Campaigning in Dundee City East

Following my usual Saturday morning surgeries I met up with some Dundee Conservative  members and helpers from Ruth Davidson’s North East campaign team, following their muster earlier in the day in Barnhill.

 

We managed to speak to hundreds of residents across The Ferry ward and Ruth’s message of holding the SNP to account, backing Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom and protecting family finances as new tax powers come to Holyrood, was well received.

 

Council budget passed

Yesterday Dundee City Council held its budget meeting and the SNP administration’s proposals for cutting £23 million were passed by 15 votes to 2, with the Labour Group abstaining.

 

During the debate I mentioned that Scottish councils have had to contend with the biggest attack on their budgets in decades and that the SNP Scottish Government had chosen to underfund local government.  The UK Government settlement to the Scottish Government increased by 1.7% in cash terms from last year but the SNP chose to reduce Dundee City Council’s grant funding by 3.8%. If the council had received a cash increase equivalent to the overall cash increase in the Scottish Government’s budget, rather than an £11.3 million cut in grant funding Dundee would instead have received a £5 million increase in its grant.

 

The amendment I supported, if it had been carried, would have stopped the large increase in car parking charges and reduced slightly the cut to the road maintenance and street lighting budget.

 

The council tax has been frozen for another year but with Scottish Labour wanting to increase the rate of income tax higher than the rate levied elsewhere in the UK and the SNP soon to set out details of its plans to reform the council tax then I think this time next year Dundee tax payers will be hit with a double whammy of tax increases.

Action on local issues-update

I have been advised by the council’s Environment Department that an order has been placed for a metal fence to fully enclose the play area again at Orchar Park and action will also be taken to deal with the ponding at the entrance. I understand that both these jobs will be completed before the end of the financial year.

 

The missing water toby cover on Dalhousie Road has been replaced.       

Orchar Park play area

Following the work to remove a hedge in Orchar Park the play area still needs to be made secure. Previously it was protected on two sides by a metal fence, on another side by the boundary hedge of the bowling green and on its north side by the hedge that was removed. A temporary wooden fence has been erected but it doesn’t entirely enclose the play area. What was previously the entrance to the play area is also now a bit of a mud bath.

 

I was instrumental some years ago in arranging for the metal fences to be erected to ensure the play area was secure so I’m a bit disappointed to see what it looks like now. I have contacted the council’s environment department to ask that steps be taken to provide a metal fence to replace the wooden one so that the play area is once again fully enclosed and I have also asked that action be taken to deal with the area of ponding at the entrance.

Council budget

 Earlier this week opposition councillors learned of the additional cuts totalling £9.916M that the SNP administration is proposing to make to close the council’s budget gap of £22.881M for 2016/17. These include significant sums from home care, social care, children and families service  and a combined total £1.3M from the road maintenance, street lighting and winter maintance budgets.

 

Some of the proposals include the redesign of the way services are delivered to improve their delivery and streamline existing structures, which begs the question that if this can be done without having a negative  impact on service delivery then why wasn’t it done years ago.

 

Cutting nearly £23M in total from next year’s budget is bound to cause difficulties. The most regular complaint I receive from constituents currently is about the number of potholes in carriageways across Dundee. Cutting the revenue budget by so much is sure to have a big impact on routine maintenance. There is also a proposal to suspend the roll out of the domestic recycling service. A large part of Broughty Ferry was in the first phase of the roll out and those residents are to be notified of the cessation of free liners for their food waste containers.

 

As well as the cuts I also have some concern about the increase in charges, for instance in Broughty Ferry the cost for parking for up to an hour in the off street car parks is to go up by 50%

 

A lot of this could have been avoided if the SNP had given Dundee its fair share of the Scottish Government budget. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Scottish Government’s budget shows that for 2016/17 the year-on-year cash increase is £0.5 billion, which represents a standstill budget in real terms, yet the local government grant settlement for 2016/17 reflects an overall cash cut at national level of £350M. Dundee’s reduction in grant funding amounts to £11.319. With savings of £14.002M already having been made further cuts could have been avoided if Dundee was allocated its fair share.

 

The SNP administration appears to have meekly accepted these cuts without speaking up for Dundee. I’m pretty sure if there had been a Labour or Conservative Scottish Government in place Dundee’s SNP politicians would have been demanding that action be taken.

 

I have already met with the executive director of corporate services about the budget and I intend to raise issues with the executive directors of the other departments in the coming week.

Saturday activity

As usual on Saturday I held my drop in surgeries, which were very well attended, and then I made a number of prearranged home visits. Later in the day I had a walk around the area to inspect locations reported to me by residents as requiring some attention. There was a plethora of potholes (hopefully the council will catch up on these when the wet weather goes) but also what appears to be damage at the site of a water toby on the recently resurfaced pavement at Dalhousie Road. I have asked the roads maintenance partnership if it could check this out and tidy up/make safe.  

Scottish Conservative meeting

 

On Wednesday I attended a meeting of Dundee Conservatives in Broughty Ferry which was addressed by Murdo Fraser MSP, a good friend of the local party. The purpose of the meeting was to welcome those members who had recently joined (an ever increasing number). Murdo arrived hot-footed from the budget debate at Holyrood and gave an uplifting talk on this year’s Scottish Parliament election and issues such as taxation, education, health and local government.