by Councillor John Mooney

I AM continuing to receive complaints from constituents about the untidy condition of the neighbourhood.

Amazingly, the SNP-Independent council administration is entirely to blame for this. They were given the chance two weeks ago to completely reverse their unnecessary cuts to greenspace. Labour moved that the cuts be completely reversed, but the administration decided to keep over half of the original cuts.

There are public health concerns, with diseases like leptospirosis and Lyme Disease proliferating in long grass. There is also a detrimental effect on our mental health.

People go to our parks to relax and are confronted by the sight of our flower beds turfed over. The bereaved are distressed by unkempt cemeteries and graves. Playparks are treated with weedkiller rather than being properly strimmed.

Since they do not seem to listen to local people, I fear that we will have to wait until they are telt again by their boss in Edinburgh to clean up their act.

The cabinet secretary for health and sport has once again ignored all of the specific concerns that I raised recently on your behalf about local health services. There is a very common sense solution to the lack of X-ray facilities at the new Clydebank Health Centre: come to a sensible, local arrangement to use the X-ray facilities at the Golden Jubilee Hospital. However, the Scottish Government is hell-bent on its centralisation agenda, and ignored my request for public consultation on local health services.

On a positive note, I am glad that my motion last year for the council to fund a publicity campaign about services at the Vale of Leven Hospital has now borne fruit. The Vale of Leven Hospital provides a GP out-of-hours service, a minor injuries unit, and a community midwifery unit without the need to travel to Glasgow. Further local service delivery at the Golden Jubilee Hospital is needed to enhance the local delivery of health services in West Dunbartonshire.

The SNP have shown us again that they, and their Independent and Tory supporters, are unfit for government in West Dunbartonshire and in Scotland. Labour would ensure local delivery of health services, and public ownership and control of all public transport so that we can get to our health appointments.