Getting things done - Miller's Wynd car park #dundeewestend

Michael is pictured at the Miller's Wynd car park entrance, where the wall was hit by a vehicle and is requiring repair.

We raised this with the City Council and have been assured that an Order for repairs has now been made.

Temporary Traffic Order - Miller's Wynd

From the City Council :

Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating construction works. The Order is expected to be in force for four months from 27 June 2022. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily the entry to and exit from Hawkhill at its junction with Miller's Wynd.

No alternative route is available.

If you have any queries, please contact the Network Management Team, City Development Department, Dundee House, 50 North Lindsay Street, Dundee, DD1 1LS or call Dundee 433082.

Miller’s Wynd car park lighting improvements #dundeewestend

Last year, at the request of residents, I raised with the City Council the inadequate lighting in the Miller's Wynd car park.

At the time I received the following helpful reply from the council's Team Leader for parking and sustainable transport :

"My colleague from the Street Lighting Partnership went out to the Miller's Wynd car park last week to assess the situation. 

He reported that while there is power to the lighting column that holds the floodlights, it is difficult to access because of the trees and therefore almost impossible to replace the lanterns safely.

He has recommended an alternative lighting solution (new column, new floodlights, new location) which he thinks would be more effective in bringing the car park lighting up to the expected standard and allow for future maintenance."

I am pleased to say that this work has now been completed and means the car park is now far better lit.

Getting things done - Miller's Wynd car park #dundeewestend

There have recently been complaints about some cars being parked inappropriately in the Miller's Wynd car park, outside designated spaces and on the wood barking to the front of the community fridge.

I raised this with the council's parking team on behalf of residents.

Getting things done - Miller's Wynd car park #dundeewestend

I have over a period of time received concerns from residents about the poor performing floodlights in the Miller's Wynd car park that have not been functioning properly.

I have raised this with the Team Leader, Parking & Sustainable Transport, at the City Council, who has now updated me as follows :

"My colleague from the Street Lighting Partnership went out to the Miller's Wynd car park to assess the situation.

He reported that while there is power to the lighting column that holds the floodlights, it is difficult to access because of the trees and therefore almost impossible to replace the lanterns safely.

He has recommended an alternative lighting solution (new column, new floodlights, new location) which he thinks would be more effective in bringing the car park lighting up to the expected standard and allow for future maintenance.

I have asked for a cost for the work and funds allowing will propose that we implement the new plan over the summer."

Magdalen Green - a further update #dundeewestend

I have recently been in discussion with both Police Scotland and City Council officers following the recent disgraceful vandalism on Magdalen Green that resulted in a table and seating being destroyed by fire.    Additionally, as the photo shows, another table was recently also vandalised although the damage was less severe than happened to the other table and chairs.    Environment management will ensure repair of this.

As I said to the media at the time of the vandalism, it is vital that the vandals do not win and I am grateful to Police Scotland for the comprehensive response I have received in relation to policing resource in relation to the Green.

The council had previously promised Friends of Magdalen Green further tables and seating and this will be provided by around 7th May.    Whilst welcome, it is vital that the possibility of a repetition of previous vandalism is minimised.    Policing is a key part of that but I have also been engaging with council environment management about the provision of static metal bins near to seating and separate static BBQ facilities to avoid portable BBQs being used on tables with predictable disastrous results.

Meantime, BBQ tables promised for the parklet area near the community fridge at the Miller's Wynd car park should be in place hopefully this week.

Getting things done - Miller's Wynd #dundeewestend

I am grateful to the resident who recently advised me as follows :

"We have at least 2 drains blocked with leaves and debris in Millers Wynd. 

This is resulting in large pools of water at the bottom of the lane."

I raised this with the City Council and have now been updated as follows :

"(The local inspector) ... has raised an order for these gullies to be cleared."

Getting things done – Miller’s Wynd Car Park #dundeewestend

I am grateful to everyone who, last week contacted me about flooding in the Miller’s Wynd Car Park.

I took this up immediately with the City Council’s parking team and have been given the following helpful response :

“One of my colleagues inspected Miller's Wynd car park again last Monday and Thursday morning and he confirmed that the car park is drying out.

We suspect that it was the heavy rain running down the slope that caused this problem but we will continue to monitor the situation.”

Getting things done - lighting at Miller's Wynd car park #dundeewestend

There has rightly been much anger and concern over the council's decision to start charging for use of seven of the car parks in the West End.

It seems to rather rub salt in the wounds that the lighting in the Miller's Wynd car park has now failed, plunging the car park into darkness at nights.

I have therefore asked the council to repair this as soon as possible and certainly before the car park charges commence.

Miller's Wynd car park flooding #dundeewestend

Many residents have drawn to my attention significant flooding in the Miller's Wynd car park over the past week - see below :

I took this up with the car parking team at the City Council and one of the car park officers has sent me the following helpful update :

"I inspected Miller's Wynd car park recently and noted that the cause of the flooding is due to water running through gaps in the north wall of Miller's Wynd Car Park, all the way down the car park and on to Perth Road.

I suspect that there is a burst water pipe on the land behind the car park wall and having spoken to Scottish Water, I was directed towards Dundee University who they believe is the land owner.  The pipe appears to be located by the B.S.I. building.

I have brought this matter to the attention of Dundee University's Estates & Buildings Department and I have raised my concerns that the water might freeze over and form black ice, which in turn could result in a slip or fall.  I have therefore requested an emergency repair from Dundee University in order to avoid having to close the car park, and I currently await their response."

Miller's Wynd car park update #dundeewestend

Following the recent opening of the West End Community Fridge, I have been in further discussion with the Service Manager - Environment in the council's Neighbourhood Services to get the promised improvements at the Miller's Wynd car park undertaken.

I am therefore pleased to have been advised that the walling repairs and removal of weeds have now taken place :

Miller's Wynd car park improvements #dundeewestend

Residents will recall that, back in November, I highlighted the poor maintenance of the Miller's Wynd car park - the foliage was very tired and there were dumped items across the car park.    

The acquisition by Dundee City Council of the Miller's Wynd car park - from the University of Dundee - has provided much-needed additional free 2 hour parking in this area of Perth Road.   However, it is important the infrastucture of the car park is improved and I contacted Dundee City Council seeking improvements.

I am pleased to say that the overgrown foliage has now been tackled and the dumped items removed - see below :

The Head of Roads and Transportation at the council has now advised me :

"I hope to see this car park given a fuller bit of design attention and I will ... arrange for a bit of multi department design, surface, vegetation, seating, recycling, lighting and issues and there will be an element of community co-design.

This all won't happen overnight and it is not best if we do it in uncoordinated manner/piecemeal manner without an end plan."

It has been agreed that at a community walkabout I am participating in soon - along with council officers, community council and ward colleagues - the car park will be visited and plans further discussed.   The main purpose of the walkabout is to agree specific actions to improve West End car parking - hopefully this will result in concrete progress on this long-standing problem.

Miller's Wynd Car Park #dundeewestend

The acquisition by Dundee City Council of the Miller's Wynd Car Park - from the University of Dundee - has provided much-needed additional free 2 hour parking in this area of Perth Road.

However, residents have pointed out the poor maintenance of the car park - the foliage is very tired, for example - see below :

I contacted the City Council about this and the Head of Roads and Transportation has advised :

"We will ensure it is clean and tidy in terms of litter and dumped materials such as the pallets.  However we will need to speak with colleagues regarding the vegetation and what is acceptable in terms of a clear out.  

... if the land is to operate as a car park we want it safe and visible in and out of car park, likewise we don't want to remove trees or other bushes that people like.  Kenny I will discuss at Management Board ... regarding some maintenance."

Nearby, on Perth Road itself, is a phone box in a poor state of repair - see right.   Following residents raising the condition of it with me, I contacted BT and have had the following update from the company :

"...  an engineer will be out in the next few days to repair and clean the payphone."

Busy week back ...

It has been a busy first week back following the festive period, including meetings involving TACTRAN (the regional transport partnership), the Dundee Health Central project and various meetings with constituents, including a site visit about traffic safety matters at Miller's Wynd/Hawkhill.

Today, a useful meeting of LibDem activists in Perth, which a Dundee LibDem colleague and I attended. I'm pictured above with George Lyon, the leading Scottish Liberal Democrat for next June's European Election, who delivered the keynote address today. You can read more about George and his campaign by clicking on the headline above.

And ... an equally busy week ahead - council committees start again tomorrow and I also have the Tay Rope Works Planning Inquiry to appear at on Tuesday, together with a residents' association meeting, a meeting at Dundee Airport, a West End Christmas Week de-brief meeting and various visits to constituents during next week.

Perth Road latest - a few issues

Following the start of the gas main replacement works in Perth Road yesterday, there's been three issues raised with me by local residents and businesses.

Firstly, when the road closure at the Paton's Lane area was put in place, the lanes to the south at Paton's Lane, Thomson Street, Seafield Road and Lane and Westfield Place were all closed at the Perth Road junction (and the one-way situation in Paton's and Westfield altered accordingly).

Given that the actual works by Turriff won't reach Seafield Road/Lane and Westfield Place for some time yet, both residents and I thought there was no need for the closures there and following contact with the City Council and their speaking with Scotland Gas Networks, this has now been resolved and the status quo returned. To quote the feedback from the Council :

"The City Council met SGN on site this morning and after further review, decided to re-open Westfield Place and Seafield Road to run as normal until it is absolutely necessary to close them due to works.

In other words, Westfield Place is open as normal ie one-way (North to South), therefore access is via Perth Road (from city centre side) and through the signs which say Road Ahead Closed/Road Closed/Access Maintained, etc.

Seafield Road is two way, therefore access is now from either Perth Road or Roseangle/Magdalen Yard Road.

Some signs have been taken down to allow the above change and other signs are on order to give more information for other closed side roads that access is maintained for residents at junctions with Perth Road."

A satisfactory outcome.

The second issue is there is a clear need for additional bus stops on Hawkhill (one outbound, one inbound) between the stop near Urquhart Street and the one near the Health Centre. Having spoken to residents, I think one around Millers Wynd's northern end makes sense. I spoke to the Sustainable Transport Team Leader in the City Council about this today and agreement has been made to provide this.

Lastly, there was a problem getting the Friendly Bus (sheltered shopping service) into Paton's Lane today but I have been in touch with SGN, Turriff (the gas contractors) and Stagecoach Strathtay, and I'm hopeful that future journeys will be alright.