East End Ward

The Weblog of Dundee City Councillors, Will Dawson and Christina Roberts

Dundee International Book Prize - Top 4 Announced

Tuesday, 11 May 2010 20:52 Posted by Will Dawson & Christina Roberts
Labels: Book Prize 2010

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 This is the biggest award in the UK for an unpublished writer and after more than a hundred entries were received from around the world, four have made the cut.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

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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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Arbroath Road - Bumpy Ride

Tuesday, 20 May 2008 17:28 Posted by Will Dawson & Christina Roberts
Labels: Arbroath Road

Responding to a recent letter in the tele;

Bumpy Road for Drivers.

In response to Broughty Commuter, I have already had discussion with the Planning & Transportation department regarding this very issue and a meeting was held at the site on 9th May. Tests of the surface have been carried out (these are more rigorous than those carried out during the councils local program) and the results indicate compaction, layer depth and material are all as per specification. A further visual inspection shows no signs of a problem.

All at the meeting acknowledge that their is a problem with the running surface but at present no one can accurately pinpoint why this has occurred. I know from experience that this road feels horrendous at present. The situation will be monitored until the end of June where further tests will be carried out. If these tests still show a defect then remedial action will have to be taken.

One possible cause of the problem is that the filled in area is a different surface to that of the existing carriageway and if this is found to be the case then a surface dressing could be put on to this carriageway in order allow the traffic to travel on a more uniform surface. Any remedial action can be taken when the road is again closed from the 28th July. The reason for this closure is to allow Scottish and Southern Energy to complete the cabling works at the Scott Fyffe Roundabout. For obvious reasons I cannot say if this will cure the problem as we will have to wait until the tests are carried out.

If after the monitoring period the road surface improves and is running smoothly, then no further action would be required.

I understand the frustration that drivers feel when road surfaces are running like this but Broughty Commuter can rest assured that it is being looked into and remedial action will be taken as necessary.

Cllr Will Dawson
East End Ward
SNP Planning and Transportation Spokesperson

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Douglas Summer Festival

Tuesday, 13 May 2008 18:21 Posted by Will Dawson & Christina Roberts

From tonights tele,

"Summer festival

On June 22, there will be a summer festival in Douglas and we are looking for volunteers to help out.

Are there any people who are willing to come on the day to give us a hand? We would be very grateful and you might enjoy taking part. We can be contacted c/o Community & Library Centre, Balmoral Avenue, Dundee. — Douglas Festival Committee."

I'm sure that Jim and his team who are organising this years festival will be more than happy for any help that can be given. Their will be a parade, stalls, refreshments and contributions from local groups (cadets etc if I remember correctly) so anyone that can help please get in touch with them.

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Lack of updates

Monday, 12 May 2008 21:06 Posted by Will Dawson & Christina Roberts
Labels: ABB

Have to admit I haven't posted for a while so feel quite guilty as really should be keeping all who read this updated with the work that both Christina and I do.

However on many occassions the work of a Councillor is actually quite personal.

Ok, I could report every pothole, missing street sign or unemptied bin on this blog but I don't think that is the point and it would become very boring very quickly.

Also as I have said a lot of the work is personal which would mean divulging information which people who have come to me would not want divulged!

However, I will try to update this as often as possible and appreciate any feedback that is given.

One last bit of (belated) good news. The ABB factory is finally coming down. The protective fences have gone up and have been painted (why paint a fence for demolition - I don't know but I am not going to complain about it) and I was quoted in the press recently as saying "are they blowing it up? Can I press the buton?" - Good news indeed -

some images below from the factory including ones from people who have actually managed to enter the building which was apparently under the watchful eye of security all the time.