Ferry Automated Public Convenience is Finally Open - But Who Pays for the Delays?

After a series of disappointing delays, the Automated Public Convenience in Queen Street Car Park in Broughty Ferry was finally open for 'spending a penny' on Tuesday 13 December.


This leased public toilet was a 'replacement' for the award winning Queen Street staffed toilets which were closed as part of the budget savings for this financial year. Ken Guild also a Ferry Councillor and Leader of the Council, promised that when our award winning  staffed toilets closed at the end of March, the replacement would be installed and operational before the summer holidays. Well the Automated Public Convenience has been standing in the car park for months but with no connection to water and sewerage.


As well as the public inconvenience from this eight month gap in provision, there is disappointment about Ferry Council Tax being wasted on charges for a leased public convenience that has not been operational for three months.


Let's hope that this disappointing start can be put behind us and visitors and residents alike find the 24 hour access to an Automated Public Convenience a satisfactory alternative to the former staffed toilets.

Commenting on the Online Availability of the 2011 SQA Examination Results

The availability of the summer 2011 Examination results online earlier today provides an important snapshot of the performance of young people at the end of their school days in each of our nine secondary schools in Dundee.

While it is interesting to note which schools had the highest number of passes, these figures are on there own deceptive. They do not measure 'added value' or 'distance travelled'; that is the progress made by each pupil between their test scores awarded on entering their secondary school and their SQA examinations results 4-6 years later. Calculations like that would tell a different story.

Overall the figures published indicate to me that there is still an important job to be done in improving the overall performance of all our pupils in our schools so that each one achieves her or his potential.  I know that is what are teachers are striving for. 

We can't however be content with any results that put the city overall below the national average. I refuse to believe or accept that young people in our city are less talented than young people elsewhere in Scotland.


Find about more about the performance of your local Primary and Secondary school at Scottish Schools Online.

Cuts in Dundee College and Concerns for the Effects on Opportunities for Young People Leaving School

At the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday evening I spoke to an item that had been placed on the Agenda at my request:

Item 12 Budgetary Cuts in Further Education at Dundee College

This is what I said to the members of the Policy and Resources Committee:

"I have placed this item on the agenda because I am very concerned about the effects of current and future cuts in the budget of our further education college - Dundee College. I think the current year cuts of £4 million and projected reductions over the next three years will amount to a reduction approaching 30% of their budget. Cuts of that magnitude in an organisation that spends most of its cash on teaching staff can only lead to a reduction in the range of courses and programmes on offer and a reduction in the number of places available. 

Dundee College is the destination of choice of many of our school leavers. In fact progression rates of pupils moving into further education from our nine secondary schools is amongst the highest in Scotland and is to be commended.

Dundee College also provides vocational courses for some of our existing secondary school pupils alongside their school based subject choices.

Additionally, Dundee College also provides the rehearsal space for Dundee Schools' Music Theatre which has widespread community and political support.

Dundee College's valued collaboration and partnership with the Education Department is featured in the College's current Strategic Plan where they list as a significant achievement:

• 'Partnership with DCC Education Department at both strategic and operational levels is very well developed. Joint activity includes data sharing in order to better support transition from school to college ....'

Dundee College is also an important place to return to study or undertake an access course prior to going to University or taking an advanced course at the College. 

Furthermore, Dundee College is crucial to city employers and potential new employers. 

Crucially Dundee College it is also itself an important employer; in fact the 9th largest employer in the city.

Given rising levels of unemployment in our City and an expectation that too many of our young people will not be leaving school to move to a positive destination such as paid employment or a place at further education college or at University, we need Dundee College and the range and depth of what it does now. Conversely we don't need the College distracted from its mission by a costly and lengthy merger negotiations with Angus College. We also don't want Dundee College's vital training and educational work undermined or curtailed by swingeing cuts from the Scottish Government.

Now there is a constructive way to defend Dundee College and what it does by responding to the Scottish Government's consultation, 

'Putting Learners at the Centre: Delivering our Ambitions for Post 16 Education' 

which has a deadline for submissions on Friday 23rd December. Now Convener if you tell me that there is not staff time to respond to my suggestion in such a short timescale, then I offer myself to provide a first draft for the Council's consideration."

I am pleased that the members of the Policy & Resources Committee agreed to ask the Director of Education to prepare a response and bring this to the already scheduled additional meeting of the Committee on Monday 19 December.

Disappointing Review of School Estate in Dundee Leaves Many Questions

At Monday's Education Committee meeting, the committee were asked to consider the Review of the School Estate in Dundee. 

In comments and questions last night I and my Labour Colleagues raised the following issues:


"The important achievements in this report are as a direct result of the ambitious capital school building and school refurbishment programmes that Labour led councils between 2003 - 2009 brought forward. Unfortunately the new SNP administration have dawdled since they took over leading the council in April 2009 and this shows up in this report.

Looking forward this report makes for disappointing reading. It also is raises a number of questions and issues that I will be pursuing before and at the Education Committee on Monday.

This review is disappointing because its ambitions are so limited. 

A vision of new or refurbished schools fit for the 21st century has been a mantra repeated by the former Director of Education and the Education Convener at every opening of a new school in the city since 2007. Disappointingly, no priorities for new or refurbished schools are identified in this review. That is put off for another year. This review focuses on cyclical maintenance such as heating system replacement and auditing schools rolls where schools are running well under capacity. With no immediate extension of the capital building programme, that I brought forward when I was Education Convener, we will soon find the Council's school building programme slowing down which will take years to crank up again.

It's disappointing therefore if you are a pupil or a teacher in a school which is waiting for a major refurbishment or replacement, apart from Harris Academy, because future plans are on hold.

It's disappointing news for parents and carers with children at the stand alone nursery schools because clearly the Council plans to downgrade them to nursery classes and move them into existing schools with space available.

It will be disappointing if you work in the building industry because as it stands this review won't sustain nearly as many construction jobs in the city as has been the case as the Labour commissioned schools have been built.

As to questions, here are my major ones:

While parent and carers would of course expect that a school would be be in a reasonable physical condition and it would not be overcrowded, are square metres and school condition the only factors the Council should take into account? For example, what about facilities such as access to a games hall?

While the report addresses under occupancy of school buildings, it does not identify over occupancy as an issue in the City. Yet, Craigowl Primary School at 106.9% and Morgan Academy at 103.9% stand out. Is this acceptable? How will this be managed?

Barnhill Primary School in my ward is at 95.6% which is also busting at the seams. Schools are not like hotels because a rising number of school age children in an area will take time to work their way up through a school. More children wanting to enter at P1 can't be shoe horned into spare places in P7. We need more information about the P1 entry figures over a period than this report provides. The only answer provided in this report is to redraw catchment areas. In March this year, I submitted a motion to ask that the £5 million pounds in the capital programme earmarked for the extension and refurbishment of Barnhill Primary School was brought forward and a feasibility study prepared. That seems to have been forgotten and no figures are produced in relation to development pressures in the North East in Barnhill Primary School's catchment area where new housing developments are underway or have been planned.

So for marks out of 10, I would give this report five and a summary comment, 'Incomplete work, you should try harder to respond to all the questions. You also need a positive conclusion to your report'."

Beginning Today Timetable of Additional Trains Running to and from Broughty Ferry - Monday 12 December 2011

Broughty Ferry Station

New Timetable

Beginning
Monday 12 December 2011

(Monday to Saturday unless otherwise specified)

Northbound Trains

06:31 to Inverurie

09:45 to Inverurie

11:07 to Aberdeen

15:09 to Aberdeen

17:47 to Inverurie

19:00 to Carnoustie

23:10 to Aberdeen

Southbound Trains

06:29 to Dundee

07:41 to Glasgow

10:43 to Glasgow

15:09 to Edinburgh

17:11 to Edinburgh

23:38 to Perth (Monday to Thursday)

00:33 to Perth (Friday Only)
Read or Download Special Timetable of Broughty Ferry Trains

Parlour Cafe Cookbook Booksigning at Broughty Ferry’s greengrocer, Clementine Saturday 17 December 2011 2:30pm

On Saturday 17 December at 2.30pm, for just half an hour, Gillian Veal is making a guest appearance at Broughty Ferry’s greengrocer, Clementine, to sign copies of her incredibly popular Parlour Cafe Cookbook. 
With mulled wine supplied by Clementine’s neighbour and local wine merchant, Aitkens Wines, this event will make Christmas food and gift shopping a positively pleasant experience. 
Clementine has already sold dozens of copies of the book which encourages people to create tasty dishes using many of the ingredients available in the shop. Since the book first came out at the end of October, the first print run has sold out and the second run is in the shops now. 

Clementine owners Jan McTaggart and Carole Sommerville have enjoyed talking to customers about the book. Carole Sommerville said: 
‘We both love eating at the Parlour Cafe and I’ve cooked several of the dishes from the book. The recipes are easy to follow and I’ve been treating family and friends to some delicious meals.’ 
This event is a celebration of all things local to Dundee. The book is published by new Dundee publishing house, Kitchen Press, illustrated by local artist Jen Collins and Gillian herself is from Dundee. 
Clementine of Broughty Ferry, 103 Gray St, DD5 2DN
Open Mon – Sat 9.30am to 5.30pm 

Dundee Choral Union Christmas Concert 11 December 2011 Caird Hall City Square Dundee

Dundee Choral Union Christmas Concert
Caird Hall, City Square, Dundee 
7pm Sunday 11 December 2011


Tickets will be available from the City Square Box Office or at the door on Sunday evening.


Programme 

• Poulenc - Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noel Faure - Requiem 
• Finzi - In Terra Pax 
• Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Christmas Carols 
• Christmas Carols from 100 Carols for Choirs 

Performers

• Libby Crabtree, Soprano 
• Stewart Kempster, Baritone 
• Morley Whitehead, Organist 
• Derek Clark, Conductor

Declining Teacher Numbers and Increasing Pupil - Teacher Ratios in Dundee

On Tuesday 7 December, the Scottish Government published their Statistical Bulletin: 

Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No 2 2011 Edition 7 December 2011

The Bulletin shows the number of primary school teachers in Dundee is now at its lowest level since 2005. The numbers fell again in the last year to 639 at the census point.

In secondary schools, the number of teachers in Dundee is also at its lowest level since 2005. The numbers decreased over the last year to 716 at the census point.

The tables showing Pupil/Teacher ratios also show a noticeable adverse increase from 11.7 pupils to 1 teacher in 2009 to 12.1 pupils to 1 teacher in 2011.

Having promised the earth four and a half years ago, the SNP Government in Holyrood still refuses to face up to the truth that they have not reduced average class sizes.

They, and their SNP controlled Council in Dundee, are responsible for the decline in teacher numbers and an adverse rise in the pupil/teacher ratios in our City.

The SNP made unprecedented promises about improvements in education, none of which have ever been properly or fully funded.

In Dundee the Education Convener, Councillor Liz Fordyce, claims her cuts haven't removed teachers from the classroom but the growth in the number of pupils to each teacher (the Pupil / Teacher ratio)  paints a different picture.

We can't go on reducing the number of teachers in our schools in Dundee without having a negative effect on the attainment and achievement of our pupils. Dundee deserves better.

The Pupil - Teacher ratios have been extracted from from Table 2.2 on page 9 of the Statistical Bulletin

The comparative information on teacher numbers is taken from tables in the supplementary datasets which were also released on Wednesday 7 December 2011 by the Scottish Government.

No Extra New Schools for Dundee in SNP Investment Plan

The SNP Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011 was published on Tuesday. The section that deals with school buildings is entitled Scotland’s Schools for the Future. 

"The £1.25 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future (SSF) school building programme was announced in June 2009. The Government will provide £800 million funding support, from 2010-11 to 2017-18, with the balance coming from local authorities. The programme is being co-ordinated, managed and facilitated by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT)."

(Infrastructure Investment Plans 2011 December 2011 page 77)

Disappointingly, no additional school building programme has been announced for Dundee in this plan. The plan merely re-announces the rather modest sized national school building programme that was first launched in June 1999. In September 1999 when the government announced some of the specifics, it promised two thirds of the funding for a replacement school for Harris Academy in Dundee. Dundee West MSP, Joe Fitzpatrick, went on Newsnight Scotland to defend his government's record and claimed that work on these new schools would start on site before the next election which was in May 2011. The last report to the City Council on the progress of Harris Academy predicts no start on site before 2013.

Based on their over four and half years in government, the SNP have been strong on bluster about their school building programme and announcing and re-announcing it but weak on action. Unfortunately, this plan comes with the same health warning in relation to the prospects for actual new school building funded by the Scottish Government.

Ferry Juvenile Crime Wave Summit on Wednesday 7 December

Tag on a BT Box in Strathmore Avenue

Tayside Police, Tayside Fire and Rescue, Dundee Community Wardens as well as Ferry Councillors, have all recently received numerous complaints from members of the public about graffiti, vandalism, fire setting and littering by young people in the Ferry. The unusual intensity of these incidents has led to the Team Leader of the Community Safety Wardens to convene an inter-agency "Summit" on Wednesday 7 December at Blackness Fire Station.


There seem to be a gang of young people who are regularly out on our streets defacing public and private property with spray paint. The repetitive appearance of their 'signature' painted tags suggest that many of the acts of vandalism have been perpetrated by a small number of young people. There has also been a number of deliberately started fires and many examples of inconsiderate behaviours such as deliberately littering the streets and damaging public property such as street signs. 


For the folk on the receiving end of this juvenile delinquency, this has been a very tiresome time. For Council clean up squads, it is also a discouraging picture because as fast as they remove or paint over graffiti, the tags appear again like a virus. There are clearly questions about a lack of parental supervision when it is alleged that some of the vandals are surprisingly young.


I hope the agencies at the meeting on Wednesday afternoon are able to plan and then coordinate effective and lasting responses against the perpetrators.

Broughty Ferry Train Timetable from 12 December 2011 - 8 December 2012

Click on this image to read or download
Broughty train times.

The new timetable for the improved train services from Broughty Ferry begins on Monday 12 December 2011. 


A handy separate leaflet for services to and from Broughty Ferry has been helpfully produced by TACTRAN and SCOTRAIL. 


This is an improved set of services that provide more through and connecting trains between Broughty Ferry and Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth.


Click on this link to read or download the new separate timetable for trains to and from Broughty Ferry: 12 December 2011 -  8 December 2012.

Broughty Lifeboat Carol Concert St James Parish Church Fort Street Monday 19 December at 7:30pm

The annual Lifeboat Carol Concert will be held in St James Parish Church (the Lifeboat Church) on Monday 19 December beginning at 7:30pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to join in carol singing, remember the work of our brave and dedicated volunteer lifeboat crews and donate to the Lifeboat via the offertory.

World AIDS Day 1 December 2011

Today is World AIDS Day.




This year the focus of World AIDS Day is about “Getting to Zero.” 

• Zero New HIV Infections. 
• Zero Discrimination and 
• Zero AIDS Related Deaths.

Backed by the United Nations the “Getting to Zero” campaign runs until 2015.

Test your knowledge and take a quiz

Only 24% of young people have adequate knowledge about HIV. 

Do you? 

Take the UNAIDS test of your knowledge at 
http://www.crowdoutaids.org/hivknowledge/

Welcome Delay to Temporary Closure of Pedestrian Underpass on Gray Street

Pedestrian Underpass Temporary Closure Delayed

Late this afternoon, I was informed that Network Rail have agreed to delay the building works that require the pedestrian underpass on Gray Street to be closed for eighteen days from Monday 6 December. 


I welcome the postponement of this work until 9 January 2012. In the meantime Network Rail will carry out building works within the station buildings.

Broughty Traders will I think be relieved that the temporary closure of the underpass has been postponed until after Christmas and New Year trading. 


Network Rail are to be congratulated in responding positively to representations about this issue. 

Harris Academy - Education Committee Monday 28 November 2011

At the Education Committee last night Harris Academy was indirectly on the agenda.



The first item, The East Central Territory Hub, was about the arrangements for the continuing work to establish this organisation to procure capital projects such as new schools. Our immediate interest at the Education Committee in Dundee is the comprehensive refurbishment or replacement of Harris Academy. 


The East Central Territory Hub covers the huge area bounded by the former Tayside and Central regional areas and within that territory it will procure all major building projects for the 6 local councils, Police, Fire and NHS. This new set up is the Scottish Government's imposed way of purchasing capital projects like new buildings.


I hope something positive can come out of The East Central Territory Hub but I fear its been a giant smoke screen to disguise a lack of building projects from the SNP led government in Edinburgh. I am also concerned that it will lead to larger scale building contracts that will tend to exclude smaller local sub contractors based in the city.


Now a preferred Private sector Development Partner has been appointed, I had hoped that the rebuild of Harris Academy would be picking up from a snail's pace. 


The work on Harris Academy was begun by a feasibility study instructed in the time I was Education Convener May 2007 - March 2009. The SNP led Scottish Government announced their first tranche of school building in late September 2009 over two years after coming into office and Harris Academy was our one and only city school on their list. Two years later, and a start on site before 2013 seems unlikely. 


This is of course means that the SNP is millions of bricks short of meeting their manifesto pledge in the May 2007 Holyrood elections to match Labour's PPP school building 'brick for brick'. In Dundee, Labour's PPP programme built two new secondary schools and six new primary schools. In four years at Holyrood the SNP Government 2007/11 did not directly fund any new school building in Dundee.