Chaos in RBH Area Panels

Last week's meeting of the Middleton Tenants & Residents Associations (MATRA) highlighted the absolute chaos of RBH's botched attempts to establish Area Panels to take the place of the old Area Boards.

Describing the latest attempt to launch an Area Panel in Middleton as a shambles, MATRA identified the lack of clarity about the purpose of the Panel, the powers of individuals within the meetings, the tendency of the RBH lead officer to over-rule the Chair and the absence of agreed Terms of Reference as the underlying problems.

It is important for all concerned to be absolutely clear about the Terms of Reference issue as their absence is affecting the Panels in all Townships. At the root of the problem is RBH's complete failure to abide by its own Memorandum & Articles. These clearly state:

The Constitution, Terms of Reference and Procedural Rules for the Conduct of Meetings of the Area Panels shall be agreed between the Organisation, the Council Member, the Tenants' Federation and recognised tenants' groups in each Township.

The plain fact is that RBH has completely failed to reach agreement with RoFTRA and the recognised tenants' groups in each Township.

RoFTRA was finally supplied by RBH with a proposed draft Terms of Reference for the Panels in December. We submitted a detailed formal response after careful consideration by Board and Officers' group on 21 January.

Because RBH had also failed to reach agreement with the Council, the matter was discussed at the latest meeting of the joint Council/RBH Monitoring group that is also attended by RoFTRA's Chair where it was agreed to have a meeting of RBH, the Council and RoFTRA to arrive at a draft for proper consultation with T&RAs. That meeting has yet to be arranged.