Friday 23 January 2009

Busy Friday ...

A busy day with meetings with several fellow councillors on various issues including the revenue and capital budgets for 2009/10. This followed on from an administration group of Labour and LibDem councillors last night.

The City Council Leader has now called has called for a meeting of all the political group leaders to secure an agreement on a budget which would freeze the council tax for 2009/10 whilst making all effort to protect service provision.

Tonight's "Evening Telegraph" covered this (click on the headline above to view more). As I said to the Tele :

“It is extremely important, particularly given the current economic climate, that we do everything we can to minimise the impact of the council tax

“A balance has to be struck between protecting services, especially to the most vulnerable citizens, but the administration has been putting significant effort into working towards a freeze.”

I also met the Council's Chief Executive about a constituent's issue and education matters and spoke on Radio Tay, welcoming the proposals for new schools for the West End at St Joseph's Primary and Park Place Primary.

This afternoon, I met with John Gallacher of sQuid (see my article last month about sQuid at http://www.dundeewestend.com/2008/12/squid-card.html). The main reason to meet John was to discuss ways this useful electronic card that replaces small-value cash could be used further in the West End and on Dundee's public transport.