“I’m informing you that we have a lighting replacement scheme about to commence in the Hawkhill area of your ward, starting on Monday of next week.

We intend to replace all the lighting columns and cable network along the length of the Hawkhill from Brown Street out as far as Peddie Street.

Obviously this is a large project for us and Tayside Contracts will be assisted by a sub-contractor, T N Gilmartins, who will be undertaking excavation works on site. 

Works will commence at the city centre end and progress westwards from there. 

We will of course, endeavour to keep disruption to a minimum although some traffic management will be required.

Weather permitting, works are expected to last 10-12 weeks.”

Residents will be aware that the so-called “Blether Bus” that replaced the 204 bus service the council axed last year and covers a number of streets in the West End that would otherwise have no bus service – streets like Invergowrie Drive, Newhall Gardens and Glamis Drive – was suspended at the start of the COVID-19 health emergency.

The service assists older residents who find it difficult to walk the distances – often uphill – to the main service buses.   

I recently noticed that Aberdeenshire Council has, with proper safety arrangements including social distancing, announced a restart to its Dial a Bus service that has similar aims.   To quote that council :

“We preparing to re-introduce a number of #A2B #dial-a-bus services operated by our fleet of minibuses in a controlled and phased manner.”

I raised this with the City Council and have been advised :

“The Dial A Bus model of operation requires users to pre-book their journeys and this allows the operators to manage the number of passengers using the service at any one time – and the timings of those journeys.   From speaking with colleagues from other local authorities I think most minibus services are limited to two passengers on the vehicle at any one time.   The Blether Bus model is much closer to a bus service and there is no pre-booking option so we cannot manage journeys in this way.

We will continue to liaise with colleagues at Fleet about vehicle and minibus availability and appropriate protocols that need to be in place before we can safely restart the Blether Bus services.”

I have responded :

“ … surely some out the box thinking is required so what about temporarily converting the Blether Bus to something around the Dial a Bus model?   I have constituents in streets like Newhall Gardens who simply cannot manage the hill up to Perth Road.”

I was pleased to received an update last week that Police Scotland had given assurances that it is assisting in the city council’s school road safety campaign by deploying officers to areas surrounding schools with the new school term starting this week.

I have had numerous concerns from residents about safety outside our local schools and, in particular, the need for all drivers to adhere to the 20mph speed limit at schools to assist pupil safety.

In the run up to the October school holidays I had, in particular, concerns raised about the speed of a minority of vehicles around the West End campus of St Joseph’s Primary School, Victoria Park Primary School and Balgay Hill Nursery School, and I asked the city council to reinforce the message about safe, slow driving near schools and was given assurances that this would be done.   

The input of Police Scotland on this important safety issue is very welcome.

A number of residents have highlighted that, although real time bus information is working at bus shelters, paper timetables have been out of date since the bus companies altered services during the health emergency.

As one resident pointed out in relation to the bus stop in Perth Road near Step Row :

“Perth Road is a main local community shopping area where people are being encouraged to think/act sustainably, yet the Step Row Stop (with no real-time display) has the main Stagecoach Tayway high profile route timetable still showing the old 10 minute weekday frequency, with appropriate comments from a disgruntled punter.

Add to that 2018 route maps not updated and … it is a far cry from “Bringing Confidence to Public Transport”.    Attention grabbing EV and electric bike hire initiatives are all well and good, but the simple public transport basics should not be forgotten, particularly since the operators’ own traditional printed timetables, for now, at least, seem to be hard to find.”

I appreciate that, given the changing bus timetables during the health emergency replacing every paper timetable at bus stops is difficult in terms of resourcing but I have sought and obtained assurances from the that erroneous timetables will be removed.

Hopefully once there is more of a return to normal services and stability in timetables, new and correct timetables can be placed at every bus stop and we will also hopefully see the return of suspended bus services like Service 4 and the Blether Bus in the West End.

REPORT FOR WEST END WARD – WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 19 OCTOBER 2020

Blackness Road (at junction with Bellfield Street for a distance of 25m or thereby in an easterly direction) – closed from Monday 19 October for 3 days for BT work.

Blackness Road (at Bellfield Street) – temporary traffic lights from Monday 19 October for 3 days for BT work.

Forthcoming Roadworks

Riverside Drive (at Mayo Avenue) – off peak temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 27 October for maintenance work to DfT traffic sensors.

Blackness Road (at Glenagnes Road) – temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 October for SSEN disconnection works.

Pentland Avenue (City Road to Scott Street) – closed westbound from Monday 2 November for 6 days to facilitate road safety works.

Glamis Drive – closed from Monday 9 November for 2 weeks for carriageway surfacing.