Great news for Dundee Museum of Transport!

Earlier this morning, I was delighted to take part in an event at Dundee Museum of Transport where the great news of an £80 000 grant for the museum, kindly donated by the Mathew Trust, was announced.

This will allow the museum to employ a new Museum Director and a consultancy post over the next two years to carry the museum project forward.   Its great news for the museum and a result of the hard work put in by all the volunteers that have made the museum such a success.

 

Here’s museum Chair Jimmy McDonell (below left) making the announcement at the museum [alongside his publicity, marketing and planning colleague Matthew Jackson] earlier today :

 

West End Christmas Vintage Motor Cavalcade – and Blackness Primary School’s Christmas Fair

Yesterday saw the West End Christmas Vintage Motor Cavalcade take place as part of West End Christmas Fortnight.   Many thanks to Dundee Museum of Transport for arranging such an excellent vintage vehicles’ cavalcade through the West End, Barnetts Mazda for sponsoring it, Ally Bally of Radio Tay for launching the cavalcade and the many folk en route who gave us a wave!

 

Here’s a couple of photos :

Some of the folk taking part yesterday including Ally Bally (far left), Paul Barnett of Barnetts Motor Group (second right) and Matthew Jackson of Dundee Museum of Transport (to the immediate left of Paul)

The motorcade heads up Hawkhill!

… and Blackness Primary School had a superb turnout at its Christmas Fair yesterday too!

 

Monday meetings @WEndChristmas

Yesterday, I participated in a very useful meeting with Dundee Museum of Transport, who are kindly undertaking a vintage car cavalcade in the West End as part of the opening events of West End Christmas Fortnight on Saturday 22nd November.   The photo – right – was taken at the museum yesterday – it is well worth a visit!

 

Last night, I also participated a productive meeting at Dundee Contemporary Arts at which the excellent Discovery Walk proposal was discussed in detail.     The project is making good progress and will be an excellent addition to the city’s waterfront.

Community Spirit Action Group – talk by @DMofT

Earlier tonight, I attended the latest meeting of Community Spirit Action Group, the residents’ group for the ‘north’ of the West End Ward, covering areas like Cleghorn, Pentland, Ancrum, Tullideph and Milnbank/Forest Park.

 

There was an excellent and informative presentation by Jimmy McDonell and Matthew Jackson of Dundee Museum of Transport.    The Museum is going from strength to strength and its no wonder, given the enthusiasm and hard work that Jimmy, Matthew and all the other Museum of Transport volunteers put into this excellent local museum.   Its well worth a visit!   You can read more about the museum here.

 

Also tonight at Community Spirit Action Group, we had a good discussion about a number of local issues including overgrown trees, lighting and car speed issues.

Network Rail donation to Dundee Museum of Transport @DMofT

This morning, I was delighted to take part in a presentation by Network Rail to Dundee Museum of Transport of a historic rail station sign that originally sat (from the 1950s) on the rail platform of Tay Bridge Station and latterly on the south wall of the station on Riverside Drive.

 

It is another great addition to the museum and many thanks go to Network Rail for donating it.

Today’s presentation

Previous site of the sign on the side of the station

Dundee Museum of Transport wins Heritage Lottery Fund support @DMofT

I was delighted to join Dundee Museum of Transport in a photocall to mark the great news that the museum has received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

 

Here’s today’s news release from the museum :

 

Today, Dundee Museum of Transport (DMofT) has received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to aid the development and to establish a permanent home for the recently-opened museum in Market Street, Dundee.    Led solely by volunteers from the local community, the organisation focuses on the restoring, preserving and displaying regional transport-related memorabilia and vehicles, including Dundee’s last remaining Horse Drawn Tram which was reclaimed from a garden in Perth earlier this year. However, even prior to opening its temporary premises to the public in April this year, the museum reported that it was already over-capacity. 

 

The project will be for an external business consultant to undertake a an in-depth business assessment to review and further aid the development of the organisation and how the museum can benefit the local economy, not just as a base for heritage restoration but as a permanent visitor attraction in the city, also. Although based in Dundee, the organisation has the end aim to represent the transport heritage of the east coast and beyond. 

 

Commenting on the award, the museum’s chairman Jimmy McDonell said,  “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the project will guide us further in our aim to become not only a home for transport heritage, but a sustainable and well-used visitor attraction.” 

 

… and a couple of photos from the photocall :

With some of the museum team at the former Maryfield Tram Depot

Jimmy McDonell from the museum interviewed by STV news – to be broadcast in the 6pm news tonight

Opening of Dundee Museum of Transport @DMofT

Later this morning, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Dundee Museum of Transport at Market Mews in Market Street.    Having first met with the Museum of Transport team some three years ago, it was great to see al the plans for a transport museum in the city come to fruition today – and what an impressive museum it is!

 

The opening weekend continues tomorrow (11am to 4pm) and is well worth a visit.   There are more details on the museum’s website and their Facebook page.     And there’s also a free vintage bus service from the bus station this weekend to take visitors to the museum.    A couple of photos from my visit this morning:

Dundee Museum of Transport’s Opening Weekend @DMofT

Dundee Museum of Transport is counting down the days until it opens its doors to the public at its premises in Market Mews on the weekend of 26th and 27th April.

 

The museum will display and preserve the transport heritage of our local area and will have an impressive collection of vintage vehicles, memorabilia and transport-related items on display.

 

The weekend celebrations will include National Drive It Day, organised by the Scottish Vintage Vehicle Federation, on Sunday 27th between 11am and 4pm.  There will be more than 160 vehicles present for this event throughout the day.

 

You can read more about Dundee Museum of Transport and the opening events here.

Dundee Museum of Transport event

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of taking part in the official opening of Dundee Museum of Transport‘s very informative and impressive exhibition trailer.

Taking place beside the Old Steeple near to the Overgate Shopping Centre, in addition to vintage vehicles on display, there was a real carnival atmosphere, including a pipe band.

The Museum of Transport project is moving forward positively and today’s event was well-attended and a great way to promote this very worthwhile initiative.

Here’s a couple of photographs from the event:

One of the classic vehicles

Children’s activities

Wednesday …

A very busy day yesterday, including :

* A meeting with Dundee Museum of Transport representatives at the building in Roseangle (see right) that they hope to soon open as the temporary premises for the museum.     Although their long term aim is to locate at a larger site in Maryfield, they are keen to get the museum open meantime in Roseangle and residents will welcome the news that the long-empty building and site in Roseangle will come back into use, particularly for such a worthwhile project.

* Along with my ward colleague Cllr Richard McCready, I took part in a meeting at St Peter’s Free Church to discuss further ways in which this fabulously renovated building can be used as a community resource and for concerts and other activities.    I have also been in touch with Angus and Dundee Tourism officers to see how they can assist with this, given the great historical interest in the church, the church of the Rev Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-43).

* I took part in the Dundee House Project Board’s latest meeting, at a time when the building project is nearing completion.

* I attended a briefing on tenant participation in Dundee, run by the City Council’s Housing Department.

* I met a number of residents in the Polepark area about issues of local concern.

* I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Kaye, Managing Director of National Express’s UK Bus operation.    Dave was taking part in an event in the City Square where the Dundee public could meet senior staff from National Express, including Simon Mathieson, the Acting Director of National Express Dundee.    This was an excellent initiative to let Dundee people highlight their issues about bus services in the city and let local people meet senior representatives of one of the major bus operators in Dundee. 

* I also had the pleasure of attending the launch of the Dundee Youth Council at the City Chambers last night.   Congratulations go to Matthew Landsburgh on being elected Chair and to all the other members of the new Dundee Youth Council.    Listening to the debate last night, there is no doubt that the DYC will become firmly established as a strong voice for young people in the city.

Tuesday updates …

Today, I had an extremely useful meeting with Terry Small of the Dundee Museum of Transport.    Although the museum has long-term ambitions to open at the former Maryfield Transport Depot, it has secured shorter term use of a long vacant building in Roseangle to allow the museum to open.

This is an excellent project and I will be assisting the museum group in any way I can to make the museum in Roseangle a reality.

Later this afternoon, I attended the latest meeting of the West End Schools Project Board that is overseeing the building of the new St Joseph’s Primary School, Park Place Primary School and Park Place Nursery School on the site of the former Logie Secondary School in Blackness Road.    I asked questions about the building timetable and parking arrangements at St Joseph’s meantime.