`RIVERSIDE:DESTROYING LIVES, CRUSHING NEIGHBOURHOODS`

The Thunderer

and the angry
tenants of 

Maidstone

Welcome aboard to The Times. This week  that newspaper devoted much of its front page to exposing the scandal  of  the grossly excessive pay of some of the leading housing associations bosses. 

The newspaper found that some of the highest paid bosses- the  housing association fat cats- ran the worst performing associations.

The exposure- nothing new to readers of this  blog - was summed up in The Times headline:“£350,000 Salaries for Britain`s Worst Social Housing Chiefs”.

So, welcome aboard to The Times. Join  Community Voice Carlisle and  the growing band of  other critics who wish to put an end  to this scandal and the many other housing association scandals that this blog has attacked in the past three years.
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The  Community Voice Carlisle attacks have been directed mainly against  one in particular of those leading housing associations, the Liverpool based Riverside. It owns 50,000  homes nationwide and with 6,000 homes in Carlisle is the city`s biggest landlord/

Riverside as you would expect has had its share of fat cat bosses. Up to fairly recently, the Chief  Executive was paid £230,000 year which is about 50 per cent more than the Prime Minister (£142,000 a year). But massive public criticism- including attacks from Community Voice Carlisle- has  forced a cut-back.

Now the present chief executive, Ms Carol Matthews has to make do with £183,781.That should be enough  to buy a  tin or two of the  soothing drink, Horlicks  which Community Voice Carlisle has prescribed for her .Ms Matthews has difficulty in nodding off at nights.

There is no nodding off for a new  group of   angry Riverside tenants which has sprung into life. Members of the group are so busy  attacking Riverside on Facebook and other social media that there is little time for sleep. 

Maidstone,,,the River Medway

#

The group is based in Maidstone (Kent) and is called "Tenants Against Riverside." According to Tenants Against Riverside,  Riverside in Maidstone is just as bossy and shambolic in its operations  as it is here  in Carlisle, Longtown and Brampton.

So welcome on board, Tenants Against Riverside. Join The Times newspaper-once generally known as The Thunderer- and Community Voice Carlisle in a crusade against Riverside. 

That crusade could easily start with  the Maidstone tenants` version of the  hypocritical Riverside motto, "Riverside:Transforming lives, Revitalising neighbourhoods”.

The Maidstone tenants` version is this: "Riverside: Destroying lives, Crushing neighbourhoods"

 
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.

OSBORNE RENEWS ASSAULT ON HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

  

Riverside  boss

Dean Butterworth

`wants to 

have his 

cake and eat it`

The sensational resignation of the work and pensions secretary Mr Iain Duncan Smith got the headlines today as the repecussions of this week`s Budget continued.

Housing associations, still reeling from last year`s attacks by the Chancellor George Osborne have been assaulted again.

The finances of the associations are likely to be hit by the Budget in the same way that they were hit last year, say the experts.

More sleepless nights  therefore for Ms Carol Matthews,  boss of the Liverpool - based Riverside Housing Association.

Last year Ms Matthews complained publicly about her  long spells spent lying awake at nights worrying about her association`s  £1OO  million black hole caused by the  Chancellor`s attacks.
 

As  Ms Matthews reaches for  more  mugs of Horlicks or gets  her  doctor to prescribe more sleeping tablets  there are  other worries building up and more sleepless nights in prospect.

These new worries  concern one of  her regional directors, Mr Dean Butterworth who runs Riverside`s 6,000 homes in Carlisle.

Chief Executive Officer  Ms Matthews gave Mr Butterworth the Carlisle job following the resignation of Mr Patrick Leonard. He was the Carlisle boss who considered he could do his Riverside regional director`s job and at the same time be Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Butterworth  up to now in his two years in Carlisle has not shown such outrageously bad judgement . But in those two years, there have been  bad Riverside judgements, some of them outrageous.
  
Carlisle City Council considered it outrageous for Riverside to  withdraw key aspects of its vital Careline telephone support service for the city`s elderly and vulnerable.

 It was also outrageous that the city council was not consulted about that decision.

It was also outrageous last year that Mr Butterworth   was unable  to give councillors the name of a firm he himself had recently commissioned to do a report on Riverside`s  dodgy  boilers in 60 of its Longtown properties. 

And it was outrageous that Mr Butterworth made dodgy statements to the same councillors about the independence of Riverside`s so- called  scrutiny  arrangements.

Following all of that and the bad publicity that followed, Mr Butterworth hit back at his critics. In July last year, he decided to ban his leading critic, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation, from all future contact with his Riverside organisation.

Now out of the blue, he is back in contact with  the Federation .

He wants to use the Federation once again. He has sent emails asking for help with his suffering Longtown tenants and help with relations with the public about the issue.

What a turn-up!  What is going on?

The shocked Federation held a special  committee meeting. It  decided that Mr Butterworth cannot have his cake and eat it. Members decided to tell him  that banning the Federation and then seven months later asking  the Federation for help is ridiculous. 

Just as ridiculous as  his  predecessor Mr Leonard wanting to run a housing association and be be police commissioner at the same time.

This is what the Federation email said:

"The Longtown heating problems caused by Riverside`s dodgy boilers have now lasted for more than four years. This is  far far more than ample time for solving the problems. 

“Your  recent emails to the Federation asking for additional appeals to the tenants to contact the Ombudsman are needlessly repetitive of previous appeals made years ago and are  pure window dressing  to impress local authority critics.

”Your emails were an attempt to again delay a solution to the Longtown  problems caused by Riverside.  As such, your emails are a cause of further  suffering for  the tenants"

 
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.

GRIT YOUR TEETH COUNCILLORS, AND SUPPORT THE OUTRAGEOUS

Riverside,

asset-stripping

and

Le Grande Stitch-up

There are no prizes for guessing all about  the latest accusation in the stormy referendum debate. It is called: Le Grand Stitch-up.

David Cameron and his allies are accused as they slog it out with a group of fellow ministers in the split Tory cabinet. 

Accusations  of a stitch-up by the Prime Minister are not much different from accusations about another Tory leader 300 miles away here in Carlisle.  Here also, another cabinet is  split. This cabinet is Carlisle City Council shadow cabinet.

Le Grand Stitch-up  accusation is made  by those campaigning  for Britain to withdraw from the E.U: the Brexit supporters. In Labour controlled Carlisle the shadow cabinet leader, Councillor John Mallinson and his  supporting allies face accusations of being part of another Le Grand Stitch-up, organised by  supporters of Riverside Housing Association the city`s biggest landlord.

Stitch-ups are all very well. But they tend to unravel.  And this is what seems to be happening as the referendum arguments become angrier. And  unravelling seems to be happening here in Carlisle as arguments become angrier over Riverside`s decision to withdraw key aspects of its vital Careline telephone support service for the city`s elderly and vulnerable.

Gritted teeth... Coun. Rob Burns

Rob Burns, a  well respected Labour  city councillor  says the Riverside decision is outrageous. He goes on to add  some angry and very revealing words  about Riverside which is now no more than a Merseyside-based property development organisation. He says:

”Carlisle City Council has been very supportive of Riverside over the years, admittedly sometimes through gritted teeth, and often against a background of discontent from others, but it would appear that our support has meant very little to an organisation so apparently self-obsessed that they felt they could make a decision like this without any recourse to, or even conversation with, not only to us(the city council)  but its own local board.”

Councillor Burns` attack comes in a letter to  the Carlisle newspaper, the News and Star. His letter appeals for public support for a Labour Party petition to save Careline saying : “It will be tantamount to  moral negligence on all our parts if this service is allowed to be withdrawn or even dissipated”

His attack echoes other attacks on Riverside, made  by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation, a group of  community activists who for 14 years have fought  Riverside`s disgraceful programme of asset stripping of the city housing estates and  the 7,000 former Carlisle council  houses.This  city-wide estate of social housing had been built up over the last 100 years by caring city councils.

The Federation has warned the city council repeatedly of the dangers to the city as Riverside stripped away four complexes of sheltered housing in the same way they  now plan to strip away Careline. The four are in Longtown, Harraby, Morton  and Brampton.

Riverside`s asset stripping has gone full steam ahead in the words of Councillor Burns, "without any recourse to, or even conversation with the city council”.

And what about the Riverside local governing board also mentioned by Councillor  Burns as being rudely ignored by the Riverside bosses in Liverpool? The city council has five councillor members on that board,  all helping to make these decisions for Riverside,  the latest of which is described by Councillor Burns as outrageous.

What have these five Riverside councillor directors got  to say? And what did they have to say while the asset stripping was going on? Did they go along with it?

Yes, Councillor Burns, Riverside is outrageous. Equally outrageous is the fact that Riverside has never had any sort of scrutiny as it  stripped away Carlisle`s heritage .  Riverside  felt safe  because it was  unhindered .

Riverside in fact has been super safe.

It had  the super protection of  Le Grande Stitch-up. 

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.