Friday Fun

Our Radio Poplar hosted radio programme went live today. A week later than planned, but the show was excellent. William joint hosted the show with Bill Rowe of Radio Poplar and they presented an eclectic mix of up beat music and dedications for staff and families.

The show is on internet radio and you will need something like Real Player, WinAmp or VLC to listen. If you are on Leeds City Council's network you can get Real Player from the IT helpdesk, if you are on any other network you can download a player from the Radio Poplar website http://www.radiopoplar.co.uk/ you can email the show whilst they are on-air with requests to show@radiopoplar.co.uk.

If you want to request music or a dedication either myself or Peter Loosemore, of Progress Care will be delighted to hear from you.

On Air

We are hopeful that from the 13th January there will be weekly ILP Radio programme broadcast via the internet, courtesy of Radio Poplar and funding from Greggs. There was a piece in the Evening Post last week which made mention of the forthcoming attraction and gave a little background on the founding of the radio station. Click HERE for a link to the newspaper article. We will be looking for people who want to get involved - presenting the show, requesting music to be played, being interviewed on-air, playing live either in the studio or being recorded as an outside broadcast. If you are interested in any of this contact Peter Loosemore from Progress Care or Caroline Terry from Leeds City Council Adult Social Care. If you need contact details please contact me.

Christmas is coming

The weather took a turn for the worse this week, although it has been cold it has been nothing like last year. This time last year we were faced with terrible delays because of the snow and freezing temperatures. At one time it looked as though the final phases of construction would all have to be delivered late. Jack Lunn did an amazing job getting everything virtually finished in programme. The cold snap and high winds have posed a few problems with things like heating boilers, but nothing of any significance. The Lovell Respond handyman team are doing a great job in getting round to any problems really promptly.

You should be able to see a pen picture for the handymen and for the Progress team on the web site in the very near future. The arrangements for repairs and housing matters will be arriving soon so that you will know what to do if you have any problems during the holiday period.

In full swing

All the buildings have now been completed and are occupied to a lesser or greater extent. The THUs at Bewerley and Cottingley were the final pieces in the jigsaw for the ILP. LiLAC will now be looking after the properties for the next 25 years. If you are interested in the various locations for the properties, have a look at the Google Map. All of the location icons may not show correctly in Explorer as there are some issues, bu the list of properties is correct.

Some of the properties have had to have maintenance work carried out already. This has been due to the theft of lead from roofs, the lead is being replaced with a substitute with no scrap value.

The site that hosted our photo archive has unfortunately ceased to exist. I am in the process of transferring all the pictures to Microsoft's SkyDrive but this will take some time to complete. The pages for each site will appear piecemeal on the ILP website over the next couple of months as I complete each one. If you have a particular interest in any site, let me know and I will prioritise the conversion and upload of those photographs.

The finishing line is in sight

In May the latest site was handed over and people started moving into Bewerley Court. Although the site is relatively small the buildings are impressive with tenanted flats, transitional housing and respite accommodation all available.

The very final phase of building will be completed this month when Cottingley Court is handed over on the 20th June.

LiLAC will then have completed 15 phases over a 3 year period with all the buildings being ready within days of the planned dates.

Phases 10 & 11

Delph View - Moving in

The latest two phases of construction were handed over to Adult Social Care on the 14th February. Delph View and Westerton Road were completed on time despite the poor weather before Christmas. The last of the people that decamped the old Delph Manor were able to move into their new homes within days of the property becoming available. Westerton Road will take a little longer before it is fully occupied, this property will allow people that have had to live away from Leeds to move back into the area with a brand new service being provided by Dimensions, a third party supplier.

Phase 9 complete

Potternewton

Despite the poor weather just before Christmas phase 9 was handed over into service on the 10th January as scheduled. Real Life Options will be providing the care and support at Potternewton, this is the 4th external contract that has been let for care and support in ILP properties. The first tenats will be moving back to Leeds to take up their tenancies next week, which is great news for tenants, carers and families.

At the second phase of development of the old Rossedene Hostel, tenants moved back to site from Parklees, much to everyone's pleasure. The new buildings are a great improvement on what people, customers and staff, have had to put up with until now.

The poor weather means that the working hours at Cottingley Court have been extended by an hour each day and bricklayers are likely to be working week-ends too until some of the programme time is made up.