Dangerous dogs!

I'm getting to this issue a little late, but I personally feel it's very important. The Scottish Parliament has recently passed legislation on dangerous dogs. The Private Members Bill was begun by Alex Neil MSP before he became a Minister, and steered expertly through Parliament by Christine Grahame MSP. Info on the background to the Bill can be found here.

The main thrust of the legislation, which amends the 1991 Dangerous Dogs act, is to recognise that any dog can be dangerous and that attacks can and do happen in any location. It also recognises the issue of dogs which seriously harm or kill other animals as well as humans. Incidents range from a bite to the most horrendous cases; it's clear that there needs to be more responsibility taken by owners for their pets, and hopefully this will be a step in the right direction.

The act introduces the so called 'dog asbo', the dog control notice. A person now has the option of reporting an out of control dog should it's behaviour cause reasonable apprehensiveness or alarm. The burden of investigating and enforcing the notice falls to local authorities.

I hope that this legislation is successful in bringing in that change, and I for one will certainly be encouraging all my constituents to report any concerns they have about dogs in their area.

Working for Glasgow East - come rain or shine!

Utterly glorious weekend, with a lot of time spent campaigning for John Mason in Glasgow East. It's always nice to work on a sunny day, chatting to people in their gardens and out on the street. Not that the rain stops us, as you can see from the photos from last Monday! There's always plenty of work to be done.



SNP Housing Minister, Alex Neil joined us on Saturday, and visited just a few of the areas currently balloting for housing stock transfer from the GHA to local housing associations. Nearly 2000 homes in six areas have already transferred under the SNP Government so far, with more set to transfer and more tenants to vote soon.

The five LHOs which will go to ballot next month are among 29 local communities in a timetable for SST which could see up to 16,500 homes transfer in 2010 and 2011.

So far, Six Second Stage Transfers – involving 1929 homes - have gone ahead.

These involved Ardenglen (285 homes); Cassiltoun (Castle Stuart) (526); Parkhead (Crossview) (68); Shettleston (728); Glasgow West (Hyndland) (127) and Provanhall (195).

At the end of last year a majority of tenants who voted did so in favour of transfer to Queens Cross HA (Hamiltonhill) (604 homes) and Cernach HA (420 homes). The transfers will happen in March.

This is a significant achievement - SST stalled under Labour, and the GHA empire grew. Local control is important, and I have seen first-hand the positive benefits it can bring for tenants and whole local areas.

If you would like to help John's campaign, the office is now open at 891 Shettleston Road, Glasgow, G32 7DB. Contact dlinden@glasgowsnp.org or call 07807214394