This morning, along with members of the Community Spirit Action Group, volunteers from Jericho House and Hillcrest Housing Association and City Council Communities Officer, Waste Management and two of my ward colleagues, I participated in another West End graffiti clean up.
At the last clean up, we concentrated on streets in the southern part of the West End, so today, we put our efforts into cleaning up graffiti in the northern part of the ward in Community’s Spirit’s coverage area, tackling graffiti in streets like Milnbank Road, Lower Pleasance and Rosefield Place. Here’s me in Lower Pleasance earlier this morning!
Although the recent thaw has helped to reduce the extent of icy roads and footpaths across the city, there are still areas causing residents difficulty.
Residents in Bankmill Road have contacted me about the state of the road and pavements in the street and also in the pathway that runs from the street to Rosefield Place that residents use to get to the Blackness Road shops.
A number of the residents are elderly and the icy paths are causing real problems – one resident with mobility problems has not been out the house in the past five weeks.
I have contacted the City Council about this asking that the winter maintenance team give the area attention as soon as possible.
At that time, the City Council advised me it hoped to repaint them in the Spring, but this has not yet happened – in part because of the rather unusual situation of a world-wide shortage of one of the raw ingredients for the paint that is used for road lining. The Director of City Development has assured me, however, that the council has received shipments of materials in July.
With regard to Rosefield Place, I asked for a specific update from the City Council and have now been advised as follows :
However, on a brighter note, (I am advised) that I will be allocated an extra £100k to spend on line refurbishment during the current financial year. This will clear my backlog of orders and I will be instructing Tayside Contracts to refurbish all outstanding work from financial year 2009/10 before they begin with orders from financial year 2010/11. Therefore, please be assured that the wait is almost over.”
A few latest updates!
* Blackness Court Sheltered Housing – I have been campaigning for some time to have the footpaths near to the sheltered housing improved. On Friday, along with two residents, I had a useful site visit with a City Council roads inspector who has promised to progress pavement improvements at the Rosefield Place/Blackness Road junction and at the pedestrian crossing used by the sheltered housing residents to cross Blackness Road to get to the Post Office and other local shops.
Residents have also complained that the yellow lines in Rosefield Place are worn and cars park on the pavement edge making it very difficult for elderly folk – especially those on motorised scooters – to get from their homes to the shops. I was pleased to be advised today by the City Development Department as follows : “The lines in Rosefield Place will therefore be refurbished around April/May time along with other long term outstanding orders.”
The pedestrian walkway between Bankmill Road and Rosefield Place is well used by local residents but a number of them have recently complained to me about its maintenance (or lack of it as the photo below indicates!)
Blackness Road Crossing
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of meeting with two residents of Blackness Court, the sheltered housing complex at the east end of Blackness Road.
The residents showed me their concerns about the condition of the pavement east of their homes – on the north side of Blackness Road, at the road junction with Rosefield Place and on the road at the pedestrian crossing immediately west of that. The photo (right) is of the poor road condition at the crossing.
The current condition of the road and pavement causes difficulties for the elderly folk in Blackness Court to get safely to the Post Office and shops on the south side of Blackness Road. One of the residents has had a bad fall and another had difficulties getting to the shops on his mobility scooter.
I have raised these concerns with the City Council’s City Development Department and asked for repairs to be undertaken.
“The area inspector checked this section of footway on the south side of Perth Road between Thomson Street and Step Row and noted a small number of areas where the footway surface was in less than perfect condition however these areas are too shallow to fill with temporary material. In the short term he will continue to inspect this footway on a regular basis and monitor its condition. It has been provisionally included in a future (not this financial year) programme of improvement works although this is subject to change dependant on funding and its ranking in terms of deterioration compared with all other footways included in the annual inspection to assess condition.”
I have written back saying “I am concerned that the pavement is being left and only being monitored at this time, particularly the usage by elderly people from the Paton’s Lane and Seafield Lane sheltered housing complexes” and pressing for assurances about resurfacing.
I have also received assurances about pavement repairs on Perth Road east of the Invercarse Hotel (north side) and have raised residents’ complaints about pavement condition on parts of Seafield Road and on Blackness Road (north side around Rosefield Street and Rosefield Place).
