More pavement improvements in central Broughty Ferry

I have been notified that works to reconstruct the south footway on Brook Street from Gray Street to  326 Brook Street (Bruach Bar and Restaurant) is programmed to commence on Monday 3rd February 2014 and will last for approximately 2 weeks.  The contractor for the works is Tayside Contracts.

 

The council has issued a letter to the owner/occupiers of the nearby properties advising them of the arrangements. It indicates that in the interest of public safety a lane closure will be implemented and westbound traffic will be diverted via St Vincent Street, King Street and Gray Street for the duration of the works.

 

The works will be carried out in sections so that at least one area will be kept available for taxi parking adjacent to the works. Parking will still be allowed on the north side of Brook Street.

 

 Access to car parks within this area will be maintained as will vehicular delivery access to properties, although vehicular traffic movements are asked to be kept to a minimum where possible. Some minor delays may be encountered during some phases of the works.

 

 Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained throughout the works.

Dog fouling at Dawson Park

The issue of dog fouling at Dawson Park has recently generated a lot of complaints. I raised the matter with the council’s Environment Department and in response I was advised that animal control officers carry out regular patrols in all of the parks within the city including Dawson Park. They recently carried out early morning and late night checks specifically at this location and talked to many dog owners who were happy to see their presence in the park and were also pleased with the new and more prominent signage.

I have been told that enforcement officers will continue to issue fixed penalty notices where they witness anyone failing to clean up after their dog.

Unfortunately on Saturday a lot of dog fouling still had to be cleared away by users of the sports pitches. I have made the Environment Department aware of this and have asked what further action can be taken.

Salmond’s EU plan branded unlawful by former legal head

Alex Salmond’s plans for a separate Scotland’s entry into the EU have been branded unlawful by a former legal head of the EU Council. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP has accused the First Minister of misleading the public on what would happen to the country’s EU membership under independence.

The SNP have continually claimed they would be able to jump the queue into Europe by using article 48 instead of going through article 49 – the route used by every other accession country to gain entry. This claim was contained in their White Paper, and at last December’s European and External Affairs Committee, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on five separate occasions that nobody had questioned whether this is “a valid and sensible route to take”. But a new submission to the same committee compiled by Jean-Claude Piris, the former Director General of the Legal Service of the EU Council, reveals that “it would not be legally correct to try and use article 48 for the admission of Scotland as a member of the European Union”.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP said: “Once again, the First Minister has been caught red-handed trying to mislead the people of Scotland on Europe. Alex Salmond pretended he had legal advice on what a separate Scotland’s position within the EU would be when none actually existed, and he even spent public money going to court trying to hide this fact.

“Thoroughly discredited, he then attempted to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the White Paper, claiming he had found a new route in. Now, the position set out by one of Europe’s leading legal experts is crystal clear – the SNP’s plan to gain entry into the EU under separation is unlawful.This blows Alex Salmond’s European case right out of the water and contradicts everything he and his deputy have been telling the people of Scotland. The public are fed up with these half-truths and assertions and the First Minister needs to come clean on the true consequences of independence.”

Dog bin required

A constituent who regularly uses the coastal walkway from Douglas Terrace has asked me if additional dog bins could be provided at the Stannergate end. Apparently the (damaged) one that had been there was removed when the Lower Broughty Ferry Road carriageway received a surface dressing last year and it hasn’t been replaced.

At a time when incidents of fouling appear to be on the increase it makes sense to ensure that sufficient bins are provided at popular dog walking locations.

 

I have contacted the council’s environment department about it and hopefully this will result in a replacement bin being installed.

Traffic on Strathern Road

Over the years I have been contacted by residents of Strathern Road about the increasing volume of traffic using the thoroughfare and the speed at which some vehicles are travelling at.

Last year, at my request, the council carried out a series of speed surveys along Strathern Road and Craigie Drive and whilst some vehicles were identified as speeding the council concluded that flows and speeds were as would be expected on such a major route.  The police were made aware of the speed surveys and give the vicinity occasional enforcement.

In recent weeks local residents have asked me if the speed of traffic on Strathern Road could be looked at again. I have raised the matter with the council’s transportation manager asking for his comments and I have suggested that it might be useful installing a vehicle activated sign that lights up to advise drivers of the 30mph limit, similar to the one on Arbroath Road near to Kemnay Place.

Potholes needing attention

I had a busy couple of surgeries on Saturday; I received a lot of complaints about potholes and the condition of our roads in general. This issue was raised with me more than any other issue last year and it looks like it will be the same this year.

Brought to my attention on Saturday were potholes in Maule Street and another pothole in Queen Street near Brae Cottage residential home. I was also asked about the deteriorating condition of the carriageway at the junction of Claypotts Road/Brook Street/Westfield Road/Dundee Road and in Whinny Brae.

I have made the roads maintenance partnership aware of these locations. It usually responds very effectively and any actionable defects are repaired to ensure safety is maintained however I have also asked about the likelihood of more permanent repairs being carried out at the locations where there is considerable wear and tear.

At the council's budget meeting in 2012 the Conservative Group tried to get more resources allocated to road reconstructions by diverting funding proposed for the redevelopment of the environment department’s headquarters. Unfortunately our proposal didn’t win the support of the majority of the councillors.

Updates- speaking clock; Beach Crescent bollards

Happy New Year to all my constituents and readers of this blog, wherever in the world you might be reading it from.

 Speaking clock

I thought I would start 2014 with a couple of updates.  An earlier post reported that public bodies had spent more than £14,000 of taxpayers’ money phoning the speaking clock over the past five years. Dundee City Council accounted for a small part of that total and I raised the matter with the council’s chief executive. In response the head of information technology has confirmed that the speaking clock telephone number is blocked on mobile phones and all landlines.

Apparently it has always been blocked on mobile phones. It should have been blocked across all landlines in the council but due to a technical failure, which has since been resolved; it wasn’t blocked for a period of time on some of them.

 Slipway Beach Crescent

 

I was pleased to see the bollards installed at the old slipway in Beach Crescent. Towards the end of 2012 I was contacted by a constituent who told me that she had been standing at the railings at the bottom of the slipway watching the swans with her young grandchild, when one of the cars parked at the top of the slipway rolled down, without any occupants, and banged into the railings. It just missed her but it gave her a huge shock. Speaking later to one of the shopkeepers she was told the same thing happened a couple of weeks before. I asked the council’s head of transportation if he could arrange for his traffic engineers to check the safety of the location and he agreed that a bollard type system would prevent similar occurrences. Unfortunately due to other priorities it has taken until the latter part of this financial year for the scheme to be implemented.

 

The council confirmed that it is not a functioning slipway but the bollards are able to be removed just in case it needs to be used in the future.