Director Bruce Forbes was appalled at witnessing the way in which a public bench at a play area in Whitfield Loan was left this week by the Council’s maintenance team.

He told Scottish Housing News: “I appreciate that council budgets are under pressure but having spent huge amounts of capital spending on improving play and recreation facilities in Whitfield, it is surely a false economy not to maintain these.

“This public bench which is totally inaccessible due to a massive growth of thistles is just one example of the extremely poor standards of maintenance in the parts of Whitfield for which Dundee City Council has responsibility.”

Mr Forbes added: “A lot of money was spent, not very long ago, on the new play facilities at the corner of Lothian Crescent and Whitfield Loan. The planted areas are now choked with weeds and the quality of ground maintenance is nowhere near an acceptable standard. How on earth can they expect families visiting the play area to use this?

“At a meeting which I attended earlier this year with Mike Galloway, the Director of City Development, he assured me in his capacity as chair of the Whitfield Regeneration Project Board that the Council is committed to maintaining Whitfield’s environment to the highest possible standard. Comparing it to the standard of landscaping work which Angus Housing Association expects from our contractors, the Council needs to seriously up its game to achieve this.

“It does also beg the question if there are to be two classes of landscaping in public areas in the city? Will there be different standards for the tourists around the V and A and the Waterfront to those in Dundee’s peripheral estates where some of the poorer residents of the city reside. I hope not. It certainly won’t look good if visitors to the city have to tackle big clumps of thistles before they can enjoy a seat at the Waterfront.”