By Provost William Hendrie

As Provost I am regularly asked to attend events on behalf of the council and this can be a very rewarding part of my role.

I recently had the privilege of attending a charity event in support of Teenage Cancer Trust. The concert, at the town hall, was a very inspiring event and well attended for this worthy charity.

I was delighted to welcome Graeme Clark back to his home town of Clydebank and present the Wet Wet Wet member with an award for his highly successful musical career. Thanks to everyone who came along and to everyone who kindly donated on the evening.

I also attended the Working4Business Awards which provided a platform to recognise, reward and celebrate the many successful businesses and professional individuals we have in our area. The winners were all worthy of their success and are providing training, employment and futures for individuals and families across West Dunbartonshire.

Last month I proudly raised the Commonwealth flag at the council’s offices to mark Commonwealth Day. This day sees people across the Commonwealth countries hold civic events, debates, school assemblies, flag raising ceremonies, and fashion shows to celebrate the vast diversity, strong unity and uplifting values that defines our Commonwealth.

I was also pleased to attend the official opening of Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School, the latest education building to open in our schools’ estates programme. The opening of the £25m school moved 1,000 children from classrooms that were in poor condition to be educated in modern open plan learning environments. We have invested more than £70m in our schools estate and by investing in our schools estate, we are improving the learning environments for our children and young people.

You still have time to nominate your local hero in this year’s Provost Civic Awards. We know we have many special people in West Dunbartonshire who make a significant contribution to improving the area and the lives of our residents. If you have a special neighbour, a carer who goes that extra mile or is your child’s sports instructor the best? We want you to nominate them for a Provost Civic Award.

Local heroes can be nominated across five categories of Arts and Culture Champion, Sports Champion, Community/Voluntary Champion (Individual), Community/Voluntary Champion (team) and Youth Champion.

The deadline for nominations is Monday, June 4.

This is your chance to publicly thank the people who take the time to make your life better.

Show them your appreciation by nominating them now.