Blog2013 ≫ Alexandra Corniche residents meeting

There was a residents meeting for the people of Ocean Ridge development, covering Alexandra Corniche (where we live) and Lower Corniche too (where the house we were gazumped on is). We didn't go, as it was organised for during the working day, I did not really expect many people to attend anyway. It was organised by Hazelvine who are the managing agents for this estate. And it sounds like it was quite a lively affair...

Lots of residents seem to have said "who the hell are you and why are we paying you? we don't need a managing agent!" so maybe there are plans afoot to get rid of them. The main content of the meeting was discontent at the increase in our ground rent / fees for dealing with Brown Tail Moths. It seems we are responsible for dealing with a pest invasion on the neighbouring land, which we don't own. It was part of the planning arrangement when the estate was built, that the freeholder would maintain the neighbouring land for the council and now that cost is passed on to us. This is in our deeds, and I was aware of it, but if there's a chance of ditching it I'm all for it... There are quotes in ranging from 3000 - 6000, though no-one seems to know what brown tail moths are or why they are a problem. That cost would be shared by the 100 properties on the estate, but still any costs are to be avoided if at all possible...

A more interesting thing that came up is that there is a communal garden on the estate that one of the residents has put a padlock on. I didn't know it was there, but the padlock is to be removed and replaced with a combination lock so all the neighbours can use it. Speaking to my neighbour he thinks it is more of an access passage to some of the houses in Lower Corniche, probably those in the big fancy crescent, but still I'll go and have a look. With the boys, and their bikes and footballs and things.

The neighbours who live just below us in the housing association properties who have pulled down the fence by climbing into their own back garden also came up. One of the neighbours has been taking pictures of them damaging the fence apparently, it's being reporting back to the housing association and repair costs being sought.

I wish I'd gone now, sounded fun. Will report back what happens next. The council are being chased up to take responsibility for the moths for some reason. I'm not sure there really are any moths, I suspect it is all a scam.

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Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town, Kent. Wed to Clare + father to two, I am a full-stack web developr, + I do javascript / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.