Consultation and Participation – How you can be involved
last updated
08/04/2010 00:00
Having Your Say
You can be involved with Albyn as much or a little as you like. Our aim is to make sure that anyone from our communities who would like to have a say about what we do and how we do it is able to do so when they want to.
You can do this:
- In person – you can come along to meetings, attend a workshop, conference or focus group, or speak to any staff member
- By post – from time to time, we will send you questionnaires about different things that we are doing and ask you to give us feedback about what is good and what we could do better
- By phone – You can call our offices at any tine between 9.00am and 5.00pm each week day. If you prefer, we can call you back. Most staff also have a mobile phone if you prefer to contact us by text.
- Over the internet – you can email us, or use our website to get information about what we do. Staff emails are firstname.lastname@albynhousing.org.uk.
If you are not sure who you need to contact, email office@albynhousing.org.uk
Your query will be passed on to the appropriate staff member.
Customer Involvement Strategy
We have recently published a customer involvement strategy. This followed consultation with tenants both as individuals and as members of local groups.
The Strategy outlines our objectives and a copy can be downloaded from the right hand sidebar on this page.
Resident Groups
We currently have three tenant organisations:
Milton Housing Forum
This group first formed in 1993 when our houses in Milton were still owned by Scottish Homes to discuss problems at the time with high numbers of empty houses. They became a registered group in 2004, and have 11 committee members representing 98 tenants and 22 owners. Meetings are held monthly, and are advertised in the village. Issues currently or recently discussed include: meeting new tenants and introducing them to the village; taking up tenants' complaints with Albyn; environmental improvements; and service charges.
Contact: Andrea McLaughlan, 14 Drovers Way, Milton, Kildary, IV18 0PT
Invergordon Albyn Residents Association
This group was set up and registered in 2003 after a meeting organised by Albyn to promote tenant involvement in the area. The group has seven committee members representing around 330 tenants and owners. The group meets monthly, with at least three open meetings each year. Recent or current topics include: issues raised by individual tenants; taking the lead on developing a play park in the area with assistance from Albyn; tackling anti-social behaviour; the Right to Buy; involvement in plans for the regeneration of South Lodge.
Contact: Mrs J Gardner, Chairperson, 74 Caberfeidh Drive, Invergordon, IV18 0NR
The Craite barn Resident’s Association (Applecross)
This group was formed and registered in 2005 to discuss high service charges for landscape maintenance. The eight tenants now carry out the work themselves instead of paying a charge. They meet every two months, and whilst discussions are mostly to do with the landscape maintenance, other issues such as the best way to report repairs are also discussed. The group is interested in being involved in other community activities in the future.
Contact: Ms Linda Arkley, 2 Craite Barn, Applecross, Strathcarron, IV54 8LN
Tenant Information Volunteers
In the past, we have had individual tenants acting as Tenant Information Volunteers (TIVs) in areas where it has not been possible to get a group going. Their current status has not been active over the last year or so, but as we review our strategy we will be looking at whether there is still a role for TIVs, especially in our smaller settlements.
Area Forums
Informal groups meet at least twice a year in four districts and are open to all tenants living in the area: Caithness & Sutherland; Ross-shire; Inverness & Nairn; and Badenoch & Strathspey. Each meeting will have a main topic and the tenants who go to them will be able to decide what the issues are that they want to discuss in their area. These could be to do with any activities Albyn is involved with, and also broader community issues.
Minutes from Area Forum meetings are available to download on the right hand side of this page.
Register of Interested Tenants
You can tell us if you have a particular interest in one or more issues that you would like to get more involved with. The register will give us a pool of tenants that we can work with for more detailed consultations and reviews from time to time. For example, to join a one-off focus group or customer panel, or to find volunteers to sit on short term working groups with staff. For further information, please contact Anne Mackay on telephone: 01349 855976 or email: anne.mackay2@albynhousing.org.uk.
Focus Groups
From time to time, we have asked volunteers to join focus groups to discuss particular policy proposals or local issues. This gives you the chance to be more involved in the issues that you are particularly interested in without having to come to a regular group.
Resident Satisfaction Surveys
Each year, we ask a sample of residents to complete a satisfaction survey. We aim to survey all residents over a three-year period. The key findings and our proposed key actions are published each year. The most recent reports are available from any staff member, or can be downloaded from this website.
Policy Bulletins
We issue a Policy Bulletin with a short questionnaire about policies that we are reviewing to all our tenants around twice a year.
Tenants Conference
On Saturday 21 March 2009, Albyn residents from all over the Highlands met together at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel in Inverness for our second tenants’ conference. Delegates included tenants from Inverness, Drumnadrochit, Muir of Ord, Evanton, Golspie, Rosemarkie and Ardersier. This year, we were also delighted to welcome along some tenants of The Highland Council registered groups to share the information and to join in our discussions. Detailed feedback from this conference will follow in due course.
Management Committee
Anyone can apply to become a member of Albyn Housing Society Ltd. We have over 250 members, over half of whom are tenants or sharing owners. Members of the society are able to have a say about who gets elected to our Committee of Management. Since our most recent elections, most of our Committee Members are or have been our tenants.
contact us
t 01349 852978
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