for her carpentry qualifications at Barry College and is backing this up with some hands on experience with Cadwyn Works (Cadwyns DLO).


When I caught up with Naomi a few days ago she was about to sit her CSCS Card test that afternoon, this is the card need to work on new build or refurnishment sites. She had also been plastering the day before for a friend and showed me some photos of a hallway she had tiled. Noami seems to be most of the DIY SOS team rolled into one. We can't replace Billy the electrician though as we don't want her getting zapped, give her half a chance though and I'm sure she wouldn't say no.


Naomi caught the bug when she attended the Womens Workshop in Cardiff to do some taster sessions on carpentrey, tiling and plastering and now she can't seem to stop.

She told me that the Womens Workshop are responsible for her instiable need to DIY , build or be working. She is enjoying her time at Cadwyn imensely and does not want to leave, EVER! She says there is a wonderful atmosphere at Cadwyn and she wants to stay and develop her skills even further.

Noami has made a great impression at Cadwyn Works and Craig her line manager is very happy with her progress so far. It's great to see a woman in a van instead of a man in a van. On a serious note, the fact that Cadwyn Works now has a female oppertive also mets a demand from Cadwyn tenants e.g. The Older residents who may prefer the presence of a woman and people who are not able to be alone with a male operative due to their beliefs.

FOOTAGE TO FOLLOW

Skills Cymru - Over 20,000 in three days.....

That's a lot of talking and a lot of freebies!

It took a bit of coordinating to say the least but we got there. And what an amazing turn out.

Thanks to an fantastic response from staff in all departments of Taff, Cadwyn and United Welsh we had a diverse range of skills and experience represented at Skills Cymru 2010.

Skills Cymru was an event launched by the Welsh Assembly Government earlier this year to promote the skills base and opportunities available within Wales. Integrate and a few of its members agreed to take part in order to show that a career within a Housing Association is not limited to being a lettings officer or carrying out repairs.

Our stand was not as elaborate as some, well most to be honest however I’m sure spending thousands of pounds on a display stand is not the best use of our money. We spoke to hundreds of people over the three days. The team nabbed teenagers looking for a freebie to have a chat, we spoke to college students looking for ideas of what to do next. All of whom were astonished at what really is involved in housing.

There was a large attendance on Saturday of people who were looking to retrain or change direction following being made redundant or loss of business for the self employed.

The event as a whole has been celebrated as a real success and I believe the coming together of Integrate members, though this was a huge laearning curve was a credit to those involved.

THANK YOU ALL

Great clipping - Ministers visit Jacksons Quay

Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration Jocelyn Davies AM today showed Budget Minister Jane Hutt the Jackson's Quay development in Barry where public money has helped to create job and training opportunities. It is hoped the principles used on the development can be used on other Welsh Assembly Government contracts to create even more opportunities.

Newydd Housing Association’s Jacksons Quay development in Barry has been built using the i2i Can Do Toolkit which provides guidance to Registered Social Landlords working towards the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) on making targeted recruitment and training a requirement of contracts.

The contractors at Jackson’s Quay, Mi-Space, have employed five apprentices during the building project as a result of the guidance. One apprentice has used the opportunity to develop his experience through further work placements with the construction team.

Students at Barry College have also been using the site on a regular basis as part of their studies, for example twenty-five Construction Design Technology students have been able to experience ‘tool box talks’ where they visit a site at all stages of construction to see the development at first hand.
A report on the first year of the Can Do Toolkit (Sept 2008 -2009) shows that 487 job and training opportunities have been created in the twelve organisations that have adopted the model. The report concludes that if the model was used across the £4bn annual public sector expenditure in Wales, this would create 4000 job and training opportunities a year.

The Deputy Minister said, “This is an excellent example of how an innovative approach can bring real benefits and contribute far more than just a roof over people’s heads.

“Wales is leading the way with this and is taking the model further to help small and medium enterprises and local employers to benefit from the investment we and our partners are making in Housing. I am delighted that I have been able to show the Business and Budget Minister how this scheme is working and how other areas where the Assembly Government is involved in letting contracts could follow this excellent model.”

Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Newydd Housing Association said:

“We are delighted to be welcoming Jocelyn Davies AM, Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration and Jane Hutt AM, Minister for Budget and Business, to our exciting new housing development at Jackson’s Quay, Barry Waterfront.

“The Jackson’s Quay development, and all our developments across south Wales, reflects our commitment to tackling deprivation and economic inactivity by offering recruitment and training opportunities in partnership with our contractors.
"Working in partnership with contractors using the i2i project and the Can Do Toolkit means that together we are able to support the community ensuring that local people are given vital opportunities to learn and work in their own locality.”