Director's Diary
CORPORATE
Posted on 25 Jun 2008
Monday 26 May to Friday 30 May - Flooding of the Southbank Marina started this week. The water has to be pumped in gradually from the adjacent canal. It will take about a week to bring the level in the marina up to the same level as the canal at which point it will be possible...
Posted on 25 Jun 2008
Monday 26 May to Friday 30 May - I spent some time this week finalising the legal agreements required before the paperwork associated with the final planning consent can be released. A full set of updated information has now been provided to the Council’s Planning...
Posted on 25 Jun 2008
Monday 26 May to Friday 30 May - The KI Executive Group meeting took place this week. Decisions were made on a wide range of issues including the KI approach to achieving an award of the Kirkintilloch Link Road contract, asset disposal strategies, updating the financial...
Posted on 20 Jun 2008
Monday 19 May to Friday 23 May - Discussions continue with prospective purchasers of the various land parcels in the KI land portfolio. Greater certainty on the award of the construction contract for the Link Road is now allowing these discussions to move forward more quickly....
Posted on 30 May 2008
Monday 12 May to Friday 16 May - The regular KI / EDC Planning Service liaison meeting took place this week. These meetings consider an update on progress with each of the projects and looks at advance information about planning issues which may arise. Updates were provided on...
Posted on 8 May 2008
Monday 21 April to Friday 25 April - This week has been a consultation week. Apart from consultation meetings regarding the Arts & Cultural Centre and the Southbank Access Road reported elsewhere in this weeks diary I have met with the KI Community Representative and...
Posted on 7 May 2008
Monday 14 April to Friday 18 April - East Dunbartonshire Councillors were given a joint presentation on Kirkintilloch’s Initiative and the Lennoxtown Initiative this week. I represented KI and Brian McAleenan, Chief Executive represented LI. The presentation outlined the...
Posted on 23 Apr 2008
Monday 7 April to Friday 11 April - This week the Kirkintilloch Herald’s front page headline highlights local peoples’ concerns about the loss of trees associated with developments which have started recently. I think most concern has been expressed about the work...
Posted on 10 Apr 2008
The KI Communications Group met this week to consider the liaison and publicity programme. The biggest events over the next few months will undoubtedly be the letting of the construction contracts for the Kirkintilloch Link Road and the Integrated Care Centre. However, there...
Posted on 4 Apr 2008
Monday 3 March to Friday 28 March - This diary entry covers a 4 week period which for me included a weeks holiday and the Easter weekend. It is amazing how the loss of a few days at work creates an intense catch-up period in which some tasks such as the Director’s Diary...
Posted on 7 Mar 2008
This week I have been involved in a number of meetings regarding the disposal of KI assets, VAT issues and financial projections. The whole area of budgetary control and income projections comes under very close scrutiny when decisions are about to be made on the award of...
Posted on 3 Mar 2008
Monday 18 February to Friday 22 February - The KI regular meeting with the Council’s Planning Service took place this week. As usual, this meeting was very helpful. We discussed a whole range of issues including progress towards meeting the various planning conditions...
Posted on 8 Feb 2008
Several meetings took place last week about progressing the disposal of the KI land portfolio. It is these disposals which help to pay for the projects. Although these discussions are going well it is a surprise to me how long it can take to bring the sale of a piece of land...
Posted on 25 Jan 2008
KI Ltd is a project management company set up by East Dunbartonshire Council to act as the operational arm of the Board of Kirkintilloch’s Initiative. As such the company needs to lodge annual accounts. There has been quite a bit of work recently with the accountant to...
Corporate - Achievements of 2007 and Targets for 2008
Posted on 4 Jan 2008
2007 has been a successful year for Kirkintilloch’s Initiative. After a number of years in the planning phase, 2007 has seen construction work start and new facilities begin to come on stream.
The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the opening of the...
Posted on 21 Dec 2007
Discussions continue on the sale of the land assets in the KI portfolio. Some very interesting proposals are close to being agreed between KI and potential buyers. The proposals for the EDC Social Work offices at 126 Cowgate were submitted to the Council’s Planning...
Posted on 14 Dec 2007
The KI Communications Group met this week. This meeting was followed by a small Christmas Reception for the KI Community Representatives and Project Champions. At this time of the year I think it is important that we look back over the past year to recognise what has been...
Posted on 23 Nov 2007
It has been a busy week for work which relates to the whole KI effort and not just to one individual project. On Monday I was invited to do a presentation to Sir John Elvidge who is the most senior civil servant at Scottish Government. This was part of a general discussion on...
Posted on 16 Nov 2007
I met this week with our financial advisors as well as the Council’s Finance Team. I find these regular meetings extremely helpful as the financial structure of KI is relatively complicated. It’s therefore extremely important that good accounting systems are in...
Posted on 15 Nov 2007
I met this week with our asset disposal team to progress three offers which KI has received in respect of its land portfolio. Good progress is being made and I am hopeful that these disposals will move to the next stage shortly. This work is not particularly high profile but...
Posted on 6 Nov 2007
I met with the Council’s Planning Service this week for one of our regular update meetings. As usual there was a full agenda. Key issues related to progress with the planning applications for the Southbank Access Road, the Integrated Care Centre and Kirkintilloch Link...
Posted on 26 Oct 2007
This has been a busy week for formal meetings. On Tuesday evening the KI Community Representatives and Project Champions Forum met. This is a group of community volunteers and EDC / NHS officers who have agreed to try to ensure community input guides the work of KI. The...
Liaision with Planning Service
Posted on 19 Oct 2007
Our regular meetings with the Council’s Planning Service continue to take place. In addition to these meetings I have been invited to participate in a review group which is looking at how the future of Kirkintilloch Town Centre might be represented in the next update of...
Posted on 8 Oct 2007
This diary entry covers 4 weeks, one of which was a holiday week for me.
The last few weeks have been a busy time for me in respect of management meetings. The KI Partnership Board met on 19 September and the KI Executive Group met on 4 October. In addition I have had a...
Posted on 7 Sep 2007
This has been a big week as far as financial planning is concerned. The financial position was discussed in some detail at last week’s Executive Group meeting. This week I have been looking in great detail at the financial projections and preparing a report for...
