Due to the Covid-19 virus, we are having to make changes in the way we operate, and in the way we support residents. Please read the latest newsletter, below, and the following notices, from our Estate Manager Lloyd Edwards.
This pandemic has taught us all kinds of lessons, not least the importance of working together to overcome the biggest challenges.
Thank you for playing your part, whether that’s been working in one of those many essential services, or simply observing the guidelines and looking out for one another.
Gradually things are getting back to normal - or something like it. But there is no room for complacency. The virus is still around, and we must all continue to follow the guidelines.
Advice from Havering
The Havering Council website continues to host a comprehensive range of information and advice on all aspects of life during this coronavirus pandemic. So for all the latest information and advice locally, please visit their website: www.havering.gov.uk
Havering coronavirus helpline
If you, or someone you know, have concerns around care, urgent issues around health and wellbeing, or lack of access to supplies including food and medicine please call our free to use helpline: Tel: 0800 368 5201.
Lines open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6pm.
Saturday and Sunday 11am to 4pm.
Email: covid19support@havering.gov.uk
Thank you for playing your part, whether that’s been working in one of those many essential services, or simply observing the guidelines and looking out for one another.
Gradually things are getting back to normal - or something like it. But there is no room for complacency. The virus is still around, and we must all continue to follow the guidelines.
Advice from Havering
The Havering Council website continues to host a comprehensive range of information and advice on all aspects of life during this coronavirus pandemic. So for all the latest information and advice locally, please visit their website: www.havering.gov.uk
Havering coronavirus helpline
If you, or someone you know, have concerns around care, urgent issues around health and wellbeing, or lack of access to supplies including food and medicine please call our free to use helpline: Tel: 0800 368 5201.
Lines open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6pm.
Saturday and Sunday 11am to 4pm.
Email: covid19support@havering.gov.uk
Latest newsletter - October 2020Back copies of BETRA News, our Out-of-hours Emergency Procedures booklet and our Residents Handbook - on our Publications page
BETRA Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) was formed in April 2004, part of a government scheme to help give back some power to residents on estates.
We are run by a small, voluntary board consisting of local residents, supported by the estate manager Lloyd Edwards and a small staff team. 
Our aims
We strive to make our community a friendly, welcoming and comfortable place to live. We work to ensure that our estate is maintained and our residents supported to the highest levels possible. And we encourage residents to play an active part in the running of our organisation, the building of our community. Our estate Set in Harold Hill, part of the London Borough of Havering in East London, our estate is made up of 13 Houses, all of which are three stories high: BETRA EventsBETRA Bingo
The last Wednesday of each month, in the boardroom, from 5-7pm Suspended until further notice. Meet friends and neighbours for an easy-going chat over a few games of bingo, followed by an end of game buffet on the house. All Safer Neighbourhood TeamPolice officers from the Safer Neighbourhood Team will continue to hold contact sessions in the BETRA office over the next few months
Residents are free to come along and discuss any issues of concern they may have. Or you may have information that you want to pass on to them, or simply wish to know what the local Police are doing in the area. All discussions will be in strictest confidence. These meetings take place in the BETRA office every two weeks. Contact the office for details of the next meeting. Home SwapOur newsletter is published quarterly. If you would like to contribute an article, perhaps on the ways we can improve our community, or if you have any other suggestions for the things we could include, please get in touch with Lloyd. All ideas welcome.
See back copies of BETRA News. Did you know the mutual exchange scheme allows social housing tenants to advertise their property with a view to swapping their home with another social housing tenancy?
If you would like to advertise your flat for a mutual exchange, we can publish your home’s details here. We will not publish names and addresses, just the key information. Three local properties currently available for a swap: A) 3 bed top floor looking to downsize B) 1 bed top floor looking to up- size C) 2 Bed looking to Up-size (with particular requirements) If these are of interest, or you have friends in the area looking to swap, please get in touch. For a more direct approach to swapping homes you can register with www.homeswapper.co.uk 
Need help with computers?Residents sometimes ask us for help with using computers. In fact, there is help available in our local neighbourhood.
ICT Skills Training At The Betty Strathern Centre, ICT Skills Training provide free basic computer courses to local adult communities in the areas of East London and Essex. Training ranges from the basics, such as how to turn on a computer, searching the Internet, creating and using emails, to more advanced accredited courses using the Microsoft Office programmes. For the accredited courses, there would be a small charge towards the cost of your second qualification certification. Tuesdays 10:15 – 12:15 at Betty Strathern Centre, 41 Myrtle Road, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex, RM3 8XS Website: ictskillstraining.org.uk Harold Hill Library Then there's always Harold Hill Library. Our local is located on Hilldene Avenue. It’s a very popular facility, fully accessible, and with lots of events and activities, including a Citizens Advice Service every Monday and Thursday 10am-2pm. You can phone Harold Hill Library on 01708 434973 for more information. Here ere are some of the facilities it has to offer: • 11 computers providing internet access • Homework station • Four car parking spaces • Six cycle posts • Minicom • Limited Exhibition space • Adult reading group • Young at Heart group that meets the last Tuesday of every month • "Reading Buddies" to help your children develop their reading skills • Regular baby rhyme time sessions for under threes and story times for under fives • Black and white photocopier • E-books and audio books. 
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AGM in NovemberBETRA’s AGM is due in November, but we are not going to be able to meet in the normal way.
Instead, this will be a paper exercise, and we would like as many of you as possible to take part in it. There will be three parts to this process, hence the forms enclosed in October's newsletter. These forms will help us identify which members of the current committee wish continue, and which residents show an interest in joining the committee for the first time. These forms need to be returned by the 16th November 2020 We will then issue, to those who have expressed an interest in joining the committee, the next form, which details to us what they would like to do within the committee - either run for a position on the board, run for a significant position, or, if they have thought about it and no longer wish to be considered, their withdrawal from the process. This form will need to be handed back by 24th November 2020. The official date of the AGM will be Wednesday 25 November 2020. We will send the final form and all relevant AGM papers out to all those who have shown an interest, to vote on who you would like to be appointed to the committee Once these names have been identified, they will in turn elect their officers - Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, etc. These votes will be delivered by post, and the outcome announced soon after, on our notice boards, the website, and in the next newsletter. We apologise for the inconvenience of this process, but the pandemic has made these arrangements necessary. Please take part - your views matter, and our committee needs to represent the views of all of you. BETRA's current officials: Wendy Thomas - Chair Jill Horsham - Treasurer Keith Mercury - Secretary 
Above, Lloyd Edwards, BETRA Estate Manager, and below, Jennie Goddard, our Part Time Housing Assistant. 
Jenny's worldJennie Goddard on the top tips she most often gives residents
I would always advise tenants to keep up with their payments for rent / charges and to not fall behind. If they do find themselves having difficulties making payments, or their circumstance have changed, it is of the utmost importance to inform Havering of any changes. The importance of not spending outside of your budget and to regularly check / make a list of your outgoings and money coming in. Not all tenants have access to PCs, so we are able to assist them with whatever they need when they come to the office and we can carry out searches for them. Some of our tenants struggle to cope with changes to their day-to-day lives, finding even slight changes unsettling. Sometimes all they need is a little guidance, and it’s great when we are able to provide this. 
Local Heroes
Let’s hear it for BETRA’s community wardens. For the last 10 years or so, they have played an important role in supporting our community. Community wardens work alongside other Council staff, the police and police support officers, working together with BETRA to make our estate as pleasant as possible. They provide an approachable, friendly and a highly visible presence in the areas where council tenants and lease- holders live. They can help with general enquiries about the estates as well as anti-social behaviour. If you are currently experiencing noise or any other type of anti- social behaviour, then please contact the community wardens on 01708 726 685 and request a visit. If, however, you have concerns about criminal behaviour you should always contact the police. Easter Egg Hunt
Coming soon! - watch notice boards for details. 
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