The Women of Discovery Walk

– A free talk – on Wednesday 7th March 2018 at 6.30pm – Baxter Suite, Tower Building at the University of Dundee.

The University of Dundee and the city itself has a proud history of women who surpassed the expectations of their peers. 

This talk is a partnership between Discovery Walk and the University of Dundee Archives. Kelly Marr, the project originator of Discovery Walk, will discuss the works and legacies of the three women who have a plaque in Slessor Gardens, Mary Lily Walker, Professor Margaret Fairlie, and Mary Ann Baxter. 

Caroline Brown, University Archivist, will explore the position and role of women in the University, particularly in its early days as University College, Dundee.

You can book your place here.

This event is part of Dundee Women’s Festival 4th-17th March 2018.    For more information on the festival follow the link here.


Miller’s Wynd car park improvements #dundeewestend

Residents will recall that, back in November, I highlighted the poor maintenance of the Miller’s Wynd car park – the foliage was very tired and there were dumped items across the car park.    

The acquisition by Dundee City Council of the Miller’s Wynd car park – from the University of Dundee – has provided much-needed additional free 2 hour parking in this area of Perth Road.   However, it is important the infrastucture of the car park is improved and I contacted Dundee City Council seeking improvements.

I am pleased to say that the overgrown foliage has now been tackled and the dumped items removed – see below :
The Head of Roads and Transportation at the council has now advised me :

“I hope to see this car park given a fuller bit of design attention and I will … arrange for a bit of multi department design, surface, vegetation, seating, recycling, lighting and issues and there will be an element of community co-design.
This all won’t happen overnight and it is not best if we do it in uncoordinated manner/piecemeal manner without an end plan.”

It has been agreed that at a community walkabout I am participating in soon – along with council officers, community council and ward colleagues – the car park will be visited and plans further discussed.   The main purpose of the walkabout is to agree specific actions to improve West End car parking – hopefully this will result in concrete progress on this long-standing problem.


Glamis Road – tree and pavement works – and road closure

Further to the weekly road report information I updated residents about recently in which work in Glamis Road was mentioned, the following information has been issued by the City Council to affected residents about the work in the street and the resultant road closure :

“Glamis Road (Ninewells Avenue to Blackness Road) East & West Footways –  Forestry & Remedial Footway Works

I wish to notify you that work is programmed to commence at the above location on Thursday 15 February 2018 and will last for approximately 2 and a half weeks. The works involve tree canopy pruning and remedial footway works associated with tree root damage.

Tree works will be carried out by Dundee City Council Forestry Section and the footway works will be carried out by Tayside Contracts.

Initially, footway works will be undertaken starting Thursday 15 February using temporary traffic lights off peak at localised areas as the work progresses. From Monday 19 February 2018, the works will be carried out by closing the street to all traffic from Ninewells Avenue to Blackness Road. Road traffic will be diverted via Glamis Road south of Blackness Road to Perth Road and Ninewells Avenue and the reverse.  

For safety reasons, parking, waiting, loading and unloading will be prohibited on both sides of the street for the duration of the road closure. Due to the recognised volume of non resident vehicles parking on Glamis Road on a daily basis, parking enforcement will be in place for the duration of the road closure and parking enforcement notices will be issued where required. Accommodation will be made for residents’ access and servicing of properties if safe to do so though areas may be temporarily inaccessible during forestry operations. Site personnel will advise however we would ask that vehicular traffic movements be kept to a minimum, where possible. 

Please note that pedestrian access will be maintained to both sides of the street for the duration of the works unless it is unsafe to do so due to ongoing works and localised alternative pedestrian walkways will be provided where required,  

Bus services will be affected by this closure and I would advise bus passengers to visit www.dundeetravelinfo.com or telephone the bus operator for further details of diversion routes and alternative bus stops.”


Getting things done – fencing damage at Pleasance Court #dundeewestend

Following concerns raised by a resident with me yesterday about the damage to fencing at the side of Pleasance Court, I immediately raised this with the fence owners, Home Scotland.

See photo – right :

The broken fencing was lying across the public pavement at the Brewery Lane/Brook Street junction.

Home Scotland’s Maintenance Surveyor responded very promptly late yesterday afternoon as follows :

“I have attended and removed the fence from the street. We will now organise repair / replacement. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.”


Council to make changes to recycling collections

Dundee City Council is to alter the recycling arrangements for thousands of Dundee households from April in order to ensure that the recycling offer is consistent across the city.

I recently asked for an update on the recycling roll-out as Phases 1 and 2 undertaken in 2015 are done differently than the later phases.      Phases 1 and 2 includes all of the West End Ward apart from the area around the Perth Road Lanes, together with parts of Broughty Ferry, Menzieshill, Lochee and Charleston and affects some 24 000 households.

In Phases 1 and 2, paper, card, plastics and tins were recycled together in the same blue recycling bin with a burgundy bin used for glass recycling.    However, since then the Scottish Government’s ‘Charter for Household Recycling in Scotland’ has insisted that paper and card should not be collected along with tins and plastics, so from April, the 24 000 households on the ‘old’ method of separation of recyclables will be switched to putting tins, metals and plastics into the burgundy bin.   Glass will no longer be collected in a household recycling bin but at nearby neighbourhood recycling points.

It is unfortunate that a change is necessary to what goes into each recycling bin for 24 000 households in the early phases of the recycling rollout back in 2015 but the government’s ‘Charter for Household Recycling in Scotland’ did change the goalposts in terms of what can be collected together.   It is necessary to ensure that the recycling offer is the same for everyone right across Dundee – the later phases’ households rolled out last year are already on the new method of recycling and use of bins.

It is vitally important that this change in recycling arrangements this coming April goes smoothly for households and is well-explained and communicated to residents.    This is particularly important as the later phases of recycling changes last year had not gone according to plan at implementation and had led to many complaints and concerns from residents.    

I have also sought assurances that any outstanding issues from Phases 3 and 4 have now been implemented – such as the siting of Eurobins and requests from residents to move or site them better.

I am happy, as always, to speak with any West End resident with any outstanding bins or recycling problems or concerns.

Copy of detail sent to councillors by the council’s Implementation Project Manager :

“I am writing to advise you of the forthcoming changes to recycling collections in parts of the West End, Broughty Ferry, Charleston, Menzieshill, Lochee and all surrounding areas which were previously included in Phases 1 & 2 of changes to waste services in 2015.
As you know, in recent months we have been introducing a slightly different version of the 2015 changes across other areas of the City. The reason for the difference was the 2016 introduction of the Scottish Government’s “Charter for Household Recycling in Scotland” which details a preferred single collection methodology for all councils in Scotland. 

The aim, in asking all Councils to adopt this standard collection model, is to make recycling systems easier for residents to use and understand as well as increasing the quality and quantity of recycling collected. 

In order to comply with this Charter, Dundee City Council subsequently amended the collection model from the 2015 version and introduced this across other areas of the City in 2017. 

We now wish to revisit the areas covered by the original changes and bring them in-line with the rest of Dundee.
These changes will commence on Monday 16th April and will comprise:

• Blue bins – these will revert to PAPER & CARDBOARD only & collection frequencies will be amended;
• Burgundy bins – these will be repurposed from glass bins to METALS, PLASTICS & CARTONS & collection frequencies will be amended;
• Glass collections – these will change from kerbside collections via a burgundy bin to bring site collections via an enhanced network of these sites.

Information on the changes will be communicated to residents in the next few weeks by means of “teaser” letter which outlines the new system and lists the dates for a series of Drop-In information sessions which have been arranged. 

A subsequent full information leaflet and revised collection calendar (where applicable) will then be delivered to affected households approximately 1 week prior to the new service starting. Copies of these communications will of course be forwarded to yourselves in due course. 

These communications will fully explain what residents should do if their bins contain the OLD material mixes (e.g. glass in a burgundy bin) at the time of the first collections. There will be no requirement for residents to empty any materials out of the bins themselves.”