Change of Polling Places in Broughty Ferry for Elections in May 2017

Voters in the forthcoming Dundee City Council elections are being urged to check their poll cards carefully as some polling places have changed.

Poll cards for the local authority election have recently been delivered through letter boxes in the city and these direct people to the right polling place for their address.

Voters in parts of The Ferry, will have a different place to vote on May 4 2017 than in recent elections.

In The Ferry, anyone who previously used the Broughty Ferry Baptist Centre in Panmurefield will now cast their vote at Grange Primary School in Grange Road.

This move is not permanent and when the current refurbishment of the Baptist Centre is complete it will again be used as a polling place.

Grove Academy Awarded Prize as Most Creative School by SQA and VandA Dundee

The five shortlisted pupils for a major national design challenge run by Jaguar, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and VandA Museum of Design Dundee were announced earlier this month and amongst them was Grove Academy senior pupil Ruben Hann (teacher - Mairi Harper).

Pupils studying the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s Higher Design and Manufacture course this school year were challenged to design a time capsule to celebrate the construction of VandA Dundee. 

The five shortlisted pupils were:
Luisa Geddes, The Community School of Auchterarder (teacher - Will Rich)
Ruben Hann, Grove Academy, Dundee (teacher - Mairi Harper)
Phoebe Simpson, Woodmill High School, Fife (teacher - Kirsty McDermid)
William Chan, Liberton High School, Edinburgh (teacher - Jim Henneghan)
Ruaridh Smith, St Columba's High School, Gourock (teacher - Greg Starling)

While Ruben was just pipped for the top award, Grove Academy was awarded the prize of Most Creative School.

The finished time capsule will be installed at the new VandA Dundee museum ahead of its opening in 2018. It will be filled with items created by Scottish primary school pupils, and opened in 50 years.

Senior school pupils across the country were able to get involved, as the design challenge for the capsule itself formed an accredited module that counts towards the students’ Design and Manufacture Higher qualification.

VandA Dundee worked in partnership with SQA, with the design challenge forming an accredited module that counts towards the students’ Design and Manufacture Higher qualification.

The Scottish pupils studying the Higher Design and Manufacture course received a design brief for the time capsule last year, with all of their work for the competition counting as credit towards their Higher qualification.

The brief specified the design and engineering requirements for the time capsule, including being weatherproof for 50 years, guaranteeing consistent environment conditions for the objects placed inside the capsule, occupying a space of no more than 1.5 cubic metres, and being a creative design inspired by Jaguar and the VandA Dundee building.

Kids Go for 20p on Bus Journeys in Dundee From Saturday 1st April to Sunday 16th April 2017

Click on Image to Enlarge

From Saturday 1st April to Sunday 16th April 2017, enjoy a family day out and discover the Dundee by bus. 

Kids can travel for just 20p each when they board accompanied by an adult or concession!

Up to 3 kids per paying adult, available within the ABC Dundee ticket zone.

1st - 16th April 2017

Includes adults with season tickets and weekly passes.

Dundee Africa Research Network Presents - Illustrated Talk by Writer and Broadcaster Billy Kay - Fri 31st March

Dundee Africa Research Network (DARN) proudly presents an illustrated talk by Writer and Broadcaster Billy Kay:

Billy Kay is the author of The Scottish World, and the producer and presenter of several series of radio documentaries about the global effects of the Scottish diaspora. Here Billy will place Dundee’s Calabar Missionary Mary Slessor in the context of this diaspora and look at the profound effects of the Scottish missionary effort in Malawi. He will also comment on other places where presbyterianism was planted from South Africa to Russia to Brazil. The talk will be illustrated with audio from Billy’s BBC Radio Scotland programmes and will include music from Mary Slessor’s Duketown Parish Church in Calabar, and the voices of the daughters of Daniel Slessor, one of the children saved and adopted by Mary.  

Date - Friday 31st March, 2017
Venue - Lecture Theatre 4, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee, Old Hawkhill Dundee DD1 4HB
Time - 6:00 PM
Tickets - Free to book
Follow the link to book your place

Information Sessions about Controversial Changes to Recycling Collections

Click on poster to enlarge

Many constituents have contacted me over the last week to complain about the new recycling arrangements to be introduced in The Ferry. 

The issue which has been most often raised with me is the removal of the collection service for glass in the Green Boxes. In future residents will be encouraged to take their glass bottles and jars to "Bring Sites" after the Green Box glass collections are withdrawn.

Hard pressed householders coping with substantial increases in Council Tax are unhappy that the existing service is being cut back. I don't blame them and share their reservations.

I am particularly unhappy that frail elderly residents will be expected to carry their glass recycling to a "Bring Site". Sheltered Housing residents in Forthill Drive raised this with me a potential hazard for older residents, especially if they were to fall over with glass in a shopping bag.

On Tuesday and Friday evening this week there are "Information Sessions" at Forthill and Craigiebarns Primary Schools. I hope residents will take the opportunity to try to get these issues resolved street by street.

All the Residents of Broughty Ferry Should be Able to Access the Doctors in The Ferry

At its meeting last week, Broughty Ferry Community Council agreed to send a written objection to NHS Tayside about the proposed changes to the GP Practice boundary of Broughty Ferry Family Healthcare GP Practice in Brown Street. 

This busy GP practice has has applied to NHS Tayside to redraw their practice boundary and cut a significant number of streets in The Ferry from the area they cover. If the proposed new boundary were adopted, new residents in Clearwater Park, Ferryfields, Balmossie Brae, Panmurefield and Wyvis would not be able to register with the Doctors in Brown Street. As these areas already fall outside the approved boundary for the Grove Health Centre GP Practice, new residents of the 700-800 households living in these neighbourhoods would not be able to access any of the GP services in Broughty Ferry but would have to go further afield. 

Having heard from Angela Lyall about the reservations and concerns of residents and more than 200 petitioners against the changes, the Community Councillors agreed that the proposal from NHS Tayside was not acceptable. 

Recognising that the responsibility for Health is devolved to the Scottish Government, the Community Council also agreed to write to MSPs including the Cabinet Secretary for Health, local MSP Shona Robison.

While I am sure residents in Broughty Ferry, epsecially in the areas affected by this consultation will be pleased to hear how their views from the petition have been represented to the Community Council, they will await the response from NHS Tayside with some trepidation. 

There must be a better way of responding to pressure on our GP practices than just sending residents elsewhere to surgeries in other parts of Dundee. If it lack of space or lack of staff, surely its preferable that this is tackled now.

All the residents of Broughty Ferry should be able to access the Doctors in The Ferry.

Complaints about Delays in Installation of Street Lighting

In my blog posting on the 21 of January, I welcomed the start of the work to upgrade the street lighting in Home Street in The Ferry.

Three or four weeks ago, the pavements were dug up to connect the electricity supply to each of the new lamp posts. Loose yellow and orange covers were laid over the holes not yet filled in and resurfaced.

A number of residents have contacted me to complain about the time it's taking to fill in the holes in the pavements and complete the installation. One resident in particular has complained of the late night disturbance caused by the clattering of the yellow and orange covers when pedestrians walk over these.

On behalf of the residents, I have written to the Street Lighting Partnership to urge the early completion of the job. I have also asked for an explanation as to why the installation has taken so long.