Tenant-led housing panel set up in Coleraine

Tenant Scrutiny Panels are being set up across Northern Ireland giving Housing Executive tenants a voice to ensure that local offices are delivering the services required in their areas and to the level of quality expected by tenants.

In Causeway – which encompasses Coleraine, Limavady, Ballymoney and Ballycastle – nine tenants from across the area will scrutinise services they feel are most important to tenants in the coming year.

In Coleraine Sammy McGrath, Rosemary McCaw and Sally McDonald will join tenant volunteers Sheila McWilliams, Claire Getty, Margaret Reid, Diane Broom, Dessie Hanna and Margaret Gibson on the panel.

The group meets three times a year and members have said they are looking forward to the year ahead.

Chair of the Scrutiny Panel Sheila McWilliams said: “This new panel has given tenants from each of the Districts an opportunity to work together to enhance the service provided within Causeway.”

Mark Alexander, Area Manager for the Causeway region, said the new panels will ensure that the Housing Executive works in an active and meaningful partnership with communities.

“The creation of the Tenant Scrutiny Panels will give our tenants a real say in making their neighbourhoods better places in which to live.

“The panels will also ensure that we are accountable to our tenants for the delivery of our services and we will be in a position to continuously seek the views of our tenants and strive to improve the delivery of our services,” he added.

In addition to Tenant Scrutiny Panels, the Housing Executive has also formed resident and inter-agency partnerships in the Causeway area. These partnerships will enable residents to make their estates and areas better places in which to live by taking part in ventures such as joint working groups, community partnerships and estate inspections.