West End Under 10s football team ... and River Crescent Residents' Association ...

At lunchtime, the new West End Under 10s boys' football team played its first "official match" and the photo (right) is of the team at Riverside Playing Fields today with Paul Johnston (Team Manager), Stuart Ferguson of Barnetts Motor Group and myself.

It is great to see an under 10s football team established in the West End – a totally new initiative – and I am very grateful to Paul Johnston of West End Community Council, whose drive and initiative has made this possible.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to Barnetts Motors Group, who have sponsored the team football strips and to the local primary schools – Blackness, Ancrum Road, St Joseph’s and Park Place – for their involvement.

After getting a wee bit wet standing in the rain at Riverside Playing Fields, I was guest speaker at the River Crescent Residents' Association AGM (held at the Botanic Garden) - a great turnout of residents and useful discussion on local issues.

Blackness Primary School - School Crossing Patroller - Update

I'm delighted that the lack of a school “lollipop” person on the very busy Hawkhill, for pupils of Blackness Primary School, has now been resolved and as of this week a patroller is on duty. See earlier story about this by clicking on the link above.

I was contacted by worried parents about the lack of a patroller due to illness of the post holder. Hawkhill is an extremely busy road at the best of times, but with the current roadworks on Perth Road, traffic is being diverted onto Hawkhill, including the bus services, and both they and I were extremely concerned at the lack of provision.

Interviews were thereafter held for additional staff and the subsequent delay was due to the need for health and disclosure checks before new staff can be appointed but I am very pleased that the matter is now resolved.

Under 10s Football Team Launch

Currently the West End area does not have a youth football team for Under 10 boys.

Thanks to the offer to establish and run one by a member of West End Community Council – Paul Johnston – and the kind assistance of the City Council’s Leisure and Communities Department and the University of Dundee’s Institute of Sports and Exercise, an “Open Day” for boys of the appropriate age (Primary 4 – going into Primary 5 in August) together with parents/guardians is being held this Saturday (17th May) from 10am to 12 noon at the University of Dundee’s football facilities at Riverside.

Paul has great experience of running youth football and I am most grateful to Barnetts Motors for their interest in sponsoring the team, once established.

The four local primary schools (Ancrum Road, St Joseph's, Park Place and Blackness) have kindly distributed details to parents/guardians - and we are hoping for a great launch on Saturday! Click on headline above to view more.

Review of the last few days

Wednesday

* Met with the new acting Managing Director of Travel Dundee, and raised the concerns of residents about the re-routing of the 9X bus service – this no longer serves the Ninewells Avenue area. She promised to review this.

* Attended the Deaf Awareness Open Day at the Central Library, organised by the Sound Sense project. It was good to see a number of organisations promoting their services to deaf people locally and the event was extremely well-attended.

* Attended the “Community Spirit” group evening meeting at Mitchell Street Centre. “Community Spirit” is the new residents’ group for the “north” of the West End Ward – including the Pentland, Cleghorn and Ancrum areas. Another good attendance and an interesting discussion on local issues.

Thursday

* A site visit with Scotland Gas Networks, Turriff (their contractors) and City Council Planning & Transportation at Perth Road to review road management issues, signage and other issues arising out of the continuing gas main replacement works on Perth Road.

* Along with my LibDem council colleague, Cllr Helen Dick, I attended the Best Bar None accreditation scheme 2008 awards launch at the City Chambers. This is an excellent scheme – recognising customer safety and good practice in Dundee’s licensed premises. Click on headline to view the full story in the “Evening Telegraph.”

* After a busy three surgeries at Mitchell Street Centre, Harris Academy and Blackness Primary School, I attended the evening board meeting of Dundee Contemporary Arts. A very positive review of the past year at DCA was presented, showing excellent visitor figures.

Friday

* A helpful site visit with Network Rail to Riverside Approach to allow me to point out graffiti and fly-tipping problems. Pleased at Network Rail’s willingness to tackle these issues, raised with me by West End residents.

* As one of the City Council representatives, I attended the opening of the Winston Churchill exhibition at the University of Dundee, making the 100th anniversary of Churchill’s election as Liberal MP for Dundee. An excellent and entertaining speech by Churchill’s daughter, Lady Mary Soames, who opened the exhibition and unveiled a plaque, commemorating Churchill’s connections to the City.

The event was extremely well-attended and it was good to see my former City Council colleague Neil Powrie (pictured at the event – right) and also my LibDem colleague Willie Wilson (Depute Provost of Perth and Kinross).

You can read the BBC news item on this at :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7390904.stm

and the Churchill Centre web pages are very interesting :

http://www.winstonchurchill.org

And, lastly, here’s a photo from the event, during Lady Soames’ speech, showing that I have no photographic skills whatsoever.

Blackness Primary School - School Crossing Patroller

Today's "Courier" has covered concerns raised by parents of pupils at Blackness Primary School about the school crossing patroller (or lack of) on Hawkhill.

The "lollipop" patroller for Blackness Primary School has been absent through illness for some time and in recent weeks, there has been no temporary replacement provided. I have received calls from worried parents, including members of the Blackness Primary Parent Council, about the situation.

Hawkhill is an extremely busy road at the best of times, but with the current roadworks on Perth Road, traffic is being diverted onto Hawkhill, including the bus services, and I was extremely concerned at the lack of a school crossing patroller for the children of Blackness Primary School.

I have spoken with the Director of Education to express these concerns to her directly and I am pleased to say that the Education Department is taking immediate steps to recruit new supply patrollers and I hope this serious concern will therefore be urgently addressed.

The Education Department has now written to me in the following terms:

"I appreciate the concern of parents regarding the long term sickness absence of the School Crossing Patroller on Hawkhill for Blackness PS.

"We appointed a new crossing patroller for the new crossing point on Arbroath Road in January. As this crossing point was not to be ready until after the Easter Holidays this new patroller was happy to be deployed and do his initial training at the Hawkhill point. It was hoped that by then the original patroller would return to work at Hawkhill.

"Regrettably the original patroller is still on sickness absence.

"We have now arranged to interview five applicants on Wednesday 14 May for Supply School Crossing Patrollers, from which we hope to appoint (for Hawkhill)."

I have written to the Director of Education asking that she contacts me after the interviews on Wednesday to update me on the situation.

Blackness Primary School - Barrier

I recently raised with the Education Department concerns from parents about the state of the metal barrier outside Blackness Primary School at its Pennycook Lane entrance. It has been badly mangled by a vehicle.

I have now had feedback assuring me that repairs are in hand and I have asked that assurances can be given that the repairs are completed before the start of the new term in mid-October.

Latest updates

Spent all of yesterday at the Tay Rope Works Public Inquiry as the City Council's witness in defending the decision to refuse planning approval. We will know the outcome in a few weeks but I would like to place on record my thanks to the Council's solicitor and to the local residents and Community Council representatives who contributed.

On Monday evening at Council committees, I was very pleased to see a report be approved which will give tenants, especially elderly and disabled residents, the possibility of obtaining a shower where (normally because they live upstairs or their house cannot be ramped) the occupational therapist has been unable to recommend installation. This is an issue that has affected a number of constituents and I am pleased the Council has grasped the nettle. I am anxious, too, that similar arrangements are discussed with the local Housing Associations.

I have raised the issue of the lack of a lollipop person in Hawkhill (due to the postholder's long-term absence through illness) and am pleased to learn from the Education Department that efforts are being made to try to have a solution in time for the start of the new term at Blackness Primary in August.

I've also raised the issue of youth facilities in the West End. The Leisure & Communities Department has told me that the Youth Team has been working with the Harris-based Pupil Support Workers and others from the Youth Work Providers Group to develop a programme for the first four weeks of the school holidays. This will focus on activities in The Shore, Dudhope Park and Ancrum. This group will continue to meet to develop further programme ideas.

I'm also told that staff are keen to encourage young people to use Dudhope Park and the MUGGA facility that now exists there. There's now access to the Pavilion and the department is looking to develop opportunities from there.

Other facilities in the area that are routinely used by young people from the West End include the weekly Youth Information drop-in at Harris Academy, The Shore and Hot Chocolate at the Steeple Church. In addition, a number of young people from that area are involved with Duke of Edinburgh through the Open Award Centre currently based at Menzieshill.

There are also two Children's Clubs (5-8s and 9-11s) operating on a Thursday in Blackness Library. I've raised with the department the possibility of other activities and would welcome views from residents (and thanks to those residents who have already contacted me about this following the article I had in the recent FOCUS newsletter).

Back from London and back to backlog!

The theory of course was that I'd do a post on the blog yesterday but only two and a bit days away in London and there was a massive amount to catch up on yesterday (and today!)

London consisted of meetings and one nice Dinner really but I did take a short walk from the hotel in Bloomsbury and, as you can see (right) it was awfully near the Post Office Tower!

OK, then, back in Dundee, and spent much of the last two days catching up on phone calls to constituents and responding to e-mails. I have had quite a number of people contacting me about the Dock Street tunnel works and also concerns about the Botanic Gardens (I have now had a response from the University Secretary on the issue and will continue to emphasise how vital the Botanic Gardens are for the West End and the City as a whole).

Additionally, pleased to see the launch (tomorrow, Friday) of a new family support network ("Babes and Co") for the West End. You can read more about this by clicking the headline above.

This afternoon, along with the City Council Leader, Education Convener and Director of Education, I was at Blackness Primary School to see the "Writer's Craft" project in action with Primary 7 pupils. Aimed at improving pupils' literacy skills, it was brilliant to see the enthusiasm and ability of the pupils - a great credit to Blackness PS.

Lastly, met a resident today about the state of the pavements in Balgay Road - have raised this with the City Council.