City Council & Committee meetings

There were meetings of the City Council and some of its committees tonight. The City Council considered a report about the boundary changes for Westminster elections imposed by the Tory-led government.

The Environment Committee considered a report on the work of the former Dundee Contract Services, this is a good report but it will be a real challenge for the next six months to be as good. There was a report on improvements to play areas. I welcome this and I welcome the possible involvement of 'friends' groups in future renovations of play equipment but I stressed that this was not an alternative to the council. We should encourage local people to form friends groups related to parks, and give them some involvement in the running of the park but where this is not possible there should still be support from the council.

At the Policy and Resources Committee there was to be a report on an extension to the teacher's early retirement scheme. This report was withdrawn at the last moment. This may well be as a result of the work of my colleague Laurie Bidwell who has pointed out that under the SNP Administration there are fewer teachers in Dundee, yet the SNP Scottish Government are threatening sanctions on councils which don't maintain teacher numbers. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this policy.