With this being my first column in the Post since the budget, I’d like to thank the thousands of people who took part in the consultation and gave us your views.

You spoke and we listened, enhancing our original proposals to fully reflect community aspirations.

For the first time in five years, you have a council administration who has asked your views and actually acted on them. Every savings option taken was backed by public support and options we originally proposed that you did not like were removed.

Our opponents do not like us doing what the public want. They would rather we ran the council into a debt black hole and ignored the consultation results.

The SNP made a promise to consult with people and act on their wishes and we have kept that promise, delivering a true budget of the people on behalf of our constituents.

The vast majority of our flower beds will be replanted with perennial plants, bringing colour to places such a Dalmuir Park all year round.

More than £10million is being invested to repair roads and a proposed £1.56m cut to social care reversed. A £1m apprenticeship fund will create routes into employment over the next four years and £100,000 was set aside to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.

We are widening access to council and committee meetings, recording and streaming them online.

Biodiversity sites will be extended and enhanced with the planting of wildflower seeds, there will be a drive to empower residents by supporting them to take control of community assets, and a plan to test an environmentally sustainable road surfacing material.

We are also ensuring the council continues to support trade unions by funding trade union conveners from the public purse as well as maintaining, or increasing, facility time where required for other trade union duties.

This budget protects our most vulnerable residents, safeguards frontline services and delivers the investment our communities need. We’re investing in infrastructure, our children, creating employment opportunities and supporting residents who need help most. We are determined to deliver a fairer future, even in the face of Westminster austerity, and this budget gives us the platform to do exactly that.