Devorgilla panel vandalism 

Regarding the broken Devorgilla glass panel which members have asked me about: I contacted the Operations Manager, Cultural Services, and he has replied: “The current and damaged panel has been boarded for safety reasons. It was agreed at a recent internal meeting to invite proposals for a suitable replacement for this element of the installation...Once the proposal has been finalised and costed there will be a fund-raising exercise prior to the replacement installation being completed. Please reassure your society that the Council, together with the Arts Association is working towards restoring the public art at this riverside location.”

Litter update 

I know that litter is a major concern to many of us so I organised a meeting with Peter Clingan, the local Environmental Enforcement Officer. I stressed that we wanted to look at prevention rather than cure and in the course of our talk Peter mentioned that the advent of community wardens had proved helpful but that they have no powers to impose fines for anti-social behaviour, which would include the creation of litter. He also said that a number of them have expressed a wish for this so that their work would have greater impact. Peter told me that empowering them in this way would need Scottish Executive approval and so I wrote to Dr. Elaine Murray MSP at once.
She has replied that she has raised the matter with the Minister for Justice, Kenny McAskill seeking his views as to whether the new Scottish Executive might take this forward.
 

Lottery update 

We have not been successful in our lottery bid but, as they say, one door closes and another opens. No sooner had we got the lottery news than we were offered another application for funding. I cannot go into the details of this at the moment but it does seem very hopeful – more than the lottery which really was a bit of a long shot. As soon as we have more information, it will be passed on and that is likely to be sometime in the autumn.