Winter update

As the winter weather starts to return there is some good news with the arrival of additional grit bins in Cadder and Wyndford and the replenishment of grit bins in Kelvindale, Summerston and Maryhill. Land and Environmental Services confirm that all available resources, both Glasgow City Council and sub-contractors, continue to be deployed on winter maintenance duties on a 24 hour basis.  The service has strived to try to ensure that priority roads and footways have been continually gritted during this period of adverse weather, with resources being deployed to secondary routes, e.g. residential areas, when resources permit, together with the replenishment of the 1000 salt bins deployed throughout the city. 

Update 20 Dec 2010

Land and Environmental Services have now confirmed temporary 1 ton supplies of grit for Summerston and Killermont areas and are looking to place additional grit bins at Cumlodden Drive and Blackhill Court.

In order to provide the most efficient service Land and Environmental Services have asked that I encourage constituents to make use of the 24hr free phone number 0800 373635 or 0141 276 7000 (for mobile phones) to report any requests for gritting or replenishing of salt bins.  

Local Champions? not for Glasgow

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The news arrived late yesteday afternoon in the City Chambers that the SNP Government, having last year awarded Glasgow the lowest funding settlement of any local authority, had ripped off Glasgow yet again.

Early this year John Swinney had told Glasgow to expect a reduction of 2.6%, equivalent to £43 million in cuts. Now Glasgow residents have been told we are to face instead a reduction of 3.6%, adding a further cut of £13.5 million. The Labour administration are now warning that “brutal and unpalatable” cuts options across all services will now be back on the table for consideration. 

And what of the SNP who said they would be ‘Local Champions’ for our communities. Had Glasgow received the same deal as SNP controlled West Lothian then the city would actually be £46 million better off. 

SNP Councillors in Glasgow however are out defending this cut – saying Glasgow got its fair share! With ‘Champions’ like this who need’s enemies.

UPDATE 13 Dec 2010

The Chief Executive has now written to all staff to alert them to the consequencies of the Scottish Government’s decision.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEORGE BLACK

Glasgow City Council budget allocation for 2011 to 2012

You will be aware from reading the newspapers or listening to the radio that the Scottish Government has now announced our funding allocation for next year. I want to tell you what this means for us.

What has been announced?
The Scottish Government had previously announced that Local Government would receive a cut in budget of 2.6%. This would have meant a reduction in Glasgow’s budget of some £37 million and you will remember that last month we published a draft budget based on these figures..

In actual fact we have had our budget cut by 3.6% which means additional cuts to our budget of some £13.5 million. The circular which was published by the Scottish Government, along with an initial analysis – Finance Settlement Key Points – by the Executive Director of Finance..

It is also worth reflecting on the fact that if we had received the same cut as West Lothian Council, who received the smallest cut at 0.32%, our budget would require to be cut by a total of £5 million next year, not the £51 million by which we will actually have to cut it.

What happens next?
The Executive Director of Finance will be working to amend our draft budget to take into account these new, much deeper cuts. I am afraid I cannot say at this time when the new draft will be available for you to read. As you might imagine, a great deal of work will be required, probably through the Christmas break, so it may be late January before we have anything to share with you. Rest assured I will communicate with you again as soon as the draft budget is available.

I would like to stress that you must not underestimate the seriousness of the situation we now face. It is very likely that there will be difficult and painful cuts to services which we are proud to deliver and on which we all rely as citizens. I am confident that if any group of staff can get us through this it is you, however it will not be easy.

Ready for Winter?

 grit bin

As winter starts to bite with heavy snow falls and freezing temperatures I’ve been contacted about the Council’s gritting policy and the location of the nearest grit bin.

To try to help I’ve posted the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions supplied by Land and Environmental Services as well links to the winter Maintenance Plan and a list of all grit bin locations in our ward.

Q1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHERE TO SALT?

A1 The Council has agreed a set of priorities in the event of snow or ice on road surfaces being forecast.Top priority is given to:

·         Major Bus Routes;

·         Junctions;

·         Emergency Facility Access Routes.

Lowest priority is given to:-

·         Parks;

·         Private Roads.

A list of agreed precautionary treatment targets can be found in our Winter Maintenance Plan along with treatment priorities in the continued presence of snow or ice on the City’s roads within normal working hours.

Q2. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHEN TO SALT?

A2. Land & Environmental Services has a contract with the Metreological Office to supply weather forecasts for Glasgow each day from the beginning of October until mid May.The Service has also installed ice stations at 5 selected locations within the City which, together with the facility to access 15 other stations in adjacent authorities, help to improve the accuracy of forecasts. Staff can access information from these stations via portable computers.Pre-gritting operations are undertaken from the beginning of November until the end of March on a standby arrangement. Ad hoc gritting is done outwith this period.

Q3 ARE FOOTWAYS (OR PAVEMENTS) TREATED?

A3. Yes. A list of our footway treatment priorities can be found in our Winter Maintenance Plan.

Q4. HOW CAN I GET SALT?

A4. You can visit a Land & Environmental Services’ Depot and pick up some salt (maximum 10 kgs) or take salt from one of approximately 500 bins located around the City.

Q5. HOW DO I GET A GRIT BIN RELOCATED?

A5. Grit bin locations have been agreed with local communities. Further details of the Council’s policy on grit bins can be found in the Council Minutes.If you want to request that a bin be relocated, please contact Land & Environmental Services.

Q6. HOW DO I GET MY ROAD GRITTED?

A6. Check if your road is covered by the criteria for pre-gritting as per Section 3 of the Winter Maintenance Plan. Roads outwith the priority criteria will be treated in accordance with Section 3.3.1 in the Winter Maintenance Plan.

Further Information

Details of the winter maintenance plan can be found here

Open the pdf here for further info: Grit bin locations in Ward 15 Maryhill Kelvin

Labour considers £100 million in cuts to City services

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This morning saw the release of  details of spending cuts of over £100 million being considered by the city’s Labour administration.

Service                                                                       

  2011-12    2012-13    Total
    £m   £m    £m
Corporate 6,150,000 7,125,000 13,275,000
Corporate Services/Chief Executives 457,300 2,952,400 3,409,700
Development and Regeneration Services 430,000 120,000 550,000
Education Services 17,534,200 15,913,800 33,448,000
Financial Services 660,000 617,500 1,277,500
Land and Environmental Services 1,220,000 1,050,000 2,270,000
Related Companies 3,900,000 3,705,000 7,605,000
Social Work Services 15,500,000 11,000,000 26,500,000
Technical 7,346,700 5,954,700 13,301,400
       
Total 53,198,200 48,438,400 101,636,600

The Herald newspaper lead with the headline that “Schools bear brunt of Glasgow council’s £90m budget cuts” and listing proposals under consideration including:

  • the possible removal of the school breakfast provision.
  • removing mobile creche facilities.
  • reviewing early years provision
  • cutting school psychologists
  • increasing Secondary class sizes in Mathematics and English above the current limit of 20 pupils per class in S1/S2
  • freezing teacher pay
  • issuing 90 day notices to remove salary conservation from teachers
  • moving school support staff from 52 week contracts to term time working contracts.

Also proposed but not recommended included the closure of Blairvadoch Outdoor Resource Centre, increasing the cost of school meals, cutting teacher numbers and scrapping nurture classes.

Options under consideration elsewhere include the Assisted House Gardens Maintenance scheme which provides a service for over 17,000 vulnerable citizens. Labour are now considering a proposal to introduce a new weekly charge for this service.

Full details of the budget options put forward by departments can be found at: Glasgow Budget options

Christmas Fayre

Maryhill Parish Church are holding their Christmas Fayre on Saturday 27th November at 2pm. The venue is at 1990 Maryhill Road and entry is only a £1 for adults and Children go free.

Here is a chance to stock up with goodies for Christmas. Stalls include home-baking, bric-a-brac, books, CDs and videos, Christmas cards and decorations, toys, raffles and tombola, and of course Santa’s Grotto. There will also be tea and home baking in the tea room.

Sounds like a terrific day all in a good cause and I hope to see many of you there.

Labour to scrap North Glasgow Regeneration Agency

Glasgow’s Labour Administration are proposing to scrap 4 of Glasgow’s current Local Regeneration Agencies and merge them into the unnamed remaining 5th LRA to create one new agency controlling the entire regeneration budget for Glasgow.

Glasgow’s 5 LRAs currently employ 800 staff who must now wait while the Council decides on the scale of ‘efficiency savings’ that a single Local Regeneration Company can deliver.

There may be a sound business case for a single strategic body to oversee local regeneration in the city but the report before the Council’s Executive Committee today was only given to opposition Councillors less than 48 hours before the meeting and there are significant questions unanswered in the report. How many staff will be lost? how many local offices will close? how will this impact on the people who use the services?

North LRA has managed to get almost 900 unemployed people into work this year, helped local organisations to recruit staff and establish new businesses in Maryhill Kelvin. It has been at the heart of the business plans to save Ledgowan and Cadder Community Halls. It has also secured apprenticeships for young people in partnership with housing associations as well as helping youngsters in our area gain Commonwealth apprenticeships, it has also helped people back into further education and secured multi-million pound investment in the new Saracen Exchange project.

Labour want to scrap the  current network of Local Regeneration Agencies and have a new single company in place by 31st March 2011. The timetable looks impossible and the information to justify this is lacking in detail. Rest assured, as your Liberal Democrat Councillors, Mary Paris and I will want to ensure that any changes pushed through by Labour protect staff and enhance the ongoing work to create badly needed jobs and businesses in Maryhill Kelvin.

Hard Choices

Came back from Delhi to Scotland as the Spending Review was announced. The level of the deficit made hard choices inevitable but I believe that Liberal Democrat ministers have worked hard to ensure that the decisions were based on fairness. Below is Danny Alexander’s message to party supporters. 

“When we came into office, we inherited an economy that was on the brink. With the largest budget deficit in Europe and no plan for tackling it, Britain faced huge economic risks. These could only be dealt with by a clear plan to deal rapidly with the worst financial position this country has faced for generations.On Wednesday, we set out that plan. And while the scale and pace of the action we need to take is unavoidable, we can choose how we do it. The Spending Review sets out those choices: to spread the burden fairly, to promote economic growth, and to invest in the life chances of our children. These are hard choices that affect millions of people, but they are the right choices to set our country back on the road to prosperity.

We have spread the burden fairly by protecting the key services that the most vulnerable in our society rely on. Social Care has been given a funding boost worth £2bn, the NHS and schools have been protected and our plans for social housing will deliver up to 150,000 new affordable homes.

We have promoted future fairness through a £7 billion ‘fairness premium’ that will support improving the life chances of our poorest children from their first pair of shoes to their first pay packet.

We have promoted future growth by giving the go ahead to key transport projects that will unlock economic potential in every part of the country. We have also delivered on a Green Investment Bank that will kick start green investment and generate jobs.

And we are pushing forward with radical reform.  Our decentralisation agenda will reduce the number of central government grants from 90 to fewer than 10. With the exception of schools and public health, ring-fences on council spending will disappear, giving local authorities much greater flexibility. We will deliver welfare reforms that simplify the system and make work pay. And our criminal justice reforms will roll out the community justice programmes that were pioneered by Liberal Democrats in local government.

Yes, it’s going to be tough, and everyone will make a contribution, but those with the broadest shoulders will bear the biggest burden. That’s why we’ve reduced taxes for the low paid, and increased them for the richest. It’s why we introduced a banking levy – and we’ve made it our aim to extract the maximum sustainable tax revenues from the banks that got us into this mess.

The worst thing to do would be to burden future generations with the debts that Labour left us. We have made the tougher choice, no doubt, but we should be proud of the way we have taken responsibility and we have done the right thing.”
 

Danny Alexander MP
Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Bigman 3 Festival – Bigdance, Bigsing

 Last year’s Bigman 2 event was a huge success and so I was delighted to get news about this year’s event which promises to be even bigger.

 Big Man Festival flyer

Saturday 18th September
11am – 3pm
Maryhill Locks, Glasgow

The Bigman 3 Festival is an event that celebrates Maryhill, its canal and its people. Now in its 3rd year we are changing the format to include a big level of audience participation, but with a twist.

This year the Big idea for the Bigman event is to have YOU take centre stage.

Working with Clyde 1, the entertainment will be provided by You – 200 of you we hope! In the run up to the 18th September we want to recruit people to come and join in Dance & Singing rehearsals in local venues that will lead to a massive community performance on the day of the event. This will involve working with professional dancers and singers to create a one off piece for the Bigman 3 event at Maryhill Locks, 18th September – 11am-3pm. Think Don‘t stop believing but bigger, everyone is welcome, all ages and abilities. Performances on the day will be at 12.30pm & 2pm and will be triggered by the Radio Clyde Roadshow presenters playing a certain track of music. If you are interested please call 0141 573 5876.

Other family fun on the day will be:

  • Street entertainment (Gutty slippers, The Seagulls, Cake The Clown, Heather The Fairy)
  • Music
  • Stand up comedy
  • Boat Trips
  • Sailing in the city
  • Water Walking Demonstrations
  • Food stalls

At the heart of the festival is the Bigman project itself – The Maryhill Bigman, designed by celebrated sculptor Andy Scott, will stand on the Stockingfield Junction of the Forth & Clyde Canal in Maryhill, Glasgow. It is a support for a new proposed footbridge over the canal. Rather than a simple steel construction Andy has designed a sculpture which will act as the support for the bridge. It will appear as though the sculpture is lifting the bridge up from the banks of the canal, and will create a very impressive feature for the area.

It will be made of steel and Andy will design and make the construction models at his workshop studio in Maryhill where he has worked for over 16 years. This is where Andy made many well-known sculptures for Glasgow and other places, including the famous “Heavy Horse” which stands on the M8 motorway at Easterhouse.

Parents force rethink on security

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Ending the week on a positive story, though one constituents should not have faced. Yesterday I was contacted by parents at Summerston Child Care which is based within Bellcraig Community Centre which is managed by Glasgow Life (formerly Glasgow Culture and Sport). Earlier this year a fight between a group of young adults, involving knives, a machete and a hammer, spilled into the Centre. All too easily these people could have walked straight into the nursery as there was no security system to stop them. Fortunately, though not for staff, the fight stayed in the main reception.

Strathclyde Police subsequently carried out a full safety assessment at the Centre which resulted in the installation of a controlled entry system to the nursery area. Yesterday parents and staff at Summerston Child Care were told that Glasgow Life’s Health & Safety Officer had instructed that the system be removed as a Health & Safety issue. Yes, the same organisation that runs the Centre, and installed the security system, had now removed it.

Needless to say parents quickly contacted their Councillors to voice their concerns and I contacted Glasgow Life who advised that as the system wasn’t hard wired into the fire alarm system it posed an unacceptable risk to users of the Centre. Now you might think that Glasgow Life should have thought of this before they installed it, however to add insult to injury they then raised the prospect that Summerston Child Care might have to pay for any new system!

After several e-mails and phone calls, commonsense seems to have prevailed and Glasgow Life promise me that the original system will now be reinstalled on Monday morning, following this Glasgow Life will now review all of the recommendations in the original Police report and agree an action plan with the users of the Centre. Parents are obviously relieved by the news and hopefully Glasgow Life have taken some lessons on board.