Dundee City Council Statutory Meeting

Monday evening saw the first meeting of Dundee City Council since the election at the start of the month.  The agenda for this, Statutory Meeting can be found here.

The result of the election across the city was a disappointment to me, although there were some highlights for Labour in Dundee. The highlights were the increase in the number of Scottish Labour councillors in Dundee and the fact that 40% of  Labour councillors in Dundee are now female.  The percentage for the City Council as a whole is 20% female councillors.

The headline grabbing appointment from last night was the election of Councillor Bob Duncan as Lord Provost of the City of Dundee.  In my five years as a councillor I have worked closely with Bob as Opposition Spokesperson and Convener and vice versa.  I think that Bob will serve the people of Dundee well as Lord Provost and I wish him all the best for his term of office.

The new Lord Provost made a good speech in which he highlighted that he wanted to work with everyone in the city and be inclusive, which are fine words.  The Administration believe that the representation on outside bodies should be accommodated by a proportion of 4 to 1 in favour of the SNP.  As ever I think that we can judge people by their actions rather than their words.

I was disappointed that the council did not see fit to mark Councillor Ian Borthwick's near fifty years of service to the people of Dundee by at least allowing him to continue in the post of Depute Lord Provost.  I do hope that Bailie Borthwick's 50 years of service is marked appropriately when it comes.

Normal Service Resumes

I have not posted  on this site for a while, this has mostly been down to computer problems, now thankfully solved.

I was delighted to have been re-elected to serve the people of the West End  as their local councillor for another five years on the 3rd of May.  I would like to thank all those people who voted for me and I would also like to thank all those who helped with the campaign.

I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the West End.