Wednesday 27 September 2006

Week thus far; Magdalen Green, Audit, Police Switchboard, Christmas and High Street clocks!

Monday was extremely busy - morning chairing the City Council's Audit & Risk Management Sub-Committee - very positive audit reports, both from the External Auditor (Audit Scotland) and from the Internal Audit Service.

In the afternoon, the next planning meeting for the West End Christmas Week took place at the Tartan Coffee House, following on from the site visit last Friday (see below) about the proposed fireworks display. Really good progress on this year's week. You can read minutes of the previous meeting on 11th September by clicking on the headline above (its a link to the appropriate page on the WECC site).


The Chief Constable was very prompt indeed at responding to the concerns raised on the Tay Talk-In about the responsiveness of the 223200 (Tayside Police Dundee non-emergency) telephone number. Following an e-mail from him first thing Monday morning, Chief Inspector Myles called me later on to invite me to visit him at Police HQ to see the call-handling at first hand and hear about the Police's project to enhance the service. So spent first half of Tuesday morning doing this & most worthwhile. Spookily enough I bumped into the other lady who called the Tay Talk-In (and her husband) in the street on Monday night coming from my surgery - so was able to update her on actions local police and HMO licensing unit has taken about the specific anti-social behaviour issue raised but also called her after the visit to Police Headquarters to advise her about the planned improvements to the 223200 service.

Latter half of the morning Tuesday was spent chairing a very productive meeting of around 20 local residents to discuss the future of Magdalen Green - some immediate issues together with plans for the long-term protection and enhancement of the Green. Thanks to the council officers who also attended - we are all meeting again in November to consider a number of proposals. Meantime, we'll be producing a news-sheet to update nearby residents on some of the issues.

And ... contacted the City Centre Manager following concerns that the new clock in the High Street was running 15 minutes fast - its now repaired!