Hello!
We hope you are keeping safe and well. You can listen to this email by clicking here.
In this email:
• Taking Belle Isle back from drug dealers
• Tell Universal Credit your new rent
• Ex-tenant gets £10k bill
• Giving permission to discuss your tenancy
• Free Easter family food & activities
• BITMO’s GATE April programme
• Fruit & veg growing in Belle Isle
• Community Day at Middleton Railway this Saturday
Enough is Enough – Let’s Take Back Belle Isle!
by Deborah Kelly
Time’s up for drug dealers in our community. No child should grow up surrounded by drug deals and addiction. No family should have to live in fear. We all want a better, safer Belle Isle—but real change takes all of us standing together.
You see them. Young men in balaclavas, riding bikes, dealing drugs in plain sight. You see the drug users, the transactions, the groups gathering, the noise, the intimidation. It’s ruining the peace of our neighbourhood. Yet, too often, these crimes go unreported.
At BITMO, we’re fighting back, on your behalf working side by side with West Yorkshire Police to drive them out—but we need you. If you see something, say something. Every report counts. Every tip brings us closer to taking action.
This is our community. Let’s reclaim it. Speak up. Report what you see. Contact us in confidence at asb.enquiries@belleisletmo.co.uk and help us make Belle Isle safe again. To BITMO - we will log it on the Police Intelligence Portal
Anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Direct to the police online.
Direct to the police by phone. Dial 101or 999 if it is happening there and then, and you are not putting yourself at risk.
Without police reports nothing will change. With police reports BITMO can take tenancy action to force people to change their behaviour or leave the area.
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On Universal Credit?
Do you ever wonder why more money isn’t available to invest in your home, or make the estate look better? Every year we spend thousands of pounds making good the damage some people cause in the homes they rent as well as the damage and mess that some people leave behind when they move out of a BITMO property. Well, we are not doing it anymore. We will be recharging tenants and former tenants the full cost of the damage they cause.
The pictures below show the condition a house was left in recently. It looks like the tenant just went out one day, and never came back, but actually they gave us notice that they were leaving and their responsibility to leave the property in good condition was explained to them, but instead of doing what most people would, which is empty the place and dispose of anything you are not taking with you, they left it in this state.
We’ve had to remove the black tiles in the kitchen, replace the bath, and clear all the rubbish from outside and inside and give the place a deep clean, none of which we should have had to do. It is a waste of the rent you pay, and the time of staff who could be doing other work on the estate for the benefit of everyone.
As a result, they are going to get a bill for over £10,000, and in all likelihood they won’t have £10k on hand to pay up, so they will end up with a court order and bailiffs removing any possessions they have which have any value.
This could have been so easily avoided, by looking after the property, and following the rules. It would have been so much easier in the end for everybody.
Giving someone permission to discuss your tenancy
BITMO staff are not allowed to discuss your tenancy with anyone else without your permission. This means that no-one - not even your partner, any relative or a support agency - can order a repair, talk about your rent or moving to a new home. If you want If you want us to give permission for someone else to discuss your tenancy with BITMO please follow this link to read more and download the form.
 Everyone – with or without families - is welcome to come for the free meals at 4pm on both Tuesdays and for the Friday breakfast. Free toasties carry on every week – from 9.30am to 12pm on Wednesdays.
Activities for everyone in BITMO’s GATE and around Belle Isle.
Fruit & Veg Growing in Belle Isle
Interested in growing fruit and veg? Have you got skills you could teach other people? Could you grow vegetables and salad for the Belle Isle Community Kitchen? Would you like to learn?
Incredible Edible bring people together to grow food in unused spaces. They are coming to Belle Isle to support the gardeners and growers involved in the community orchard and community garden.
Keep up-to-date with BITMO services and local news by visiting the BITMO Facebook Page and the BITMO website.
Belle Isle TMO works in partnership with Leeds City Council to serve the residents of Belle Isle estate.
Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation Limited Registered under the Co-operative and Communities Benefit Societies Act No.29817R. Registered Office: Aberfield Gate, Belle Isle, Leeds, LS10 3QH
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