JimI appreciate that Ivybridge is not your domain, but I do think that an awareness of the background to the disputes on the estate, which long predate Ivytag or Simon's involvement in it - would lessen the antagonism which you seem to feel towards it.Ivytag is an independent resident-led organisation, neither recognised nor funded by the local authority, HFTRA or Hounslow Homes. It operates on a voluntary basis, responding to residents' concerns as best it can without the special relationship which exists between a recognised association and the landlord.A successful TA needs two things - a good relationship with the landlord and the confidence of its constituency, i.e. the tenants and leaseholders. Ivytag does not enjoy the former and, for historical reasons, the recognised association does not enjoy the latter.The solution as perceived by the new administration is to form a new association in which estate residents from both groups, and from neither, can play an equal and active role under the guidelines already agreed between Hounslow Homes, HFTRA and the last administration (but blatantly flouted), with a constitution, democratic elections, open and transparent procedures and proper financial records. Attempts to bring this solution about have met with active resistance from members of the Old Guard who have lorded it over our community for decades and are still being challenged, although the inevitability of change is becoming more and more apparent and the resistance increasingly assumes the form of a kind of petulant political "scorched Earth" campaign.Simon, like all of us, has his shortcomings but to adopt the mistaken view that the issues on Ivybridge estate are about him is to swallow the propaganda of those who have tried to block the reforms introduced by the new administration.Ivytag is a relatively recent phenomenon, a sadly inevitable consequence of the old administration's policies. Whatever its faults Ivytag is a symptom of the problem, not the cause of it, and one lives in hope that its opponents will one day realise that there are actually benefits to be had from not forcing our residents to live in a state of perpetual conflict. It is not necessary for you to like Simon, or anybody else, to appreciate the self-evident reasonableness of having residents' groups in which everybody is allowed to play a fair and equal part. The fact that there are those who would vehemently oppose, and fight, such an aspiration was all the justification I needed to implement the changes I did as a result of the Hounslow Homes Review.
Phil Andrews ● 6680d