COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

ST JOHN OGILVIE SCHOOL BOARD

Yesterday afternoon I attended the school board at St John Ogilvie, the last before the elections in May. The meetings here are always really positive and there is always loads going on the school especially round about this time. I gave an update on the contamination issues at the Seedhill Playing Fields, previously we had asked for a plain English briefing and last week I forwarded this to the Headteacher. A positive discussion took place, and although there are still outstanding issues, I assured the board that no matter who was the Councillor next time round that I was sure that the safety of the pupils, staff and wider community would be first.

On a personal note I wanted to thank the school board and PTA for their support over my tenure as the Councillor for Seedhill, it is strange to think that I will be the last Councillor for the ward of Seedhill as it stands at present, it has been a turbulent four years but I am really looking forward to representing the area in the years to come.

HUSTINGS IN THE WYND

WENDY SHOOTS, SHE SCORES

After reading the Paisley Express a couple of weeks ago and the electronic bulletin from the Renfrewshire Council of Voluntary Services, I decided to book myself a place for the Hustings they were hosting. I must admit when I arrived (about twenty five minutes early) I was wondering about the turnout thinking that they had really rolled the boat out, it turns out that PACE were hosting their annual Theatre School event in the theatre, hope it went as well as the hustings.

Most of the hustings I have been at have been heavily packed by political parties, and although this one was not really that different (quite a few Councillors and Candidates were there) it did start to restore my faith in this type of meeting. All of the candidates outlined their strategy and all tried to stick to the point some better than others, although to be fair to the Tory Mr Begg he had only been drafted in at the last minute! To be honest the best candidates were probably the Green and Wendy. The Green was surprisingly good some of his answers gave you reason to consider his theories, I am obviously going to say I thought Wendy was best (although that does not mean she wasn't).

The night was extremely successful and the candidates were all in agreement that the voluntary sector has an important part to play in the provision of service. Thanks to the organisers including Scott who sold me the Jute bag (trying to hide it from my sister or she will want one too) the RCVS does excellent work and I am glad that I went this evening.

MORE ON THE LIB DEMS

NO MISQUOTES HERE

It turns out that my opposition for Paisley East and Ralston are reading this site, so to them I say welcome, glad to see Susie is enjoying it hence her comment that the last two posts on here are 'nonsense' (Direct quote from her this evening). Despite her assertion that we have never met (another mistake by the candidate) she did recognise me hence the side comment to her friend at the beginning about not being misquoted despite my never having quoted her here!? (yeah,sorry Susie I heard you!)

So to all thanks for your visits and feel free to comment as well, but remember no anonymous posters will be published and no foul language, thanks!

STILL ON ST MIRREN AND THE LIBERALS

The Paisley Daily Express today is carrying an article on the anger of St Mirren fans to the Lib Dem plans to block the St Mirren training facility at Penilee...

'Seething St Mirren fans are urging Buddies to give the Lib-Dems the boot at the ballot box. Supporters are angry that the Liberals are trying to delay a multi-million pound project which would transform the crumbling Penilee pavilion into a super sports complex.' Paisley Daily Express (Andy Newport) 27th March 2007

It seems that the blackandwhitearmy.com website - a site for St Mirren's fans- has erupted into fury over the Lib Dems, it quotes one fan as saying ...

'The Liberal Democrats are going around trying to drum up support to stop the St Mirren training complex and youth academy at Penilee going ahead. With an election coming up I thought political parties would do things to attract voters - not put them off. Maybe they should remember that there are an awful lot of St Mirren fans who support the idea of the club having a proper training set-up and who have a vote in the May elections.'

There are a lot of mistruths going round about this particular project and the Lib Dems have put round a leaflet trying to scare the people of the community into organising against it, this tells us all we need to know. Instead of talking up the opportunities this gives the people of Ralston, the East End and Renfrewshire as a whole the Liberals are content to knock back any idea, unless of course they are pretty sure it won't go ahead, this way they can blame everyone else for their ineffectual conduct on the Council, both Jim and I are behind St Mirren, behind the Council and behind this project.

I will leave you with the thoughts of one Paisley Buddie from the aforementioned webpage ...

'Not only should Saints fans all over Renfrewshire not vote for the Lib-Dems we should be getting out there and exposing their underhand tactics as a cheap way of getting votes in Ralston at the expense of St Mirren.'

LIB DEMS WOULD RATHER HAVE A 'PUB' THAN FOOTBALL PARKS

Paisley East and Ralston blog has an interesting article on the current situation with the Liberal Democrats and St Mirren over the Penilee pavilion, worth a look (I would say that being one of the candidates!) I have digested the post here...

The Lib-Dem councillor for Ralston would rather see what amounts to a pub being built at Penilee Playing Fields instead of a football academy for youngsters and a training facility for St Mirren. Jim Sharkey, who is secretary of Ralston Community Council and whose house looks on to the playing fields was speaking after he attended a public meeting called by Lib-Dem Councillor Nan Macgregor who opposes plans to redevelop the derelict playing fields and pavilion.

Mr Sharkey, who will be one of two Labour candidates in Ralston and Paisley East in the council elections in May, said:

"Councillor MacGregor told the public meeting she would rather the playing fields be given over to a local rugby club who had previously proposed building a licensed clubhouse beside the pitches and licensed premises is something the vast majority of people in Ralston don’t want to see there."I have been knocking on doors and the message I have been getting is that people just want something positive to happen to the Penilee Playing Fields as the place has been derelict for years. This is exactly what is being proposed."

CAMPAIGNING STARTS

PAISLEY TOWN CENTRE

Campaigning started in force today with the Labour Party out in their numbers in Paisley Town Centre, despite what the national polling data has been telling us, the people of Paisley have been extremely positive about Labour's Achievement's both Nationally and Locally, they know that Labour is delivering for the people of Renfrewshire. Paisley's candidates were accompanied by MSP and Minister for Education Hugh Henry MSP.


I was absolutely delighted with the response we received and can only surmise that the reason that the opposition packed up and left so early was that they were so poorly received. Both Jim and I both wanted to thank the many people who thanked the Labour party for the efforts today and the many more who indicated that Labour are the only party in Scotland making a difference to their lives.

MORE PHOTOS

BESSIE THE WONDERDOG!

I thought that this was probably one of the best photos I have of Bessie the wonderdog, it looks as though she is asking 'what in gods name are you doing?' Not long after it was taken she lunged forward and licked the lens of the camera, she is a hoot! So thought post it and see if we get any comments, ONLY on the photo and the dog please try and keep it relevant!

LAST MONTHS POLL

VOTING INTENTION

OK I know I labeled it this week's poll but got so busy just kept forgetting to take it down and write about it. As expected the overwhelming majority of my visitors have advised that they would definitely be voting in this May's elections which is fabulous but we need to get the message out to everyone in our communities

'No Vote, No Voice, get registered!'

So just in case you are interested the vote went as follows ...

Definitely voting 81%

Quite Likely 5%

Definitely Not 14%

Feel free to take part in the new poll, how likely would you be to use a credit union facility in your area?

CREDIT UNION

RENFREWSHIRE WIDE CREDIT UNION

Renfrewshire Council have been working on the issue of Credit Union's for quite sometime, in my time as the Local Councillor for Seedhill I have been involved with the issue of a Credit Union that would cover Seedhill for a long time, and I am delighted that this new Renfrewshire Wide Credit Union will give my constituents the chance to save and borrow in a safe environment.

Thanks have to go to Anne Wylie the Council's Credit Union Development Worker as she has been working on this project for quite some time and I among others are very grateful for all of her help and support.

Renfrewshire Credit Union's premises can be found at 39 High Street, Paisley, 0141 889 7442.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

JENNY'S WELL

This is just a quick post to thank the Jenny's Well Seniors Forum for an extremely successful open day at Hunterhill Community Centre on Tuesday. I was delighted to be able to attend and meet the members and their friends, many of the people present came from Williamsburgh or Ralston, Lochfield and Gallowhill and even found one from Glenburn. There were stalls from a number of different agencies and the response they received was excellent, the Police were present and had a great range of leaflets including audio leaflets for the visually impaired, the Voter Registration officers were also present and from what I could tell had a healthy response to the No Vote No Voice campaign the Council has been running for a number of years.

So thanks to everyone who organised it and thanks to all of the members who made me feel very welcome.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING

As you will no doubt have heard on the news the West of Scotland has a Heavy Snow advisory from this coming Sunday to next Wednesday anyone wanting more information on Roads, Rail or air travel should check out the respective websites.

Erskine Bridge: AMEY 0800 028 1414 (http://www.trafficscotland.org/)

Railway Issues: (www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_bulletins/today.htm

Network Rail: 0845 711 4141

Glasgow Airport: 08700 400008 http://www.glasgowairport.com/

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

DISABLED PARKING BAYS

I am writing on this issue again in order to ask for the co-operation of the community, there are lots of people locally who suffer from a physical disability and the parking bays allocated to them by the Council allow them the freedom to work, to shop and use leisure facilities.

So please if you have not been allocated the space, do not use it, respect the needs of those in your community please.

BIG MOL

PHOTOS

Spent the day at my mum and dad's today and had my digital camera in my bag so I took a few photos of the girls which I thought I would share because they are gorgeous!! What do you think? have you every seen anything cuter?

SISTERS

UNIQUE

Any girls who are sisters will tell you that their sister is the most annoying, most troublesome and most antagonistic, and thanks to this article I now know that this is normal. I don't want to go into this in any detail in case it ruins it, seriously check it out, thinking of buying the book for my sister's birthday!