Bing Crosby - White Christmas

Last of the festive uploads!

Super Christmas; back to blogging tomorrow!

Happy Christmas!

The West End Christmas Lights 2009 at Seabraes

Kelly Clarkson - My Grown Up Christmas List

Another in my little season of festive uploads!

Winter maintenance

With all the snow over the past few days, the feedback from residents is that the Roads Maintenance Partnership has copied generally very well with gritting across the city.

There have been issues about the gritting of some residential streets - inevitable given the 330+ miles of non-trunk roads the council has to cover - and I have raised the concerns raised by residents in a number of streets - such as Shaftesbury Road and Taylor's Lane (in the latter case, the 'top half' of the southern part, possibly because of access problems facing the gritter) - and also the need to keep grit bins filled - an example being at Glamis Place.

I am grateful to the City Engineer and the team in the Roads Maintenance Partnership for their responsiveness on the issues raised.

Mary`s Boy Child

Christmas theme continues with the timeless classic from Harry Belafonte.

Temporary Traffic Order - Richmond Terrace and Magdalen Yard Road

Although the following Traffic Order will come with it the inconvenience of temporary loss of parking for a limited time, I am very pleased that Scottish Water is undertaking flood prevention works at Richmond Terrace. I raised the matter with Scottish Water some time ago, having visited residents to see the effect of flooding at their properties. I am grateful to Scottish Water for its proactivity in working to resolve this matter.

Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating Scottish Water flood prevention works. The Order is expected to be in force for nine weeks from 11 January 2010 . Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

The effect of the Order is to temporarily suspend all parking in (a) Richmond Terrace from Windsor Street for a distance of 45 metres or thereby west and (b) Magdalen Yard Road from Windsor Street for a distance of 45 metres or thereby east.

Please forward any comments you may have regarding this proposal to the Network Management Team, City Development Department, Tayside House, Crichton Street, Dundee, no later than five working days prior to the commencement date. If you have any queries please contact the department on 433082.

Beautiful winter's morning in the West End

Chris Rea 'Driving Home For Christmas'

Next "Christmas Week" upload!

Festive cheer at Magdalen House!

There was festive cheer at West End care home Magdalen House today when bakery chain Greggs kindly donated 100 Christmas Pies to the residents to wish them all a very Happy Christmas. The festive gift was part of Greggs' sponsorship of the recent West End Christmas Week events.

The picture above shows Lesley Christie, Area Manager for Greggs and Nicky Brown, Manager of the Perth Road Greggs shop, holding the pies, together with residents and staff of Magdalen House and myself.

We are very grateful to Greggs for this generous gesture for the folk at Magdalen House.

On Radio Tay news today ...

I was interviewed on Radio Tay News earlier today about our photocall at Magdalen House (more on that, plus photos, in a moment ...!) - you can hear the news item by clicking 'play' above.

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

Start of my Christmas Week theme!

'Twas the Monday before Christmas!

A very busy Monday!

Apart from my final two surgeries of 2009 at Harris Academy and the Mitchell Street Centre and numerous constituent visits, this morning, I took part in an informal group leaders’ meeting on the Council Budget at the City Chambers.

The Chief Executive and Director of Finance gave elected members an overview of where the officers are in relation to finding the necessary savings and accommodate significant cost pressures – particularly in Social Work.

There is no doubt that the task is significant and I - along with other opposition members - asked for further detail about any savings proposed. I also specifically asked for a statement from each Chief Officer about the detail and effect of any proposed savings across the service delivery areas each is responsible for.

It was agreed that a budget volume would be issued to all elected members around the week commencing 11th January and group leaders would meet again on 19th January at which the detail I had asked for from Chief Officers would be made available.

I feel the meeting was co-operative and productive; such an approach is important given the financial challenges facing the city council.

In the run-up to Christmas, I do a lot of visits to constituents, especially elderly residents, and this continued into the (rather snowy!) evening, preventing my attending the Harris Academy Christmas Carol Service. With regard to surgeries, these start again when the schools return in January, but meantime West End residents can contact me at any time at esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk or call me on Dundee 459378.

The Scottish Futures Trust disaster

I don't much rate the SNP administration at Holyrood, elected on promises undelivered, high on populism and low on any achievement. However, in terms of its long-term legacy of failure, its hopeless management of capital infrastructure financing will cause the most damage. Step forward the Scottish Futures Trust :

• The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has been an expensive failure. It is a political white elephant which has achieved nothing for Scotland. It should be scrapped.

• It cost £23 million in set up costs alone, whilst its budget for this year is doubling to £5.9million and the Chief Executive is being paid £180,000. The CBI has called it a ‘fiasco’ and independent reports say that it is unlikely to be any cheaper than PFI/PPP.

• Despite what the SNP want us to believe, the SFT has no role in funding schools, the Forth Crossing or anything else. Instead, the SFT has caused a major hiatus in the construction industry as the SNP Government have delayed capital projects in order to ‘develop’ the SFT enough to give an impression it has a role – the SNP saving face is not an excuse for delaying the replacing of crumbling schools, nor is it an excuse for cuts to construction jobs and apprenticeships.

• Far from a radical alternative that will revolutionise public investment, the SNP’s much-derided flagship financial policy has turned out simply to be a new quango which will act as an advisory body for the public sector. It has no funding stream and there is no evidence of when or how it will make the promised annual £150 million efficiency savings.

• Projects around the country are being delayed as a result of the SFT uncertainty. In a recession there is a serious need to delivered infrastructure for Scotland’s economy but the SFT is fast becoming a national embarrassment. The SNP must put the Futures Trust in the past and get on with building the schools and hospitals Scotland needs.

The Scottish Futures Trust & School Building:

• The Scottish Futures Trust is not funding school building, despite the SNP’s attempts to pretend otherwise. We are also still no further forward in knowing whether the SFT will ever provide funding for infrastructure development.

• The £800m of direct capital investment announced by the Scottish Government in June could have been made 2 years ago. Councils have been forced to wait while the SNP try to save face over the SFT, which isn’t contributing a single penny to this School Building Programme, or any other infrastructure investment.

• Under the School Building Programme the first primary school won’t be built until 2011, the first secondary school in 2013 and some schools will be delayed until 2018. The SNP pledged that they would match the previous administration’s school building ‘brick for brick’. However, the School Building Programme is only funding 14 secondary schools and 21 primary and specialist schools.

• Despite LibDem calls for the reintroduction of level playing field support for councils which would have helped councils plan ahead with their school building, the Government neither listened nor delivered.

Christmas Number 1

A victory for Facebook but the Christmas number 1 is pretty dire, says the blogger aged a lot nearer 50 than 20!

I think Joe McElderry and "The Climb" is actually pretty good and Joe has a good career ahead of him.

Seafield Road lighting update

Further to my various posts about the lighting issue at Seafield Road recently (see http://tinyurl.com/seafieldlightshere), I am pleased to say the replacement lighting unit has now been installed (see right) and should be fully operational soon.

A Tibetan Terrier Merry Christmas

If there's one thing I have found out over the past year, it is that Tibetan Terriers are real characters!

Bunty's progress ...

In October of last year, I introduced our puppy, Bunty (see http://tinyurl.com/buntypuppy).

Since then, she's grown up! See below ...

Beautiful winter's morning in the West End

Above : The scene this morning across Logie and Cleghorn Street towards the Law.

Freemasons ft. Amanda Wilson - Love On My Mind

Uploaded only because it just came up in conversation tonight! "Watchin'" by the Freemasons is also great.

Victoria Park concerns - feedback from the Director of Education

As reported in tonight's 'Evening Telegraph', the City Council's Director of Education has responded to me about the department's proposals for use of Victoria Park by the schools on the proposed shared campus on the former Logie Secondary School site as follows :

"You are correct that this project will need to come forward as a planning application which will allow for public comment and consultation. As you are aware, the new planning regulations now give easier opportunity for anyone who wishes to make comment. The planning application process for the new primary school in Whitfield was our first opportunity to test out the new regulations in Dundee and this worked extremely well, including two public exhibitions with officers on site to answer questions.

I want to emphasise that no major take over of any of the park space is envisaged. Primary schools in Dundee who do not have dedicated playing fields occasionally make use of park space for events such as sports days and football matches, but their use tends to be rare. I do not envisage the new West End campus requiring anything more frequent in Victoria Park. Because of that, there are no proposals to erect fences, and the statement I have read in the press about a possible all-weather facility is quite simply wrong - no such facility is proposed.

I am intending that the outcome of my discussions with Stewart Murdoch (Director of Leisure and Communities) should be taken to the West End Project Board, which as you know will contain representatives from a number of stakeholders. You will also remember that Chris Ward (Assistant Chief Executive) is chairing that group and intends calling the first meeting in late January.

With regard to consultation, parents are represented on the Project Board and will have an opportunity to express their views. I would also have no objection to an organisation such as Friends of Balgay Park being represented on the Local Implementation Group, the first meeting of which will take place after the initial meeting of the Project Board."

West End Temporary Traffic Orders - Smellies Lane, Ash Street and West Hendersons Wynd; Perth Road

Temporary Traffic Order - Perth Road

Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating gas main replacement works . The Order is expected to be in force for seven weeks from 4 January 2010. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

The effect of the Order is to temporarily suspend all parking in Perth Road from Airlie Place to Park Place.

Temporary Traffic Order - Smellies Lane, Ash Street and West Hendersons Wynd

Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating has main replacement works. The Order is expected to be in force for five weeks from 4 January 2010 . Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in (a) Smellies Lane from Lochee Road to Ash Street, (b) Ash Street from Smellies Lane to Douglas Street and (c) West Hendersons Wynd from Douglas Street to Brook Street.

Pedestrian thoroughfare and vehicular access to premises will be maintained where possible.

An alternative route will be available via Lochee Road, Polepark Road and Brook Street.

Please forward any comments you may have regarding either proposal to the Network Management Team, City Development Department, Tayside House, Crichton Street, Dundee, no later than five working days prior to the commencement date. If you have any queries please contact the department on 433082.

Thursday activities ...

A busy Thursday. I firstly participated in the City Council's Improvement and Efficiency sub-committee, where I queried progress with the Council Plan and lean service reviews and also gave positive comments about the "Cash in your ideas" employee suggestion scheme - a real success. You can read the committee agenda content by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/iecommittee.

Later in the day, we had a useful and productive 'West End Christmas Week' debrief meeting and the overall view is that we had a very successful 2009 Christmas Week but we want to see the biggest and best event ever in 2010 - the tenth anniversary of West End Christmas Week.

Tonight, after my surgery at Blackness Primary School, I participated in the Dundee Contemporary Arts Board meeting. DCA is going from strength to strength and the Martin Boyce exhibition ‘No Reflections’ - now at DCA following a successful showing in Venice reflects this.