Former Dundee Goods Yard – hoardings and graffiti

As reported in today’s Courier, West End residents have been querying with me the large hoardings that have appeared in recent months round the western end of the former Rail Goods Yard area (behind Roseangle, west of Seabraes). The site is owned by Scottish Enterprise and I have been in touch with them about this and the complaints about graffiti on the hoardings. See photo (above).

Scottish Enterprise tells me that the work is decontamination work to make the land useable in the future. It intends to eventually sell off the ground for possible residential use, although this would be some time off and any possible development sometime in the future would require planning approval, and give assurances about access and no loss of local amenities.

Scottish Enterprise has advised me :

“This is a project which will take a couple of years which means the hoardings will be there for a considerable time. It is actually a contractor who is now responsible for that site, however we have asked them to paint over any particularly explicit graffiti. It is a bit of a losing battle with graffiti but we will do our best to keep on top of it.”

I certainly hope that Scottish Enterprise’s contractor removes the graffiti, particularly any that is offensive.

Riverside Avenue – oh so overgrown!

At the Technology Park, there’s a hugely overgrown strip of grass on the north side of Riverside Avenue just east of the Swallow roundabout. Residents have complained to me about the state of it – it is a really bad advertisement for the city as its the first part of the city you encounter by road travelling from the south towards the City Centre.

I contacted Scottish Enterprise Tayside (SET) about the matter and have had a prompt response as follows :

“I’m not surprised that there have been complaints because I agree that it is a mess. Actually Scottish Enterprise don’t own this area or in fact very much land at the Technology Park. All of the individual owners of plots should be responsible for their own landscaping. The particular corner plot at the roundabout is owned by Aviva who unfortunately have moved out. Historically SE maintained a lot of these areas but because of budget restrictions and legal advice that in fact we shouldn’t be maintaining land that we don’t own, we have now stopped.

I can tell you though that we are in the process of trying to get all of the owners to agree a landscaping maintenance plan and we are currently working towards that. I know this doesn’t help much in the meantime but as I said we are doing our best to resolve the issue.”

I have asked SET to keep me updated – and hopefully we will see the area properly maintained in the near future.

Cycle Path – Roseangle to City Centre

Following complaints from residents about broken glass on the cycle path that runs through the former goods yard area and now, in part, digital media park – from the City Centre at South Marketgait/Greenmarket to Roseangle – I raised the matter with Scottish Enterprise Tayside, who replied today as follows :

“I am advised that the path will be cleaned of glass by our contractor this week.”

Overgrown grass at Technology Park

I’ve received complaints from residents about the overgrown grass at the Technology Park (particularly in Riverside Avenue to the front of the technology park) and immediately east of West Loan in Perth Road – opposite Clovius Duveau Drive.

I have been in touch with Scottish Enterprise and Dundee Contract Services about both areas – asking for the grass to be cut and tidied up.

Seabraes Update

An on-going area of complaint has been graffiti and other vandalism at Seabraes – right – (read an earlier story about this by clicking on the headline above) , and I have recently received more complaints from constituents about the graffiti here.

Firstly, with regard to the ‘mini bandstand’ in the gardens area at the top of Seabraes, Dundee Contract Services has agreed to my request to have the graffiti on it removed.

With regard to graffiti across the SET area of Seabraes as a whole, I have had positive feedback from SET, whose representative has said, “I have put a call into cleansing re this. They have previously successfully treated grafitti, and we will endeavour to set up a more rigorous monitoring regime”

Boats up the Tay, Community Council, Grass Verges

Yesterday, at the invitation of Fife Council, I attended a boat trip up the Tay from Newburgh to Perth and back to look at and discuss the Tay Regeneration Project. The picture (right) is of Newburgh as the boat left and the one (below right) is of the group of LibDem councillors who attended – from the right Cllr Andrew Arbuckle (Fife Council), me, Cllr Maggie Taylor (Fife Council), Cllr George Hayton (Perth & Kinross Council) and Cllr Willie Wilson (Perth and Kinross Council).

West End Community Council met last night and the dominant issue came from a large group of parents concerned about the situation affecting Bellfield Nursery. I made clear that it is vitally important that parents and anyone else with a concern about the proposal to merge the nursery with Park Place Nursery takes part in the consultation process and raises their concerns directly with the Director of Education. I have already myself raised issues with her following speaking with parents.

There were a number of other issues raised at the meeting, including litter – on this I have been in touch with Waste Management about litter enforcement in the Perth Road area.

A constituent has contacted to say that, in the past, the grass verges on Perth Road at Clovis Duveau Drive and within the technology park have been well kept. However, this year, the grass verges haven’t as yet been cut and are looking very wild. I have today taken up the matter with Scottish Enterprise Tayside who own the ground here.