Update on airport parking charges

Further to last night's article about the proposed parking charges at Dundee Airport (see http://tinyurl.com/airportprk or click on headline above to view), here's an exchange with the airport manager tonight :

Derrick Lang, Airport Manager, to me :

Fraser,

The comments from yourself and parliamentary comments were fed back and acknowledged. The Dundee Airport Ltd board took everything into consideration at the last meeting they had and as a result decided to implement the charges across all users using the facility.

The charges being implemented reflect what is currently being charged around Dundee city, but more importantly they are also much cheaper than the airports close by in comparison to Aberdeen and Edinburgh, this will still make Dundee an attractive place to fly from. The other factors also to take into consideration are travelling time and also the cost of this in financial and time terms.

We must increase revenue coming through the airport to sustain the levels of routes that we currently serve, as public funding in all areas of Scotland, including ourselves is tight and will become tighter.

Hope this helps explain.

Regards

Derrick

My response :

Thanks Derrick; whilst I appreciate your feedback, I am concerned that any charges (and I do accept that these proposed for Dundee are cheaper than at Aberdeen and Edinburgh) could have a detrimental effect on the attractiveness of Dundee Airport, as I have no doubt that complimentary parking was a ‘plus’ in terms of attracting customers.

For that reason, I would be most grateful if the airport could closely monitor the impact of the charges in the coming months and review the charging policy if it can be shown that they are having any detrimental effect on passenger numbers. Doubtless you will be able to keep us updated future airport consultative committee meetings.

Best regards

Fraser

Cutting household energy bills

With the colder weather as we approach winter, it is good to see the Energy Saving Trust, working with the City Council, is offering free and impartial energy saving advice to householders in the city. This includes a free personalised home energy report for residents requesting it.

Many residents will have already received a mailshot with full details, but you can also read more about the Energy Saving Trust by going to http://tinyurl.com/cutenergybill or by clicking on the headline above.

Remembrance Sunday

X Factor tonight ...

Wasn't Danyl Johnson superb on X Factor tonight!

I suspect Lloyd Daniels is on his way out, but it should probably be Jedward ...

Not worth a couple of quid

Parliamentary by-elections tend to result in a few stunts, but none so embarrassing as the purile stunt by SNP candidate, the rather arrogant David Kerr, in flinging a £2 coin towards the Labour candidate on Thursday night’s “Politics Now” on STV.

I was away Thursday evening so only saw the programme this afternoon. Whilst the other main party candidates acquitted themselves well in their own and different ways, the SNP candidate’s brash and arrogant approach made the toes curl.

The Daily Record from 21st July 2009 :

“Kerr, the SNP candidate in Glasgow North-East, rubbished Glasgow Caledonian University and Paisley College of Technology - now the West of Scotland University - in a talk to students at St Andrews.

He told a group of Catholic students he questioned whether Protestant reformer John Knox had attended St Andrews.

Kerr added: ‘I've always liked to think it was Paisley Tech or Glasgow Caledonian - they don't have a reputation to tarnish.’”

Oh dear ...

Dundee Airport - new parking charges

The Manager at Dundee Airport has advised me last night that the Dundee Airport Board has now firmly decided to introduce car parking charges at the airport from the end of this month.

The possibility of such charges was raised at the recent Airport Consultative Committee I attended and although I made clear that I have no objection to the principle of introducing some charging to ensure no abuse of the parking facilities by non-airport users (particularly since the 8X bus service started stopping at the airport), I also said that that such charges should not act as a disincentive to users of the airport.

Those flying from Dundee Airport should, in my opinion, have their parking costs reimbursed on production of their boarding pass to ensure that flying from Dundee remains an attractive alternative to travelling to Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Glasgow. My views about ensuring those flying from Dundee do not have the additional cost of car parking charges appeared to be echoed by the MP and the MSP for Dundee West, who also attended the Airport Consultative Committee meeting.

I was therefore a bit concerned to learn that the update from the Airport Manager yesterday appears to give no reassurance that airport passengers will have their parking charges reimbursed and I have written to him seeking clarification and an assurance that such reimbursement arrangements will be made.

Here's the car parking notice from Dundee Airport :

Important Customer information

Car parking charges will be implemented at Dundee Airport from the week commencing 30th November 2009.

Car park 1 will be a short stay car park with a maximum stay of 2 hours.

Car parks 2 & 3 will be long stay car parks. This will be managed on a ticket entry and payment on exit system. The payment machine is adjacent to the terminal building.

The car parking charges will assist the airport in retaining all the services it currently provides.

Car park charging schedule will be;

Short stay, pay and display £1.40 per hour. (Max 2 hours)

Car parks 2 & 3 Long stay by ticket barrier;

30 minutes to 4 hours - £3.00

4 hours to 6 hours - £4.20

6 hours to 8 hours - £5.00

Day rate (more than 8 hours) - £5.50

5 day rate - £20.00

7 day rate - £28.00

Lost ticket charged at £35.00

Dundee Partnership Awards

Last night, along with colleagues from Friends of Magdalen Green, I attended the Dundee Partnership Awards at the City Chambers.

The Friends have won the Environment category of the Partnership Awards 2009 and we are pictured above accepting the award from the Dundee Partnership Chair and leader of the City Council.

It was a very pleasant evening and, in addition to our own success in the awards, it was good to see the great work undertaken by the other groups across Dundee who won the other award categories.

Osborne Place

A number of the residents at Pinegrove Gardens, the housing in part of Osborne Place, have complained to me about the lack of adequate signage to their properties - 10-20 evens ; 19-33 odds. As a result, there are problems with some deliveries to households.

Following my request, the City Council has agreed to improve the signage here and this will be installed in the near future.

West End Festival 2010 - new website!

Today saw the launch of the new website for the 2010 West End Festival - see www.dundeewestfest.com - and its very impressive indeed.

I put together the previous blog for the group and it is still available as a link from the new website.

WestFest 2010 has much momentum and it is a credit to all the local people who have put so much effort into this exciting project.

Former Homebase site

Earlier this week, I received concerns that parts of the hoardings around the former Homebase site in Riverside Drive had been damaged and had fallen/were missing. I contacted the administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, who responded late yesterday as follows :

"We instructed the necessary repair works and have now been notified by our agent that these were completed earlier today."

Dundee 'Good Neighbour' Awards 2009

With the permission of Bob Ballantine, Service Team Leader, Dundee and Angus Community Mediation Services, here are details of this year's "Good Neighbour" Awards :

NOMINATIONS INVITED FOR 2009 "GOOD NEIGHBOUR" AWARDS

Following the success of last year’s “Good Neighbour” Awards, Dundee and Angus Community Mediation Services have decided to run the scheme again during this year’s Mediation Week in November. The neighbour dispute resolution services are inviting residents of Angus and Dundee to nominate someone who has been a particularly good neighbour over the past year.

The winner in each area will receive a Christmas hamper.

Mediation Team Leader Bob Ballantine commented, "Last year it was very heartening to learn about the number of people who go out of their way to help their neighbours. We are keen to encourage this and over the next few weeks we would like to hear from people with good stories to tell about kindly and public spirited neighbours."

Anyone wishing to nominate a good neighbour (who should be over 18 and not be a close relative) for the award is invited to complete and return the nomination form or send a letter or e-mail to the community mediation office (in no more than 70 words) giving the name and address of the neighbour, saying why the person should get the award, and also their own name, address and a contact phone number. Separate prizes will be awarded to Dundee and Angus winners.

There will also be a chance to nominate a good neighbour in Dundee or Angus at mediation service information stands in Dundee and Arbroath. These will be in the Wellgate Centre, Dundee on Wednesday 11 November and the Abbeygate Centre, Arbroath on Friday 13 November, both from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. The closing date of the competition is Friday 20 November 2009.

Nomination forms or letters should be sent to Good Neighbour competition, Dundee and Angus Community Mediation services, Unit E, Market Mews, Market Street Dundee DD1 3LA. E-mail info@dundee.sacro.org.uk. Nomination forms and full competition rules are available on the Sacro website www.sacro.org.uk.

Notes for information

The final winners will be chosen from a short-list by the two service advisory groups and announced early in December. There will be opportunities for photographs of the award presentations. Dundee and Angus Community Services are managed by Sacro in partnership with Dundee City Council and Angus Council respectively. Both services offer mediation free at the point of delivery to all residents, irrespective of housing tenure.

For further information about the award, please contact Bob Ballantine on 01382 459252, e-mail: bballantine@dundee.sacro.org.uk.

Harris Academy Parent Council

Tonight I attended, along with a large number of parents, an open meeting at Harris Academy held by the Parent Council to update parents of both the school and its feeder primaries about the proposals to upgrade the building.

Jim Thewliss, Head Teacher, gave an excellent resume of the process thus far and how the upgrading is likely to proceed. There was then a question and answer session, covering issues like the decant arrangements during refurbishment, transport arrangements, etc.

There will be a number of further consultation meetings with parents in the months ahead as the refurbishment process moves forward.

New look LibDem website!

The UK Liberal Democrat website (http://www.libdems.org.uk/) has been rather dramatically changed over the past 24 hours and I really like the new look and functionality.

The new version is much more focused on setting out what the Liberal Democrats stand for, who we are and what visitors to the site can do to help.

Chris Fox, LibDem Chief Executive, adds :

"In two weeks, we will be launching Act, a new social action network for the Liberal Democrats.

Act will be a place where anyone who supports our party can meet like-minded people and get involved with our campaigns.

People who sign up will be able to join groups, organise events, watch videos, talk politics and join in our campaigns.

It will be a real opportunity to mobilize an online community to take part in our campaign to change Britain for good."

Neighbourhood Watch in Logie

Tonight I attended a meeting of Logie Residents' Association meeting at the sheltered housing lounge in Lime Street.

The topic for discussion was the possibility of establishing a new Neighbourhood Watch Scheme for the estate, similar to the successful one that ran in the area some years ago.

Some thirteen residents in the area have agreed to be "good neighbour" street representatives and I think the proposal is excellent in an area with a large elderly population. The scheme will get good support from our local community police officer, who regularly attends Logie Residents' Association meetings and I have contacted the Director of Housing asking for additional funding for the group to be able to have "Neighbourhood Watch" signage put up in Logie and for similar initiatives.

The neighbourhood watch movement points out that ...

"... the main aim of a Neighbourhood Watch scheme is to create a partnership between the local community, the police and the local authority.

Neighbourhood Watch started in the UK in 1982. There are now some 150,000 schemes running throughout the UK covering nearly five million households, which makes Neighbourhood Watch the largest voluntary movement in the country.

What can Neighbourhood Watch schemes do?

They can target local crime problems and take action to prevent them. In consultation with the local police they can find out from local people what crimes most concern and affect them and focus on those specific problems.

Most crime is opportunist, committed on the spur of the moment, or when a car or house is left unlocked. This means there is enormous scope for reducing chances for criminals.

Traditional Neighbourhood Watch activity has focused on the immediate vicinity of homes. However, more and more schemes are now broadening their range of work.

Local problems such as combating anti-social behaviour, vandalism and graffiti are well within the scope of a well-organised neighbourhood watch scheme. You can also take action such as fitting more secure door and window locks in vulnerable homes. You could also lobby the local authority, for example, to improve street lighting or step up the security of a communal entrance."

You can visit the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches website by going to www.aosnw.co.uk.

School buses issue ...

I recently received concerns about Harris Academy pupils who live in the area around the western end of Perth Road (west of the school) finding difficulty being able to get on a bus to/from school as they are so busy. I have received the following feedback from the Director of Travel Dundee (National Express Dundee) :

"Fraser,

All of the buses which we schedule as School services are general registered services and available to all members of the public.

We do not have the school bus contracts for any of the public authority schools in Dundee.

There are a number of pupils who have passes for our buses provided by the education department and these numbers are built into our service planning.

Across the city there has been an increase in the number of pupils travelling by bus.

As far as we are aware these additional passengers are pupils not entitled to free school transport.

In order to accommodate this we put the largest buses possible on the busy school routes. This is a juggling act as we have every available bus out for the evening school run.

We keep in regular contact with the Transport team on school bus services and as far as we are all aware the problems experienced at the start of term this year have abated as they usually do once after school activities start up.

We had inspectors up at the Harris a fortnight ago all the pupils seeking to travel on bus that evening were accommodated.

The numbers do considerable fluctuate from day top day due to a variety of other reasons.

Wet weather also causes many additional pupils to travel by bus.

Unfortunately there will always be peaks which we cannot accommodate but if there is a regular ongoing problem can you let us know and we will discuss the issue with the DCC transport team and see what can be done.

Kind Regards

Lawrence Davie
Director Dundee"

The Head of Transportation at Dundee City Council has also advised :

"... the National Express Dundee service 9x departs at xx39 thus missing the school finish time. However there are three Stagecoach buses 77, 16 and 16a which leave between 1545 and 1556."

I have asked parents to keep me advised of any problems in the forthcoming weeks and I'll take these up with the bus companies and with the Head of Transportation at the City Council.

Electric Light Orchestra Finale!

Perhaps not ELO's best remembered - Fire On High - but absolutely superb!

Student Allotments Project

On Monday, I mentioned (see http://tinyurl.com/studentallotments or click on the headline above) that I had met with three University of Dundee students who are working on a project to encourage those who want to start growing their own fruit and vegetables in Dundee.

I was very impressed with their enthusiasm and commitment and have asked the Leisure & Communities Department to assist this very worthwhile project. Over 50 students have already shown interest in it and the Botanic Garden has provided an area to provide a plot to get started, but the group is keen to identify other plots across the area that could be put to productive use in growing vegetables and fruit.

I paste below part of an update I have received from the group – if anyone can assist the group, do please let me know :

“We were thinking about setting up a student placement (the curator has offered office space in the Botanic Garden) and create an Allotment-Advice & Info-Point for people who want to start growing their own fruit and vegetables in Dundee.

School children could visit the plot(s) and learn about seasonal foods, the importance of localising food production, working together as a community, keeping the ground healthy and fertile (crop rotation) and tackling climate change at the same time.

Another task for the student placement would be working with the city council and private land-owners in order to identify unused green spaces that could be turned into allotments.

We have already filled in an expression of interest form for the Climate Challenge Fund to ask for funding (tools, seeds, etc.).

At the Botanic Garden, we've put in the posts (to separate our plot and to make sure the really keen students don't take over the whole nursery), started digging (turning over the soil and mixing in compost) today and really need (old) spades ... in case someone wants to make a donation.”

ELO Penultimate Video!

... is 'Strange Magic'

Referendum no more ...

The decision of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference yesterday to reject Salmond’s independence referendum proposal (see http://tinyurl.com/referdumno) is a decision I greatly welcome. This effectively kills off the SNP referendum proposal this side of the 2011 election and judging by the latest polls (see http://tinyurl.com/snpdecline) that show the SNP firmly behind Labour in likely seats in the Scottish Parliament were an election to take place now for the Scottish Parliament, with Liberal Democrats, Tories and Greens gaining seats as the SNP slides, the likelihood of a referendum after 2011 also now looks unlikely.

I have indicated in the past (see http://tinyurl.com/referendumwaste) that a referendum is a complete waste of public money - particularly in the current challenges facing the economy (what an irrelevance at a time all effort should be being made to tackling the recession) – but particularly because there are regular General Elections and Scottish Parliamentary Elections where the constitutional future of Scotland could be altered should separatist parties gain a majority of the vote or seats.

I therefore agree with the letter writer from Polmont in today’s “Scotland on Sunday” (see http://tinyurl.com/nosupportrefer) who writes :

“When will the SNP realise that every national election in which they have campaigned has offered the Scottish electorate the opportunity to vote for independence?

My first personal experience of a General Election was in 1974 when the posters declared 'Independence this time – Yes'. My political experience came in 1992 when we were told that Scotland would be 'Free by '93'! The fact is that every recent election to both Westminster and Holyrood has failed to show that the people of Scotland either support independence or indeed want a choice over it. If they had, there would have been a clear majority of votes for those parties that supported it, as there was in 1997 for devolution.”

ELO - Mr Blue Sky

Rather appropriate as today's been lovely thus far ... it appears tomorrow will see rather dreadful weather though!

Latest on the Digital TV Switchover

Here's part of the latest update from Digital UK about the awareness campaign for the 'digital switchover' taking place in our area (the STV North region) next summer. It is reproduced below the Digital UK logo (below).

Along with a number of my councillor colleagues in Dundee, I attended a briefing from Digital UK last week at the City Chambers to update councillors on the latest developments.

I'm pleased to say that Digital UK and representatives from the help scheme (financed by the BBC and aimed at helping elderly people and people with disabilities get assistance to be able to continue getting their TV programmes after the swtchover) will attend the Community Fayre taking place on Saturday 21st November - at the launch of West End Christmas Week.

DIGITAL UK TO VISIT EVERY STV NORTH COUNCIL WARD

The Digital UK team is embarking on a series of activities for council wards within the STV North area. Holding at least one event in every ward, Digital UK will stage a mix of drop-ins and public meetings to engage directly with the communities. The team will work with councillors to address the needs of each community and to ensure that everyone knows what they need to do in the run up to switchover next year. Events will be held in Shetland Isles, Orkney, Western Isles, Highland, Moray, Aberdeen and Shire, Dundee, Angus, North Fife, Argyll and Bute (northern part) as well as Perth and Kinross.

STV NORTH GETS SWITCHED ON TO SWITCHOVER HELP SCHEME

Eligibility for the Help Scheme is now open in STV North. A television and print advertising campaign to raise awareness of help available to older and disabled people in the area has been launched. Eligible people living in the region will receive an information pack that will explain how they can get extra help to convert one TV in their home in time for switchover and will invite people to apply for the help available. It sets out the standard offer which is available for £40, or free, as well as offering a range of other ways to go digital. As part of the programme of activity, stakeholders will be contacted, and TV and radio advertising will become more prominent.

FREEVIEW UPGRADE EXTENDS FIVE AND PREPARES FOR HD

Freeview has completed an upgrade to its service to ensure Five is as widely available as the other main terrestrial channels after switchover. Key changes were also made to the network to prepare for the launch of HD services. Freeview viewers were required to retune their equipment from lunchtime on 30 September to continue receiving all channels in their area.

Following the changes, 500,000 existing Freeview homes are now able to receive Five for first time. ITV3 and ITV4, however, will no longer be broadcast from relay transmitters. Viewers in need of advice on retuning can visit tvretune.co.uk or call an automated helpline on 08456 051122.

DIGITAL TAKE-UP RISES AS VIEWERS CONVERT SECOND SETS

Viewers across Scotland are getting the urge to go digital in their kitchens and bedrooms. Latest research from Ofcom (to June 2009) reveals 70 per cent of all secondary TV sets across the UK have now been converted, up 15 percentage points on this time last year. In total, 80 per cent of the UK’s 60 million sets are now connected to a multichannel TV service.

Friends of Magdalen Green Coffee Morning

This morning saw the autumn Friends of Magdalen Green Coffee Morning taking place in Dundee West Church, Perth Road. It was extremely well attended and I was the incomptent part of an otherwise slickly run scone-buttering and washing-up squad!

I also had the pleasure in introducing well-known local photographer Alex Coupar, who presented the prizes to the winners of the Friends' photography competition - their entries form the 2010 calendar now available for sale (more information about the calendar, competition and winners can be viewed by clicking on the headline above or going to http://tinyurl.com/fomg2010).

Here's a couple of photographs from this morning :

Above : Calm before the storm! All set up, 10 minutes to the start of the coffee morning

Above : Calendar competition winners