Service is back up and running in Dundee

A VITAL Dundee service offering free meals and support for anyone feeling isolated has relaunched after almost 10 months on hold.

Taught by Muhammad’s (TBM) support cafe in Douglas dished up free takeout lunches to dozens of people on Monday.

The weekly event was paused in March when the pandemic hit and the organisers have been tryin to reopen safely since.

It was just one of five events previously held across the city’s most deprived areas, with the others still on hold for now.

About 1,000 people attended the five events each month.

TBM’s project manager Rizwan Rafik said: “Our clients haven’t been able to get to the cafes for so many months and this is having a significant impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

“These are areas where there is higher unemployment and lower incomes.

“We know how important a service like this can be to people. It has been tough not being able to run them for so long.”

It comes just weeks after one of the Douglas cafe’s regulars, Franc McMurchie, passed away.

The extremely vulnerable 26-year-old was found dead in his ground floor flat on Aboyne Avenue in Douglas at the end of September.

Mr Rafik added: “It was very sad to hear about Franc. I think going to the cafe was one of the few times he would see people.

“When you have people to speak with on a regular basis, it’s easy to take it for granted.

“Not everybody has a social network and Covid19 has cut off lots of people from the ones they do have.”

The cafe features staff from the NHS Community Keep Well Team who offer heath advice and try to intervene before serious illness occurs. Free financial advice services are also available.

The other cafes, in Stobswell, Fintry, Kirkton and Charleston, may relaunch as a delivery service if TBM can source funding.

PLANS have been announced to recommence sheriff court jury trials in Dundee next year with jurors watching the trial unfold from the city’s Odeon Luxe.

The plans, announced by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), will result in the implementation of a remote jury centre at the Douglas cinema with jurors being based there for both Dundee and Perth sheriff court trials.

Odeon complexes in Ayr, East Kilbride and Dunfermline will also be home to jurors when trials recommence next year.