Who are the Board?
In February 2019, Aroncorp Ltd. formally handed over management of Valley Park to the Members of Valley Park Estate Ltd. The Members, i.e. homeowners who hold a Member’s Certificate, duly elected a number of Directors. There have been one or two changes as we settled into our roles, and the current Directors are:
John Ansell (Chair)
Tim Gorman (Secretary)
Kevin Cook (Ground Maintenance)
Stephen Rayner (Director & Orbit contact)
All of the directors live in Valley Park and our Board is composed entirely of unpaid volunteers. This is a great financial benefit to all residents.
How to contact us
General enquiries: info@valleyparkrye.co.uk
Contact the Chair: chair@valleyparkrye.co.uk
We will ensure that your query gets to the right person.
Is the Board the same as the earlier homeowners’ committee?
No. That was an informal committee that had no power to make changes.
What do you do?
Valley Park Estate Ltd. is primarily responsible for looking after the common areas of the Park, i.e. the grounds, the car parks, the playground, footpaths, a small section of road, etc. This means ensuring that maintenance and repairs are carried out properly and that Valley Park remains an attractive place to live.
The company is also responsible for collecting the service charges, setting the budget, and complying with all legal requirements. It is accountable to the Members for these tasks and for all expenditure.
What have you done so far?
Our first tasks were a number of formalities and essentials, such as informing Companies House of the new directors, opening a new bank account (please note that you will not be paying your service charges to the same bank account as before!), putting adequate insurance in place and getting a new registered address.
We also identified the need for some health and safety measures. These include regular inspections of the play area, as well as an annual inspection by a qualified inspector, the latter being a condition of the insurance. This inspection has been carried out, and a separate inspection of the grounds is scheduled. You may well see some new signs appear as a result of these measures. Some minor repair issues have already been identified with the play area and those repairs will soon be under way.
We have set up a long-term maintenance fund to cover future major repairs or replacement of any of the features of Valley Park. Please also see the section on finances below.
We have also begun work on an updated website and, as you can see, have instituted a new newsletter.
Will the service charges and landscaping service change?
Rye Gardening Services have returned, April 2023, to carry out the ground maintenance on a 3 year contract basis. We have endeavoured to keep the service charges as static as possible, unfortunately 2023 sees a rise of 5% due to the UK inflation rate.
Changes to the service charges would normally be discussed at the AGM, however at the last AGM 2022, the high inflation rate was not in place, only becoming an issue in 2023.
What’s the financial position of the company?
It is positive: We are keeping a good balance in our standard account and managing to grow our emergency fund each year, 2023 sees £18,500 in place.
See Accounts page for a link to latest information
Do you need help?
Definitely. We’re always looking for people with experience to assist, especially anyone with a legal background in particular, but we’d also welcome offers of help from people willing to organise a social event or a clean-up day, help run future meetings. Just reply to this email if you’d like to get involved.
We’d also love your help in keeping Valley Park clean, tidy, and pleasant. Rubbish, dog mess, stray bins, parking on and causing damage to grass or pavements, vandalism of signs and so on cost all of us money as we—the residents—are the ones paying for repairs and cleaning. Homeowners will see the cost of these repairs reflected in higher service charges, and landlords will pass any extra costs on to the tenants. You can help by being vigilant, by not dropping any rubbish, by picking up your dog's mess and by parking in the designated parking spaces and car parks.