David May

Following contact from constituents, I have been in touch with the roads staff about signage on the Brechin Road and double yellow lines on Barrack Road.

The vote to close Arbroath and other courts made yesterday is the wrong decision by the SNP members of the Justice committee  which means the work done at Arbroath will now have to be conducted in Forfar. As a Montrose councillor last week I wrote to each member of the Justice Commitee as well as my local MSP Nigel Don and I am disappointed that the SNP members on the committee still voted for closure.

Certainly as a local Montrose councillor I have real concerns about this decision, as not only witnesses but members of the public and jurors that do not have their own transport will have real problems getting to Forfar. This is because unlike Arbroath there is no direct bus service or rail connection to Forfar. There are also issues as far as Forfar is concerned about the cost of adaption of the court and even with those with their own transport there will be issues about parking.

Pot hole problems raised by various residents in streets Montrose and in Ferryden, as well as on the road between Hillside, past Smiddie Wood which goes towards the A90 and the road off the Brechin Road towards Dun Church have all been raised by me with the roads officer.

Due to apparently poor drainage a Montrose resident has  a semi permanent puddle outside her house  especially when it has rained or neighbours  are washing their cars. I have asked a roads officer to look at the problem and help to resolve the issue.

Attended the AGM of the YM earlier this week and despite the financial challenges faced by them the staff are to be congratulated for the wide range of activities they run for the many young people who attend. I agreed to continue as vice chair of the YM executive committee as I believe Val and her staff do such a great job for the youngsters.

I have been in touch with council officers about the fact that the green boxes in a part of Montrose has not been collected for 3 weeks. As a council we should be trying to promote recycling and having visited the area in question I do not understand why the boxes have not been collected. As some of the residents in the area are elderly they have had little choice but to put the waste into their grey ( general ) bin. I hope my intervention will lead to a resumption of the service.

I have contacted my local MSP Nigel Don and called on him to put the needs of his constituents first and back cross-party efforts to protect local justice in the face of proposals that would close our local sheriff court in Arbroath.

It is clear that a massive percentage of witnesses in cases heard at Arbroath court could see their journey times increase if plans for closure of the Arbroath courts goes ahead as they will have top get to Forfar. Certainly as far as Montrose is concerned I have real concerns as not only witnesses but members of the public and jurors that do not have their own transport will have real problems getting to Forfar. This is because there is no direct bus service to Forfar and there is also direct rail connection to Arbroath .

I back the comments of Scottish Lib Dem Leader who said ‘Ministers need to ensure that changes to the court service are not simply a cost-cutting exercise but are also in the interests of justice.”

‘We should be clear, it is not the Scottish Court Service who have the final say on which courts will remain in operation. The simple fact is that when it comes to court closures, the buck stops with SNP Ministers in Edinburgh and they need to look again at these plans.

It has been brought to my notice that the signage for the old pool at the Mall is still in place and needs to be removed. This will obviously be confusing especially for visitors to the town so I have contacted the relevant council officer about this and asked that action is taken as soon as possible.

At Ferryden Community Council it was pointed out that there are nesting gulls on the Inchbrayock Church Hall roof and on the roof of Southesk Court which is a council building. I contacted the council officers at the Environmental Health Department about the issues, and was told that action will be taken on both areas to alleviate the problems.

The report on just play was a very positive one as it showed the benefits of working with children and their families from birth to age 3  whose parents have a history of offending or criminal activity in the family.  I backed the report but was aware that the funding from the Scottish Government for this was due to run out in December.  As the evidence from the report showed that there had good contact  with these families from burghs such as Forfar, Brechin and Montrose and there had been examples of many case studies where there had been considerable success in engaging with and supporting 37 families, it was important that this continued.

I commented that the research has shown that working with these early years does make a huge difference  to the life chances of these children and their ability to succeed  both in mainstream education and success in attainment in school.    I, therefore, called on the Scottish Government to make funding early years a priority so that this successful project can be part of what we do in Angus and also done throughout the country.