With restrictions being further relaxed at last it looks like we may be heading back towards some kind of normality. With vaccination take-up going ahead at a good speed, and hospital inpatient rates at their lowest since September, I would urge everyone to stand by the guidelines as we progress. This will be our way forward out of this pandemic.

On a more local note I have, as other councillors have also, been receiving an increasing number of complaints about fly-tipping across the ward. This is something I know that council staff are working to clear up as quickly as possible, so please do keep telling us whenever and wherever you see evidence of it.

There have also been a number of concerns raised with me of late over anti-social behaviour by young people. I can tell you that many of those concerns reported to us are from local residents reporting the same incident – so although it may appear that, for instance, six issues have been raised, four of them could be in connection with the one incident.

While no-one is dismissing the problem, least of all me, it is worth remembering that it is not necessarily as bad as it may appear on social media. However, please be assured that the police and the council are working to eradicate such incidents.

We know that these acts are being carried out by a small minority of young people, so please also bear in mind that most of the young people in our area are good, decent people. Many of them have been working to help local communities across ward 14 throughout the pandemic, and my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of them for their efforts.

As many of you know, Drumchapel Community Centre has been taken over for use as a Covid test and trace centre. We are not yet sure how long this will be in place for, but please be assured that my fellow councillors and I are pressing for dates on when this facility will be reopened for the community to use. We’ll keep you informed.

Sadly, it looks like the Winterfest will be cancelled again for this year. Planning for this event takes a fair amount of time, and with restrictions still not fully lifted, it’s difficult to make firm arrangements. With that in mind the Local Area Partnership has agreed that the money which is normally set aside for Winterfest will instead be used for festive lighting across the ward.

Along with the £3,600 from the council’s own festive fund, that will give the ward around £15,500 – so approximately £5,000 for each community council area. Each community council will be asked for their view on where the money should be spent to bring as much festive cheer to us all.

will give us around £15.500 giving around £5.000 for each community council area each community council will be asked for their thoughts on where this should be spent thus bringing some much needed festive cheer to us all.