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Tonight saw a meeting of Dundee City Council and its service committees, to check the agenda click here. I raised a variety of issues in the committees.
Education
In the Education Committee I seconded my colleague Laurie Bidwell in a motion asking for the SNP/John Letford Administration to bring forward a report on proposals for new and refurbished schools. My speech is below:
'Page 53 of the work of fiction known as the SNP Manifesto for the 2007 says
'We will match the current school building programme brick for brick,'
This was clearly a laudable objective but even today's welcome announcement does not fulfil this promise. In fact, it is nowhere near fulfilling this promise.
I welcome the announcement of investment in Harris Academy which was made today. I know the many local people who supported the campaign to refurbish Harris Academy will be happy with this result. I hope that it will be a boost to the local economy in these hard economic times, but if that is to be the case we need a reassurance that work will commence soon.
I am clear that a Labour-led Scottish Government and a Labour-led Council in Dundee would have resulted in the work on Harris Academy being much further progressed than now. It is also worth noting that the current Scottish Government has twice the resources which were available to Donald Dewar.
In the last report we heard about 8 new or refurbished schools. (not including St John's, or Forthill PS.) The previous Administration added King's Park, a school and nursery in Whitfield, two schools and a nursery in Lochee/ Charleston and two schools and a nursery in the West End. That's 19 new or refurbished schools which the SNP/John Letford Alliance has to match along with their friends in the Scottish Government.
I wish you well in that endeavour Convener.
I want to hear what the other plans you have are Convener, pupils, parents and staff at schools across the city are waiting to hear. I would imagine that everyone in the chamber will want to hear about these proposals and I cannot imagine that there would be any opposition to this reasonable and much needed request.'
City Development Committee
At the City Development Committee I spoke on an item about disabled parking spaces. In my contribution I said:
'This report is to be welcomed. At this time it may rankle that there are significant costs involved but this is a matter of fairness. It is important that we provide a service to our citizens who have a disability. I know that people will be shocked to find out that disabled parking spaces outside the city centre have been advisory only. This means that able-bodied people could park there without fear of any repercussions. This legislation is designed to make the lives of disabled people a bit easier. I welcome this report and congratulate Labour's Jackie Baillie who promoted it in the Scottish Parliament.'
Policy and Resources Committee
Rory Malone from the trade union UNISON spoke at the start of the meeting. He spoke about UNISON's Public Works Campaign. My colleague Kevin Keenan placed a motion on the agenda asking that the council to make a statement on the percentage increase allowed for pay awards in the provisional budget. My contribution to the debate is below:
'Firstly, I want to thank Mr Rory Malone of UNISON for making his views known and telling us about UNISON's Public Works Campaign. As a Council I think that we need to remember that one of our greatest assets is our workers. Often it is those who are not well paid who go the extra mile to ensure that services are provided. I think that we should go into national pay negotiations with an open mind and look at ways in which we can come to an accommodation with the workers. A 0% increase is a real terms cut, and as most Council staff live locally this would have a knock-on effect on the economy of the city.
Our workers will find it hard to believe that there is an allowance of 2.5% in the budget and that the Administration is prepared to offer 0%.
I support free collective bargaining and national agreements. It is a right as several speakers have said. National agreements brought pay increases of between 15 and 50 per cent to members of the Administration earlier this year. That is correct, it is correct that they get the rate for the job although I'm not sure that we have ever got to the bottom of where the Depute Lord Provost's allowance went.
We should be fair to our workers.'
Education
In the Education Committee I seconded my colleague Laurie Bidwell in a motion asking for the SNP/John Letford Administration to bring forward a report on proposals for new and refurbished schools. My speech is below:
'Page 53 of the work of fiction known as the SNP Manifesto for the 2007 says
'We will match the current school building programme brick for brick,'
This was clearly a laudable objective but even today's welcome announcement does not fulfil this promise. In fact, it is nowhere near fulfilling this promise.
I welcome the announcement of investment in Harris Academy which was made today. I know the many local people who supported the campaign to refurbish Harris Academy will be happy with this result. I hope that it will be a boost to the local economy in these hard economic times, but if that is to be the case we need a reassurance that work will commence soon.
I am clear that a Labour-led Scottish Government and a Labour-led Council in Dundee would have resulted in the work on Harris Academy being much further progressed than now. It is also worth noting that the current Scottish Government has twice the resources which were available to Donald Dewar.
In the last report we heard about 8 new or refurbished schools. (not including St John's, or Forthill PS.) The previous Administration added King's Park, a school and nursery in Whitfield, two schools and a nursery in Lochee/ Charleston and two schools and a nursery in the West End. That's 19 new or refurbished schools which the SNP/John Letford Alliance has to match along with their friends in the Scottish Government.
I wish you well in that endeavour Convener.
I want to hear what the other plans you have are Convener, pupils, parents and staff at schools across the city are waiting to hear. I would imagine that everyone in the chamber will want to hear about these proposals and I cannot imagine that there would be any opposition to this reasonable and much needed request.'
City Development Committee
At the City Development Committee I spoke on an item about disabled parking spaces. In my contribution I said:
'This report is to be welcomed. At this time it may rankle that there are significant costs involved but this is a matter of fairness. It is important that we provide a service to our citizens who have a disability. I know that people will be shocked to find out that disabled parking spaces outside the city centre have been advisory only. This means that able-bodied people could park there without fear of any repercussions. This legislation is designed to make the lives of disabled people a bit easier. I welcome this report and congratulate Labour's Jackie Baillie who promoted it in the Scottish Parliament.'
Policy and Resources Committee
Rory Malone from the trade union UNISON spoke at the start of the meeting. He spoke about UNISON's Public Works Campaign. My colleague Kevin Keenan placed a motion on the agenda asking that the council to make a statement on the percentage increase allowed for pay awards in the provisional budget. My contribution to the debate is below:
'Firstly, I want to thank Mr Rory Malone of UNISON for making his views known and telling us about UNISON's Public Works Campaign. As a Council I think that we need to remember that one of our greatest assets is our workers. Often it is those who are not well paid who go the extra mile to ensure that services are provided. I think that we should go into national pay negotiations with an open mind and look at ways in which we can come to an accommodation with the workers. A 0% increase is a real terms cut, and as most Council staff live locally this would have a knock-on effect on the economy of the city.
Our workers will find it hard to believe that there is an allowance of 2.5% in the budget and that the Administration is prepared to offer 0%.
I support free collective bargaining and national agreements. It is a right as several speakers have said. National agreements brought pay increases of between 15 and 50 per cent to members of the Administration earlier this year. That is correct, it is correct that they get the rate for the job although I'm not sure that we have ever got to the bottom of where the Depute Lord Provost's allowance went.
We should be fair to our workers.'
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