On Wave 102 news about the Dundee LibDem City Council campaign launch

I was on the Wave 102 news this morning about the Dundee LibDem City Council campaign launch, taking place later today.   Click 'play' to listen: 

Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden : an update

The Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden hold their next event on Wednesday 4th April at 7pm in the Education Centre at the Botanic Garden

Graeme Butler of the Rumbling Bridge Nursery will give an illustrated talk entitled "Gardening with Alpines", with particular emphasis on some lesser known plants that grow in this area.

Coffee, tea and biscuits and a chance to talk and ask questions will follow the talk.

Car parking is free and admission is £2 but Friends who produce valid membership card attend free of charge.

The Friends are looking for a new membership secretary and if any resident is willing to assist with this, please let me know (fraser@frasermacpherson.org.uk) and I will pass on your interest - many thanks.

City Church Civic Reception

The Friary

This afternoon, along with a large gathering of church members, my ward colleagues, local residents and other guests, I attended the official opening of the City Church at its new place of worship, The Friary on Tullideph Road.

The Friary closed as a place of worship in 2010, following the decision to close St Francis' Parish Church.   There was much sadness at this decision and so it is great to see the Friary coming back into use as a place of worship.   The City Church intends to engage with the local community and invite local people to use the facilities.   This is to be welcomed.

I met Craig Stocks from the church some time ago, when the church was in the early stages of finding a permanent home and I am very pleased to see the church now find that home at the Friary.   I wish it every happiness at the Friary.

Good news - road resurfacing in the West End

I have welcomed news that several roads in the West End Ward including Abbotsford Street, Westgrove Avenue, Colinton Place, Loganlee Terrace and Pentland Crescent are to be resurfaced next month.

The condition of these local roads are in poor shape and resurfacing of them to a good standard will be welcomed by local residents.    I am continuing to campaign for improvements for several other local roads including Hillcrest Road, which is in an extremely poor condition.   I have asked for it to be included in the 2012/13 roads resurfacing programme.

The work on Abbotsford Street, Westgrove Avenue, Colinton Place, Loganlee Terrace and Pentland Crescent will be undertaken in the week commencing 16th April – the resurface work takes approximately one day to apply and traffic is managed by a stop/go system during the work.

Getting things done ... Pennycook Lane

Some weeks ago, I mentioned that residents had complained to me about broken fencing at the Pennycook Lane car park.    

I raised this with the City Council and was promised repairs.

As you can see from this photo of me taken at the car park yesterday, the work has now been carried out.

An end in sight for lane restriction on Riverside Drive

Following concerns expressed by constituents that a coned-off lane restriction on the busy Riverside Drive at the site of the Tay Rail Bridge has been in place since late last year, I raised the matter with Dundee City Council to find out when the coned off area will be back to normal traffic.   The cones were put in place during November 2011 following a vehicle hitting the bridge.

The City Council’s Head of Transportation advised me :

“This is a deliberate section of temporary traffic management to ensure that no further vehicle strikes occur.  The City Engineer's Structural engineers have undertaken a survey and we (City Engineer / Transportation and Planning) are considering a permanent layout that will prevent any further bridge strikes in the future.”

I have now been advised by the City Engineer :

“The works have now been designed which involves some kerb realignment in the central reserve to ensure that minimum headroom to the bridge is achieved above the carriageway.

Network Rail have just recently completed repairs to the damaged plate girder utilising the traffic management measures in place. 

The kerb realignment works have still to be fully programmed but will start sometime in April for a period of approximately 2 weeks.”

I am pleased that there is an end in sight to the coned-off traffic management at the rail bridge on Riverside Drive.   Its an extremely busy section of road with a large traffic volume so the removal of the coned area and safety works will be welcomed.

National Convention on Youth Employment

The Principal of Dundee College opens
the National Convention on Youth Employment

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending part of the National Convention on Youth Employment at Dundee College's Gardyne Campus, along with a large gathering of national and local politicians, major employers, JobCentre Plus, the further & higher education sectors and many others.   The event was organised by the Scotland Office.

Tackling youth unemployment is a major challenge for both the Westminster and Scottish Governments and it was refreshing to see Ministers from both governments speaking on the same platform and emphasising the close working relationship between the two governments on this vital issue.    

I heard three of the Ministerial presentations - by Mike Moore MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth - and all spoke in a positive way about what their government is doing to create youth employment and their willingness to co-operate to ensure that public expenditure on this vital area is best-spent by each government.

The Youth Contract gives a package of support worth almost £1 billion to help young unemployed  people prepare for work and find a job.   Yesterday's event underlined the need to do all we can to support young people find good employment opportunities.

Congratulations to the City of Perth

Back in September 2010, I attended a Civic Reception hosted by the Lord Provost of Dundee, in support of the bid by Perth for City status.

It was great to learn yesterday that this bid was successful and that, in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year, Perth will indeed be the Fair City.

Earlier today, I met with Cllr Willie Wilson, the Depute Provost of Perth and Kinross, to pass on my congratulations - see right.

City Chambers tour

Today, I took part in a tour of the City Chambers with a group of University of Dundee students.    See right.    

The Council Officer gave them a really entertaining and informative talk about the city's civic history.    

It was a very enjoyable afternoon and great to see the interest in Dundee's civic history from the students.

Lochee Park - good news!

I recently received residents' complaints about the state of the Lochee Park playpark and in particular the loss of the roundabout.  

I raised this with the City Council's Environment Department and have been advised :

"There is a new roundabout that will be going into the play area at Lochee Park in the very near future together with safety surfacing."

Friendly Bus Sheltered Shopping Service - new timetable

The Friendly Bus sheltered shopping service is a great - and free - service for elderly folk to get to local supermarkets, have a good period of time for shopping, and get the bus back home.

Having campaigned for the inclusion of Morven Terrace/Ancrum Place sheltered housing and Richmond Court to be included in the service, I was delighted that they were added to the timetable last year.

There are new timetables in operation from week commencing 5th March - Tuesday remains the day that the West End is served.   You can download the new timetable by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/friendlybus2012.

West End Community Council meeting

Last night, I attended the latest meeting of West End Community Council at which there was a very informative and detailed presentation from the City Council's Recycling Projects Officer about the current position of recycling efforts in Dundee and future plans to further extend recycling opportunities for residents.

I have, on many occasions on behalf of West End constituents, asked about extending the kerbside plastics and bottles recycling facility that currently only covers a limited number of parts of the West End.   It was therefore good to hear last night that the council is, later this year, to be undertaking an additional trial of 3000 households who currently do not have the plastics recycling facility - they will be offered a larger plastics recycling bin that will take a wider range of recyclables.   I specifically requested that West End households are offered this new facility.   I was also pleased to learn that, in the second half of this one year additional trial, some flatted properties will be offered the facility.    I made the point that many constituents who live in tenements in the West End do not currently get the range of recycling facilities offered to other households, so this is welcome news.

It was also good to hear how successful the food recycling trial is going.     The Recycling Projects Officer also advised that new "recycling on the go" points will soon be available at specific sites such as Camperdown Park.     Speaking with her during the meeting's teabreak, she indicated that Nethergate at DCA was being considered for one of these facilities and I also suggested Lochee Park and Magdalen Green as possible sites.

The Community Council also discussed the on-going issue of Royal Mail delivery problems, in the main caused by the difficulties facing many local residents by the closure of the parcel collection office in Crichton Street and the fact that DD2 and DD3 customers now have to collect items from the remote Baird Avenue Collection Office.    I also mentioned that I have had numerous complaints from constituents about wrongly delivered mail in recent months.

Royal Mail's Director of Scottish Affairs is attending the next Community Council meeting on Tuesday 10th April to discuss the various concerns that have been raised about mail deliveries in the West End - all residents are welcome (and indeed encouraged) to attend this and the Community Council would welcome any feedback residents have about mail delivery problems (you can contact the Community Council by using the contact form at http://tinyurl.com/contactwecc).    I have a considerable list already of constituent concerns that I have passed on to Royal Mail and will be raising on 10th April and, as always, are very happy to help residents with any concern they have about this or any other local concern.

I also had the opportunity last night to mention the impending graffiti clean-up and litter pick in the West End that I am helping to organise for 16th May.   We have already had an excellent response from local organisations and many community councillors also offered their help at last night's meeting.

West End Community Council Update

I have today launched my monthly update to West End Community Council.   Issues include:

• Riverside playing fields – safety concern   
• Roundabout tidy-up   
• Strawberrybank footpaths
• Bellefield Avenue and Seafield Road – potholes action

The Community Council meets tonight at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall.  All residents very welcome.

You can download my Community Council Update at http://tinyurl.com/weccmarch2012.

City Council committee meetings

Following my weekly ward surgeries at the Mitchell Street Centre and at Harris Academy this afternoon, I attended tonight's City Council committee meetings.

* At the Housing Committee, I sought assurances that the introduction of "Amenity Housing" (non-sheltered but supported housing largely for people aged over 50) could be used to ensure that our sheltered tenants are protected from anti-social behaviour from a minority of much younger tenants - I cited a specific example from the West End, where a constituent in her seventies suffered more than a year of noise from an irresponsible neighbour.

* At the Policy and Resources Committee, I welcomed proposals to introduce the 'Living Wage' for council employees but urged that it is promoted amongst all Dundee employers, public, private and third sector.  I asked questions about a report on welfare reform, welcomed the new local community plans for Dundee, emphasising the need to involve communities across the city, and welcomed the Armed Forces Community Covenant.

Getting things done ... Glenagnes Gardens, Riverside Drive and Blyth Street

The repaired fencing

I recently mentioned the collapsed fencing at Glenagnes Gardens and have therefore today praised the effectiveness of the Community Payback Scheme, that has seen improvements undertaken by people on community service orders - including replacing that fencing.

I recently nominated two schemes to be undertaken through the Community Payback Scheme – graffiti removal on Riverside Drive and replacing a damaged fence in Glenagnes Gardens – and both proposals were taken on by the scheme and have been successfully completed.

Community Payback Schemes are a way for the offender to make amends to the community for their crime.   I have been impressed with the speed with which Community Payback took on these schemes and made a good job of completing them.   

In Glenagnes Gardens, a large fence had collapsed and it was proving difficult to find out who was responsible for fixing it.    Residents asked me to see how it could be replaced and the finished job by Community Payback is extremely good.    The scheme is very well-managed by the City Council’s Social Work Department.

I have also nominated a seating area in Blyth Street that residents would like to see spruced up.   Local residents asked me if making the seating area nicer would be possible and I am hopeful that this suggestion will also be taken on too.

On Wave 102 News - Armed Forces Community Covenant

I spoke on the Wave 102 News today about Dundee City Council's commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant.  The Community Covenant is a voluntary statement of mutual support between a civilian community and its local Armed Forces Community and it is good news that our city is giving its support.    Click 'play' below to listen:

Getting things done ... Strawberrybank

At the request of residents I recently asked the City Council for repairs in Strawberrybank's footpaths.

I am pleased to have received the following feedback from the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership:

"An order has been raised to fill various trips on the footway in Strawberrybank with a timescale for completion of twenty eight days or sooner."

Getting things done ... Bellefield Avenue and Seafield Road

I recently - on behalf of residents - raised complaints about the state of the roadway in Bellefield Avenue and Seafield Road.    

The City Council has now updated me as follows :

"An order has been raised by the Road Maintenance Partnership inspector to fill various holes on Seafield Road carriageway and footway with a timescale for completion of twenty eight days.   An order has also been raised for the filling of a pothole on Bellefield Avenue with a timecale for completion of three days."

I am pleased at the fast timeframe in getting the pothole at the south end of Bellefield Avenue as its a really deep hole in the road.

National Network of Community Councillors

In the West End, we are lucky to have a long-standing and very active Community Council.   You can read more about West End Community Council's activities at http://www.dundeewecc.co.uk.

There is now an interesting Scotland-wide community council blog - the national network of community councillors.    It is well worth a look at http://www.nationalnetworkcc.com/.

Community Spirit Action Group meeting

This evening, I attended the March meeting of Community Spirit - the community group for the "north" part of West End Ward, covering Tullideph, Ancrum, Pentland and the Cleghorn area.

There was a presentation from Grant Simmons, Manager of the Dundee Food Train.     Grant gave an update on progress with the Dundee Food Train since its recent launch.   Providing an excellent shopping service for elderly people in Dundee, there are now over 40 users of the service and 35 volunteers.    If you feel the service could benefit you or you would like to volunteer, here's the contact details:

Email: dundee@thefoodtrain.co.uk 

Phone:  459202

Address:  Office D, Market Mews, Market Street Dundee DD1 3LA

After Grant's presentation, we discussed local issues and I was able to update the meeting about the site visit the Community Spirit Secretary and I had on Monday in Ancrum Drive, with a representative of Hillcrest Housing Association, that should hopefully see some additional car parking bays becoming available for local residents.   Parking is a real problem in the street and some more parking will clearly help.

Riverside pitches - further stones problem

As reported in yesterday's Evening Telegraph, today's Courier and on Wave 102 news, there has been concern about the latest injury of a football player, who was injured by falling due to exposed stones on a pitch at Riverside recently.

This has occurred before - back in December 2011 - so I was very concerned to learn of this further injury.   I contacted the City Council’s Environment Department seeking an assurance that the stones problem on the pitch area will be fully resolved urgently.

I have now received feedback from the City Council Environment Department as follows :

"The pitches were stone-picked the week before the football match in question and what we have done since is cut the grass on the site so that we can detect any potential stones that may cause injury and we are carrying out an operation called verti-draining the pitch.  We normally use this machine to assist with surface drainage of pitches and what we are hoping it will do is to break up soil compaction and bring any large stones to the surface.  We will then give the pitch a thorough inspection and remove any large stones.

We therefore hope to have the pitch operational as soon as possible.   We are taking a cautious approach and it may be that if this does not work then we may have to look at the possibility of applying a further layer of screened topsoil at sufficient depth so that it should eliminate any risk of stones coming through."

I am meeting a representative of the football league and a senior member of the City Council's Environment Department about the matter on-site next Thursday as I am anxious to see a swift resolution of this and an assurance that all steps have been taken to avoid further injuries in the future.

I was on Wave 102 news about this concern this morning - click 'play' below to listen:

Western Cemetery

Some time ago, the Courier reported the possible return of burials to the Western Cemetery, something I knew would be welcomed by many residents of the West End.

I have been working with the Western Cemetery Association and the Environment Department of Dundee City Council to move forward the proposal that would see the provision of plots for the burial of urns within the cemetery.

We had a very productive meeting yesterday at the West End community room at the Vine - and the proposal will now see 126 plots of lairs with a maximum of 4 family urns per lair being provided later this year.  We discussed at length the provision of a tablet granite book to give memorialisation to the lairs, considering both design and costings.

I am pleased with progress with this excellent initiative and hope to see it come to fruition later in 2012, for the benefit of the West End.

Fiddle and harpsichord concert in Dundee on Wednesday at lunchtime

Isobel Luke

The Friends of Wighton's monthly lunchtime concert will be performed on Wednesday 7th March at 1.15pm by Gordon Penman, on violin, accompanied by Isobel Luke on harpsichord.

Held in the atmospheric surroundings of the Wighton Heritage Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library, the concert will highlight Scottish tunes from the 18th century books preserved and displayed in the Wighton Collection.

Gordon's fiddle selection will focus on the music of General John Reid, and the programme will also feature some well known tunes performed with Isobel Luke's stylish harpsichord accompaniment.

Both Gordon and Isobel are well known musicians in the Angus area, and both have been involved with the Friends of Wighton, Isobel as a former chair of the Friends and Gordon as the current chair.

Admission to the concert as always is free and there will be a retiring collection to help support the work of the Friends of Wighton, who organise regular concerts, workshops and classes to promote the collection and all aspects of Scottish music in Dundee.

For more info please visit www.friendsofwighton.com.

On Wave 102 news - about DisabledGo

I was on yesterday's Wave 102 news about the launch of the Dundee DisabledGo webpages last week - click 'play' to listen:

Christmas in March ...

A great West End Christmas Week 2012 lies ahead!

Towards the end of last week, I had the pleasure of chairing a meeting of the West End Christmas Week committee.

A Christmas Week meeting in March might sound a little bizarre but we always have a 'debrief' meeting after each Christmas Week to go over what went well, lessons learned and so on, and with the 2011 event, it has proved a challenge to get a date for this when all could attend, meaning the 'debrief' meeting took place a little late at the start of March!

We had a really useful discussion about what was a highly successful Christmas Week last November.   In 2012, we will have a redesigned Community Fayre at Dundee West Church with a better layout for community groups and hope to have a carnival again on the night of the Christmas Concert and lights switch-on.

I'd really like to thank all the superb team who deliver Christmas Week for their huge efforts - and we are looking forward to the 2012 events in the West End!

Support the West End White Ribbon football event

Download poster here.

Food recycling pilot - an update

Last June, I welcomed the City Council's introduction of a food recycling trial project.   At the moment, this covers only a limited number of addresses (in the West End - Clayhills Drive, Glamis Drive (34, 40, 43 & 45), Invergowrie Drive, Menzieshill Road, Perth Road (391 - South Lodge only), Whitefauld Road - 234 properties in total).

I recently asked the City Council's Recycling Projects Officer for an update and she has provided this useful response:

"The food waste trial is progressing extremely well with around 40% participation each week and an overall weight of approximately 3 tonnes - this equates to around 4kg per participating household per week.

Our Recycling Advisers are currently undertaking doorstep surveys to assess the participants' views on the scheme and to try and encourage non-participating households to take part. Full data for your area will be available in due course but at present I am aware that the intervention by the Recycling Advisers has resulted in a significant increase in participation in those areas where doorstep surveys have been fully completed. Feedback has been on the whole extremely positive and we're confident that this will remain the case throughout the duration of the survey period.

Full details of the survey finding will be compiled in the coming months and I will forward these to you as soon as I have them."

I am pleased at the progress on this project - food recycling is a vital component of the City's recycling efforts but it must be extended in the near future.   I get numerous requests to also extend glass/plastics recycling green boxes and have requested that more households in the West End are offered these soon.

Dundee's Fairtrade Fortnight

Further to my recent update aboutFairtrade Fortnight in Dundee, there's still a number of events taking place at the University of Dundee up to 11th March - see below - and you can download this poster at http://tinyurl.com/uodfairtrade:

Saturday song ...

Reduced to watching music channels on Sky tonight as TV so rubbish - but this certainly isn't!

New West End schools progress

Anyone passing the new St Joseph's Primary, Park Place Nursery and Park Place Primary schools site in Blackness Road/Glenagnes Road cannot fail to notice the significant progress with the building project.

The one issue raised by constituents has been the extent of mud at the site entrance at the top of Glenagnes Road - tackled promptly by the contractor when I raised the concern.

The contactor has now issued his fifth newsletter to adjacent residents and you can download this at http://tinyurl.com/schoolsnewsno5.

Forthcoming musical play about the life of Mary Slessor

Roseangle car park resurfacing - looking good!

The resurfacing work at the Roseangle car park is nearing completion and, as you can see below from photos I took late yesterday, the newly resurfaced car park is a huge improvement on the old pothole-ridden surface:

The City Council's parking staff updated me yesterday afternoon as follows and I'm confident the car park will be re-opened over the weekend and in full use next week :

"I carried out a site visit to Roseangle Car Park this morning and I can confirm that good progress is being made with the resurfacing works.

I spoke to the Supervisor on site and he advised me that at the current rate of progress Tayside Contracts will need approximately 1 hour on Friday morning to complete the resurfacing of the tarmac.  He also advised me that the parking bays in the overspill area will be marked out this afternoon and weather permitting, the remainder of the parking bays would hopefully be marked out tomorrow.

With regards to Councillor Macpherson's/Head of Transportation's query, I can advise that if these works were to continue past Friday, there are 2 limited waiting bays and a section of double yellow lines on-street that are suitable for the resident loading and unloading their vehicle.  Parking dispensation for these areas can be granted by the Senior Parking Attendant's if the resident telephones them on 432095."

The electrical work in Bellefield Avenue that was due over the past week but that Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) kindly postponed at my request to ensure there was not parking space loss there at the same time as the Roseangle Car Park was closed for the resurfacing, will now go ahead starting on Tuesday - but the loss of parking spaces will be limited to one space outside the tenement block that SSE is working on.

Scottish LibDem Conference Broadcast - March 2012