The Covid-19 public health emergency has seen third sector and community organisations respond brilliantly throughout the crisis, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their work in support of communities across Glasgow.

The need for the services they provide is only going to grow as we move from stage to stage of the pandemic.

That’s why the process of moving to a Glasgow Communities Fund –- a fundamental change to the support given by the city council to these vital organisations – should not have been rushed through by the SNP administration.

Unhappily, the SNP did not heed Labour’s concerns and so a deeply flawed set of proposals was passed at last week’s meeting of the city administration committee (CAC) by 13 votes to 10.

Indeed, I believe that the way the change to a Glasgow Communities Fund has been mishandled throughout has caused unnecessary distress to the people working for, and relying on, these services, and has eroded trust with the third sector.

Labour found the recommendations of the SNP’s transitional support fund to be wholly inadequate. At last week’s CAC meeting Labour moved an amendment that would have spent £5.2million over the next 18 months supporting organisations which otherwise would not have received funding. Labour was then committed to finding the additional money necessary to match the length of the Glasgow Communities Fund.

Let me be clear: Labour’s approach would have provided funding to every organisation that was previously supported via the Integrated Grant Fund (IGF) and had applied to the Glasgow Communities Fund, and was deemed eligible but not recommended for an award.

Labour’s proposal would have saved jobs, saved services and saved organisations from the threat of closure.

But the SNP refused to listen and bulldozed through its deeply flawed proposal: a mistake which will cause communities across Glasgow dearly, and which could have been avoided if the minority administration had listened to Labour and exercised a degree of common sense.

Obviously, it’s bitterly disappointing that the SNP has acted in this high-handed manner. Whilst we are in the midst of a pandemic, and the demand on the third sector and community organisations continues to rise, now is the worst possible time to be cutting their budgets.

But that’s exactly what the SNP has done. It’s truly heartbreaking that communities and individuals across Glasgow will now face the reality of those cuts.