Community Liaison

The origin of the Community Liaison Section,

or Tenants Liaison Section as it was previously known, stretches back to the early 1980s and the birth of the tenants´ movement in Doncaster.

In the beginning there were just two support officers, with a task of pulling the then mainly politically based miners groups together into a negotiating body to work along side the council on a limited number of statutory requirements relating to the local authority owned housing stock. This having been completed, along with the move away from political allegiance, the emphasis moved toward building trust between tenants, Councillors and officers of the local authority. This proved to be an arduous roller coaster task that only succeeded as a result of much extremely hard work by the support officers and a great deal of give and take by all concerned.

In the late eighties, mainly as a result of the Right to Buy legislation and in order to reflect the number of home owners within the local authority estates, the by then established Doncaster Federation of Tenants Associations was re-launched as the Doncaster Federation of Tenants´ & Residents´ Associations. From that time on, the relationship between the tenants movement, politicians and officers of the local authority has developed steadily through the levels of Consultation, followed by Participation, to what is now truly a Partnership.

All areas of growth within the tenant movement, both in size and involvement, have required a greatly increased level of support and advice from the local authority. To match that requirement, the original establishment of two support officers has been increased to the present six Community Liaison Officers.

The situation

at the time of writing is one where as a result of the Doncaster tenant movement´s detailed involvement in all areas of public sector housing, many areas of private sector housing and in other unrelated areas of work, the Community Liaison Section is operating at maximum capacity in many varied and fulfilling areas of work.

The 'Community Liaison Team' can be contacted on Tel: (01302) 862292 Admin Support
or email: community.liaison@stlegerhomes.co.uk