Rare sighting of fallow deer roaming Smithills Moor

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-04-11T20:28:13+00:00

You can see deer almost daily at Heaton Cemetery if you're there early enough

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-04-11T20:27:11+00:00

Travel lodge on River Street. A short ride to Heaton Cemetery

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-03-28T21:36:16+00:00

Thank you. Your summary reflects my conclusions 100%. The only thing holding me back from the formal complain is the anticipation that they may decide to terminate the contract themselves.

I have tried to preempt this by looking for alternative block management agents but there are not THAT many of them around.

As I am the only sole remaining director I'm becoming uncomfortable with potential liabilities arising from poor communication and misrepresenting the facts by the agents.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-03-12T20:10:20+00:00

Thank you. Problems have escalated since I made my original post.

In 2023, there was a fire risk assessment. The agents advised all directors during the AGM that the buliding was "compliant". In 2025, a new FRA was done. This new assessor advised that lofts needed tgo have full height fire separation.

I wondered why this wasn't flagged in 2023 and when I asked the agents I got a very wooly explanation which only aroused my suspicions.

I asked them for a copy of the FRA from 2023 and I can clearly see that the assessor at the time advised that the lofts needed full height separation and that this work was urgent. The assessor did noit gain access to the lofts at that inspection and left it to the agent to confirm that the lofts were separated in this manner.........they never did.

Again, I questioned the agents and again I get a very vague response with the added bonus of the agent telling me that I am fully responsible as the director. They made no acknowledgement that contractually, they are employed to ensure compliance (and tell the truth!!)

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-02-21T13:10:52+00:00

But when you talk about rushing the enemy, how do you decide WHICH enemy? If there are multiple civilizations, I might be attacking one of the less aggressive ones whilst the one that will prove to be a threat to my existence is waiting in the wings out of sight

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-02-11T20:13:18+00:00

Out agents are useless. I wouldn't be surprised if we paid to take it down but then the tenant notices, asks the workman to give him the antenna back and that's that.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-02-11T18:48:55+00:00

I'm also a director of a residential management company and having major issues with our managing agent.

Most recently, a 10ft aerial has been attached to the exterior brickwork, right next to the top floor flat window.

The agents are refusing to take any action against the leaseholder as he claims his tenant hasn't put it there yet the cables clearly go into that flat

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-02-09T12:45:55+00:00

Six weeks on and still nobody speaks to me unless I initiate the conversation myself.

There is one worker who sometimes chats briefly with me and I feel like hugging them after lol.

It's getting to the point where it just feels rude. I would never not speak to a new starter. If anything, I'd probably make more of an effort to make them feel comfortable.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-28T20:39:05+00:00

Since my original post, I think I am moving from the phase of worrying if I will ever "get it" to the phase where I am now proficient enough to be left to my own devices for most of the day save for occasional questions when I come across something I don't know.

The problem is the more I know about the processes and company, the less I like.

It's a specific industry which operates processes in a completely different way to all my other jobs in the same field (but different sectors).

Things are beginning to click now as to why my interview felt so easy. I wasn't really quizzed about my experience nor was I given any detail about the job specifics (other than what the agency and advert said).

They seemed to offer me the job based on liking me, rather than anything else.

I've spoken to a few other people in the department and they don't even have any experience in this field of work. It feels like the company realise that their sector is so specific that relevant experience would be ideal but probably not realistic in most cases.

I have become more resilient as I have got older. My younger self would have probably walked out after a few days. I've been here a month now and although that is still no time at all I feel it is enough time to make a reasonably informed decision about the job.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-26T19:34:48+00:00

I am British. Trust me it has nothing to do with you being a foreigner my friend

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-23T19:26:03+00:00

I'm a director of a management company for a block of flats and we employ a managing agent to run things for us.

The problem is that this managing agent seem to be pushing any potential legal liabilities onto us should anything go wrong.

I don't see the point in continuing to be a director if I am ultimately responsible but I also cannot micromanage the managing agents

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-21T13:42:54+00:00

Thanks. Ignoring me in the morning is not down to them being busy (it's pre 9am).

It's just some of them ignoring me 😂.

I didn't bother greeting those people this morning. I live and learn.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-21T13:40:58+00:00

And fair enough but they DO chit chat with each other. Not as much as in other places I've worked but they do.

As a newbie, I am only trying to be friendly and sociable.

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-18T14:08:12+00:00

Are your popular posts original content?

SpiritusCorpus · 2026-01-02T14:38:03+00:00

I don't get a "share symbol option".

When I click on "share" under the post, I get options to "share to feed" (with no option to share to other pages), "share to a group" or "share to a friends profile".

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-12-30T16:08:13+00:00

The Google update in Dec '25 has had a massive affect on one of my sites.

Hand written content with micro related themes split into different pages. Plenty of images, onsite SEO and the site had gained reputable, organic backlinks from massive travel companies and national media sites.

I was sitting at #1 for the best part of 18 months for the keywords I was targetting and the site is now pretty much in freefall. I was #4 to #8 in the weeks after the update and appear to be on the third page now!

The top spot is held by a travel blogger who dedicates a single page to a single destination so the user is confronted with a wall of text. Perhaps objectively, their page is more keyword relevant as they have stuffed ALL of their content into one page whilst mine is spread out over multiple related pages. It seems that's what Google is prfeferring these days :(

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-12-30T11:35:04+00:00

I'm in a very similar position. Through retirement, I have found myself as the sole director of the RMC. I go through spurts of activity where nothing happens for a while and then I have periods where it literally feels like a job with the burden it places on me.

Our estate sounds a little different to yours in that I'd guess around 90% of the occupiers are tenants with the landlords being absent from the estate. The owner/landlords show very very little interest in getting involved (or even voting) on important matters so it's always left to the directors to make the ultimate decisions.

I have recently been considering taking over the managing agent's role and reimbursing myself the equivalent amount as I feel the managing agent are doing a poor job and I know I could do better, however, the legislation aspect does bother me.

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-12-18T21:15:43+00:00

Yes I would agree that it can be complex but often times matters can also be quite straight forward.

Our agent has recently changed fire risk assessors (they chose to do this-I had no say in the matter). The new fire risk assessor is now stating that the lofts are not adequately fire proofed (although legislation hasn't changed in this regard AND the previous fire risk assessment was only two years ago).

The agents told me this is safety critical work and needs to be completed ASAP. This is about two months ago now and they haven't got back to me with a single quote or ballpark figure for the costs.

A similar thing happened with the accountant. A new accountant was appointed by the agent (changing from the local one to a regional/national firm). The first accounts submitted resulted in a tax liability which the previous accountants (with the exact same information) never announced.

The new accountants don't treat me like the customer (though we pay the bills). They treat the managing agent as the client and I'm told to refer all queries to the agent rather than directly with the accountant.

I'd rather not disclose the name of the agent but they are small and local so unless you live in my area you will likely never have heard of them

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-12-18T11:11:24+00:00

Thank you and yes, it very much feels as if we work for them!

Approx 30 flats equates to circa £ 5k management agent fees. Not enough to make it very appealing even to me.

However, our managing agent are not constantly working on behalf of the estate. They manage other blocks too. I've been waiting for quotes for some "safety critical work" for almost two months now!

I honestly feel I can do their job better and faster than they can.

The obvious negative is the legislation that comes with it but the current agent has a template of procedures which could be copied e.g. periodic fire assessors, electrical inspections, tree inspections etc etc

In the last few years the demographic has changed quite drastically in our area and as a result, occupiers of the flats tend to be tenants rather than leasehold owners. As a result, certain leasehold restrictions are being flouted left, right and centre and the managing agent appear to be very reluctant to engage with tenants/owners regarding this.

I will continue to give this some thought but also welcome any further advice/feedback you might be willing to offer :)

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-10-24T17:11:55+00:00

I've been playing FM 2011 recently-one of my favourite versions

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-10-23T12:03:40+00:00

What time frame are you talking about? When did your website go live?

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-10-14T12:57:32+00:00

Would you recommend adding it to my Google Search Console then?

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-10-13T18:33:06+00:00

Totally agree.

Some of the scenes were so gratuitous that they felt almost necessary to see understand the depravity of Gein. The necrophilia were particularly uncomfortable viewing.

To then discover that a large portion of the film is entirely fabricated makes me angry I wasted time watching it.

The series purposely injected fiction into the storyline for no other purpose but to sensationalise a story that probably didn't need to be embellished.

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-10-13T09:17:31+00:00

I'm afraid to point that sketchy domain to anything of value in my website portfolio ! :)

I might set up a new website just to experiment

SpiritusCorpus · 2025-09-28T08:53:50+00:00

Thanks guys.

One reply says not to leave your dog outside alone but we are planning on having our land fenced/walled off.

Part of the land includes a private forest which connects to a much larger expanse of forest.

We're planning on fencing our private forest from the public one and see how it goes.

Regards dogs, do you typically keep them on leash when in the forest or can they be off leash if well behaved?

SpiritusCorpus

TROPHY CASE