It was great to see so many people at Inchgarth Community Centre’s AGM on Thursday 29th July. Nearly 200 people attended and, as always, the level of commitment and enthusiasm of the volunteers who run Inchgarth was impressive.Inchgarth is the busiest community centre in Aberdeen - and must be one of the busiest in Scotland.

Aberdeen City Council has launched a consultation about the future provision of secndary education in our city.

You can find the consultation document and background material here.

Please take the time to respond to the consultaiton, your views and opinions do matter to me.

The City Council meeting on 30th June appointed me Vice Convener of the Finance & Resources Committee.

This promises to be a challenging role at a time when public finances are under the most pressure for decades. The council’s priority must be to provided the best possible services within its limited finaicial resources.

I voted against plans to proceed with the ‘City Square / City Gardens’ scheme at the City Council meeting on 30th June.

The ‘City Square / City Gardens’ scheme has a huge funding gap, would destroy part of our city’s heritage and lacks clear public support.

My view is that Union Terrace Gardens needs some ‘tender loving care’ and a maintenance plan - the Gardens do not need to be obliterated.

Aberdeen City Council has published details of the allowances and expenses paid to councillors in 2009-10.

You can view the details of these here.

The Education, Culture and Sport Committee on 27th May confirmed that Ferryhill Library is to stay open.

This is great news and shows that a strong local campaign can make a real difference.

I am delighted that the coucil’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee agreed on 27th May to keep Ruthrieston Community Centre open and to turn it from a community learning centre into a commnuity centre managed by local people for local people.

I am looking forward to working with the management committee to make the centre even better.

I am pleased that the council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee agreed on 27th May that Inchgarth Community Centre should manage the programme of activities in the community wing of the new Kaimhill School.

Inchgarth Community Centre provides great services for our local community and it makes complete sense for one group to manage the two community buildings in Garthdee.

As you may have seen reported in the press, along with two other councillors, I had to withdraw from the council meeting on 19th may which discussed the future of Union Terrace Gardens as we were council-appointed directors of Peacock Visual Arts. This was because the decision made on 19th May had the potential to impact on Peacock’s future viability. This meant we had no choice but to ‘declare an interest’ and withdraw from that part of the meeting.

As you can imagine I was very frustrated and annoyed at not being able to participate in making this hugely important decision about our city’s future. I have now resigned from the Peacock Board to hopefully ensure that this difficulty does not arise again.

If I had been able to take part, I would have opposed the ‘City Square’ proposal.

Sir Ian Wood’s offer is incredibly generous but the ‘City Square’ scheme has a huge £90 million funding gap, lacks clear public support and would obliterate part of our city’s heritage.

In my view Union Terrace Gardens needs some ‘tender loving care’ and action to improve access. I also believe that - if funding could be found - it would be a great improvement if the railway line and dual carriageway could be covered.

A clear majority of people who took part in the ACSEF consultation were against the ‘City Square’ scheme - yet ACSEF continued to promote the scheme.

Many people in Aberdeen feel very strongly about this whole issue. In my 16 years as a councillor I have never been contacted by so many people about a single issue - the vast majority of whom opposed the ‘City Square’ scheme.

The decision made on 19th May is not the end of the process. There will be further opportunities for people to comment on the scheme and I urge everyone to participate in these. Your views do matter.

You may view the report councillors considered on 19th May here.

You may view a note of the council’s discussion of Union Terrace Gardens and the ‘City Square’ here.

Mannofield councillor Ian Yuill has welcomed the move by Aberdeen City Council begin work on Monday 19th April to properly repair a stretch of Great Western Road near Mannofield Church.“I’m delighted work is set to start on Monday” said Ian Yuill. “I have been urging the council to resurface this stretch of Great Western Road for some time - it desperately needs proper rerpair.”