Bus Services to be reviewed

I am glad to announce that the City Development departments transportation team will be reviewing the accessibilty issues within Dundee as has been pointed out in the Courier today.

I have had many lengthy discussions with the team over what has been the biggest change in the bus network over the past 20 years or so and it has caused a lot of anger and frustration. Understandably so.

Meetings have also been held with National Express where we have expressed concerns and given them a team view of where we see missed opportunities and obvious gaps. These meetings have been confidential so I cannot update the blog as too the content however what was evident is that we are looking to help National Express do what is best for the public transport network in Dundee.

Change is sometimes hard to accept and sometimes when decisions are taken with the best of intentions, it leaves people frustrated and angry. I totally agree that we will need to look closely at how services are provided and what can be done to fill the gaps and this process will start in November.

Changing for the future

I find myself at odds with colleauges of other parties over this board. We are presenting an ideal opportunity for members of the opposition to become involved with the budget preparations but they do not seem to be interested.

Why I wonder!

We are approaching matters in a way never seen at Dundee before but they still think we are hiding things. This is an ideal opportunity for all members to become involved but as they have no control within the council any longer they do not wish to know about it.

Oh how things have changed in the last couple of years.

We are more open and transparent than they were but we are still accused of hiding things - how ironic!

Dundee United lift the cup


It was a beautiful day followed by a great result for Dundee United. I'm not the greatest follower of football in the world however tend to try and watch when Scotland and the home teams are playing.

However had to do other things on the day of the final but managed to listen to the whole match on Radio Scotland. The first half was as many said a quieter affair to that of the second half but what a second half.
I would like to pass on my congratulations to the team and all the staff at united for a job well done.


Ross county also deserve sincere congratulation on getting as far as they did in the competition. I love to see the smaller teams getting a chance and this one was well deserved.

Dundee International Book Prize - Top 4 Announced

2010 - Dundee International Book Prize

This is the UK's premier prize for emerging novelists and the final four have been announced. This is the biggest award in the UK for an unpublished writer and after more than a hundred entries were received from around the world, four have made the cut.

Dundee is committed to supporting innovation and the City is a hub of creativity - whether that's in the arts, digital gaming or music. The book prize shows that we are serious about recognising and celebrating that talent. The book prize is a fantastic way of discovering new writing talent and the fact that the judges have chosen four finalists this year instead of three shows the breadth and scope of the talent out there.

Extracts of the final four have been published at
www.literarydundee.co.uk/bookprize.htm

Stewart Hosie returned as Dundee East MP


Congratulations to Stewart Hosie who has been returned as MP for Dundee East. Stewart is a hard working MP and the people of the constituency have obviously realised this by returning him with an increased majority.

It is unfortunate that this election was such that people in Scotland were running scared of a Conservative Government or we generally would have hoped to have had Jim Barrie elected also.

Below is a message from Stewart and Jim;

SNP Candidates Stewart Hosie and Jim Barrie thanked the 26,066 voters in the Dundee East and Dundee West constituencies who voted SNP. The SNP gained 34.4 of the vote over the two constituencies.

Stewart said:"we want to thank all those who voted for us on Thursday and helped us to increase our vote across both constituencies.

I am delighted to have been re-elected as MP for Dundee East and I pledge to work hard for my constituents and for the City during the next term of Parliament to fulfil their trust in me."

Jim Barrie said: "I thank all those electors who supported us. We put a strong challenge to Labour in Dundee West. Clearly we lost out because the election was dominated to a great degree by the TV debates - from which we were excluded

It was therefore difficult for us to get our message heard. Labour managed to scare the voters that if they did not vote Labour they would get a Tory Government.

Of course it now looks like they will get a Tory Government anyway although the negotiation over the next few days will be interesting.

What is certain is that Labour massively lost out in England while they scooped up anti-Tory votes in Scotland.

Although we are disappointed we did not win in Dundee West, this is our best performance in a UK General Election since the 1970's"
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