I first took over as the Neighbourhood Coordinator (NC) for Sabarmati House, Leicester in August 2024 when the patches for NCs were reshuffled…
On my first day, I was very excited to be heading over to Sabarmati House. From the outside, it's a very nice big building with lots of garden space. I was very impressed with its car park which was handy too.
As I entered the building, I was taken aback. Having seen the outside of the building looking lovely and welcoming, the inside lobby was far from it. For example, this bench (pictured left) with no cushions on it was in front of the main entrance into the building, right outside the office.
As I made my way around the building, meeting residents and getting familiar with the layout, I found more – of what should've been – seating for residents on the different floors.
Residents told me that this was the state of the seating for the last two years, after the old seating was removed:
When I got to the third floor, I found an example of the old seating and, to be honest, I was not impressed by it and could understand why it was removed. This area was left because, as I have been told by the residents, the ladies on the third floor had a protest and refused to let this be removed.
They like to sit there in the evenings, socialising with their neighbours:
I wanted to find out what had happened to the seating and why. My investigations led me to Michael, our Building Safety Lead, who agreed to come out and have a look at what was happening. He explained that at the time of his assessment, which was almost two years ago by now, he had marked the seating as not safe in line with the fire safety standards. He advised that it should be removed but he didn't know why it wasn't replaced, and he was happy for me to do this if it met the standards. Thanks, Michael!
I had to find out if we had a supplier that would be able to replace or renovate the seating on our supplier list. After a lot of research and getting several companies to come in and have a look, I finally found one that would provide what we needed.
I put together a good number of points and spoke to residents to complete the Neighbourhood Improvement Fund form. Thanks to Ryan for approving it. I had to fast track to get the supplier on our system and started with the project, so thank you to Robert, our Procurement Officer, for helping me to sort this too. Also, thank you to Sally-Anne Underhill, our Director of Neighbourhoods & Customer Contact, for approving the supplier super fast so that we could have the seating ready before Christmas break.
And wow, what a difference it has made!
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The lobby now looks so welcoming.
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The residents have somewhere comfy to sit and natter as they wait to see me in the office or for their laundry to be done.
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In the evenings, the ladies can come out and have a good chat and put the world to rights on a nice comfy sofa!
Residents are very happy with the seating and have been enjoying it very much over the Christmas period.
They feel it's so much nicer when family have been coming to visit, saying, “It looks like the building is cared about and looks so much better when you come in.”
The resident at Flat 2 said – “Thank you, after waiting 2 years, we had given up on expecting anything to be done about it! Now, we are pleased that it’s been done.”
The resident at Flat 16 said – “It's very nice, love the colour.”
The resident at Flat 8 said – “Thank you, I love it!”
The resident at Flat 27 said – “Finally, someone cares about us. We love the seating area, it's soooooo nice!”
These were just some of the comments from residents expressing their appreciation for the new seating. I’m super happy I could use the NIF to make such a big difference for them!
If you have any suggestions for a community event or neighbourhood-based project like the one you read about here, fill out the Neighbourhood Improvement Suggestion Form and let us know!
