Cllr Fraser Macpherson

Community Council tonight

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:24:37 +0000

At tonight’s meeting of West End Community Council, Eric Guthrie, Director of TACTRAN, the regional transport partnership, gave a very interesting talk about the work of TACTRAN and the detail of its regional transport strategy. I know Eric well, as I was chair of TACTRAN until earlier this year.

I asked questions about the funding of the various capital projects proposed in the regional transport strategy and the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) and also asked about the proposed Demand Responsive Transport project in Dundee and how quickly community transport could be rolled out across Dundee, which would be a boon to the West End.

You can read more about the work of TACTRAN by going to www.tactran.gov.uk.

Queen Victoria Works

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:02:26 +0000

The former Queen Victoria Works in Brook Street (also known as Lower Pleasance Mill) is lying derelict and in a very poor state of repair.

I raised concerns with the City Council’s Legal Manager initially back in 2007 (see http://tinyurl.com/qvwdundee) and he advised me that the premises are owned by McGregor Balfour (Sales) Limited, a private limited company with an issued share capital of only £2.

The Legal Manager advised me at the time that :

“the Director of Planning and Transportation is of the view that the footprint of the building is secure to a reasonable standard; and

I have spoken to Brodies, Solicitors, Edinburgh who has advised me that McGregor Balfour (Sales) Ltd received an offer to purchase the building which is currently under consideration. I have asked him to keep me advised regarding the progress of the offer.”

However, the company director thereafter contacted the Council’s Legal Manager and the Legal Manager then told me :

“She advised me that the proposed purchaser of the premises had withdrawn as a result of the “credit crunch” and that there was no other purchaser at this stage.”

I have continuing concerns about the state of the building and recently asked the City Council’s Head of Planning about current building safety as clearly a vacant building like this will deteriorate over time.

I am anxious to see this historic building saved and brought back into a productive use.

It is a great shame that it is lying in its current state and I have again requested that the City Council’s Legal Manager considers steps the City Council could take to assist this.

Tonight’s ‘Evening Telegraph’ covered the concerns about the state of the building and my comments about these – you can read this by going to http://tinyurl.com/qvworks.

The photos above show the works in earlier times and its current poor state of repair. The building appears on the ‘Buildings at Risk’ Register – see http://tinyurl.com/batriskdundee.

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:23:17 +0000

Tonight’s “Evening Telegraph” covered the car parking charge proposals for Dundee Airport, including my comments about these.

You can read the article by going to http://tinyurl.com/dundeeairpark.

November West End Community Council Update

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:47:09 +0000

I have now launched my November Update to West End Community Council.

Subjects covered include school buses in the West End, Dundee Airport parking charges, West End Christmas Week, signs in Osborne Place and the boundary fencing round the former Homebase site on Riverside Drive.

You can read the update by going to http://tinyurl.com/weccnov09.

The Community Council meets tomorrow at 7pm, at Logie St John’s (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace.

Update on airport parking charges

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:35:11 +0000

Further to last night’s article about the proposed parking charges at Dundee Airport (see http://tinyurl.com/airportprk), here’s an exchange with the airport manager tonight :

Derrick Lang, Airport Manager, to me :

Fraser,

The comments from yourself and parliamentary comments were fed back and acknowledged. The Dundee Airport Ltd board took everything into consideration at the last meeting they had and as a result decided to implement the charges across all users using the facility.

The charges being implemented reflect what is currently being charged around Dundee city, but more importantly they are also much cheaper than the airports close by in comparison to Aberdeen and Edinburgh, this will still make Dundee an attractive place to fly from. The other factors also to take into consideration are travelling time and also the cost of this in financial and time terms.

We must increase revenue coming through the airport to sustain the levels of routes that we currently serve, as public funding in all areas of Scotland, including ourselves is tight and will become tighter.

Hope this helps explain.

Regards

Derrick

My response :

Thanks Derrick; whilst I appreciate your feedback, I am concerned that any charges (and I do accept that these proposed for Dundee are cheaper than at Aberdeen and Edinburgh) could have a detrimental effect on the attractiveness of Dundee Airport, as I have no doubt that complimentary parking was a ‘plus’ in terms of attracting customers.

For that reason, I would be most grateful if the airport could closely monitor the impact of the charges in the coming months and review the charging policy if it can be shown that they are having any detrimental effect on passenger numbers. Doubtless you will be able to keep us updated future airport consultative committee meetings.

Best regards

Fraser

Cutting household energy bills

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:53:04 +0000

With the colder weather as we approach winter, it is good to see the Energy Saving Trust, working with the City Council, is offering free and impartial energy saving advice to householders in the city. This includes a free personalised home energy report for residents requesting it.

Many residents will have already received a mailshot with full details, but you can also read more about the Energy Saving Trust by going to http://tinyurl.com/cutenergybill.

Remembrance Sunday

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:50:30 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njK5K_Vk5ys

X Factor tonight …

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:22:13 +0000

See : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSZBwWGlMNk

Wasn’t Danyl Johnson superb on X Factor tonight!

I suspect Lloyd Daniels is on his way out, but it should probably be Jedward …

Not worth a couple of quid

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:09:35 +0000

Parliamentary by-elections tend to result in a few stunts, but none so embarrassing as the purile stunt by SNP candidate, the rather arrogant David Kerr, in flinging a £2 coin towards the Labour candidate on Thursday night’s “Politics Now” on STV.

I was away Thursday evening so only saw the programme this afternoon. Whilst the other main party candidates acquitted themselves well in their own and different ways, the SNP candidate’s brash and arrogant approach made the toes curl.

The Daily Record from 21st July 2009 :

“Kerr, the SNP candidate in Glasgow North-East, rubbished Glasgow Caledonian University and Paisley College of Technology – now the West of Scotland University – in a talk to students at St Andrews.

He told a group of Catholic students he questioned whether Protestant reformer John Knox had attended St Andrews.

Kerr added: ‘I’ve always liked to think it was Paisley Tech or Glasgow Caledonian – they don’t have a reputation to tarnish.’”

Oh dear …

Dundee Airport – new parking charges

Cllr Fraser Macpherson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:38:18 +0000

The Manager at Dundee Airport has advised me last night that the Dundee Airport Board has now firmly decided to introduce car parking charges at the airport from the end of this month.

The possibility of such charges was raised at the recent Airport Consultative Committee I attended and although I made clear that I have no objection to the principle of introducing some charging to ensure no abuse of the parking facilities by non-airport users (particularly since the 8X bus service started stopping at the airport), I also said that such charges should not act as a disincentive to users of the airport.

Those flying from Dundee Airport should, in my opinion, have their parking costs reimbursed on production of their boarding pass to ensure that flying from Dundee remains an attractive alternative to travelling to Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Glasgow. My views about ensuring those flying from Dundee do not have the additional cost of car parking charges appeared to be echoed by the MP and the MSP for Dundee West, who also attended the Airport Consultative Committee meeting.

I was therefore a bit concerned to learn that the update from the Airport Manager yesterday appears to give no reassurance that airport passengers will have their parking charges reimbursed and I have written to him seeking clarification and an assurance that such reimbursement arrangements will be made.

Here’s the car parking notice from Dundee Airport :

Important Customer information

Car parking charges will be implemented at Dundee Airport from the week commencing 30th November 2009.

Car park 1 will be a short stay car park with a maximum stay of 2 hours.

Car parks 2 & 3 will be long stay car parks. This will be managed on a ticket entry and payment on exit system. The payment machine is adjacent to the terminal building.

The car parking charges will assist the airport in retaining all the services it currently provides.

Car park charging schedule will be;

Short stay, pay and display £1.40 per hour. (Max 2 hours)

Car parks 2 & 3 Long stay by ticket barrier;

30 minutes to 4 hours – £3.00

4 hours to 6 hours – £4.20

6 hours to 8 hours – £5.00

Day rate (more than 8 hours) – £5.50

5 day rate – £20.00

7 day rate – £28.00

Lost ticket charged at £35.00