by Councillor Gail Casey

THIS year’s council budget process has now been concluded. The threatened service closures and cuts never happened, mainly due to increased Scottish Government funding to local authorities.

This was a result of higher Barnett adjustments from the UK Treasury and Green Party demands at Holyrood. Unfortunately the long-suffering public were once again left to worry about the possible impact of cuts to much-used local services such as the municipal golf course, bin collections and care of gardens for the elderly and disabled.

No doubt they will be in the firing line again next year. Standard of living and quality of life are reducing, year on year. Our community services and facilities are declining and when you look back to previous decades they seem like a long lost paradise compared to what we have now.

These days we have “management adjustments” which are cunningly disguised as operational efficiencies and service reviews. These impact people’s jobs as well as increase charges to the public. Quite often they are legitimate but, for many, the full implications only become apparent months later.

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The way we pay for local services has changed over the years. The council tax freeze mostly benefitted the better off but the recent hikes illustrate the unsustainable nature of the policy. Council tax used to amount to about 20 per cent of council income. Now, it’s closer to 12 per cent, which means we are heavily reliant on handouts from the Scottish Parliament. I can only assume this is by design, such is the programme of centralisation at Holyrood.

So, amongst all of this, West Dunbartonshire plods along, struggling with dwindling resources to provide decent public services. We used to have a society divided by class but now it is divided by wealth. It’s great to see local people receiving a good education and going on to work in well paid jobs.

Our combined commitment to education over many years has paid off but recently the cracks have started to show. Locally, many children are failing to reach acceptable standards such is the pressure on teachers these days due to new Scottish Government policies and societal issues that negatively affect families. It will never be perfect but I think it could be a whole lot better.