Welcome to the Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum

We are the Independent Resident's Forum for the Croydon Drive outsourced council estate in Newton Heath, Manchester. M40.

Urgent - Have you received letters from Avro Hollows' TMO about voting for whether they should continue running the estate?

Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation Limited have handposted letters to residents that, in short, tell them, that there will be a ballot. Avro Hollows' say that, if residents do not vote in favour of continuing to have them run the estate, that Commsec Security, who operate CCTV cameras and run security operations, would stop operating and that the Estate Office would also stop operating...

This is not true.

The Director of Avro Hollows' TMO has previously said the same at the last Annual General Meeting. We have checked this with Ingrid Daly, who is the Liaison Officer between Avro Hollows' TMO and Manchester City Council (she works for Manchester City Council) who are our Landlord and she has made clear that Avro Hollows' TMO have absolutely no say if they do not continue to manage the estate. They don't get to take the security gates, cameras and contracts with them - and they were paid for using public funds so they'd just transfer to Manchester City Council.

In reality, Manchester City Council would take Croydon Drive back into it's direct management and we believe that this is better for everybody. If you decide to vote Avro Hollows' TMO out, Manchester City Council will assume responsibilities for the bills, such as security, to be paid. Since Manchester City Council will remain the Landlord in any event, they have a duty to protect residents from antisocial behaviour. The most obvious way is through the existing security gates and CCTV with a 24-7 response to antisocial behaviour, better than we get now - and who would be responsible for providing that would be crystal clear.

Do you know who you are trusting with and in your home - No staff are Police Checked..

A word about crime and security on the Croydon Drive Estate - Did you know, none of Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation staff are Disclosure and Barring Board Checked ("Police Checked")? Can you really afford to trust them? Manchester City Council Employees are Disclosure and Barring Board Checked.

Staffing

The Estate Office is staffed by two individuals, one of which is the Estate Manager. There are 312 flats on the Croydon Drive Estate. Can you really say that anybody else would only provide 2 members of staff for 312 people?

The out of hours emergency repairs service is practically non-existent under Avro Hollows TMO..

The repairs contractor out of hours doesn't even answer the phone the vast majority of the time - can you really say that would continue if Avro Hollows' TMO bit the dust? If you want your repairs done properly, and to get a guaranteed emergency response, vote out Avro Hollows' TMO and give them their marching orders. The grounds will continue to be looked after too.

Targetting older people with misleading information..

If that hasn't persuaded you, please seriously consider how you feel about being lied to by Avro Hollows' TMO where the correspondence was targetted at older people who are more vulnerable. Can you really trust or bring yourself to vote for them? Are they not rotten to the core?

By voting against Avro Hollows' TMO continuing, you strengthen your rights and your security and ensure that you get a proper say in what happens on the estate. Avro Hollows' TMO runs one Annual General Meeting a Year and that is all the vast majority of residents get in terms of involvement. What kind of a say are you really getting? Tenant Management Organisations are supposed to be inclusive and put residents at the centre of decision making.

You are within your rights, without Avro Hollows' TMO managing the estate, to demand an independent resident scrutiny panel from Manchester City Council. That could be us, someone else or a mix of us and others (or not us at Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum at all!). We don't get paid in any way for anything that we do and we are fully independent of Avro Hollows' and Manchester City Council. We have never in any way been connected to Northwards' Housing either.

Who the hell is THA Ltd who are supposed to be running the ballot anyway?

We are also extemely concerned that the ballot is said to be faciliated by THA Ltd. There are no contact details and there is no website that we could find. A check of companies house https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08585095 (opens new window) shows extremely limited information on the activities of this company. A search of the "THA Ltd" in Google produces no further information. How can we be sure that THA Ltd is appropriately trained to run a tenant ballot and that they are impartial?

Please raise these questions, and any others that you might have, as well as your feedback on Avro Hollows' with Ingrid Daly at Manchester City Council and Lucy Powell, our Constituency MP:

You can use this handy form by clicking here (Opens new window) to Email both Ingrid at Manchester City Council and your Constituency MP, Lucy Powell, at the same time.

Unproven suggestion of impropriety

Although we cannot prove the following so you should not rely on the following statement being true, it has been suggested that a person behind this company has done previous work for Avro Hollows' TMO. If this is true, this would be a conflict of interests and wholly improper.

Please ensure that you still vote but please also let us know how you vote so we can keep tally independently by clicking to record your vote here.

Show Avro Hollows' TMO the door. It's one of the best decisions that you'll ever make.

>>> click here to find out what they did to an autistic lad in Lancaster Court and what we are doing with them.

Tenants wondering where the forum is can find that by clicking here and you can read Avro Hollows' TMO propaganda for a laugh here. If you'd prefer to hear it from the Residents then please do read on.

On our estate, we apparently have 312 flats (although one is a lift office and another doesn't exist for some reason). Anyway, what we do have are glorious flats (most with out of date dilapidated kitchens (where did the sink go Dianne?) and bathrooms with no showers into 2020).

You may have noticed that our Corona Virus information has disappeared from the front page. You can find out more by visiting the CDIRF Corona Virus area from the "Resident Links" menu.

Thank you for visiting and welcome.

Further Information..

The estate comprises of four tower blocks and two rows of houses split into two flats (there are no cows but most of these flats do smell of cheese due to the damp in them). Some of the flats across the estate contain 1 and, shockingly, 2 and 3 bedrooms.

Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation purport to manage the estate on behalf of Manchester City Council, in association with Northwards housing (Northwards' Housing will, however, deny all knowledge of this). The estate is most definitely not run for the benefit of the local community with some residents describing the estate as an "open prison".

To find out more...please read our article "more about the estate" below.

Who We Are..

This website and its online community was set up by a resident on the Croydon Drive Estate who may or may not be closely related to C.G.B. Spender (the truth is not out there). It is entirely free to use and to become a member and it always will be. Personally identifiable information is not collected or stored protecting the anonymity of members. We only publish the tower block of the residents (so the person writing will be 1/72 or 71 people - dependent on the specific tower block).

It is not a breach of a resident's tenancy agreement to join Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum. The right to set up tenant groups is in fact specifically protected within resident's tenancy agreements.

The starting point for the forum was to create an online presence. The forum itself has the ability for members to send private messages (not read by the forum admin) and Members are encouraged to use their common sense in remaining anonymous and protecting themselves online. There is a reporting feature above all posts should anybody be concerned about the content - particularly where it is discriminatory or hateful - humour is of course allowed within reason.

Members are encouraged to have their say and provide feedback on the existing forum sections (including the popular "The Vent" and various general interests categories) and to request new ones. This also extends now to website content. We strongly urge residents to register using the unique registration code letters, most recently posted through doors in August 2019 by one of our kind elves.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is, unfortunately, not open to Contractors, Employees or Volunteers (including members) of Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation, Northwards' Housing or Manchester City Council to protect the integrity of the forum and the anonymity of members and access is not permitted from locations run by them to protect the security of login details.

To ensure that our security policies are upheld vigorously for the benefit of members, we regularly lookup IP addresses that are logged when members log in. Our independence policy was ratified by members in 2018.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is set up by residents to further the interests of residents. It's that simple. A large part of that is to take the current Directorship (Avro Hollows' TMO) to task where they fail residents through causing as much embarrassment as possible.

If any residents struggle to register (you need to sign up using the register option), please do use the contact form link above (or the contact link on the forum itself).

If you are a resident who has not yet registered - what are you waiting for? A very warm welcome awaits!

About Our Estate..

The estate has security gates at every entrance where many tenants cannot get in and out of all of the gates without pressing the buzzer (although thieves can) and it has so many cameras that it puts Big Brother to shame. All tenants have their mugshots taken to aid with tracking them from the moment they leave their flat until they leave the estate (perhaps further?) and there is a 24 hour live feed available to lucky viewers on Channel Commsec.

Cameras are monitored by Commsec Security (when it suits them - incidents that tenants report are rarely ever captured) who, until at least very recently, controlled the access controls in Greater Manchester Police buildings - what do you know! Until recently, it was commonplace for gate intercom calls to go unanswered (including in 2020 to 7 fire engines attending a small kitchen fire in Lancaster Court), particularly in the winter, leaving tenants to get soaked. Commsec Security are, however, excellent at bellowing over the multiple speaker tannoy system from their offices about 1.5 miles away and regularly using foul language at the weekend when the Estate Manager isn't working..

There are entrance intercoms on each tower block. On two of them, tenants do not ever get to speak to their visitors as the dial pad has been removed and replaced with a camera, and, on the other two, Commsec Security like to randomly divert intercom calls to them when they get bored. On all four tower blocks, Commsec Security like to have a conversation with your guests instead, particularly when your food (and takeaway driver) is getting cold.

The MGMT..

We do have a highly motivated* Estate Manager (*highly motivated in going out of her way to cause trouble even though she has not been here very long) and, along with the Directors, the team ensure that the majority view of residents is never put forward and they won't think twice about harassing residents if they don't like you.

Employees are not disclosure and barring board checked and at least one has a serious criminal record, even though their employment at Avro Hollows' (which is paid for by Manchester City Council) could lead to them entering your home. "What happened to safeguarding" you might ask...

We take this moment to pay homage to the old Estate Manager who was a complete legend. More news on her leaving is due to hit you soon but it will make for very grim reading when we get her permission to publish it and we suspect the press will be very interested in Avro Hollows' TMO's behaviour too.

Our residents have had issue after issue with getting repairs carried out and with the way in which Manchester City Council and Northwards' Housing have managed new kitchen and bathroom provision on the estate. It is touch and go whether anybody answers the lift breakdown alarms and the quality of connection is so poor that they can't hear you when they do answer.

Contractors work without consulting residents and are as disruptive as possible. Complaints go nowhere when forwarded to Northwards' Housing. To this end, and more widely, Avro Hollows' TMO could not give a toss about what the resident majority want despite receiving around £250k a year of Manchester City Council funding. It's high time they went.

The Board..

The TMO board are extremely selective about who they invite to their meetings (you'd have more chance of being invited to bank with Coutts) and the majority of tenants do not get a look in or a say on anything at TMO board meetings where they are no longer announced for fear of tenants protesting.

Avro Hollows' TMO are certainly not there to make the experience of living on the Croydon Drive estate a "really happy one" unless you are one of a select few on the board with access to around £250k a year grant funding (from Manchester City Council).

Welcome to the Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum where we do things differently and respect each other.