Meeting Details

Tuesday 19th May 2026

19:00 Banister House Community Hall

Summary

• Hossein has stepped down as Treasurer and Venessa was elected as the new Treasurer
• Roger was nominated as the second key holder for Banister House Community Hall
• We have established a terms of reference and membership agreement for the community garden, and made good progress with cleaning it up
• We were awarded a grant to run a homework club at Banister House Community Hall, this will likely start in September
• Issues with mould in flats and communal cleaning were discussed
• The next ETRA meeting is scheduled for Thursday 9th July, 19:15pm

Agenda:

1. TRA organisation update: bank account, website & email contact
2. Treasurer election
3. Key holder nominations
4. Community garden update
5. Homework club update
6. 2026 Activities: big lunch & seaside trip
7. Next ETRA meetings
8. Homerton Neighbourhood Panel
9. Issues on Banister House Estate

1. Mould issues following window replacement
2. Lift replacement major works
3. Banister House playground
4. Cleaning in communal areas

10. Any other business (AOB)

Attendees (17):

Hackney Council (1)

• Alicia Isidore (Housing Officer) <alicia.isidore@hackney.gov.uk>

Committee (7):

• Roger (Chair)
• Darren (Vice Chair)
• Peter (Secretary)
• Sibyl
• Derek
• Andrea
• Celia

Residents (9):

• Paul
• Lilach
• Abigail
• Venessa
• Shafiqul
• Zakia
• Nazma
• Azid
• Reshma

Committee Apologies (3):

• Hossein (Treasurer): resigned as treasurer, stepping back from the committee
• Joe
• Eliza

Committee Absences (5):

• Barbara
• Jalil
• Leila
• Alex
• Landa

Meeting Notes:

1. TRA Organisation Update: Officers, Bank Account, Website & Email

• The Committee/Sub-Committee Officers introduced themselves:

• Alicia, Housing Officer from Hackney Council
• Roger, Chair
• Darren, Vice-Chair
• Peter, Secretary
• Sibyl - Garden Secretary & Leading Homework Club

• Hossein (Navid) the Treasurer has unfortunately stepped down and we will need to elect a new treasurer at this meeting
• A new Banister House TRA was established at the end of January when Priory Court became an independent TRA, before this there had always been one joint TRA for both estates
• Since then there was a long process to change the bank details and set up access to the account, which had just been completed when the treasurer stepped down and will now need to be changed again. It will hopefully be quicker to change via Online Banking, now this has been set up
• Bank Account: Statement from the Secretary

• Current Balance is £11,147.10:
• £7,500 is the grant for the Homework Club, discussed below
• £3,647.10 remaining

• Website: Darren has set up a website for the TRA, it’s still under construction, any feedback is welcome https://sites.google.com/banister.house/banisterhousetra?usp=sharing 
• We have set up a joint mailbox for Banister House TRA, the contacts are:

• General Enquiries/Communication: info@banister.house,
• Community Garden: garden@banister.house
• Homework Club: homework@banister.house 

2. Treasurer Election

• Hossein (Navid) has stepped down as the Treasurer, we can elect a new treasurer in this ETRA meeting
• The role of the treasurer as manager of the TRA finances was explained and nominations were opened
• Venessa stepped forward

• Experience with bookkeeping & accounts via her business
• All in favour (16)

• Venessa is elected as the new treasurer

3. Key Holders Nomination

• We can nominate up to two key holders for Banister House Community Hall, Peter was nominated at the AGM in January
• Key holders require DBS checks and First Aid training before being confirmed with the Community Halls team
• Roger the chair is nominated as the second key holder for Banister House Community Hall

• All in favour (16)

• Roger is confirmed as the second nominated key holder for Banister House Community Hall

4. Community Garden Update

• The Banister House Community Garden had not been so well organised in the last few years and some parts had fallen into disrepair. We are now creating a framework to re-invigorate the garden as a space for everyone on the estate to enjoy
• The current plot holders met on 29th March and agreed a terms of reference & membership agreement document to formalise the group, based on templates provided by Hackney Council

• Celia & Landa were elected as Co-chairs, Roger as Vice-Chair, Sibyl as Secretary

• Still awaiting signatures of the membership agreement from some plot holders. Once all current members have signed, Sibyl will create a waiting list for plots
• We had a successful clean up day on 19th April and the garden is looking much improved
• Joe and Eliza initiated construction of compost bays from pallets
• We are looking to source free wood (e.g. scaffolding planks) to repair plot borders. If this is not successful, we will source funding to purchase wood.

• Please email garden@banister.house if you are able to help source wood for plot borders
• Venessa - there may be wood available from another community garden

• Opportunities for volunteering in the garden - these will be communicated in due course, once things are more established. Roger encouraged people to attend on Sunday afternoons, when there are often social gatherings in the garden.
• Expanding the garden & allotment space to other areas of the estate: has been considered by the garden group, would have to be negotiated with Hackney Council. To be re-visited once waiting list established

• Derek raised concerns that this would reduce money going to Hackney Council Grounds Maintenance

• Discussion around enforcement of the membership agreement, and avoiding this being too draconian

• Sibyl: Focus is on supporting members rather than enforcing rules/punishment
• Garden group agreed that a framework was needed so that plots are not left neglected for years with no clear mechanism for them to be passed on to other residents, and therefore enable more residents to enjoy the garden
• We will review how this works over the next 6 months

• Issues with security were also raised

• Several reports of fruit/vegetables being taken and vandalism over the years
• Garden group are monitoring this

5. Homework Club Update

• We were awarded a grant from the Resident Participation team to run a Homework club at Banister House Community Hall after Sibyl and Leila applied at the end of January
• This follows successful Homework Clubs that were run at the hall in past and aims to re-establish the hall as a community hub
• So far two main barriers to getting this up and running: access to the TRA bank account and access to the Hall

• Bank account access will be resolved (again) after new treasurer is added
• Have been negotiating access to the hall with the community halls team, (20-30 emails exchanged since January): with the confirmation of Roger as the 2nd key holder we can now arrange the necessary training and progress with this

• Given these will still take some time to be fully resolved and the summer term ends soon it is likely that the club won’t start until September
• We budgeted for improvements to the Hall e.g. re-painting so will focus on these over the summer so everything is ready to go in September
• If you would like to be involved with the homework club as a volunteer or have contacts in this area please contact: homework@banister.house . Training will be provided
• Discussion around other ideas for the hall like after-school club/social space: to follow up once we have hall access

6. 2026 Activities: Big lunch, Seaside trip, Christmas Party

• These are the main activities that the TRA runs every year:

• Big Lunch is the summer party at the Community Hall with BBQ and activities for children
• Seaside trip: subsidised coach hire. Last year went to Margate during the August Bank Holiday
• Christmas Party at the hall with activities for children

• Dates for these will be communicated once organised

7. Next ETRA meetings

• Agreed the date for the next ETRA as 9th July, starting slightly later at 19:15
• Discussion around virtual/hybrid meetings and Google Calendar - will be investigated before the next meeting

8. Homerton Neighbourhood Panel

• For TRAs in the Homerton area to coordinate on issues affecting multiple estates in the area
• There have been no HNP meetings this year due to availability of committee members

9. Issues on Banister House Estate

• Mould issues following window replacement

• Several people raised concerns before and during the meeting about recurrent mould that can be attributed to poorly fitted windows.
• Alicia took names of residents who had experienced this in their flats

• Lift replacement major works

• See information from the last meeting: We are in Phase 1 of a 3-year replacement program, Banister House lifts are among the worst performing in the borough so will likely all be replaced. In phase 1 lifts in blocks E, F, G & H will be replaced.
• No updates since the last committee meeting: leaseholders were expecting S20 notices in April but they were not received
• Why does it take so long to fix the lifts? They are so old that it is hard to resource the parts.
• Suggestion to salvage the working parts as they go through the replacement for the remaining lifts

• Banister House playground

• This was raised ahead of the meeting: it has not been changed in 27 years!

• Cleaning in communal areas

• Recurrent issue, with changing personnel on the cleaning team
• Sibyl reminded people about the WhatsApp group that was set up with the head cleaner Terry to report issues directly
• Terry has never responded but it seems that issues that are reported are dealt with
• Continue logging issues here to accumulate evidence

• Roof leaking in E block: since the roof was replaced - not before
• Bin cleaning: has gotten a lot worse in the last 2-3 years
• Discussion around fast turnover of residential properties = lot of beds & furniture getting left - are these from residents or is it fly tipping from outside?

• We agreed the main thing we can do is record and track these issues so we can build up a case with Hackney Council.

• Darren to look at if we can incorporate tracking into the new website

10. AOB

• We now have some of the keys for the noticeboards on the estate
• Roger and Darren have planned a proposal for digital noticeboards at Banister House
• Suggestion to invite our new councillors to the next ETRA meeting