Lord Provost Bill Campbell Blog #14

Hello, and welcome to my End of Month Blog #14 as the Lord Provost of Dundee.

July has been another busy and interesting month for myself and the Office.

Despite it being the Summer and recess period, there was lots of activities taking place across the month.

Activities over the past month have included:

• On Tuesday 4th, as part of my duties with the Armed Forces and Veterans, I met with Sally Stimson (a Senior Housing Advisor) and Sy Harty (a Senior Peer Support Worker) with Glasgow’s Helping Heroes. This was part of a meeting to discuss SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity and Dundee;
• I was in Edinburgh on Wednesday 5th to attend ‘A National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication’ at St Giles’ Cathedral for the Presentation of the Honours of Scotland to King Charles III;
• On Tuesday 11th, I attended the quarterly meeting of the Mathew Trust which meets at the Vision Building at Greenmarket. So far, during my time on the Mathew Trust, I have heard from a number of representatives coming in to update the Trust on progress achieved in their organisation due to awards previously made;
• I gave a Civic Reception in the City Chambers to mark the return of the WUKF World Karate Championships to Dundee on the evening of Wednesday 12th. It was a busy reception and a real pleasure to meet just about everyone who attended;
• I met with the new Chair of the Dundee Alexandria Twinning Association, Brian McLeod, on the morning of Monday 17th and I was delighted to have a detailed conversation with Brian on the Dundee-Alexandria connection;
• Following my meeting with the Chair of the Dundee Alexandria Twinning Association, I met with George Laidlaw – the Co-Chair of the Dundee Wurzburg Twinning Association on the same morning. I had a good, long conversation with George as we had many points to go over since a recent telephone conversation we had;
• On Tuesday 18th, I welcomed the Dundee Alexandria Twinning Association in the Twinning Room on the civic floor and I took up their invitation to sit in on part of their meeting;
• I paid a visit to Georgina Clancy on Thursday 20th to congratulate her on reaching her 102nd birthday. It was an honour to meet Ina, who was in great form, and a pleasure to meet with some of her family too;
• On Friday 21st, I took part in the Abertay University Graduation Ceremony in the morning at the Caird Hall;
• Later on Friday 21st, I paid a visit to Balgay Bowling Club to join many other guests for the 100th birthday party for Jim Houston. I was honoured to attend and was made to feel most welcome. I enjoyed talking to Jim himself, his family, friends, and fellow bowling club members;
• On Sunday 23rd, I was delighted to attend, speak at, and officially open three new tennis courts at the Forthill Community Tennis Club in Broughty Ferry;
• The Lady Provost and I had the great privilege of receiving a personal guided tour of the Biological Chemistry and Drug Research Department at the University of Dundee by the Regius Professor of Life Sciences Professor Sir Michael Ferguson – the Academy Lead for Research Strategy in the School of Life Sciences, on Tuesday 25th;
• Early on Thursday 27th, I welcomed guests from Dundee’s twinned city of Würzburg to the City Chambers. A group of eight had chosen to visit our city, in particular to play golf, and carry on the several connections between our two cities;
• Later on Thursday, I was part of the official opening of The Dundee Academy at the Regional Performance Centre alongside Dundee FC Managing Director John Nelms and Team Manager Tony Docherty;
• Also in this week, I held a meeting with the new Dundee Citizen of the Year Raymond Edwards where we discussed his role going forward and I was delighted to show Ray the Citizen of the Year board which now shows his name.

For updates as they occur, you can find the latest Lord Provost news and activities on both Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Blog and I hope to update you further on my civic responsibilities in the next edition which will summarise my activity in August.