Following my weekly surgeries at Harris Academy and the Mitchell Street Centre, I participated in tonight's City Council committee meetings.
At the Environment Committee, I welcomed a further extension of recycling facilities but emphasised the need to provide additional recycling facilities (such as plastics and aluminium cans) at neighbourhood recycling centres.
At the Housing Committee, I sought assurances that the City Council will obtain a District Valuer's valuation on 24 council houses in Clepington that it intends to sell off on the open market before marketing them and not sell them below that valuation.
The Housing Department wishes to sell them off because they "do not meet the expectations of current applicants for housing" but has actually not attempted to let them out following a lease with Dundee College as student accommodation coming to an end.
If the council wishes to sell them off, it owes it to our council house rentpayers to get best value from such a sale and I am grateful to the Chief Executive of the City Council who agreed to my request for a proper valuation by the District Valuer and that the properties should not be sold for less than that professional valuation.
At Policy and Resources Committee, I pointed out how poor the SNP Government's grant allocation to Dundee City Council will be for 2012/13 - a cash cut of £1.416 over the 2011/12 settlement at a time when other authorities have seen a cash increase. This is a very disappointing financial settlement for the city and will impact on service provision in Dundee during the forthcoming year.