Yesterday, as well as attending the latest meeting of the West End Schools' Project Board and my weekly surgery at Blackness Primary School, I had the pleasure of attending a civic reception at the City Chambers to 
highlight Dundee's support for the Perth 800 celebrations and for Perth's bid for city status. Both Dundee Lord Provost John Letford and Perth and Kinross Provost Dr John Hulbert gave entertaining speeches and it was good to see a good turnout of both Perth and Dundee representatives.Today, I had a very productive meeting with Chief Superintendent Gavin Robertson, Detective Chief Inspector Shaun McKillop and Inspector Dave Scott from Tayside Police, following concerns about break-ins in parts of the West End.
The police representatives emphasised that the police are giving high priority to the break-ins situation across the Dundee Division of Tayside Police. Specifically, in terms of Beat 26 in the West End Ward, which covers the east part of the ward (excluding the Perth Road corridor) from the river up to Pentland, there has been significant targeted police resource being put in and in terms of detection and prevention this is showing signs of improvement with a detection rate above the city average (covering both theft and reset). Use of proactive patrols and intelligence-led stop and search is proving helpful.
The police are keen to ensure that residents are given good security advice and we had a very useful discussion about promoting and extending controlled entry systems for tenement/flatted properties. They are also keen to meet with local residents' groups to update them on what action is being taken both to prevent and detect thefts from houses, garages and sheds in the area.
A new crime prevention advice book is also being published and I have asked for copies for constituents.
I am pleased that the police are taking very proactive and positive steps to tackle this serious issue.
Also today, I took part in a briefing about suicide prevention at which representatives of various organisations, including the City Council, NHS Tayside, Tayside Police, the University of Dundee, took part. It was appropriate that this took place on World Suicide Prevention Day.Given the concerns we all have about the suicides of young people in the city over the summer, this was an important event to discuss suicide prevention measures being taken locally, multi-agency working, and support for people and their families.
I asked questions about support and about awareness training. A full report on the outcomes from today's meeting will go to the council's Social Work and Health Commitee. Full details of the Scottish Government's Choose Life campaign is available at http://www.chooselife.net/.