By Marie McNair, Independent Councillor

ACCESS to first class health services should be available to everyone. 

I am very keen to ensure that Bankies are not disadvantaged in accessing the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. 

I am determined that there should be affordable bus links to the new hospital. 
Many of our citizens will need to attend the hospital for treatment or to visit family and friends.

This is not a new issue and was raised before a brick was laid – but no one is listening.
It is totally unacceptable to me that many of my constituents will be burdened in this way.

This is why I have supported the calling of a special council meeting to hammer out a way forward and get all councillors to work together to secure improved transport links.

I am also backing the public meeting about this on December 7 in the town hall. The meeting has been organised by Dalmuir and Mountblow Community Council. I congratulate them in all their efforts and will back this campaign all the way.

I was also pleased to see the UK government being forced to back down on their proposals to cut tax credits. 
These cuts would have seen 78 per cent of those affected on average £1,500 worse off. What family can take this kind of hit?

It is proposals like this that show how out of touch this government is. 

They tried to claim that changes to the income tax personal allowance and an increase in the minimum wage would compensate. This was exposed very quickly as a lie.

The influential Work and Pensions Committee revealed that only one third would benefit from the minimum wage increase and a single earner family with two children would overall be around £1,400 worse off. 
They also said that at best only half the families hit by the tax credit cuts will benefit from the tax allowance change. 
While the government U-turn is welcome, unfortunately they are likely to impose other cuts. 
We must not let them away with this. 

There only seems to be one target in this government’s budget cuts – those who can least afford it. 

I call on the government to end this attack and if they persist I want to see West Dunbartonshire Council and the Scottish government doing everything they can to reverse and mitigate the cuts.