Dundee Labour: March 2012

Putting Dundee First

Dundee: A City with Vision

We will put Dundee First by using the resources entrusted to us to provide
services that aspire to be best in the UK and give the greatest return for the
public investment we manage on your behalf.
We will put Dundee First by giving you more opportunities to influence the
Council and services provided on behalf of the City because we know that you
care about what happens in your neighbourhood. We know that you care for
example, about your local school, the standard of care for the elderly and
whether you can get around safely on our network of roads using your car,
public transport, walking or cycling. We also know that you have good ideas
that should be heard and taken into account.
We will put Dundee First when cuts from government in Edinburgh, London
threaten you and your family. We won’t hold back to advocate a pathway for
Dundee that will protect Dundee and keep the City at the front.
We will put Dundee First when we come to make the tough choices
by prioritising education and those services that protect you from the worst of
the economic storm.
We will put Dundee First by making protecting jobs in Dundee and attracting
jobs to Dundee our priority.
We will put Dundee First by cutting waste and unnecessary hospitality and
trips by staff and councillors.
Put Dundee First by joining with us to make Dundee your number one priority
and elect Labour councillors who will always put Dundee first.

Contract

Each and every Labour Councillor will stand up for Dundee, will put Dundee
first, and will campaign against an SNP domineering majority Scottish
Government with its own agenda and against a Tory-led UK Government.
We will stand up for our city and for our Labour values as we look to bring jobs
to the city.
We will fight for Dundee jobs for people of Dundee.
We will deliver the best Education Service for the young people, as they are
our City's future. We need to support them as they move forward into
employment or on to Further and Higher Education.
We will deliver the best Care Services for the elderly and vulnerable in our city
Our people deserve the best.
We look to deliver policies that will make a difference and will be valued by
every family in the city.

City

We want Dundee to be a City with Vision, one that is proud of its heritage, its
two universities and College, Our Teaching Hospital. Proud of their collective
achievements from Computer Games, World Class Life Sciences, Research to
pioneering surgery and advances made in Cancer Treatment. We will work
with all these Institutions to ensure that Dundee continues to lead the way.
Dundee Labour will bring the V & A to Dundee to fruition.
We will ensure that the V & A at Dundee is relevant to all the people of
Dundee.
We will find a long-term sustainable use for Camperdown House.
Labour will continue to encourage culture and the arts in Dundee; we will form
a marketing co-operative amongst the cultural attractions in the city to
promote our city to the rest of the world.
We will campaign for Dundee to be the UK City of Culture in 2017.
The National Football Academy should be based in Dundee.
We will promote Community Safety and ensure that Dundee gets its fair share
out of the proposed single Police Force and Fire Service. The Scottish
Government should look at the headquarters for the national Fire and Rescue
service being in Dundee.
We will implement a demand responsive transport scheme.
We will campaign for better rail services for the city ensuring our city is linked
with the rest of the country including London and beyond. We will campaign
for Network Rail, Scotrail and the Scottish Government to deliver a modern
railway station which is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.
We will campaign for better local rail services along the Tay Estuary.
We will campaign for an end to Car Parking Charges at Ninewells Hospital.
We will lay aside Party politics to work with all agencies, Universities and
Colleges, and Governments in Holyrood and Westminster to deliver sustainable
jobs for the City.
Labour will look to introduce a Dundee Family Discount Card which will help
Dundee families access the city's Leisure & Cultural facilities.
We will ensure that Winter Maintenance is taken seriously and will consult
with Community Groups and local people to ensure that the Winter
Maintenance Programme best suits the needs of the people of Dundee.
Labour will encourage the young people of the City to feel a part of Civic Life.
We will encourage our young people to be active citizens.
Labour will look at ways of developing the ‘El Sistema’ programme for the city.
We will support the socially rented housing sector. We will work towards
delivering the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015; this requires
support from the Scottish Government.
We will look to build new council houses and support Housing Associations or
Housing Co-operatives to build new socially rented housing.
We will look to maintain standards in the private rented sector and encourage
landlords to re-invest profits in their housing stock.
We will encourage factoring services in the private rented sector and in the
privately owned sector especially where there are communal areas.

Economy

Labour will look to set an example by paying the living wage (£7.20) and will
encourage all Council Contractors to do likewise.
Labour will encourage the Scottish Government not to fall behind the rest of
the UK and to dig deep and fund infrastructure projects that will deliver
economic growth and jobs for Dundee people. We need jobs.
Whilst using existing legislation, we will endeavour to deliver as many local
jobs as possible and we will campaign to change legislation which would see
Dundee's cash spent with Dundee employers as it should be.
We need to deliver economic growth in our city and we will use all the powers
of Local Government to deliver a Dundee solution for Dundee. We will not be
dictated to by the Edinburgh based SNP Government.
All the major SNP Projects are by-passing this city - Forth Road Bridge, Borders
Rail Link, By-pass for Aberdeen, Dualling the A9 - Dundee is missing out bigtime,
we will stand up for Dundee.
We will work hard to attract private sector investment in Dundee. We will
work with existing private sector employers in Dundee to ensure that jobs are
retained in Dundee and investment brought to the city.
The proposed single Fire Service should be headquartered in Dundee. Any
further movement of Civil Service jobs should include jobs for Dundee.
We must ensure that our Winter Maintenance should be joined up as not only
does deliver to its local community, but we need to ensure that the businesses
within the City are kept moving and that their workforce can get there safely
in adverse weather conditions.
We will look at ways of ensuring that Dundee is at the cutting edge of
broadband technology and look for ways to deliver superfast broadband for
the city.
We will work against fuel poverty. Labour will look at ways of setting up an
energy buying consortium or co-operative which would allow Dundonians to
buy energy at cheaper prices.
We will review the state of the roads and pavements in the city and look to
bring them up to an acceptable standard.
We will promote re-cycling and be the greenest Council possible. We will
make improvements at the Baldovie Incinerator.
Our vision is about making our city greener, safer and healthier for its citizens.
We must sort and recycle more rubbish and burn less.
We will promote green jobs in the renewable sector.
We will promote access to financial services through credit unions and ensure
that money advice is available throughout the city.

Older People

We will give the same emphasis to services for older people as we do for
vulnerable children.
We will deliver policies which will ensure the levels of care for our elderly.
We will ensure that the elderly receive the best levels of care as is their right.
We will look for work with partners to develop integrated health and social
care services that put the needs of individuals, their carers and other family
members first.
We will look to empower older people by promoting independence through
developing the personalised care agenda further.
We will work with existing agencies to bring funding to the city for home
insulation through energy advice so as to ensure that no elderly citizen in the
city drifts into fuel poverty. We will particularly target the elderly in our
energy buying consortium or co-operative.
We will ensure that care packages are available to suit the individual needs of
those who require care and support by Social Care workers.
We will work with carers and families to give best respite to them as they look
after the elderly within their families.
We support sheltered housing and will look to maintain and enhance the
provision of sheltered housing in the city for those tenants who require it.
We will also be looking for any individual who takes up amenity housing to
have the opportunity as they become frailer to receive the enhanced sheltered
housing service without having to leave their home.

Education

We will put Dundee First in Education by using all our levers of influence to
improve the standard of teaching and learning in our city classrooms. That’s
what will make the most positive contribution to each child’s education and
life chances.

We will put Dundee First in Education by providing support to develop a real
Curriculum for Excellence for every child in every school and nursery. We will
do our utmost to ensure our pupils do not suffer a dip in results when the new
examinations are taken for the first time in S4 classes in 2014 instead of
standard grades that are being phased out. We will not hold back from
postponing Dundee’s participation in these national developments if we think
that planning for the new programmes is not sufficiently advanced by the
Scottish Government and the Education performance of our pupils is at risk.
We will put Dundee First in Education by committing that no child is left
behind by their learning difficulty, or by coasting along unnoticed in the
middle. In our primary schools we will introduce additional recovery
programmes for those pupils still struggling with reading, writing and
arithmetic.
We will put Dundee First in Education by prioritising efforts to improve the
successful transitions from school to University, College and Work. We
recognise the increasingly competitive world beyond the school gates and
that we must work to reduce the shameful proportion of our school leavers -
25% in Autumn 2010 – who did not go on to a positive destination but left
school for unemployment. Part of the answer is to develop much earlier the
knowledge and skills which will help these young people engage successfully
in their next steps from school. We will also develop more vocational choices in
our Secondary schools.
We will put Dundee First in Education by not micro managing our schools,
because that’s what Head Teachers and their senior management teams are
paid to do. We will provide more flexibility for Head Teachers to use their
staffing budgets to best effect. We will expect our schools to be orderly places
where children can learn. We will empower our Head Teachers to protect those
that want to learn from the unhelpful distractions from a minority of pupils
who seriously disrupt learning in the classroom.
We will put Dundee First in Education by engaging parents, carers and
community in the life of their nursery, primary and secondary school in and out
of school hours. Our school are usually the most expensive public building in
an area and the people who pay their taxes to finance these facilities should
have access to these buildings at a low marginal cost for youth, recreational
and educational activities. We also add a parental and pupil voice to the
Education Committee by co-opting each year a member representing Parent
Councils in the City and the Citywide Pupil Council.
Our aim is to have a world class education service for our world class city and
we will demand continuous improvement in our Schools. No child should be
left behind in Dundee and failure is both not an option and not acceptable.
Any school that falls below standard will be given additional support.
When a school needs support, we will ensure that support and resources are
there.
We would be opposed to any Government centralisation of the Education
Services. The Education service must be responsive to local needs.
We will attempt to re-instate the cuts made by the SNP to peripatetic teachers
of PE and music tutors.
We will work to provide the best nursery provision possible, giving our young
people the best start in life possible and allowing parents to be economically
active.
We will stretch our highest performing pupils and look for ways in which we
can team up with the Higher and Further Education sector to provide ways to
stretch our higher performing pupils.
Violence against teachers is not acceptable and needs to be addressed.
Parents will be expected to contract with the school and agree acceptable
behaviour standards from their children. Education is too important to allow a
few children to disrupt the lessons of many and this needs to be addressed.
Your child has the right to un-interrupted lessons.
Academic attainment is crucially important but is not the sole arbiter of
success in Education. Our Education service must ensure that all of Dundee's
children are able to reach their full potential.
Many Dundee pupils face a variety of problems before they get anywhere near
school in the morning. We will prioritise early intervention for young people
with social or educational problems.
We look to expand the opportunity for vocational skills to be expanded further
within our schools.
We will work with the local business community to ensure that we maximise
the opportunity for apprenticeships giving the young people the best chance
possible in their lives.
We will re-build Harris Academy and we will continue to survey the other
schools in the City to ensure that they meet the needs of the 21st Century
and we will expect the Scottish Government to help us to deliver schools for
the 21st Century for all the pupils.
We will support the work of After-School clubs and look for ways to support
their important work. We will continue to support breakfast clubs in our
schools. We will look at ways of supporting extra-curricular activities at every
school in the city.
All schools in the city will be encouraged to become Eco-Schools and Fairtrade
Schools.

Openness

We will abolish the secretive Changing for the Future Board. It should never
be the case that your Elected Representative has no real say in what Council
deliver to you.
We will look to be more open, have wider consultations as we shape the city to
suit your needs and deliver the services that you wish.
We will listen to local people and will consult on all major policy decisions.
We will develop a means of local people making their views known to the
Council through a formal Petitions procedure.
Under the current Administration, reports paid for by the public have been
kept secret and despite large cuts in funding to departments like social work
and education, officers continue to hold large discretionary budgets. We
believe that every penny of Local Government expenditure should be
accounted for.
We will look to strengthen local community planning partnerships and they all
should have a budget that would allow them to initially action some of the
smaller issues that make a real difference to the quality of life for people in
our communities that would never fall directly under a Council Department
spend.
Dundee Labour will put Dundee first and work hard for you, your families and
our city. We will listen to the needs of the people of Dundee and deliver the
best services possible in the face of Tory/Lib Dem cuts from Westminster and
a centralising SNP Government in Holyrood which does not value good quality
local services.

Dundee Labour

Monday 12 March 2012

Putting Dundee First : Labour's election manifesto for Dundee

Saturday 10 March 2012

Dundee Labour annonuce candidates for City Council elections

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