West End Local Community Planning Partnership

On Thursday evening I also attended a meeting of the West End Local Community Planning Partnership.  This was a very good meeting in which a lot of interesting points were covered, it was a shame that no members of the public were present at the meeting.  This is something that collectively the partnership needs to look at.

The meeting heard that the council's City Development Department are to look at consulting on the Residents' Parking Scheme in the autumn.  I welcome this because I think that it is important that local residents have their say on the proposals.  I look forward to seeing the detail of the proposals in due course.  It is important that there is certainty over the issue if the people of the West End want a residents' parking scheme let's get on with it, if not then let's look at what other policy options there are to look at parking issues in the West End.  It is important that the consultation is as full as possible and includes residents, businesses and people from the fringes of the proposed scheme.  I will be keeping an eye on this and encouraging everyone to make their views known.

It was also really good to hear from Mark Crush, the Station Manager at Blackness Road Fire Station, about Tayside Fire and Rescue's Dundee West District Plan 2012/2013.  I recently had a briefing meeting with Mark Crush and was delighted to see that Tayside Fire and Rescue take their responsibility to local communities seriously, I hope that the new national Fire and Rescue service also take local communities seriously and continue to have a focus on service delivery at a very local level.  Once the plan is published I will put a copy on this website.

The report from the police highlighted concerns about graffiti in the West End.  The local police want to operate a zero tolerance approach to graffiti.  I fully support them in this and if anyone sees graffiti please report it to the police and /or the council.  I am happy for local residents to report graffiti to me and I will pass on their concerns.  Graffiti damages communities and I sometimes think that there is a misplaced idea that it is a victimless crime but it has an impact on everyone who lives and works in an area and should not be tolerated.  As a West End resident I want the West End to be a graffiti-free area.