Des McNulty - from here to Holyrood

Published 3 Feb 2010 13:00

We already know about the charges that have been imposed on the elderly and the vulnerable.

This is because of the poor settlement councils have received from the SNP Government in Edinburgh and its imposed Council Tax freeze.

On Thursday our SNP councillors in West Dunbartonshire agreed to retain charges for nursery and childcare provision, imposed fresh cuts in school budgets and even reduced weekend checks on schools, affecting janitors' wages.

We do not yet have the full detail of what the £500,000 cuts in education will mean.

The SNP was not brave enough to make its choices in public.

No doubt they will claim the party was forced into making cuts.

But the fact is its members hid behind officers' recommendations, refused to take questions from myself and opposition councillors at the official consultation meetings and then agreed unspecified cuts that will affect every school in the area.

I have been visiting schools recently.

There is great work going on in all of them and we have fantastic secondary buildings thanks to Labour, which put the money in place for new schools.

But head teachers have to phone the education authority to get permission to spend money even on essential items like pencils and paper, and the authority has taken control of the small sums of money that were previously given over to the schools to manage themselves.

We are told the SNP Government in Edinburgh's top priority is reduced class sizes at P1 to P3.

But the priority in West Dunbartonshire has got to be providing children with the support from teachers and learning assistants so that the youngsters are all competent in the skills traditionally known as the three 'R's - reading, writing and arithmetic and so that we boost attainment, especially at Standard Grade and Higher, where the number of subjects passed and the grades obtained determine job prospects and university entrance.

Investing in our young people is vital for the future.

West Dunbartonshire is losing out because the Government is sending more money to other parts of Scotland.

The local government settlement is a disgrace.

Perth and Kinross got the biggest increase, the councils in the west of Scotland the lowest.

The SNP do not care that we have a higher proportion of sick people in this part of the world - the health board here got the lowest increase.

The only infrastructure project in this part of the world, the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, was cancelled.

Meanwhile the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, which I confidently predict will cost twice the amount it is currently budgeted for, gets the go-ahead.

Alex Salmond wants a new prison in his constituency so £500m has been set aside.

The message is clear. The priorities of the SNP Government in Edinburgh lie elsewhere.

Its aim is independence, not tackling poverty.

Its members will say and do anything that advances their cause.

And they are perfectly prepared to abandon people here when it suits them.

The mystery is what the SNP councillors in Clydebank think they are doing.

We need investment in a new health centre for the town, we need investment in housing, money spent on youth work, on services to pensioners and the vulnerable.

The SNP is shutting and cutting, not because Edinburgh has no money, but because it has chosen to spend it elsewhere.

It has slashed housing budgets just when West Dunbartonshire reached the front of the queue, so people are going to be left in substandard housing.

We should be knocking down Salisbury Place in Mountblow, not leaving it to rot, bringing blocks of flats up to standard, with lifts that work, rather than locking people out of their own homes and concentrating efforts on getting people into work rather than what flag is hoisted over the Town Hall.

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This article appeared in Clydebank Post 03 Feb 10

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