Photopolis : Logie House

The manor house of Logie (below) was apparently in existence prior to 1660, but from 1722-78 extensive alterations were carried out.   The building was demolished in 1908.    

 

Cleghorn Street was named after William Cleghorn, manufacturer, who long occupied Logie House as tenant, and afterwards became proprietor of the estate of Logie. 

 

Following the removal of Logie House, tenements were erected on the most of the lands.

Temporary Traffic Order : Cleghorn Street

Having raised with the council on a number of occasions in the past, on behalf of local residents, the poor condition of the road surface in Cleghorn Street, I am pleased to see this Traffic Order coming forward that will see the street resurfaced.

 

From the City Council :

 

Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating carriageway resurfacing works.  The Order is expected to be in force for fifteen days from 3 November 2014.  Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months.

 

The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Cleghorn Street from Lochee Road to City Road.

 

Limited access will be maintained to properties on Cleghorn Street.

 

An alternative route will be available via Lochee Road, Tullideph Road and City Road for northbound traffic and via Lochee Road, Polepark Road and Milnbank Road for southbound traffic.

 

Please forward any comments you may have regarding this proposal to the Network Management Team, City Development Department, Dundee House, 50 North Lindsay Street, Dundee  DD1 1LS.  If you have any queries please call 433082.

Photopolis : Logie House

The manor house of Logie was apparently in existence prior to 1660, but from 1722-78 extensive alterations were carried out.   The building was demolished in 1908.    

 

Cleghorn Street was named after William Cleghorn, manufacturer, who long occupied Logie House as tenant, and afterwards became proprietor of the estate of Logie.   Following the removal of Logie House, tenements were erected on the most of the lands.

Getting things done … Cleghorn Street

I have received residents’ complaints about the state of the road surface of Cleghorn Street at its junction with Rosebery Street – see below:

I have reported this to the City Council’s Roads Maintenance Partnership and asked for repairs to be carried out.

Dundee City Council meetings

At last night’s City Council meetings, there were a significant number of issues discussed.

 

At City Development Committee, I welcomed the news that the tourist information service is to move back to the City Centre as part of the new City Square Box Office facility.   I complained to Dundee and Angus Tourist Board when it previously moved the facility out of Castle Street and down to Discovery Point as I feel a main City Centre location is vital, so am pleased with the move to the City Square.

 

At Education Committee, I commented on proposals to alter the priority scheme for enrolling school pupils at both primary and secondary schools in the city.   The rationale for change is sensible, given the growth in primary school rolls, but it is important that all with a view on what is being proposed give their views during the consultation process.

 

At Environment Committee, I again highlighted concerns about air quality in the Lochee Road/Cleghorn Street/Rankine Street junctions and sought assurances that measures are being taken to address this.

 

At Policy & Resources Committee, I welcomed news that the West End Ward is to be given £10 000 community regeneration funding through the Fairer Scotland Fund in 2014/15.    I have long campaigned for the West End and the Ferry Ward (both previously excluded from the funds) to be given a share of this funding to ensure that no area in the city is excluded, and although £10 000 in 2014/15 is less than I had hoped for, its a start and the West End will make good use of its funding.   I made the point last night that funds must be allocated in such a way that it benefits those on the lowest incomes, which is the principle behind Fairer Scotland funding.

Inappropriate advertising criticised

I have criticised a leading company for placing advertisements on their utility boxes, without necessary permission.

Advertisements for BT Broadband from British Telecom Openreach have sprung up in the city, stuck to BT telecom utility boxes.  I have had complaints about these from constituents in Cleghorn Street and Glamis Road – the constituents wondering if the adverts are authorised.   See photo from Cleghorn Street – right.

Advertising of this kind requires advertising consent from the City Council and having asked the council, I was advised that BT Openreach has failed to apply for such consent.   From time to time, I get complaints about fly posted unauthorised advertisements but you expect a company like BT to play by the rules.   As one constituent pointed out, if every utility box and piece of street furniture had adverts stuck across them like this, it would be extremely unsightly.

A constituent complained to BT about one of the adverts and was told by BT:

“I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the sign we have placed on our cabinet.

BT have invested heavily in the local area to provide a faster Broadband service. As such we want to make people aware of this so they have the opportunity to benefit from it.

BT have the necessary rights under the relevant advertising legislation to enable us to place the signs on our cabinets.”

I therefore challenged BT to indicates what “necessary rights” BT had to give authority for their adverts .   BT replied:

“Based upon independent Legal Counsel, BT believe that the advertisement has deemed consent under both Class 2B and 5 of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007.”

I have gently pointed out to BT that perhaps they have not noticed the country they are placing their adverts in!   English Regulations have no relevance to Scotland and when I asked them to provide evidence of deemed consent for sites in Scotland, I have been met with silence from BT.

As the Council’s Planning Team has confirmed that the company does indeed need planning consent, I do think BT should remove these advertisements until and if it obtains planning approval.    Personally I agree with my constituents that plastering utility boxes with such adverts is unsightly and should not be encouraged.

I spoke on Wave 102 News about the matter yesterday and you can hear this by clicking ‘play’ below:

Lochee Road air pollution – traffic management update

Further to the meeting I had with council environmental health and transportation officers earlier this week about air pollution concerns at Lochee Road at the Cleghorn Street/Dudhope Terrace/Rankine Street junction, the City Council’s Head of Transportation has updated me as follows with regard to traffic management:

 

“Following on from our meeting earlier this week regarding Lochee Road and the consideration for introducing traffic signals at the junction of Lochee Road And Rankine Street in order to improve air quality in the area. It is considered that an additional set of traffic signals will introduce more delay on main road traffic flow as this will have to stop when the lights go red where as currently the Lochee Road is essentially free flow.  The interruption of traffic flow would impact on the main flow  traffic speeds and reduce air quality.  Additionally given the proximity of Cleghorn Street it would be very likely that this would also have to be signalised also and this would almost certainly reduce junction capacity further.  From an air quality and road capacity point of view I would not recommend installing traffic signals on Lochee Road at Rankine Street or Cleghorn Street. 

I have also had the UTC staff have a look at the performance of the traffic signals at Dudhope Terrace and this junction has just recently had additional loops cut to ensure vehicles are detected on approach to the junction.  The Junction does not run Vehicle Actuated (VA) during the peak times as we have certain traffic signals plans that operate during these periods.  However outwith the peaks the junction operates VA and should respond to approaching vehicles quickly depending on the traffic demand.

We will commit to monitoring the performance of this junction over an extended period to ensure that they perform as efficiently as possible to aid in air quality improvement and keep the traffic moving as smoothly as possible.  Likewise during financial year 2013/14, we will look at further restrictions / traffic management options that may assist traffic flow.”

 

I have asked the Head of Transportation to explore other possible alterations to improve performance at both the Cleghorn Street part of the junction and opposite there at Rankine Street and he has confirmed this will be looked into.

Attack on young woman condemned

As reported in tonight’s Evening Telegraph, I have condemned the appalling attack on a young woman late on Friday on Lochee Road near the junction with Cleghorn Street.

Attacks of this nature are thankfully unusual in the local area but it is vital that anyone who was in the vicinity between 10pm and 11.30pm last Friday evening and who has any information – no matter how insignificant they think it may be – contacts Tayside Police – see http://www.tayside.police.uk/Contact-Us.

Cleghorn Street fire concern

As reported in tonight’s Evening Telegraph, I have condemned the idiot who set fire to a mattress in the stairwell of a tenement in Cleghorn Street earlier today.

This could have resulted in disastrous consequences and again highlights the dangers of dumping items such as furniture in stairwells and in the back greens of tenements.

It is reassuring that Tayside Fire and Rescue will risk assess any items dumped near housing to ensure these are removed and I would ask that residents contact them at Blackness Fire Station on Dundee 322222 should they have any concerns about dumped items near to housing.

Campaigning, Belfast, Surgeries, City Council …

A very busy few days – with the Liberal Democrats campaigning across the West End and the Dundee West constituency as a whole.     Pictured above is John Barnett, Dundee West Liberal Democrat candidate, in Cleghorn Street yesterday.

I missed much of Sunday’s campaigning as I have been in Belfast with the “day job” (photo below!) and returned just in time to attend my afternoon surgeries at the Mitchell Street Centre and Harris Academy, followed by City Council meetings tonight.

At tonight’s Council’s committees, I raised questions about the Bike Boost initiative as part of the Dundee Travel Active project, the review of ‘out of hours’ social work service, and welcomed the decision to give the job brokerage services contract to the Dundee Employment and Aftercare Project (DEAP).      The handling of this matter by the Dundee Partnership and the SNP council administration has been unimpressive, the tendering process wasteful and unnecessary and – in terms of the future – I made the point that now is the time for all councillors in the city to get behind DEAP and the excellent work it does to secure job opportunities for Dundee people.

I also raised my concern at the expenditure of nearly £80 000 to change the car parking and access at the East District Housing Office – an office barely three years old.    Why is the council spending such a large sum of rent-payers’ money changing parking arrangements so soon after the project was completed?    The SNP Housing Convener appeared disinterested in the matter and I have written to the Chief Executive of the City Council asking further questions about the concern.    City Council tenants are entitled to know that their rent monies are being properly spent.

Tuesday update …

 

 

* I attended a useful meeting of the Balgay Stakeholders Group today – the group allows all with an interest in Balgay Hill, Balgay Park and Victoria Park to meet and discuss issues of common interest. At today’s meeting, there was a discussion about moving forward the proposal to have a proper memorial to mark the ‘poor ground’ – the graves of paupers – in Balgay Cemetery.

* Tonight, I chaired the Friends of Magdalen Green committee meeting where we updated the group’s action plan and other matters including membership and future projects, including a possible project with the Scottish Football Association that would emcompass a number of aspects including a repainting of the bandstand, upgrading the Riverside changing rooms to include a community facility and improved playing fields.

* Last month, I mentioned that the paper recycling facility in Cleghorn Street was to be removed following repeated vandalism problems. I am now pleased to advise that a new facility will be provided soon at a nearby location I proposed, thus ensuring the local area still has paper recycling facilities.

The Waste Management Department that it felt it had no option but to remove the paper recycling facility in Cleghorn Street as it had been fire-damaged on three occasions. For the many residents in the Cleghorn Street, Benvie Road, Lochee Road and Mitchell Street areas who made use of the paper recycling unit, losing the recycling facility was a blow. It is a great shame that the actions of mindless vandals should inconvenience the many residents locally who want to recycle.

I suggested to the Waste Management Department that if a facility was provided on Lochee Road near to the bus shelter at Mitchell Street, that is also adjacent to the Mitchell Street Centre, this would be a much better location as it is a busy area and well-lit, making vandalism less likely and any vandal likely to be spotted and caught.

I am pleased that the council has agreed to this request and will provide recycling facilities here, initially for a three month trial period to see how well it works at this location.

PART OF E-MAIL FROM THE RECYCLING PROJECTS OFFICER :

Subject: New NRP – Lochee Road/Mitchell Street

Dear Councillors

I am writing to inform you that we intend to install a Neighbourhood Recycling Point on Lochee Road, running along the fence line of the Mitchell Street Centre. This site we hope will go some way to make up for the loss of the paper bin facility recently removed from Cleghorn Street after repeated acts of vandalism.

Following discussions within our department and also with the Mitchell Street Centre, we have agreed on a 3 month trial for a bank of 4 bin units. … Once installed … we will closely monitor this site to check for any evidence of anti-social behaviour.

This site was proposed by Councillor Macpherson, and was approved by Planning last week.

Tuesday update …

Yesterday, I participated in a cross-party workshop with the City Council’s IT department at which a prototype in-house computer application to assist councillors with constituent casework and other enquiries was demonstrated and discussed.

In the afternoon, I was able to attend part of the latest Go Dundee Dundee Wave of Change planning meeting, introduced by Gerry Hassan. There was very interesting group discussion about possible community engagement events and you can read more about Go Dundee and the Wave of Change at http://www.godundee.co.uk/.

Last night’s “Evening Telegraph” has a great feature about the West End (although only in the actual newspaper – not in the online version) featuring three great West End community projects – WestFest 2010, the Student Allotments Project and West End Boys Amateur Boxing Club.

Lastly, the City Council’s Recycling Projects Officer has advised me that :

” … unfortunately at the weekend a paper bin within the Neighbourhood Recycling Point on Cleghorn Street has been burnt out for a third time.

… it is our standard internal policy to remove such a problematic unit from an NRP bank following this number of incidents. I’m sure you can appreciate that the cost of replacing these units is quite high (at £525 per unit), and it is highly likely that this paper bin would in future be targeted for further acts of dangerous vandalism.

We recognise that the residents of this area will be disappointed by the loss of this paper bin facility. We are though always on the lookout for appropriate sites for recycling points, and will continue to include this area within our search. Please note too, that the 3 glass bottle bins within this NRP unit will remain as they were. We will continue to monitor the site closely in the forthcoming period and hopefully there will be no further vandalism.”

I have suggested an alternative site in the area that could cause fewer problems (the department has promised to assess my alternative site proposal) and have also advised the Environmental Health & Trading Standards Department that a nearby dog bin has been damaged by fire.

Road works in the West End next week

The City Council has advised me of the following road closures next week, from Monday 29th June for a maximum of 5 working days:

• Cleghorn Street (between Benvie Road and Lochee Road) – due to Scottish Water maintenance works
• Seafield Road (from Number 54 to the Roseangle junction) – due to electricity cable laying works

I am advised that pedestrian access will be maintained throughout.

 

Further details can be provided by the City Council – phone 433168.

Cleghorn Street recycling unit

Further to my item last Friday about vandalism to the above, I have received this update from the City Council this morning :

 

“We are installing a paper bin today at Cleghorn Street – any further acts of vandalism will undoubtedly affect the future of this site. We will monitor it closely at present, and if it were to be moved in future, we would certainly look at relocation within the general area it currently serves.”

Update for the past week …

The past week has been extremely busy with West End issues. Here’s an update on some of the issues covered :

Thursday 21st : A useful meeting with the Director of Leisure and Communities over allotments issues.

I was concerned to receive concerns from residents about vandalism to the mini-recycling centre in Cleghorn Street – see right. It had been set alight and, in response to my e-mail raising the concern with the City Council’s Waste Strategy Officer responded,

“It is quite a cause for concern – the paper bin was only recently re-introduced at this site following it’s removal some time ago (after a similar act of vandalism).”

Steps were taken to have the unit removed to look at the viability of its refurbishment and I have been assured that I will be updated on developments.

A number of residents have said they wouldn’t like to lose the facility, so have made clear to the Waste Management Department that if it has concerns about putting the it back at the original location, I’d be grateful if an alternative local site could be found for the people in the area.

Friday 22nd : Near to the Cleghorn Street site, in the bushes area in Black Street, I had received complaints about the extent of rubbish lying about. I had a visit to see the extenmt of it (see left) and have brought this to the attention of the Economic Development Department of the City Council who own the area of and around the former play park in Black Street.

Wednesday 27th : A meeting with the new Police Inspector for the West End area. Following the police section boundary changes, the whole of the West End Ward is now part of the same police section, based at the Lochee Police Office, but with the sub-station at Ryehill. A good meeting and a useful chat about local issues.

Later that day, I attended a meeting of the Harris Academy Parent Council. The City Council’s recently appointed Head of Secondary Education was in attendance and answered questions on a variety of matters of concern to the Parent Council.

Thursday 28th : Along with Tayside Fire and Rescue and City Council staff and colleague, I attended a site visit to the burnt out derelict garage in Benvie Road. Go to http://www.dundeewestend.com/2009/04/fire-in-benvie-road.html to view my earlier article about concerns here, following last month’s fire.

Later that day, I also attended a meeting of the West End Local Community Planning Partnership and, amongst the matters discussed and agreed, was a plan of action to tackle the very real concerns about safety at the Benvie Road derelict garage. There was also a very useful update on West End youth issues.

Cleghorn Street

I am advised by the City Council that traffic will be prohibited on Cleghorn Street between Benvie Road and Lochee Road next week due to Scottish Water valve replacement works.

 

The road closure will start on Monday 1st December for a maximum of 5 working days and the alternative route is via Benvie Road, Fyffe Street and Polepark Road.

 

This won’t affect pedestrian access and further information can be obtained from the City Council on Dundee 433168.

Recycling and graffiti …

Attended the photocall in Blackness Avenue this morning (along with representatives of Blackness Area Residents’ Association and councillor colleagues) to mark the installation of the city’s 50th neighbourhood recycling point – see photo (right). You can also read the story in tonight’s “Evening Telegraph” by clicking on the headline above.

Further to last Saturday’s blog entry about the badly graffitied phone box in Cleghorn Street, pleased to say BT has since advised me it will take steps to get it cleaned up.

Community Organisation for Cleghorn/Pentland/Ancrum and other matters …

I have been speaking with a number of residents in the Cleghorn Street/Benvie Road (and surrounding streets), Pentland and Ancrum Drive areas about hopefully setting up a Community Council or community group for the area. The area is to the north of the West End Community Council area and seeing the good work that Community Council does, there’s no doubt that a community group for Cleghorn/Ancrum/Pentland would be good for the area.

We have now got enough interest for the Communities Officer to arrange an initial informal meeting to get the ball rolling. If you live in the area and are interested in attending, please contact me at community@frasermacpherson.org.uk or call me on 459378.

Yesterday, apart from attending a Board Meeting of Dundee Contemporary Arts (of which I am now a member), I met residents in one street in the West End where a utilities company has left the roadway in a mess, following recent “repairs” – I am on the case! I have also spoken with a number of residents about the extension of the refuse wheelie bins being undertaken as a number of residents have genuine issues arising out of this.

Speeding issues and NCR latest

Firstly, my colleague Cllr Helen Dick & I are (along with elected representatives across the political spectrum) meeting Nicol Stephen MSP, the Enterprise Minister, on Monday about the NCR situation – read more by clicking the headline above.

I have today been advised about initial results with regard to the speed survey I had asked for on City Road (south of Cleghorn Street) following residents’ concerns about speeding vehicles. The results are not yet fully complete and the radar detection equipment is back on site so I hope to update residents on the full findings soon.

At the start of December, I raised with the Planning & Transportation Department the issue of the difficulties crossing Blackness Road near the Kelso Street steps (an area many Harris pupils cross the road at). I had asked that consideration again be given for a proper pedestrian crossing here. The Depatment require to speed survey the road here to see if a crossing can be provided and I have now had the following response – I will let residents know of progress as it happens:

“This survey has been identified and is on the list. In an effort to obtain a quicker result I will arrange a peak time manual count, say 8 -9am and 3.30 -4.30 pm, when staff resources are available, and I hope to get back to you soon.”