by Councillor Douglas McAllister

The SNP administration at West Dunbartonshire Council pushed through their first budget this month with the support of the Tories at West Dunbartonshire.

It was a budget which will see your council tax rise by 3 per cent, and at the same time cuts vital council services.

The SNP have removed the council’s free care of garden scheme for our elderly residents, and have slashed our local library opening hours, and also introduced fees for school pupils for the use of musical instruments.

The SNP with the support of the Tories have also removed the additional £75,000 which my Labour council allocated to our parent councils at our schools across West Dunbartonshire.

All of this misery was, however, unnecessary. This year the council was in surplus to the tune of £600,000 thanks to the careful management of council finances by my Labour council until the SNP took over in May 2017.

That is why Labour proposed a no-cuts budget reversing all the cuts taken by the SNP this year, and we also suggested that the extra money be used to support free meal initiative to provide a hot meal 365 days a year for our most vulnerable, following the model by Labour-led North Lanarkshire Council.

So, council had a straight choice: a no-cuts budget moved by Labour or the austerity budget by the SNP. No surprise then that the SNP gained Tory support.

The most sinister cut of all taken by the SNP this month, was the reduction of trade union convenors at the council.

No wonder the Tories were pleased to back the SNP’s budget. This is an outrageous attack on workers’ rights and the trade union movement in West Dunbartonshire.

The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that it is a political ploy by the SNP to weaken organised labour, a pre-emptive strike to prevent opposition to the further cuts and job losses coming down the line by the SNP council with Tory support.

Labour fully support our trade unions and call on the SNP and Tories to reverse their decision.

I would also call on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to step in and insist that her SNP councillors reverse this outrageous attack on the trade union movement in West Dunbartonshire.