Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Council leader returns to his primary school
THE leader of Dundee City Council told children at Mill of Mains Primary School that the council’s budget is £560 million.
John Alexander said that 65% of that money goes on providing essential services such as education, housing and road works.
John also spoke about budget cuts and said the council needed to cut £16m this year.
He is looking to spend money on building more new places like the V&A Dundee because the tourists are loving it – only 500,000 people were estimated to visit by now but more than one million have walked through the door.
Dundee has a lot of good future plans like more homes, more money being put into children’s education and more community centres.
John told us the council has £100m to help tackle climate change and that he wants to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and put more solar panels on houses and maybe schools as well.
He said they also want to plant more trees, and have planted 12,000 already.
John said he never wanted to be a politician – in fact, when he was at
Mill of Mains Primary he wanted to be an astronaut or a pilot and when he moved to high school he wanted to be a teacher or a policeman.
He got more involved in politics and wanted to help change the city and make it a better place.
John said: “I didn’t choose politics – politics chose me.”
When he was 22 he went up for election and won, making him the youngest councillor in Scotland. In 2017 he was chosen to be the council leader.
John was inspired by his gran who did lots of volunteering and he went to community meetings with her.