Dundee City Council Committee Meetings 22 March 2010

There were meetings of the service committees of the City Council this evening. I spoke on a couple of items at the Leisure, Arts and Communities Committee. The agenda included a number of grants to a variety of organisations such as Dundee Rep, DCA, the Ice Arena and Dundee Leisure. I sought an update on allotments policy and I was delighted to hear of plans to reinstate allotments at South Road. I also welcomed the reuse of the Grove Centenary wing as a community sports hub. I am pleased that this building is to be used rather than demolished. I believe that to promote physical activity and to promote sporting excellence in sport these plans are to be welcomed. The Commonwealth Games in 2014 will be in Glasgow but it is important that there is a tangible legacy for other parts of Scotland such as Dundee. I wish this project the very best of luck and hope that it will be successful. I also hope that before too long similar hubs are established in other parts of the city.

I also welcome investment in repairing the roof at Campderdown House. It is important that we look at ways of developing Camperdown House. Council offices are to be relocated there but it is important that everyone works together to find a long term viable public use for parts of Camperdown House.

I was pleased to see that the Housing Committee agreed to invest in a refurbishment of the Lime Street Shletered Housing Complex. This is something that residents have raised with me and I have been campaigning for this refurbishment.

The Policy and Resources Committee heard a couple of important reports. My colleague Kevin Keenan had requested a report on the impact of the Misuse of Drugs and Alcohol in the city. This is a very interesting report, the misuse of drugs and alcohol has a major impact on the council's provision of services. However, I do not think that this report went far enough, we require a report which highlights what we are going to do about this. The scourge of drugs and alcohol impacts upon the most vulnerable people in the city. We need to find effective means of dealing with drug and alchol abuse.

The Policy and Resources Committee awarded funding to DEAP to run Job Brokerage for the Dundee Partnership. I am very pleased for everyone connected with DEAP, I hope that this is the end of this period of uncertainty. This report was issued late and officers were unable to help the Labour Group to formulate a motion which would have allowed extra scrutiny of these decisions. The debacle of the SNP Administration's attempts to push through its budget leaves a number of questions unanswered. This whole process lacked transparency and openness. The council must do better in the future and elected members should be given much, much more information than has been the case until now.