Temporary Traffic Order : Kirsty Semple Way

From the City Council :

THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 : SECTION 14(1)

THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of Scottish Water manhole repair works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Kirsty Semple Way (between the access road to A & E and the car park for the Mackenzie Building), Dundee.

This notice comes into effect on Sunday 2 October 2016 for 1 day.

Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained.   This section of road is only available to buses and taxis.

Alternative routes are available via Tom McDonald Avenue / Ninewells Avenue / Ninewells Drive.

For further information contact 433082.

Executive Director of City Development

Dundee City Council

Riverside Nature Park event this Saturday

Harris Academy Open Day

A further opportunity for local residents to view the new Harris Academy building :

Art Exhibition at the Botanic Garden

Weekly Road Report - West End Ward

DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT

REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2016

Scottish Water Clatto East (Mains Renewal) – Lochee Road (Tullideph Road to Park Street) – closed southbound for 2 weeks.

Perth Road (Glamis Road to West Park Road) – closed for 5 weeks for gas main renewal.

Kirsty Semple Way (access road to A&E to car park entrance to Mackenzie building) – closed on Sunday 2 October for one day for crane lifting operations.

Blether Tay-Gither - Storytelling in Dundee

From Blether Tay-Gither :

Our September Blether will be on Tuesday 27th September - at 7pm in Madigan's Food Emporium and Bookshop, Castle Street.

The theme this month is PULLING THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES.

Hope to see some of you there – all welcome!

University of Dundee User Centre celebration

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending an event at the Queen Mother Building in the University of Dundee to celebrate the work of the pioneering User Centre over the past decade and to unveil a plaque in memory of John Gibson, the first Chair and founding member of the centre, who passed away last year.

The User Centre has done much over the past ten years to bring the benefits of modern technology to the elderly and to adults with communication disabilities, and the celebration yesterday was also marked by the announcement that Brian Cox has accepted the role of the centre's first patron.

Here's a couple of photographs from yesterday's celebration :

University Principal and Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Pete Downes unveils the plaque in memory of John Gibson

Professor Annalu Waller, Chair of Human Communication Technologies, Jim Ashwood, Chair of the User Group and Professor Sir Pete Downes at the unveiling

Friends of Wighton update ...

From Sheena Wellington :

Saturday, 24th September, 11am (doors open 10.30am) at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library

Cappuccino Concert with Caim - Heather Innes & Pauline Vallance  Tickets £5, (coffee/tea available for small donation)

Heather Innes (vocals, bodhran) and Pauline Vallance (vocals, clarsach, flute) first played together for an impromptu song on Ciaran Dorris’ live Christmas show on Celtic Music Radio December 2013. They enjoyed working together and decided to continue if the occasion arose. It has a number of times and as well as singing in the Caim trio for concerts and festivals in the last few years, Pauline and Heather have continued to give duo concerts in Scotland and are looking forward to a tour in Ontario, Canada in May 2017

Heather has sung at folk clubs, festivals and concerts in the UK, Germany, Denmark, USA, Canada, Thailand and Australia, solo and with various musicians for nearly 30 years and is a regular visitor to the recording studio with a number of solo albums and combination albums with other singers under her belt. 

“Heather has one of those voices…timeless and highly evocative…an uplifting and refreshing experience” John O’Regan, freelance journalist and broadcaster, Ireland.

Pauline has played flute for many years, in orchestras and in folk sessions. She was introduced to the clarsach in 2007 which then inspired her to start writing songs.

In 2009, she was a prizewinner at the Glasgow Songwright Festival and she has played a number of folk festivals and clubs in Scotland and northern England. She also plays regularly at writers' events, including the Unesco City of Music Day in Glasgow. Pauline loves the challenge of playing a variety of venues. Her Edinburgh Fringe concert “Travels with my clarsach” resulted in a gig at Glasgow Airport International Departures Lounge!

In 2011, Pauline recorded her first CD of her own songs and she has also recorded a CD of Scottish Lullabies (thanks to Enterprise Music Scotland), called 'Golden Slumbers'.

As well as performing solo and with Caim, Pauline plays, sings and records in duo Witches Brew.

"Lovely, charming, quirky songs that made me smile.  If Jonathan Richman was a Scotswoman who played a clarsach, this is how he'd sound"  Tom Clelland, Clydesdale Folk Club

Dundee's Mini Make-Off!

Getting things done - Shepherd's Loan

I have received residents' complaints about the poor conditioned and badly graffitied electricity sub station in Shepherd's Loan - see right:

I contacted Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks about this recently and was pleased to receive this update at the end of last week, with a commitment to replace the old cabinet and upgrade the infrastructure this week  -    (From SSE Customer Relationship Management) :

"I have been informed works are already scheduled to replace the cabinet and a new concrete foundation laid. This is scheduled to begin next week, weather permitting. 

The civil works will begin Monday i.e. the removal of the cabinet and the new foundation to be excavated, this will be followed on with the shutter & concrete works, again a couple of days for the concrete to cure, and then the cabinet will be dropped over the equipment after that, so looking to drop the cabinet Friday, weather and lorry permitting."

Well done Dundee and Angus College!

I regularly attend meetings of the Bonnie Dundee group, the group that encourages improvements to the Dundee environment and helps local groups who keep Dundee's parks, open areas, streets and gardens in good shape.

We have been pleased to have input from a staff representative from Dundee and Angus College whose horticulture students kindly agreed to undertake a project to improve the site at the back of the Overgate Centre.

The project has gone well and the students have done a great job with a good floral display and new seating now provided – see below :

Saggar Street - "No Through Road" sign - an update

Some time ago, I highlighted residents' concerns that there was a lack of No Through Road signage at the bottom of Saggar Street and that I had raised this with the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership.

In response, I was advised :

"A dead end "T" sign will be incorporated into new street name plates at the Saggar Street/City Road junction."

I am pleased to note that signs are now erected on both sides of the street at its junction with City Road - see right :

Riverside Community Sports Club

An update about Riverside Community Sports Club :

Riverside Community Sports Club was formed in 2009 and is based in the West End at Riverside Football Pitches on Riverside Drive.   They are a quality mark Community Standard club run by volunteers which provides boys and girls with the opportunity to play football from age 5 upwards supported by suitably qualified coaches at all levels. 

This year promises to be another exciting year for the club with 5 boys teams playing 7 a-side (2005-2007);   4 boys team playing 11 a-side (2004-2001); and an adults amateur team playing in the Premiership Division of the Saturday Morning football league.

They also have a Soccer Centre operating on a Thursday evening at Riverside which is open to all boys and girls born between 2008-2010.    A large number of players represent the club while taking part in Fun Fours and Super Fives sessions at DISC on a Saturday morning.

Riverside Community Sports Club are actively working on developing the Girls section and welcome all girls of all abilities to join the club and play football.

They are also keen  to establish  if there is sufficient interest within the West End community to set up a ‘Walking Football team’ for those age 50+.

If you are interested in joining, volunteering or helping out in anyway with the club, please contact them via email at enquiries@riversidecsc.co.uk or call 07711 863934.  

Weekly Road Report - West End Ward

DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT

REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2016

Scottish Water Clatto East (Mains Renewal) – Lochee Road (Tullideph Road to Park Street) – closed southbound for 3 weeks.  Rosefield Street and Peddie Street closed for one week.

Perth Road (Glamis Road to West Park Road) – closed for 6 weeks for gas main renewal.

Forthcoming Closures

Kirsty Semple Way (access road to A&E to car park entrance to Mackenzie building) – closed on Sunday 2 October for one day for crane lifting operations.

Getting things done - Seafield Road

Residents who use the Seafield Road car park have complained about seagulls' mess on their vehicles due to seagulls perching on the street lighting columns in the car park.

I contacted the City Council's Street Lighting Partnership Manager about this and she has now helpfully advised as follows :

"Our nightshift crew attended and fitted spikes to the lanterns in the car park ... Hopefully this will help with the situation."

Steps in Benvie Gardens

Residents have expressed concern to me about the quality of repair recently undertaken to the steps to houses in Benvie Gardens.

As you can see (right) the repair has broken down and the step in question is not secure.

I have contacted Home Scotland regarding this and have been promised that this will be attended to with a permanent repair to be promptly undertaken.

Russian School achieves first with GCSE successes

Over the years, I have taken a close interest in the work of Dundee's Russian School and I am delighted at the school's success in achieving the school's first certificates. 

The school's students of Russian as a foreign language were delighted with their GCSE results, with a 100% success rate including an A*. 

The school's Director Dr Andriy Sukhodub is also happy with his students' success. "

Andriy said, "These GCSEs are a first for our school, and we are all extremely proud of our students. Our main focus, as a Saturday school, has always been on delivering supplementary education in Russian for children in the local Russian-speaking community, but adult education is also very important to us.    Our students' success in obtaining their GCSE Russian validates all their hard work during the year and shows how our school can make a positive impact on students of all ages."

Student, Stephen Connor, added, "We only decided in February to formalise our learning by going for the GCSE so we are all happy to have passed.   We are all grateful to our teacher Miss Olga Kovaljova and to the school for providing such a friendly and helpful environment to study.    Russian is not an easy language to learn and so it is great to be able to learn it locally within a Russian speaking institution."

Dundee Russian School meets every Saturday from 11am to 3pm and provides classes for children of all ages.    The new school term starts this month, with exact date to be confirmed.    The school is looking forward to move into the new Harris Academy building. 

"Old Harris Academy was our first venue and we loved it.   The place is very special for us and we hope the new building will become our new home in a new academic year," added Dr Sukhodub. 

You can read more about the school here.

Stop the closure of Ryehill Police Office!

Earlier today, I was given confirmation by our local police Chief Inspector that Police Scotland intends to consult on the possible closure of the Ryehill Police Office at the Pennycook Lane/Perth Road junction. I made clear to the Chief Inspector that I am wholly against such a move - the Ryehill Police Office is a crucial resource in the West End and closing it would be highly detrimental. Later today, at the West End Community Council meeting, I reinforced this view and it is clear there is strong community support to stop any proposal to close this local police office. The proposal to consult on the closure is just another detrimental example of a centralised single police force. At the time the abolition of Tayside Police was proposed, I warned that the centralisation of police into a single force would lead in time to cuts in local police resources and those who supported the single police force should reflect on the error of centralisation. Our local police do an excellent job but a nationwide rationalisation of the police estate is a really bad move and I have no doubt the West End community will rally to the cause of saving the Ryehill Police Station.

West End Community Council Update

I have today launched my September 2016 Update to West End Community Council.    

Subjects covered include:

•         Bus Services   

•         Utility Works across the West End   

•         Blackness Post Office   

The Community Council meets tonight at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm - all residents welcome.      You can download my Update here.

Weekly Road Report - West End Ward

DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT

REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2016

Scottish Water Clatto East (Mains Renewal) – Logie Street (Loons Road to City Road) closed southbound until Wednesday 14 September and City Road (Logie Street to Tullideph Road) closed until Monday 12 September.  Temporary traffic lights at Loons Road/Gardner Street junction until Wednesday 14 September.  Rosefield Street and Peddie Street closed for one week.  Lochee Road (Tullideph Road to Park Street) closed southbound from Monday 19 September for 2 weeks.

Perth Road (Glamis Road to West Park Road) – closed for 7 weeks for gas main renewal.

Forthcoming Closures

Kirsty Semple Way (access road to A&E to car park entrance to Mackenzie building) – closed on Sunday 2 October for one day for crane lifting operations.

Polling Place - Harris Academy/West Park Centre

Prior to its decant for the Harris Academy rebuild, the school was used for many years as a polling station, serving a large part of the western part of the West End Ward.

During the decant, the polling station moved across the road to the West Park Centre (the modern conference centre, not the main, older West Park mansion).     

I have been in contact with council officers in the past few months as the new school building reached completion about the long-term polling station arrangements.

I have now been advised by the City Council as follows - a sensible decision which will cause least disruption to the school and which will work well as West Park has proved to be an excellent site for the polling station over the past three years :

"Following a visit to Harris ... we have decided that for all future planned elections we will continue to use West Park as due to the layout of the school using it as a polling place would cause disruption. 

The only time we might have to use it is if a snap election was called and West Park wasn't available in which case the area which would cause least disruption would be the Library but entering from the door to the west of the main reception and not the reception door itself.    This would allow the school to continue albeit with loss of pupil access to the Library on the day."

West End Community Council - September meeting

Friends of Wighton - Saturday event

From Sheena Wellington :

Historical Gaelic harp come and try!

Saturday 10th September at 2pm :

 

Come and have a go at playing a medieval clarsach, in Dundee's Wighton Centre, upstairs in the Central Library. 

The old Gaelic harp of Scotland and Ireland is very different and much more ancient than the modern clarsach or Celtic harp you might be more familiar with.    The ancient clarsach was shared between Ireland and Scotland from medieval times down to the 18th century.

The best known examples are iconic museum exhibits: the famous Brian Boru harp displayed in Trinity College Dublin, and the beautiful Queen Mary harp in the National Museum in Edinburgh. The Brian Boru harp is shown on the Guinness label!

Historical Gaelic harps are rare, and are hardly ever heard nowadays. Simon Chadwick (pictured above) is a historical musician and a leading authority in the old Scottish and Irish harp traditions, and he will bring beautiful historic replicas of the ancient harps into Dundee for this come-and-try session.

Simon, an inspiring teacher,  leads a regular harp class in the Wighton Centre in Dundee, and there are now spaces for new participants and harps available to rent. So come along on Saturday 10th to explore the oldest strands of Scottish and Irish music.

Temporary Traffic Order : Kirsty Semple Way

From the City Council :

THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of crane lifting works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Kirsty Semple Way (between the access road to A & E and the car park for the Mackenzie building), Dundee.

This notice comes into effect on Saturday 10th September 2016 for 1 day.

Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained.   This section of road is only available to buses and taxis.

Alternative routes are available via Tom McDonald Avenue / Ninewells Avenue / Ninewells Drive.

For further information contact 433082.

Home Start Charity Night

Community Spirit Action Group - September meeting

Weekly Road Report - West End Ward

DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT

REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2016

Scottish Water Clatto East (Mains Renewal) – Logie Street (Loons Road to City Road) closed southbound and City Road (Logie Street to Tullideph Road) closed for one week.  Temporary traffic lights at Loons Road/Gardner Street junction.

Perth Road (Glamis Road to West Park Road) – closed from Monday 5 September for 8 weeks for gas main renewal.

Kirsty Semple Way (access road to A&E to car park entrance to Mackenzie building) – closed on Saturday 10 September for one day for crane lifting operations.

Forthcoming Closures

Kirsty Semple Way (access road to A&E to car park entrance to Mackenzie building) – closed on Sunday 2 October for one day for crane lifting operations.

Busy Saturday!

Yesterday, I was delighted to attend the Summer Meeting of the Friends of Balgay that took place at the Mills Observatory.

Robert Law of the observatory gave a very interesting presentation on the history of the observatory, followed by a tour.

The photo (right) is from the presentation and shows Robert at the telescope.

I was also delighted yesterday to attend the Pennycook and Sinderins Courts Sheltered Housing Coffee Morning at Pennycook Court – and, despite a little rain, was very well attended with excellent stalls - see photo below :

Temporary Traffic Order - Park Place

From Dundee 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 gas mains repair works.  The Order is expected to be in force for 3 weeks from 5 September 2016.  Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Park Place between Old Hawkhill and Smalls Lane.

Pedestrian access and vehicular access to premises will be maintained where possible.

An alternative route will be available via Smalls Lane, Smalls Wynd and Old Hawkhill.

If you have any queries, please contact the Network Management Team, City Development Department on 433082.

Xplore Dundee bus diversions - Perth Road

Xplore Dundee has advised of the following bus diversions (including the Harris Academy school buses) during the forthcoming vehicular traffic closure in part of Perth Road between Glamis Road and West Park Road :

Take pride in your city events - September #takepridedundee

Coffee Morning at Pennycook Court - all welcome!