Appalling Theft from St Mary's Broughty Ferry

Thieves made off with money raised from selling commemorative poppies from St Mary's Episcopal Church in Broughty Ferry on Monday 2nd November. As a member of St Mary's and a local Councillor I am appalled about such a mean theft at a time approaching Remembrance Sunday when we recall the sacrifice of our service people to protect us and our way of life. I hope this does not persuade the congregation to increase security measures that reduce access to the church for those seeking a place of tranquility for prayer and meditation.

Balmossie Fire Station

In recent weeks there have been reports in the local media about the Tayside Fire & Rescue Service apparently wanting to reopen the question of downgrading Balmossie Fire Station.

I have been contacted by constituents, who are very concerned by press reports that the future of Balmossie Fire Station is under question again.

I want to ask the Chief Fire & Rescue Officer, Stephen Hunter,

'will he give residents in the Ferry and me an assurance that the fire and rescue services at the Balmossie Fire Station will be continued in the form agreed at the Fire Board meeting on 30 March 2009?'

I hope that Fire & Rescue Chief will not need any reminding that the decision taken by the Fire & Rescue Board at the end of March followed a lengthy and thorough consultation about the Towards a Safer Tayside strategy. More than 660 residents in The Ferry area responded with the overwhelming majority objecting to the downgrading of their local fire station. Recent additional planning permissions and serious flooding incidents represent increased local risk factors which reinforce the need for the full time round the clock fire and rescue crews at Balmossie. Of course Balmossie is not just a station that responds to emergency calls and conducts fire safety visits in Broughty Ferry and Monifieth and area. It also has an important role backing up Blackness Fire Station in Dundee, when its crews are called out to fires, floods and road traffic accidents. These include incidents in parts of Tayside outside Dundee.

I also want the Chief to explain why he might appear to be ignoring the emphatic twelve vote to five decision of Conservative, SNP, Liberal Democrat and Labour Councillors on the Fire & Rescue Board who combined to modify his March 2009 proposals in the light of overwhelming public opposition?

'Does he think that these politicians would be so fickle as to have changed their minds so soon after their vote in March?'

When the Fire & Rescue Board decision to retain the 24 hour 7 days a week full time fire service at Balmossie was announced, the 'good sense' of decision makers was welcomed by Stewart Hosie MP and Shona Robison MSP.

'Does Fire & Rescue Chief Stephen Hunter think our Dundee East MP and MSP would be minded to withdraw their support so soon after declaring it?'

Road Works & Closures Claypotts Road 12/13 November 2009

Dundee Road Partnership have announced that structural road patching works in Claypotts Road are being organised to take advantage of the Grove Academy in-service days on 12 & 13 November 2009. The works are to take place under road closures between Dundee Road/Brook Street and West Queen Street and also North of West Queen St up to and including the junction with Albert Road. Diversions will be in place.

Getting Dundee Road B/Ferry On the Map

Residents living at the end of Dundee Road in the Ferry have been having difficulties with deliveries and using their Sat Navs. While many folk in the city wrongly assume that Brook Street extends west beyond its junction with Westfield Road and Saint Stephen's & West Church, this popular misconception has been compounded by Google Maps and many Satellite Navigation systems that show Brook Street extending west up to the railway bridge. Councillor Laurie Bidwell who lives on this stretch of Dundee Road, said:
"I have received residents' complaints about this issue. When I looked up my home address on Google Maps via my post code DD5 1DW, up came a map with Brook Street apparently extending past my front door. No wonder folk seeking directions or making deliveries are confused. To try to sort this out I have contacted Map Insight who produce maps for Google Maps and many Sat Nav sytems to put them right. I trust this correction will soon appear online."

Lloyds TSB Foundation in Scotland Under Threat

Hundreds of Scottish charities, including many in Dundee, are set to lose at least £6m a year in funding with the announcement that the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland is closing its door to new applications for grants for the foreseeable future.

Since it was established in 1985, over 12,000 awards have been made to charities, working with disadvantaged communities and people across Scotland, that have benefited from almost £85m disbursed by the Foundation. Recent grants to local charities in Dundee include:

St John's Boomerang Club, Maryfield
£7,000 towards the salary of the IT Tutor for the extended opening hours and

The Brae - Dundee Riding Ability Centre, Broughty Ferry
£6,047 towards the cost of 11 days of strategic planning, fundraising strategy, governance consultancy and on-costs together with organisational review.


Mary Craig, Chief Executive of the Foundation, explains:
“At this time of year, many Scottish charities are waiting to hear what the deadline is for the next round of applications to the Foundation for grants. Unfortunately, as we remain uncertain as to when we will next receive sufficient money under the terms of our covenant to enable us to continue our grant making activities, we felt we couldn’t leave it any longer to alert charities to what is happening as this is as much about their future as it is ours."
“Lloyds Banking Group has put money on the table to get the Foundation through the next few years until the Group returns to profit. That is to be welcomed but, unfortunately, that has come with a significant condition attached that would seek to alter the covenant immediately, leading to future funds reducing from a share of 1% of profits to a share of 0.5% of profits. There are also conditions that we believe would lead to the end of the Foundation’s independent status, such as the Group choosing where the money would go in future.

A petition calling on the prime minister to step in to save the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland has already received over 1,000 signatures.
Sign the petition now.

Network Rail Begin Work to Repair Bridge Safety Barrier

Sparks fly in the early hours of Wednesday morning 28 October as contractors for Network Rail begin to repair the damaged steel safety barrier on the west side of the Dundee Road bridge over the Edinburgh - Aberdeen railway. The work will extend over four nights when trains are not running beneath the bridge and will involve using generators, welding plant, grinders and temporary lighting in order that a substantial section of the safety barrier can be replaced. Temporary traffic lights are in place to manage the single file traffic over the bridge while the work is undertaken. The damage to the safety barrier would appear to have been the result of a heavy impact, most likely from a vehicle. These comprehensive repairs follow joint publicity with Councillor Derek Scott on 3rd October which was published in the Evening Telegraph. Constituents that had identified this safety issue with Derek Scott and me will be relieved that the work is now being carried out. I am pleased that our persistence has paid off. Thank you to the Evening Telegraph for helping us to publicise this issue.

Ferry Pupils and Teachers Outstanding Achievements Recognised at Dundee Education Oscars

On Thursday evening 2nd October, the annual Focus of Achievement awards ceremony, the Education Oscars for Dundee City, took place in the Caird Hall. The outstanding achievements by pupils and staff at Ferry Schools were very well represented amongst the winners.

Grove Academy won the 'Al-Maktoum Institute Award for Multi Cultural Education' based on The Grove Menu partnership led by an RME Teacher at the school.

Barnhill, Eastern and Forthill Primary Schools, working together as the Grove cluster of feeder primary schools, won the award for 'Innovation Through Curriculum for Excellence Early Years/Primary and Secondary' based on joint work developing a thematic project about World War Two which culminated with a Tea Dance.

Five Grove pupils received awards for their remarkably high performance in SQA examinations (five from fourteen in the City):

In S5

* Caroline Hope,

* Sarah McLuckie,

* Claire Pollington and

* Catriona Goldman.

In S6

* Jason Leong.

Caffe Nero 209 Brook Street, B/Ferry - Planning Appeal Granted

Coffee chain Nero Holdings, owners of Caffe Nero, in Broughty Ferry, have been granted planning permission, on appeal, for the use of a paved outdoor seated area to the rear of the cafe. In a letter dated 8 October to the Dundee City Council, Scott M Ferrie, a Reporter appointed by Scottish Ministers, who adjudicated the appeal, granted the company planning permission, but with conditions. While he agreed with the Council that the use of the outdoor seated area would change the character of the rear courtyard, he did not consider that residents above commercial premises in such locations could reasonably expect to benefit from the the same level of residential amenity as residents in more suburban settings. He imposed a condition that the outside seated area should not be used between the hours of 18:00 and 09:00.

Lydia Catto retiral

On Friday 02 October 2009, pupils and staff at Forthill Primary School said farewell to their long-serving head teacher, Lydia Catto at a special assembly to mark her retiral. Mrs Catto, who was head teacher at Forthill from 1993, served as a teacher at various schools in the city for more than 40 years. Her career started at Hawkhill Primary School in 1967 before she moved on to teach at Rosebank, Ardler and Barnhill primary schools. In 1981 she was appointed head teacher at Ancrum Road Primary, where she spent 12 years. Pupils made presentations from around the globe as part of the assembly.

Come on Network Rail, you should do better than this!

A joint press statement with Councillor Derek Scott

Councillor Laurie Bidwell said:
"A constituent alerted me to the potential dangers to children of the flapping wire mesh attached to bridge railings on the Dundee Road bridge over the Railway. This has a low set of metal railings, with large gaps that are covered by mesh wiring. I have raised this with Planning & Transport in the City Council to no avail. On Thursday 1st October a large unsightly concrete, block was dumped on the bridge presumably to block access to the hole in the mesh fence. Unfortunately, as well as being unsightly, I think is itself a potential hazard making it easier for children to scramble up and fall onto the railway."

Councillor Derek Scott said
“I first contacted Network Rail about this issue on 20 July and I have sent a few reminders since then. After all these weeks on I’m disapointed to discover that the apparent solution has actually makes things much worse.

Not only is the fence still damaged but now the already narrow pavement on the busiest route into central Broughty Ferry has been made narrower and there is an unsightly lump of concrete detracting from the general appearance of the area.

Network Rail would have had to have used a heavy vehicle and a crane to lower the concrete into place, how much simpler and cheaper would it have been to have sent a repair man round with a new sheet of mesh fencing to cover the hole in the existing one?

Refurbishment of Harris Academy - Some Lingering Concerns

In the Dundee Evening Telegraph on Wednesday 30 September, the Leader the the Administration, Councillor Guild, suggested that he is baffled that I should not heartedly welcome the government announcement of funding support towards the cost of refurbishing Harris Academy. He also has questioned my commitment to Harris Academy.
Harris has a long and distinguished history as a leading school in Dundee and certainly needs and deserves comprehensive upgrading. While I welcome the announcement and wish the development well, I have some lingering well founded reservations about the government announcement and the Council's expression of interest.

I have continuing concerns about the price tag that the council attached to the scheme they forwarded to the government. This feasibility study does not contain any allowance for professional fees for Architects etc. It does not include any provision for contingencies, which may be significant in a set of buildings that dates back to the 1930s. I have continuing concerns about the Goverment's silence about their percentage contribution to the project. If this was favourable I think they would have mentioned it in their press release. If the government's proportion of funding is lower and if the Council's costings are unrealistically low either the Administration's ambitions for the rehabilitation of Harris Academy might be trimmed and/or more money will need to be raided from another budget. I think that parents and carers in the West End, Whitfield and Lochee-Charleston who are waiting for their planned new Primary schools will notice that Councillor Guild only protected the new Council Offices and city Centre Swimming Pool, when the capital plan for big projects is reviewed in February. Does this mean that the new five new Primary Schools and three nurseries, the Labour led Administration brought forward for West End, Whitfield and Lochee-Charleston, might be delayed or deleted?

During my period as Education Convener, the Harris Academy feasibility study was instructed and undertaken. The study was concluded and dated March 2009 which precedes the SNP taking the Administration in early April 2009. Harris Academy would have been tackled earlier had the search for an alternative site for a new build replacement been successful. The feasibility study recognised that the search for another site within the Harris Academy catchment area should be abandoned and onsite alternative approaches should be explored and adopted. Following the announcement from the Scottish Government, on Wednesday 17 June, of a school building programme supported by £800 million of Scottish Government funding to be shared by all 32 local authorities in Scotland, I have consistently asked the new Education Convener, Councillor Liz Fordyce, to endorse Harris Academy as her first next priority for investment for school building in the city. She declined to do this until last week and did not feel able to confirm that an expression of interest had been forwarded to the government. I raised this in both at an Education Committee before the summer recess and in a press release that was reported. It was also published on my website in June 2009.
Harris Academy Should be Number One School Building Priority in Dundee
"Will SNP Education Convener Liz Fordyce now confirm that Harris Academy will be her number one priority on the Council's shopping list?"

I hope the public, if not Councillor Guild, will appreciate that, I am campaigning for a really comprehensive refurbishment of Harris Academy, because the pupils and teachers deserve 21st century facilities that are on a par with those that are evident in the Academies and High Schools that have already been rebuilt or refurbished in Dundee."

Harris Academy Funding - Too Early for Labour led Campaign to Stand Down

I welcome The announcement this morning by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, that Harris Academy is to receive Government funding towards its major refurbishment. This is hopeful news for education at Harris Academy. I am pleased that the SNP Government and the SNP Administration on the City Council have listened to our campaign. But many questions need to be answered about the details attached to the decision. Much more needs to be clarified before the champagne corks should be popping.

I have placed an item on the Education committee agenda tonight (Monday 28 September 2009). I shall of be asking for:

• confirmation of the timescale for the comprehensive refurbishment at Harris Academy. When can work start? Is the start date so far off that any current pupils will not enjoy the new and upgraded facilities?
  
• confirmation of the amount that the Scottish Government has committed. Is it £1 million or £20 million? That will make a make a huge difference to what can be achieved;
• clarification of how the council's share of the costs will be financed. The government announcement in June suggested 60% from them and 40% from the council. To finance the Harris Academy refurbishment would mean at least £8 million borrowing for the council to find. What other planned capital improvements may have to be delayed to make way for the refurbishment of Harris Academy? Will the Labour planned replacements of a new Primary School and Nursery in Whitfield, the two replacement Primary Schools and a Nursery for Lochee-Charleston, the replacement Schools for Park Place Primary School and Nursery and St Joseph's Primary School all need to go back down the queue?

I should like to thank all those people who have supported our campaign and petition over the months and weeks since my first press release about Harris Academy in June, but the campaign must continue until we are reassured that the comprehensive refurbishment is to be fully and speedily implemented.

Petition calls for Refurbishment of Harris Academy

A petition calling for the refurbishment of Harris Academy was launched today. The petition, which is sponsored by Dundee West MP Jim McGovern, Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen, Labour Education spokesperson on Dundee City Council Councillor Laurie Bidwell and local West End Councillor Richard McCready, calls for the Scottish Government and Dundee City Council to prioritise funding for the comprehensive refurbishment of Harris Academy.

Dundee West MP Jim McGovern said, 'I have said before that I think the case for Harris Academy being the next major school building project in Dundee is overwhelming. It is important that local people make their voices heard on this important issue. I would urge anyone who wants to see Harris Academy refurbished to sign the petition. '

Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen joined her colleagues saying, 'Harris Academy needs refurbished, I hope that the Scottish Government will work with Dundee City Council to find a means to refurbish it.'

Labour's Education spokesperson Councillor Laurie Bidwell said, 'Since I raised this issue in the press on Monday I have been inundated with messages of support and many people have asked what they can do to show support for the refurbishment of Harris Academy. This petition gives people the opportunity to make their views known. The former Labour-led Administration in Dundee had an ambitious programme of school building and refurbishment. The SNP said they would match Labour's building programme 'brick for brick' Labour has developed the proposals to refurbish Harris Academy, the plan is there, the question is do the SNP support investment in our young people.'

West End Councillor Richard McCready said, 'I am very keen to see Harris Academy refurbished. Clearly, Harris Academy would have been the previous Administration's next priority. Local people in the West End expect investment in Harris Academy. Investing in Harris Academy would be good for the young people who study there, it would be good for the teachers who work there, it would be good for the West End to have improved facilities there and it would be a welcome boost to the city's economy by providing jobs in the refurbishment process.'

The petition can be found on-line at www.harrispetition.org.uk

Class Size Reduction in Primary Schools - Another SNP Broken Promise on Education

“The announcement this morning by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, that she will introduce a legal cap of 25 pupils on P1-3 class sizes will leave parents wondering about the competence of the Cabinet Secretary at mental arithmetic. There is clearly a big difference between the SNP's May 2007 Manifesto Commitment to reduce P1-3 class sizes to 18 with the Cabinet Secretary's announcement of a legal maximum of 25. No amount of spin can remove the 18 or less pledge from the 2007 SNP manifesto. The question that SNP Government ministers must answer is when will 18 or less be met.

As Labour Education Convener in Dundee, until April this year, I was clear that class size reductions were particularly desirable in the early years of schooling but could only be achieved in all Dundee Primary Schools if the government in Holyrood was committed to finance the cost of the extra teachers and classrooms. The government has not given councils one extra penny to pay for the P1-3 class size of 18 policy so not surprisingly progress on reducing class sizes is very slow.

Without extra classrooms and cash to employ more teachers and to erect more classrooms, a legal cap of 25 might reduce parental and carers choice when they find that their local school is full and cannot accommodate all of the placing requests from the school's catchment area.

I think, many parents, carers and teachers will be disappointed that this is another extravagant electoral promise about Education that the SNP government is now conceding it cannot keep.”

Call for Harris Academy Refurbishment in Dundee as Matter of Urgency

Laurie Bidwell, Labour’s Education Spokesperson on the City Council in Dundee has placed a motion on the agenda of the next Education Committee (Monday 28 September) demanding the declaration of the plans for the next phase of school building work in Dundee; especially the major refurbishment of Harris Academy. During his time as Education Convenor, a feasibility study was conducted by the City Council Education Department which examined options for improving or replacing the Harris Academy buildings. This was shared with members of the Harris Academy Parent Council and West End Councillors in Spring 2009. This study conceded that there was an urgent need to improve or replace the Harris Academy Buildings to bring them up to modern standards to meet the ideals of a 21st century school. Compared with the gleaming new St Paul’s Academy and the soon to be completed Grove Academy, Harris Academy has major deficiencies more particularly:
- The existing classroom dimensions, particularly in the 1930s block, are below an accepted minimum for modern teaching practices;
- The building falls well short in meeting the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) legislative requirements and is inadequate in satisfying the accessibility needs for pupils and staff with disabilities;
- There is currently no facility to allow expressive arts to be fully and satisfactorily integrated into the school curriculum;
- There are inappropriate and inadequate pupil social areas within the building and dining areas are insufficient;
- The location, distribution and condition of pupil toilets are not conducive to providing a safe, secure pupil environment, and are difficult for staff to supervise;
- Traffic and pupil movement around the school, and entering and exiting the school, creates hazards posing significant safety concerns particularly at the start and end of the school day and
- The Harris Academy campus presents significant challenges for fire safety.

In the absence of a suitable alternative site within the catchment of the school, the feasibility study concluded that the most practicable option was to comprehensively refurbish the existing school buildings at a cost close to £20M. The urgency of Harris Academy’s case is primarily educational, but if the refurbishment is tackled sooner rather than later, the spiralling cost of maintaining the existing buildings would be avoided.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell, Labour Education Spokesperson on Dundee City Council, said:
“I think it is important that the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce, urgently commits to secure funding for the upgrading of Harris Academy because, using the Scottish Government's School Estate criteria, Harris Academy buildings have been judged to be 'poor'. Following the opening of St Paul’s RC Academy last Tuesday and the imminent completion of the rebuild of Grove Academy as part of the PPP school building programme in the city, Harris needs to be upgraded to avoid the conclusion that there is a two tier set of secondary school buildings in Dundee; more specifically, the gleaming new St Paul’s RC Academy, the rebuilt Grove and Morgan Academies and the refurbished St John’s RC High School in contrast with the deficiencies in the Harris Academy buildings. A comprehensively refurbished Harris Academy will build on the valued traditions of the school and provide enhanced opportunities for teaching and learning.”

“I have questioned the Education Convener, SNP Councillor Liz Fordyce, more than once at the Education Committee inviting her to declare the council's priorities and programme for the next phase of school building in the city. She has consistently declined to do this. Why is she so shy declaring her programme of school building and refurbishment in the city? I thought that she would want to demonstrate that she was determined to make a reality of the SNP May 2007 electoral promise to 'match Labour's, school building programme brick for brick'? Declaring Harris Academy as a priority would be an important step towards this. Parents and carers in Dundee will want to know from Councillor Fordyce, whether she has any plans, for new schools and school refurbishment, beyond Labour's programme for Dundee?"

Dundee West MP, Jim McGovern, said:
“I think the case for Harris being the next major school building project in Dundee is overwhelming. I hope the Scottish Government will prioritise Harris Academy in the first round of work to be part funded by them via the Scottish Futures Trust. This will not only improve the education of children in the city but also help to secure jobs in the construction industry in Dundee.”

West End Councillor Richard McCready said:
“Harris Academy has a proud record promoting the attainment and achievement of generations of children. The feasibility study surely makes its own case. I have consistently supported the prioritisation of Harris Academy and will do so again at the Education Committee next week.”