The Element Newhaven Owners’ Association (TENOA)
2019 NEW YEAR LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
1stJanuary 2019
Dear Fellow Owner,
You hardly need me to remind you that we live in very uncertain times and with many tensions, whether looking at the world scene or matters much closer to home. But I would like to think that people of imagination and concern for the well-being both of the planet and all humanity will always try to look for positive rather than negative aspects of the present and future.
My task in my third year of being privileged to be Chairman of TENOAis as an encourager of good relationships throughout The Element in all its aspects, coupled with a responsibility of trying to ensure that tasks that have to be undertaken in the interests of all are carried out as efficiently as possible.
We continue to be very well served by The Element Factors (TEF)with the particular benefit that because they are on site we can contact them easily, as we do. Over the years we have faced major challenges with regard to the structure and proper maintenance of the building even this long after its completion. Your Committee of TENOAcontinues to work closely with TEF, monitoring the work it does for us, ensuring increasing efficiency and sometimes having to make hard choices over expenditure in the long term interests of improving the value of our investment in our property.
However, there is another side to the coin, in our growing sense of a healthy community in The Element,which is itself an intangible asset. During 2018 there have been many signs that we are regarding those who live around us – whether owners or tenants – as our friends as well as neighbours. We are trying to encourage this in several ways, prompted by the additional aim in our Constitution to promote a sense of living together – rather than isolated separate lives. As last year, in 2019 we will hold events that encourage conversation. It is good to see an increasing number of people making use of our communal courtyard garden, aided by much easier access and security; and particularly delightful to see so many children playing together there. From now on we will also see a tiny Christmas tree (a gift from our gardening contractor) grow year by year as a symbol of our own community’s growth.
In most of our residential blocks we now have a couple or family identified as a link or focus of ideas and questions relating to those living there; something just started and developing informally but with purpose. Details of this and the opportunity it brings will be published shortly. Also to promote the sharing of useful information, in the coming months you will find that our website tenoa.co.ukis being made much more attractive and user friendly than it once was. It’s well worth looking at it now (yes now) anticipating what is to come.
For the really imaginative, 2019 will witness the promotion of the Vision for The Heart of Newhaven in which we will be invited to play our part as we see a new school being built to accommodate the huge number of children bursting the seams of Victoria Primary School. This means that in less than two years’ time that iconic building could be available to us all as literally “The Heart of Newhaven” and the focal point of this outstanding seaport that we are fortunate to call our home. If you want to know more about that potential, go to Victoria Primary School on 28thJanuary at 7pmand be inspired! With imagination and hard work that project will also eventually enhance the value of The Element.
Please contact me with any comments or questions: [email protected] or use any of the following details: 33/9 Western Harbour View, EH6 6PG 0131 555 2217, mobile 07749710369, email [email protected]
I will personally deal with your enquiry and would be glad to meet you for a chat if that would help.
Yours sincerely, Rodney Matthews (Chairman)