COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

CAPABILITY SCOTLAND

Capability Scotland have launched a pretty good website explaining the voting system for the Local Government elections in May, I saw an article in the local Paisley Daily Express and thought that I would check it out. It is an excellent resource for information for disabled voters to see what help they are entitled to, and there is a section on the single transferable vote system explaining that instead of using an X you should use the numbers 1, 2, 3 etc instead.

Check out the website by clicking on the title 'Councillor Rayleen Kelly' above and it will take you straight to the Vote 2007 webpage.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

DUNN STREET FIRE

I have received reports that there was a fire in Dunn Street last night, the Fire Service were called and ten people had to be evacuated. I have spoken to Williamsburgh Housing Association and it seems that the residents were taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley for smoke inhalation, at this point I have had no reported serious injuries.

I would like to thank Williamsburgh Housing Association for their swift response for the tenants and their ongoing efforts to support the tenants.

I also wanted to take some time to thank Strathclyde Fire Brigade for their work in this fire, time and time again they put their lives on the line for others and they have been comended by the Housing Association at the meeting last night and I wanted to personally thank them as well.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

OUTRAGE


As promised here are a few of the images from the outrage conference on Wednesday...

Above is a work entitled Sadness to Sunshine by the Disability Resource Centre.

The above work is titled S.E.A.N. (Somebody, everybody,anybody, nobody) by the Star project and Renfrewshire Women's Association. This particular art work is interactive, on the way into the conference the delegates were given a sticker with the phrase ....

'I Pledge, Never to Commit, Condone or Remain Silent About Violence against Women.'

Each delegate then signed the pledge and attached it to Sean, it was an excellent idea and very well done.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

Paisley Grammar PTA organised an excellent Christmas Fayre for last night, despite the howling winds and the severe weather warnings it had an excellent turnout. The stalls included the students selling an array of items including small Christmas cakes (one of which my mother bought) and Christmas cards. Among the stalls I have to give a special mention to the Disability Resource Centre Art Group, the art work was exceptional and I never fail to be impressed by their work, congratulations to all involved.

The night was a big hit, and although I could not stay for the raffle at the end I had an excellent time and I hope that it raised a lot of money for the PTA. The organisers are to be congratulated, and the students deserve a congratulations too for all their efforts.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

HOUSING STOCK TRANSFER

Earlier this week Renfrewshire tenants voted by a majority of 36 votes to reject the proposal to transfer the housing stock to a not for profit Housing Association.

Despite the SNP and SSP claims that it will be OK because the Scottish Executive or the Treasury will give the Council the money there have been no indications to this effect. They are claiming this as a victory but the tenants that I have spoken to are not so sure, they are concerned about where we go now!

Keep this in mind those who are professing to be the saviours of the tenants, not one of them actually lives in a council house! Mr's Hogg and McCartney from the SSP certainly don't live in a council house, and before the accusation gets fired back, I have never suggested I do, I have similarly never told the tenants to vote in a particular way because I am very aware that it is the tenants choice! The mistruths being put forward by the SSP and the group Mr McCartney professes to represent are shameless, maybe they have the answer now? I doubt it!

Youth Justice

RENFREWSHIRE RAMPS SERVICE

Both the Minister and Deputy Minister for Justice were in Paisley this afternoon for the launch of the Youth Justice Group report and the Executive's response to this document. Both Cllr Tommy Williams Deputy Leader of Renfrewshire Council (Convener for Social Work and speaking on behalf of COSLA) and Ms Jamieson suggested that the young people are the future of Scotland and that there are a relatively small population of persistent offenders. Cllr Williams pointed out that RAMPS is an excellent service and that it has made a big difference to the youth offending rates in Renfrewshire.

Cllr Williams, the Minister Cathy Jamieson and Deputy Minister Hugh Henry (also a local MSP for Paisley and Renfrewshire) all spent a large part of the afternoon speaking to both the parents and young people involved with the project, they asked questions of the young people about how they felt the project had helped them. I was most impressed with Ms Jamieson and her instincts with regards to the young people and the protection of their identities when a photo journalist began to take photos.

It has been suggested by her opponents that Ms Jamieson does not know what she is doing, my advice would be to keep doing what she is doing at present because everyone who met her today was impressed with her interest and honesty.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

MARTIN SCAREMONGERING

Well it turns out that Cllr Martin's defection from the SNP has not made him any more likely to check his facts. He appeared in the local newspaper this week suggesting that Renfrewshire Council were closing down ALL of their community halls for two days every week, causing alarm to the general public.

I would point out that this is not the case any closure during the week is because the halls are not being used. There is no point opening up a centre on nights when it is not being used, this is a waste of tax payers money. If anyone has any questions with regards to this please contact your local councillor.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

FULL COUNCIL

This morning we had a Full Council meeting discussing the issue of Single Status, and although the Falkirk issue had already been exposed by the national media. The difference as outlined by the Labour Administration at today's meeting was that ...

1. Falkirk (the SNP controlled council) to the best of my knowledge did not allow the Unions to ballot, where Renfrewshire did.

2. Renfrewshire's package was accepted by Unison, Falkirk's was not.

3. The Renfrewshire package was widely hailed as one of the most generous in Scotland, the same has not been said of Falkirk's!

The SNP are saying one thing in Power and another in opposition, how tell me can they be trusted?

Councillor Rayleen Kelly

COUNCILLOR JEAN GOLDIE

This morning I attended the funeral of a colleague Cllr Jean Goldie, the Deputy Provost of Renfrewshire. Cllr Goldie was born in Sunderland and moved to Renfrewshire with her husband David. My condolences go out to David and all the family, the Labour Party has lost a great advocate and true stalwart.

I know that Jean will be missed not just by her family and friends, or just in the Labour Group and by her constituents, but as a public figure in Renfrewshire.

Councillor Rayleen Kelly

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

You may see more posts on my duties and issues as a Local Councillor on this blog for a while because my webpage for my Council duties (which I personally pay for) is experiencing technical difficulties, so just for those who don't want to read these posts I will put all of them under the title Councillor Rayleen Kelly.



This will allow the reading public to distinguish between my Council posts and my personal posts, this will also help readers know which posts I am suggesting relate to me as a Councillor and which relate to me as a person. The reason for this is that certain Councillor's have been reported to the Standards Commission for Scotland with regards to comments they have made on personal webpages that they have titled Councillor.



Therefore to avoid confusion, regardless if I am blogging re politics local, national or international, unless it has the title Councillor Rayleen Kelly I am speaking as a private individual and NOT as a Renfrewshire Councillor.

Thanks for your time!

Councillor Rayleen Kelly

PARKING SCHEME FOR SEEDHILL

There has been much discussion over the parking scheme for Seedhill and the East End and I have been in the middle of it a few times! At the Full Council meeting where this was discussed (22nd of June 2006) I asked the council to consider the issue of Second permits with regard to the scheme, the Labour Administration (of which I am a member) advised that this issue had been considered and would be revisited once the scheme has 'bedded in'.

I have made a promise to my constituents that I will continue to keep this item top of the agenda and I have kept and continue to keep this promise.

If you wish to see the plans they are on display at Gilmour House, Abbey House, Paisley Town Hall and the Lagoon. If you wish further information on this please do not hesitate to contact me or the Director of Planning and Transports office.

Suicide Prevention Week

Choose Life

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Walk for hope this morning in Paisley, it meant that I had to for go visiting any of the doors open day attractions but it was worth it. I met among others a young girl with her dog called Milly, the workers in the choose life project and people who had been affected by suicide. I was greeted by the project managers one of whom used to be a geography teacher in my High School, so it is a MAJOR struggle to call her by her first name (sorry Rosemary!) but the day went swimmingly! There were around forty participants and in my welcome I pointed out how important the issue of suicide is, it shouldn't be a taboo one of the women who had been affected by it told me, if it saves ONE life it is working!

The walk took place through Paisley town centre with a piper, balloons and leaflets being given out to the sometimes bemused public, but I am sure once they were aware of the reason for the walk they were in full support. suicide

I would urge anyone who is thinking about suicide to speak to breathing space, Choose life or someone, it is not always the end, someone may be able to help, even if it is just to listen!

TOO MANY MEETINGS

WHAT I HAVE DONE TODAY

Well as a Councillor you get days where you are basically running around chasing yourself for the entire day! I left this morning about 8am and was lucky enough to visit the Charleston Centre in Paisley for the Choose Life Renfrewshire open information day. The team of people who run this project are absolutely amazing, they not only help those who feel as though they cannot go on, but they also teach others how to deal with people who disclose suicidal thoughts. Further to this they also help those who self harm and help those dealing with young people who self harm to understand that it is a coping mechanism and not attention seeking or a phase they are going through. This week is suicide prevention week and I will be at the walk for hope on Saturday morning 10:30am at Paisley Town Hall and EVERYONE is welcome!

Also on the agenda is preperation for the Full Council meeting tomorrow morning, I am moving one of the motions on the agenda and seconding another as such it takes a bit of time to prepare what I am going to say, at least this time I have remembered that I am summing up as well, the first motion I moved I forgot all about it! Just as well I can think on my feet. The first motion is on the Boundary Commission changes and the second on the Renfrew Health Centre. You have to put yourself into the position of the opposition and think about what they will say in response to your comments, I know what they will say to the latter! But the first is a little more tricky and so preperation is the key.

I also had constituent enquiries to chase up and calls to make, all this using my dad's laptop because mine broke during the week and I needed to give it back to allow the IT people to scrub the hard drive and re install all of the software! ALL of my letters and preperation work for the meeting tomorrow had to go through my excellent right arm - namely the two admin assistants in the office who I could not do my job without - both the girls are always great but they have been especially great this week as I keep coming in and saying 'can I ask someone to ...'! After this there was the rest of the reports on the full council including one on Free Personal Care which comes under Social Work, and I am the Deputy Convernor for this board so I HAVE to know it inside and out regardless of whether or not I come in on the debate! Luckily I moved a report to the full council on the issue of Free Personal Care and food preperation at the last full council meeting and my Convenor has been great at keeping me involved and informed of what is going on, that always makes it easier.

I had about twenty minutes of quiet and then the Standards Commission for Scotland put a spanner in the works with an ill timed email for quite a few Councillors about an issue we had sought guidance on. Then two of my colleagues who had been away most of the week at a conference came back and I led them through the order paper for tomorrows meeting, in terms of who was doing what and what was being amended and what wasn't that type of thing, brought them up to speed on a number of issues from during the week and then scampered over to one of the Primary Schools in my area for a School Board meeting and Cheese and wine. Unfortunately I had to leave the Cheese and wine section in order to go to the PTA meeting for the local high school to advise of the grants on offer.

I eventually got home around 8 O'Clock and needless to say I could not have survived without my personal driver (my mum who is an angel!) who ferried me between my evening meetings and then home, and missed the beginning of Holby City to do so!

Right now it is more preperation for tomorrow, more constituency work, maybe some dinner and then bed!

PARKING PUBLIC MEETING

The East End Community Council organised a public meeting on the 26th of April with regards to the proposed parking scheme for the East End of the town. Despite being advised that I unfortunately had another meeting and would be present at 8 O'Clock I was informed that the invited speaker suggested it was despicable that I had not attended, this was not followed up by the Community Council correcting the speaker, nor was an announcement made to the room once she had finished.

I wanted to assure my constituents that the Community Council were aware of my situation and that I was disappointed that they did not take the time to inform the meeting accordingly. I was unfortunately at another meeting as I was only given one weeks notice of the meeting by a constituent, the Community Council never contacted me until Monday the 24th of April.

I was similarly disappointed at the actions of one member of the Community Council straying from the point in order to make a personal attack on my integrity however, I have messages of support and anger from my constituents regarding the behaviour of the community council toward me and I've passed these to the relevant officer of the Council.

There is real strength of feeling in the community regarding these proposals and to let it be hijacked by this or any other group for political reasons would be a real shame.I have been working with members of the community in order to get their points across to the officers involved to make this a scheme which is responsive to the needs of the community, I reject the insinuation that because I have not been to the Community Council meetings I am not representing the community, the behaviour of the community council to me since I was elected makes my attendance meaningless, I am listening to the community and actively working with them for a positive outcome, I would ask that if anyone has any issues on this or anything else please contact me by email on (cllr.rayleen.kelly@renfrewshire.gov.uk) or by phone on (0141 840 3686)