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We’re all looking forward to Summer, but unfortunately the warm weather has its downsides. We’ve had lots of calls recently about ants, insects and pests. We don’t cover these in our Tenancy Agreements, but here’s some top tips to help you try to get rid of any nasties yourself, if they come into your home.

Like many pests, ants come inside once they find a good food source, so don’t leave any food lying around and keep the kitchen spick and span. Once they’re in, they spread the word to others that here is somewhere good to stay, so that’s what you want to prevent..

1. Get rid of their scent trail by cleaning with water and vinegar. Make sure there’s no crumbs on the kitchen floor, vacuum your carpets and empty and wash your bins. You might want to put some baking soda in your bins to put them off.
2. You can also use some home solutions to repel ants. Ants don’t like citrus smells, so you could make a solution of lemon juice, orange peel or cucumber rind with warm water and wipe or mop your floors and surfaces down with it.
3. Spices and herbs are also known to repel ants. Garlic, mint, basil, cayenne or chilli pepper, cloves or black pepper are especially good..
4. You can buy a powder like mixture called diatomaceous earth to seal up cracks and small holes, or apply it to edges where there has been ant activity. You can also spray it wet on walls.
5. Caulk (similar to sealant) can also be used to seal up entry points like cracks round doors and windows.

We are also approaching Flying Ant Season. The best way to avoid falling victim to these pests are to:

• Seal cracks and crevices around your property, keeping windows and doors shut or put up a fly screen to stop them getting in.

If you need another copy of our Tenancy Agreement to check what minor works we can carry out for you, just give us a call on 0800 953 0213.

 

Congratulations to tenants Bob and Sheila Geldeard, who celebrated their 65^th Wedding Anniversary on 7^th June. The happy couple first met in 1949, before Mr Geldeard left to join the Army. Two years later they bumped into each other again at the Carlton Cinema in 1951 and began courting, getting engaged over Christmas that year. They married on 7^th June 1954 at Ribbleton Avenue Methodist Church before setting up home in Preston.  Mr Geldeard worked as a joiner and Mrs Geldeard was a baker. The couple, who have two boys Graham and Craig, have lived at The Filberts in Fulwood for 13 years and celebrated with a special family meal.

Community Gateway is thrilled to have helped yet another tenant, Sarah Ayles, back into employment through their More Positive Together programme.

Sarah, who lives with her seven-year old daughter, told Community Gateway why she decided to turn to the initiative, More Positive Together, after being out of work for almost 10 years.

“I went to University and got a degree but after falling pregnant and becoming a single parent, I couldn’t afford to work.”

Sarah told us how whilst being out of work, her confidence began to deteriorate, as she felt she had a lot of barriers to overcome to get back into work, such as childcare support, transport, a gap in her CV and social isolation. Before she knew it, she didn’t know a way out.

“Deep down, I always wanted to be a veterinary nurse but never had the confidence to go for it, let alone know where to start. Then one day, I heard about the Community Gateway programme that helps people back into employment. I contacted them and have never looked back.” 

After several one to one meetings with her CG mentor, Ve Bennett, the two of them explored how Sarah could overcome her barriers and put steps in place to boost her confidence and social skills.

Sarah began attending the CG ‘Feel Good Friday’, CG Job Club, and enrolled onto a 10 week Confidence training course, which also allowed her to pass her 1^st Aid Course whilst on the project.  

Sarah gushed about the confidence course and began searching for another opportunity with Ve – this time, to take another step towards her dream career of becoming a veterinary nurse. Fast forward and Sarah has just begun an Apprenticeship at a pet healthcare practice and is looking forward to the future.

Sarah added:

“Thank you to Community Gateway and the team on the More Positive Together programme; you’ve truly changed my life.”

Today Community Gateway proudly presented a cheque for £7,991.63 to North West Air Ambulance (NWAA) to help support the service, which is funded through the generosity of the public’s donations.

Colleagues at Community Gateway get to vote for the charity they’d like to pledge their support to, and this year, decided that NWAA would be the charity of choice, as they reach, treat and transfer patients via helicopter all over the North West.  

Throughout the year, we’ve taken part in a number of exciting activities to raise money for this great cause – here’s just some of the amazing activities that have taken place:

-          Pretty Muddy obstacle course

-          The Great North run

-          Chester Marathon

-          Scaling the ‘Big One’ at Blackpool

-          Bake sales

-          Raffles

-          World Cup Event

-          Ongoing Tuck Shop

Thank you to everyone who has been involved and supported us throughout – your donations, time and effort (not matter how big or small!) has gone towards making a huge difference to people’s lives.

Louise Mattinson, Executive Director of Customers and Communities, says,

“In 2017, in response to feedback from the community, Community Gateway began regenerating the area around Savick shops.  The first phase included the development of 6 new homes on the site of the former Savick pub. 

Phase 2 of the scheme includes the redevelopment of the maisonettes and shops on West Park Avenue.  These properties are outdated, unsightly and are a magnet for anti-social behaviour, resulting in half of the shops being emptywith no new businesses interested in taking up a lease.  

However we listened to the community’s concerns around the impact to residents regarding the loss of the library and shops, and so we worked with local residents, councillors and remaining business owners to develop plans which included a commitment from Community Gateway to build a brand new library and 4 shop units to accommodate the remaining businesses. 

We agreed that we would provide the new units at below market rents to ensure the viability of the businesses for the benefit of the community.

Initially, all the business owners were supportive of these plans, which would have included the provision of high-quality, fully serviced temporary accommodation to allow the businesses to continue to operate whilst the demolition and building works were completed. This would have requiredsignificant investment from Community Gateway, but we believed that the cost was worth it to enable the businesses to continue trading. 

Disappointingly a number of the business owners have since changed their minds, and we now have only one business owner who has confirmed that they would like to enter into a new lease.  Sadly, this means that it is no longer viable for us to continue with our plans to invest in the building of a number of new shops when there is no evidence to suggest that they could be let. 

Whilst we understand the café owners would like to enter into a lease on a new unit, the provision of temporary accommodation is only feasible if a majority of business owners are in agreement.  

It was always our intention to replace the library and shop units and we share the community’s disappointment that there is insufficient interest from business owners to make this possible. However we can confirm that we are continuing with our plans to provide a new purpose built library which will benefit the community for many years to come.”