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Welcome to our entry for the 2018 Beautiful

Scotland campaign. Bonnie Dundee is a

partnership of community groups, Dundee

City Council, businesses, organisations and

individual volunteers from across the city

who take forward Dundee’s entry into the

City category of Beautiful Scotland. We were

delighted to achieve a Silver Gilt in 2017 and

we have been working hard throughout the

year to develop our projects for 2018.

Bonnie Dundee’s volunteers have been

working to help improve Dundee’s built and

natural environment and brighten up the

city. This includes planting and maintaining

over 50 planters in the city centre, growing

on about 3,000 plug plants in our shared

polytunnel at Duntrune Community Garden,

organising litter picks and providing advice

to others who are setting up projects.

Dundee City Council have been working on

a range of capital projects to improve and

enhance the local environment for residents

and members of the public and have been

continuing to promote the Take Pride in

Your City campaign to help improve local

environmental quality. This is in addition to

the introduction of initiatives to encourage

healthy use of the city’s parks and open

spaces.

Bonnie Dundee and our partners are

supporting the Year of Young People 2018,

we aim to involve even more of Dundee’s

young people and help celebrate their

contribution to the city by providing

opportunities to share their ideas and get

involved.

This is an exciting time in Dundee with big

changes ahead. The new V&A Museum of

Design Dundee is due to open on Saturday

15th September and major sporting events

are being held locally. We hope to create

eye-catching displays which can be enjoyed

by both residents and visitors alike.

This portfolio gives a snapshot of what is

happening in Dundee at the moment and

shows a sample of the many projects and

groups working to make Dundee a brighter,

cleaner and greener place to live, work and

visit.

BONNIE DUNDEE PORTFOLIO 2018

Spring 2018 displays with tulips at Dundee Science

Centre (above) and crocuses at Perth Road (below),

both were planted by Bonnie Dundee’s volunteers.

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Dundee’s Rotary Clubs donated 20,000 crocus bulbs to Bonnie Dundee, which were planted in

November 2017 at prominent junctions on Perth Road and the Stannergate. The remaining bulbs

were shared with Broughty Ferry in Bloom, a project in Coldside and The Ark Nursery. Pictured

are Bonnie Dundee planting bulbs with The Rotary and Broughty Ferry in Bloom members at the

Stannergate (above left) and children from The Ark Nursery at Slessor Gardens (above right).

Bonnie Dundee’s winter tidy up at

Customs House (November 2017).

Dundee Flower & Food Festival is held annually at Camperdown Park over the first weekend in

September, 2018 marks the 30th Anniversary of the Festival at this location. The three day extravaganza

includes a large range of competitive classes, stunning displays of flowers and vegetables (pictured

September 2017), cookery demonstrations, live music, children’s activities and much more. We were

delighted to be awarded the David Welch Award for Something Special at last year’s Beautiful Scotland

Awards ceremony.

Local groups and societies are involved on the organising Committee and at the Festival and Dundee’s

schools get involved too. Friday is our education day where school bands provide the musical

entertainment and schools can visit for free, entries are also encouraged into the Children’s Classes. This

year we will also be celebrating the work of the Council’s apprentices.

HORTICULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT

AUTUMN & WINTER

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Five sites in Dundee received a Green Flag Award in 2017.

Baxter Park, Templeton Woods, Barnhill Rock Garden and

Trottick Mill Ponds LNR all retained their Green Flag and

Dundee Law was a successful new applicant. Slessor Gardens

was put forward as a new site for 2018. The six sites were

assessed this year and the outcome will be announced in July.

Dundee City Council carries out ‘Internal Green Flag’

assessments on a number of Dundee’s public parks and open

spaces. Using the criteria from the Green Flag Awards, these

assessments act as a bench marking tool. Each rating provides

an evidence base for demonstrating continued improvement

and ensures a consistent standard, so that over time every

area within the city boundary has public parks and open

spaces of excellent quality. Assessments are attended by a

representative from the Environment section, Communities

team and the relevant community group representative.

The Council planted almost 200

trees (excluding whips) over the

winter months of 2017/18 across

the city. Including replacement of

those in the Union Street planters

maintained by Bonnie Dundee in

April/May 2018 (right). The old

trees are being relocated to

Magdalen Green.

Bonnie Dundee at work in the

polytunnel pricking out plants,

including our youngest member

aged 20 months sorting pots!

(April 2018)

HORTICULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT

SPRING & SUMMER

Green Flag Award winning

Baxter Park (December 2017)

The V&A Dundee Community Garden (April 2018, above) is one of three

‘pocket gardens’ maintained by volunteers in Slessor Gardens, a major

new civic space in Dundee’s Central Waterfront. The other two being the

Edible Garden maintained by Dundee Urban Orchard (DUO) and the

Reflections on the Tay garden maintained by Bonnie Dundee.

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HORTICULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT

SPRING & SUMMER

Bonnie Dundee adopted a site next to Customs House in 2017 with the support of

Apex City Quay Hotel which resulted in a vibrant display (above left, August

2017). This year the group are planting with a yellow theme in support of Glow

Gold September, which raises awareness of childhood cancer (above right, May

2018) and are also including yellow in other tubs in the City Centre.

Wildflower Meadows

The Council’s Neighbourhood Services have been developing wildflower meadow mixes within

strategic sites over the last few years. The objective is to establish the optimum approach for

developing and converting areas of grass to wildflower meadows.

Sites include high profile city centre sites, large areas of grassland with no recreational function

e.g. wide verges, and labour intensive areas such as steep banks and small areas which are

difficult to access and operate machinery. Three more have been created on arterial routes into

Dundee for 2018 and a second orchid panel identified. Pictured in 2017 are Dudhope Roundabout

(top) in August and Hunter Street car park (above) in September. The Council’s floral display at East Marketgait (August 2017)

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The ‘Take Pride in Your City’ campaign, launched in May 2015, is an environmental

improvement campaign looking to improve Dundee’s local environmental quality

and change littering behaviour. It is taken forward by a Steering Group made up of

representatives from a range of Council Service areas and asks everyone to work

together on tackling the issue. The campaign focuses on the five key themes of

litter, dog fouling, fly-tipping, discarded chewing gum and graffiti in addition to

promoting public involvement in environmental activities.

Working with Zero Waste Scotland to develop a collaborative approach to litter

prevention, Dundee became the first local authority area to have a Community

Litter Prevention Action Plan (LPAP). This is made up of individual LPAPs from

Council Services, community groups and organisations. There are currently 32

individual LPAPs specifically relating to Dundee plus another 15 LPAPs from

national organisations. An event was held in May 2018 to further develop the

Community LPAP which was attended by representatives from local businesses,

schools, community groups, the Take Pride steering group and neighbouring local

authorities.

All Council schools have been offered

additional resources to increase

recycling of food waste. There was an

encouraging response to this offer

and we continue to provide

communications support to schools

to promote and embed the ‘reduce,

reuse, recycle’ message.

Dundee Rep Theatre’s festive

litter pick including Company

mascot Mima! (November 2017)

The Council are developing a range of Take Pride branded signage and

reviewing procedure to ensure appropriate information provision and

infrastructure is available. Recent enforcement campaigns have

resulted in 20 FPNs for dog fouling, 15 for littering and 5 for fly-tipping.

The Council joined the Roadside Litter:

Week of Action to help tackle the litter

blighting Dundee’s roadsides, with schools,

community groups and businesses helping

spread the campaign message. Three litter

picks were held specifically to tackle

roadside litter and a number of businesses

on the Kingsway, such as Travelodge

(pictured) and BP displayed campaign

materials. In Dundee, 71 schools

and nurseries are

registered with the

Eco-Schools programme,

nine of which have a

Green Flag.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

The World War II pillbox on Dundee

Law has been turned into a bat roost,

the local Bat Group were consulted and

funding identified with work taking

place during spring 2018

The Council is investing in battery

operated machinery for the City

Centre to reduce the environmental

impact of work carried out. All

powered machinery within the City

Centre ring road will be battery

operated, such as electric sweepers

and tools used by the gardeners.

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ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY The Community Re-use Hub, based at

Baldovie Recycling Centre, is a business

partnership between Dundee City Council

and a number of third sector organisations.

The Hub opened in September 2015 and

was jointly funded by the Council and by

grants from Zero Waste Scotland and Big

Lottery. Items donated by the public at the

Recycling Centre are collected and the

reusable items restored by volunteers, who

learn new skills and increase their prospect

of employment, before the items are

redistributed to the local community.

The Council is working in partnership with

the Scottish Government to invest heavily in

Sustainable Transport projects. Key areas

include Electric Vehicles (EVs), active travel

and infrastructure to support behavioural

change. Dundee has the largest local

authority EV fleet in the UK, with 1 in 4

electric, which are supported by a network

of 75 charging points across the city.

Dundee City Council in collaboration with external partners ran an

awareness campaign to encourage participation in Earth Hour, an annual

initiative that encourages people worldwide to turn off their lights for one

hour to show a stand against climate change and encourage us all to

consider our personal impact on the planet.

A range of awareness raising activities and events were held and in the week

running up to Earth Hour in March 2018 a number of Dundee’s significant

buildings turned their external lights green. Then for Earth Hour itself they

turned off their lights. There was also a guided nature walk up Dundee Law

(above) and an Earth Hour Day held at Camperdown Wildlife Centre.

Earth Hour Dundee events and activities were planned and implemented by

a lead group of three graduates on work experience placements with the

Council. This team were awarded the Year of Young People 2018 award at

the Council’s 2018 Outstanding Service and Commitment Awards (OSCAS)

for demonstrating drive and determination on the campaign and for their

focus on youth and inclusion of young people in the campaign.

In June 2017 the Council agreed Dundee's Biodiversity Duty report

which highlighted the City's biodiversity actions over the past 5 years.

The report also looks towards future actions. In 2018, all of the 35

Locally Important Nature Conservation Sites will be assessed updating

the survey which was carried out in 2000. This information will inform

a Biodiversity Duty Action Plan. A consultant has now been appointed

to carry out the work.

The Council is committed to sustainable waste and recycling practices, which

are compliant with the National Charter for Household Recycling and has

revised its waste and recycling collection methodology, designed to meet the

requirements of the new code of practice. The Council continues to strive to

meet Scottish Government’s challenging recycling targets and the associated

policy and legislative drivers. All households in Dundee are now able to recycle

glass, paper, card, plastics, food and metals more easily.

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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

In Dundee, 17 groups have registered with It’s Your

Neighbourhood for 2018, they range from gardening

projects and community allotments to school and

wildlife groups.

Litter picks are held by community groups and

individuals in Dundee throughout the year.

When Clean Up Scotland’s annual spring clean

was promoted in 2018, there was a fantastic

response with 21 litter picks held by community

groups, schools and businesses over April and

May. We are well on the way to beating the

2017 total of 26 litter picks.

Spring Clean litter picks by Cherry Blossom

Nursery (above) Friends of Dudhope Park

(left) and University of Dundee students

(below). April and May 2018.

The Garden, Allotment and Best Kept Close Competition is held annually by the Council and is

open to all within the Dundee city boundary, including individuals, schools and businesses.

Entries are received from throughout the city and highlights the hard work that Dundee’s

citizens are doing in their own areas. Pictured are the St Francis RC Primary School (above left)

and Menzieshill Nursery School (above right) gardens in June 2018.

A Community and Therapeutic Gardens event

was held in March 2018, organised in partnership

between Dundee City Council and Trellis. Over 50

people attended the event from Dundee and the

surrounding area, this provided an opportunity

for community groups and interested parties to

share best practice and receive advice on how to

improve their projects. It is intended to hold the

event again next year.

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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION At the start of the 2017/18 academic year

the Council opened up 15 of Dundee’s

school grounds for community use.

Improving community access to the school

grounds and play facilities within them has

the potential to enhance the health and

well being of those living in the local

community.

The Council's policy to develop community gardens

has been extended using Community Regeneration

Fund money. New community gardens have been

created or are under construction at Menzieshill,

Whorterbank, Balgarthno and Maryfield over the

course of 2017 and 2018.

Dundee Green Dog Walkers, launched

in December 2016 now has over 70

volunteer dog walkers to act as good

ambassadors and encourage other

dog walkers to clean up after their

dog. This is one of the initiatives

introduced in the city to promote

responsible dog walking.

Children from The Ark Nursery plant a tub

each year for at Dundee Science Centre, this

year they have pansies to represent happy

faces (pictured, May 2018). When asked

what they wanted to see in the new V&A

Dundee, they answered a whale, lots of

drawings and a real King!

School competitions have been held during 2018 to

design messages promoting environmental issues. One

was to design a sign for use on street Eurobins and

another was for a poster promoting Earth Hour.

Pictured above is the launch of the Cessation of Smoking

in Playparks initiative (May 2018) which is run in

partnership between the Council and NHS Tayside, the

winning design created by a Dundee school pupil takes

centre stage.

The Council’s Sports and Physical

Activity Strategy was launched in

May 2018, including the frameworks

for play and physical activity. These

are leading directly to capital

funding for play equipment.

Bonnie Dundee maintain two beds in William

Gardiner Square to the rear of the Overgate

Shopping Centre alongside Dundee & Angus

College’s beds. Pictured are members of Bonnie

Dundee and the Overgate at the official opening

of the new playpark (June 2018).

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FINANCE

As part of the Council’s Neighbourhood Services review,

capital funding was allocated in 2016/17 to allow major

landscape improvement projects. The proposed projects

have been designed to improve and enhance the local

environment for residents and members of the public.

The Council’s Neighbourhood Services have made changes to

maintenance regimes for both financial and environmental benefit.

For example green spaces will be allowed to ’naturalise’ in selected

areas around the city, such as sites with difficult access (e.g. steep

slopes), low active use (e.g. roadsides) and areas which have been

identified as important for biodiversity. The objective is to decrease

the need for frequent mowing and introduce a less intensive form of

grass management.

Tesco Bags of Help awarded £1,000 to improve the

poly-tunnels used by Bonnie Dundee, Broughty Ferry in

Bloom and SAMH at Duntrune Community Garden. New

staging and capillary matting were purchased with the

funding. A number of other projects in the city have

benefited from Bags of Help including those by Friends

of Riverside Nature Park, Discovery Junior Cycle Club and

the Maxwell Centre Every-1’s Garden.

The Dundee Law Heritage Project is a two year Heritage

Lottery funded initiative to make improvements to this iconic

Dundee landmark. Work has included physical improvements

as well as measures to encourage recreational use of the site.

During late summer 2017 Froglife built a

new pond at Tay View Community Garden

and two at Riverside Nature Park. Funding

for this was from Angus Environmental

Trust. The new ponds have safe access, so

that visitors can enjoy the wildlife that they

will attract and will add to the biodiversity

and educational value of these sites.

Dundee Decides was an opportunity for the city’s residents to have a say on how

the Council should spend the £1.2 million Community Infrastructure Fund. The fund

will be used to make improvements based on suggestions identified during the

Engage Dundee Consultation. Each of Dundee’s eight ward areas were allocated

£150,000 to spend on infrastructure improvements and winning projects were

chosen via a public vote by ward residents.

Based on the results of the public vote of the £1.2 million pounds available,

approximately £500,000 will be allocated to projects relating to parks and open

spaces across the city. For example approximately £125,000 will be invested in play

and £40,000 in ‘trim trail’ equipment.

The Council has received funding from

Scottish Natural Heritage to employ a

Green Health Partnership Co-ordinator

for two years, this is one of four pilot

projects in Scotland.

Bonnie Dundee were awarded funding from the

Postcode Local Trust for a new bin beside their

planters at Dundee Science Centre which was

installed in October 2017. The group work in

partnership with the Science Centre who empty

the bin. Installing a new bin was one of the

actions on Bonnie Dundee’s Litter Prevention

Action Plan.

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PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Dundee’s Smart Waste Project is part of the Scottish Cities Alliance, which is being

jointly funded by Dundee City Council and European Regional Development Fund

(ERDF) monies. The project aims to make services across Scotland’s seven cities

become more efficient and greener through the use of data and digital

technologies. The trial project is looking at the deployment of a range of smart

technology including smart litter bins with sensors to alert waste services to

empty the bins only when they are full and solar powered compactor bins to

compact the waste with the aim of improving efficiency.

Dundee City Council are working in partnership with Angus Council in a unique contract for the

long term disposal of residual waste in line with the forthcoming landfill ban. MVV Environment

Baldovie (MEB) now operate the existing energy from waste (EfW) plant which accepts residual

waste from both partner Councils, incinerating this and capturing the resultant energy. A new

energy from waste (EfW) plant is under construction alongside the existing facility, this project

will have significant environmental and community benefits for Dundee and Angus residents.

It was found during the Engage Dundee consultations that Middleton

Woods in Whitfield was an important site for the local community.

Following this consultation a clean up was held by the Communities

Team in November 2017 (above) involving local community groups. An

open event was then held in April 2018 held to gauge public interest in

developing a Friends group. Another open event is planned for summer

2018 which will combine a social gathering and a clean up.

A Regional Performance

Centre for Sport is under

construction at the city’s

Caird Park. This has

resulted in additional

Fields in Trust protection

at Drumgeith Park.

A borehole is to be installed at Swannie Pons in

Stobswell Park along with five pumps to

circulate the water. This will reduce blue-green

algae and weed growth in the ponds which can

pose a problem at this site. Dundee City Council is committed to sustainability with considerable

work completed and more underway, to transform Dundee into a

sustainable, low carbon city. We strive to meet a number of ambitious

aims which form the foundations of a city wide Sustainable Energy &

Climate Action Plan (SECAP), committing us to an emissions reduction

target of 40% by 2030.

A new Waterfront Active Travel Hub is proposed for 2019. The Hub

will feature a café and bike repair/rental shop, with operators

responsible for providing information and taster sessions on all

forms of sustainable transport within the city including electric

vehicles, car clubs, walking groups and cycle routes. The new Slessor Gardens Pavilion,

which is planned for summer 2018.

A new play area will be created at

Camperdown Park, over £400,000 will be

invested into new equipment.

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APPENDIX

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