Using TV to engage with tenants and residents
An enormous 16-screen TV located in Winchester’s Brooks Centre will soon be showing videos designed to encourage tenant participation and benefit take-up in the area.
Winchester City Council has about 200 actively involved tenants and is looking to recruit more people who want to have their say about the decisions that affect them. Issues up for discussion can range from car parking or grass cutting to housing repairs, including anything from dripping taps to major improvement works.
Head of Landlord Services Richard Botham said: “Tenant participation doesn’t have to mean long stuffy meetings in the community centre – it can be as little as filling in the occasional questionnaire. We’re keen to give people in the Winchester district the opportunity to have their say in a way that suits them and as frequently as they like.”
The Council is running two other awareness campaigns alongside this, both relating to benefits. One is to encourage benefit take-up among residents and the other is to help stamp out benefit fraud in the district.
Each year in Winchester tens of thousands of pounds go unclaimed, when at the same time much is claimed fraudulently – some £3 billion nationally last year.
Deputy Head of Revenues Jane Petty said: “More and more people are worrying about bills at the moment and you never know what extra help you might be entitled to. If you think you might be missing out then get in touch with us – you might be pleasantly surprised.”
The event at the Brooks Centre runs from July 28 to August 3 and is one in a series of community roadshows organised by LBV TV. The roadshow will also feature videos by Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, the organisation that provides specialist mental health and learning disability services.
Further details
To find out more about tenant participation call 0800 716 987 or go to www.winchester.gov.uk/tenanttalk
For help and advice about benefits call 01962 848 539
To report suspected benefit fraud in complete confidence call 01962 848 306