Unbelievable!!

Only 2 weeks to go till our informative Housing Fayre on Feb 14th, and offers for returning students university accommodation just round the corner, but one letting agent in Aberystwyth manages to squeeze one more push on frightned students.

You have 7 properties and you want to get the contracts signed quick with little inspection. What do you do? You tell everyone that booking for viewing will all be released on the same day on a first come first serve basis, in the interest of 'fairness'. You engender an atmosphere similar to the first day of the January sales, and every student who comes to book a viewing will look at the cue behind them and thinks that this will be the only chance to get private accommodation for the next year. Whether they sign then and there or after the first viewing, it is undeniable that this constitutes a psychological manipulation on the part of letting agent that plays heavily on the inexperience of students to the housing market.

Please DON'T fall for it. Remember Fools Rush In.

By all means, view the property, consider it an option, but do NOT be lured into something your not completely happy with out of fear. Do all the proper checks I've been banging on about since November. And remember, that other property will come on the market throughout the year. Many good private landlords will not want to force their tenants into re-signing for the next year until March, and others just want to avoid the rush all together.

Good luck out there. And hopefully, I'll see some of you on the 14th. Join the facebook event : http://www.facebook.com/events/220927418000365/

Poncho out!

The new IBERS building has now been finished, and having visited it today I was really impressed with the newly furnished teaching rooms and facilities. If you weren't already aware, IBERS (the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences) is based over 3 campuses: Penglais, Llanbadarn and Goggerdan - all with their own separate catering facilities.

I was really disappointed to learn that the 'coffee club' over in Llanbadarn has been closed. This service provided tea, coffee and biscuits to staff and students alike for a mere 25p, through a ticketing system. Not only did this provide a focal point for students in the department to meet and work this space was also a social area where they weren't forced to buy. However, the main point here is the surplus made by the coffee club funded a number of important travel grants for IBERS students.

With the credit crunch biting at our heels once again, I and a number of others that use the facility are disappointed with the University for its short-sightedness here. Departments are right at the heart of the academic community and an important part of the lifestyle students lead. This has now removed the approachability of staff, the opportunity for travel grants funded by IBERS students and staff. The impression that is given is that the social heart has been dismantled and replaced by a commercial entity.

Please join me in the lobby to get this much needed facility returned to IBERS students and staff by contacting union.education@aber.ac.uk to register your support.

Ok since the last GM I have been dealing with ever more accommodation advice and complaints.

While at the same time organising Housing Week which I hope some of you have noticed this week.

As a result of some of the issues I tabled at Student Support Committee, we now have 3 groups that will action some of the big issues in support.

• The Accommodation Sub-Committee will be a body responsible for providing responses to short, medium and long term accommodation issues. Having an accredited on-campus Student Lettings Service released at the same time as the University Penglais Farm development coming online could be a solution to Aberystwyth's long standing accommodation woes. Making this key to the strategic aims of the Accommodation Sub-Committee is vital to all us at the Guild.
• The Mental Health Action Planning group, is soon to be set up in January and I intend to push for a comprehensive mental health policy including provision for the professional Mental Health Advisor that I have petitioned for in October. At the moment student support is going through some rearrangement, hiring a 'Student Advisor' and an 'Accessibility Advisor' but I still think they need more specific support expertise in the Mental Health arena.
• The final group is one around Student Financial Support, so that it works off one form 'to rule them all' so that you don't have to provide evidence 3 times to get support from 3 different pots. I am also going to try and investigate better options than the current £10 Aber Card top up emergency provision that University provides.

Housing Week

The plan was advertise the survey, encourage people to get some advise and to get students engaged with how we can tackle the problem properties, agents and landlords.

I shouted at a camera for 5 mins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLCaeq2ysuA), talked to people at the stall and every morning had got the laptops set up in the library – whether anyone filled in the survey still remains to be seen.

While I was away on Tuesday, I tried to do some last minute marketing yesterday for the remaining events. Today's, Tricks of the Trade workshop could have been better attended to say the least, but I'm hoping some intelligent, informed people like yourselves will be interested in this extra event I managed to secure this week

11am in the Main Hall/Joint tomorrow (Fri 9th)  is your opportunity to question the HMO office and get some answers as to what Ceredigion County Council is doing to maintain standards in the private sector. Even if its specific issues with your property that you want to highlight or just know what the procedure is if these guys get involved, then please come along.

Will be informative, with genuine expertise on display, and hopefully challenging for all involved.

Poncho out!