I WAS delighted to attend the opening of the new play park in Radnor Park last weekend.

This has been delivered by the local community, and especially the Central Radnor Park Tenants and Residents’ Associations, in collaboration with the Environment Trust.

The next phase will upgrade the sports pitch with a modern surface and floodlighting.

It is great to see the whole community, young and old, working together to improve the local environment.

West Dunbartonshire Council provided the funding of £150,000 for the new play and sports facilities in the last budget of the Labour administration last year. I was pleased to be instrumental in securing this funding.

The total investment in this Labour budget to improve the environment for our communities in my ward was £1million. This included £500,000 to upgrade the sports pitches in Mountblow, with more funding available to refurbish the pavilion, and further funding for environmental improvements in Linnvale and Drumry.

Contrast this with the current SNP administration imposing unnecessary cuts to grass cutting, bedding plants in parks, cemeteries, libraries – and now Christmas trees! Bah humbug, they say.

They have even been rebuked by the First Minister for imposing unnecessary cuts. As our MSP often says...you couldn’t make it up!

We can now look forward to the new health and care centre on Queens Quay, scheduled to open in the spring of 2021. The previous Labour administration invested heavily in infrastructure investment in Queens Quay, which will pay off in the next few years with social housing and a district heating system.

However, I have concerns about public transport links. Despite the new leisure centre having been open for over a year, no bus company has yet decided to put a route into Queens Quay.

Under this SNP government, we are at the mercy of private bus companies. Labour would start up a municipal bus company in public ownership to make sure that all services and areas are accessible to all.

Labour is for people and communities, for business and employment. Labour is for the many, not the few.