SCOTTISH FOOTBALL

PIES AND BOVRIL

On this blog you will notice that I have a statcounter logo, this shows me the breakdown of how many visitors are coming from where and the last place you have been... obviously virtually this is why I am aware of a forum all about football called pie and bovril. Checked it out and they are talking (as are a lot of others) about the St Mirren training complex at Penilee and a lot of the sentiments are those echoed in the blackandwhitearmy site, however there are a few things I wanted to clear up...

1. Ralston is in Paisley, and in Renfrewshire.
2. The new boundaries were not as a result of any suggestion by the Labour group but were in fact the original proposals of the Boundary Commission.
3. The proposals for the St Mirren training complex were put to the Community and Family Care policy board and the Labour members voted for it, the Liberal, and SNP members voted against it. In fact the Liberals tried to stop it through the planning committee as well (aided by the SNP's Cllr Mylet). The report to the Community and Family Care allowed the Council officers to go forward with the proposals and bring a more in depth report back to a future committee.
4. St Mirren are actually contributing around £470,000, the £120,000 capital contribution and £10,000 for rent, on top of this they will also maintain the area which costs about £25,000 annually, the rent and maintenance will be over 10 years.
5. Paisley is not losing more pitches, the Glasgow Airport Rail link will mean that the St James playing fields loses two pitches out of 22 at present (many of which are unplayable if it rains). The remaining 20 will be upgraded with proper drainage and excellent new changing facilities. Seedhill is being upgraded, and pitches around Renfrewshire will be upgraded while the work in St James for the rail link is underway so that no facilities will be lost while construction is underway.

Hope that helps! Anyone wanting more information on the proposals should check out previous post on this website and check out Renfrewshire Council's website and check out the report put to the Community and Family Care board.

I know that there have been other questions and some bizarre assertions on this forum but thought the top were the ones that needed the most attention, especially the one about Ralston not being in Renfrewshire.

GOODBYE AND FAREWELL

RETIREMENT

This evening the Labour group on Renfrewshire Council organised a farewell meal to say thank you and goodbye to the Councillor's who are leaving us at the next election. Cllr Tommy Williams (who made the vote of thanks to the retirees) pointed out that between the six they had notched up over 110 years of public service!! I know that some of the media have been critical of the severance payments for Councillor's but when you take into account their length of service to the community, and that many of the retiring Councillors left jobs that would have provided them with a pension and are now leaving the Council without one I don't think that it is so shocking.

The Labour Councillor's in Renfrewshire who are retiring wanted to thank the electorate for their trust, they wanted to thank them for their support and to thank their Council colleagues.

Councillor's McGerty (former Deputy Provost), McNally (Deputy Provost), McDowell (Former Provost) and Jim Harkins (Leader of Renfrewshire Council)

(All of the Renfrewshire Labour Councillor's Present)

Thanks have to go to Cllr McDowell for his expert organisation, Cllr Tommy Williams for his excellent and funny vote of thanks and my fellow Councillors for their support and stories! Also to Former Provost Nancy Alison for her support and attendance this evening, she has some great stories!

On a separate note thanks also to the staff of the Watermill Hotel who made the night so memorable.

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!

JOHN BYRNE AND STEVEN CAMPBELL

THE CONVERSATION

This evening I was lucky enough to attend an event in Paisley Museum which turned out be an extraordinary experience. I arrived in a bit of a bad mood as I had been up since six this morning and didn't sleep well last night, and while I waited for the conversation to start I played with my phone, browsed the web and checked my emails. When the artists entered they immediately catch your attention (not least for their dress sense!) they wandered on to the raised platform and took their seats on their respective sofas beneath the paintings they had created.

Steven Campbell's was to me (and I am not an artist) a bit like a magic eye drawing, in that the more you relax the more you see in the canvass, as I said I am not an artist but, I know what I like and, I liked this. The use of the Paisley Pattern, the mirror, the suited and booted figure and the small child are all at first glance not there but, when you return your gaze you start to see the intricacy in the painting, all of this and it only took him four weeks!! It is truly an amazing sight, whether you like it or not you cannot help but be impressed.

John Byrne's creation on the other hand is not typical of his portfolio that I have seen, it was not colourful, and at the same time the use of colour was something that occurred to me, it was not busy but rather quiet and reserved compared to previous works that I have seen, but nevertheless there was something striking about it, something that drew you in and made you think about the person he was depicting.

The paintings were done as part of a project that didn't come to fruition but the artists were supposed to paint a portrait of themselves and then one of another artist, the paintings displayed in the Art Gallery in the Museum are the paintings of another artist, each other! It was an enjoyable evening and I am glad that I went and I am glad that John Byrne continues to support and come back to his home, he is truly an artist that remembers where he came from, in fact I doubt he looks or acts much different now from when he lived and played in Paisley. This was my first introduction to the work of Steven Campbell but on return to my computer I have googled his name and I must admit that I will be keeping an eye out for any more of these events that he participates in.

Go have a look at the paintings in Paisley Museum and Art Gallery they are well worth a visit, and while you are there go see Buddy the lion.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

BEWARE THE BOGEYMAN

(Jim Sharkey and Cllr Rayleen Kelly at the 'Beware of the Bogeyman event, Paisley Town Hall)

This morning in Paisley Town Hall there is an event organised by the Police on Bogus Callers, arranged for the elderly in the community and vulnerable groups there was an excellent turn out, including Jim Sharkey (my running mate in the May Elections) the Secretary of Ralston Community Council. Also present were Douglas Alexander MP Secretary of State for Scotland and Wendy Alexander MSP for Paisley North, both were warmly received and it was good to see our elected representatives involved in the community.

The title of this article is the title of the campaign, Reid Kerr College students put on an excellent piece of drama showing the dangers and the approaches that the con men and women use.

To often we think of the Bogus Caller as a young male in work gear but they can take all shapes and sizes as the students drama piece pointed out. Unfortunately I had to leave early as I had a Community Health Partnership Development session to attend but, what I did see I was really impressed with, congratulations go to the Police for the organisation and all of the exhibitors and actors involved.

CRUFTS

I WANT ONE OF THOSE

(Bessie the Lakeland Terrier and Molly the rescue Staffordshire Labrador Cross)

The reason I am not allowed to go to Cardonald Cat and Dog home alone is the same reason I would never be allowed to Crufts, I would come home with about ten dogs!! Every breed/dog that Comes on I want one of those, I don't think they are any where near as nice as Molly and Bessie (photo above) but, they are not bad looking animals, although some (the Labrapoddle) are really strange looking! I must admit to having a soft spot for the Gun Dogs, mainly because we had a Springer Spaniel but also because you get the Clumber Spaniel in that group.

I don't think that Molly or Bessie would win the full competition the whole obedience thing would let them down, Bessie would want to fight with everyone (terrier) and Molly would just want to know what was going on with everyone else, but definitely best in breed!

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

ST JOHN OGILVIE SCHOOL BOARD

4:30pm in the School and the event the school board meeting, this one was slightly different because members of the PTA were also invited and as it turns out this was quite advantageous as they have a number of issues which are equally important to both groups.

The main item I was there to speak on was the update on the Seedhill Playing Fields. At the PTA meeting the report on contamination had been discussed as it was apparently handed out, to be honest I am a little concerned that people are simply handing this out without the health warning.

The report does make scary reading when taken out of context and without the expert knowledge that I have been lucky enough to have had access to. I advised the board and the PTA that I would get the Council's technical experts to write a plain English explanation of the contamination issues and the plans as they stand at present. I was glad to see that the PTA, the School Board and the School itself are looking positively to what they can gain from the upgrading of the facilities for the school and the pupils. It should be noted that this will be a full community resource and that will mean improvements to the facilities available to ALL of the schools in the area.

Also on the agenda was the Parental Involvement Act and the implications for the school board and PTA, there has been an awful lot of work went into this not only by the Head Teacher but the parents and I am sure that they will have an excellent response to their plans, I personally wanted to thank everyone involved for their work, it makes the Education Authority's job so much easier when you have the full involvement of everyone in the school community.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

FULL COUNCIL

The full council meeting for this month was moved forward to today and although it lasted longer than most it went very well. Although the meetings are long there are usually some interesting topics and nuggets of information that come out of them. For instance did you know that Cllr Vassie thinks that Cllr McDowell is fantastic? No neither did we! Did you know that Cllr McCartin thinks that there are THREE MP's covering the Renfrewshire area? Answers on a postcard as to who joins Douglas Alexander MP and Jim Sheridan MP!

Post office consultation

On this item the SNP and Liberals were not so clear about their objections, Cllr Lawson (B) suggested that the Government were taking more and more business away from the Post Offices by allowing people to do more things online, he even said that it was better for the customers but then said they shouldn't do it? Although I poke fun at their reasoning the actual amendment was fairly OK it didn't really say anything new just backed up what the report already said so it was accepted.

Paisley Town Centre

There are major problems with the Town Centre, no one is disputing this fact but the SNP's suggestion that the wardens were their idea is laughable, especially as they voted against the provision of wardens almost every time they came up. It is quite obviously a political ploy to try and win votes on the upcoming election, look out for it on a leaflet!

Childcare First

As there were a number of motions to this particular issue the Provost decided to take them altogether and so the first was the motion and the rest were taken as amendments, some of the information put forward was ridiculous and totally inaccurate, the 'collapse' of Child Care first? I am sure they will be delighted to hear that elected members who were so complimentary about the service they provide think that they are no more! The biggest Fax pas by far though was the Liberal Democrats, Cllr McCartin's amendment went on about the UNICEF report, however, was not impressed when more than one person pointed out that the report did not include Scotland, not one person/organisation/elected member from Scotland was interviewed or asked their opinions, oh dear and she had connected it to the so called 'collapse' of the Children First out of school care service!!

The rest of the agenda went pretty smoothly and there was even some agreement (SHOCK HORROR!) a number of amendments were accepted and even a bout of bartering across the council chamber, the next council meeting take place on the 26th of April and will be the last before the elections.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

CRIME

Thanks to the Local Community Policewoman, I have an update on the reported incidents of crime in the last month. Not surprisingly vandalism and breach of the peace make up almost half of the crimes reported, and detected. The graffiti problem is one which is ongoing, the Police and Council are thankful to the community and the businesses in the area for their swift reporting of the graffiti as it appears and the swift removal by the owners of the property.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and I know that there have been a number of people charged for the graffiti and the Police are still working on catching other culprits. If you have any information on the graffiti vandals please do not hesitate to contact either myself or the Local Community Police at Mill Street.

LUNAR ECLIPSE

AMAZING

The only word for it was amazing, I have been interested in astronomy since I was a child, the moon, stars and planets, when I was in University I even took a basic course in it and it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the night sky is.

My sister and I were in the house on Saturday and had read in the Paisley Daily Express about the Lunar eclipse and we were determined to see it! The photo above was taken with my mobile phone in night mode, not too shabby considering although it doesn't show it properly the real thing was so much more exciting.

If you are interested in seeing more images of the Lunar Eclipse the BBC website has a number of more professional shots and they are definitely worth a look. Also worth a look would be Saturn, seeing it through even a small telescope is something else and on stronger telescopes you can see the rings and the moons it is absolutely out of this world!

Check out the Sky at night website for more information. You may also want to check out the opening hours of your local Observatory, in Paisley we have the Coats Observatory the public viewing nights are on a Thursday and they are free of charge, follow the link for more information.

COUNCILLOR RAYLEEN KELLY

ALCOHOL EDUCATION

A few weeks ago a friends daughter sent me a text to say that I was famous, when I saw her a week later I was a little curious as to what she meant, but as it turns out it was from my past life so to speak.

As a youngster I was involved with a Local Youth Theatre and one of the projects they took on was an alcohol awareness film funded by Drinkwise Inverclyde initially to go on tour to show the dangers of alcohol to young people, I took part in this and it turns out that this is what she was referring to. It turns out that the video is now used throughout Renfrewshire in High Schools as part of their alcohol awareness campaign, I know that PACE are proud of this product and I was lucky enough to accompany them out on the first tour which included drama workshops afterwards and it was a huge success.

The main point for me was that it showed the difference in reception from watching older people telling you drink is bad from watching young people their own age show the dangers and tell a story which many of the young people would be able to connect with.

Similar projects that have been carried out by PACE are Dazzled an anti drugs production, Facing the Consequences a sexual education film, No Way Out a production on bullying in the workplace and Mr Fluffy, to name but a few, they do excellent work and I am proud to be an ex member, and still keep in touch with the organisation through my council duties.