Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
Dumbarton Cemetery, beautifully kept, faces maintenance cutbacks.
March 13, 2018 – The SNP/Tory coalition on WDC who voted through £1,081.500 of unnecessary cuts to Council services and jobs provides some hard evidence that we are dealing with Tartan Tories on WDC. The Council has a surplus of £671,000 plus an additional £2.8m from the Scottish Government. One of the main contradictions in the SNP/Tory budget was how Council workers were treated.
The Council leader, Cllr Jonathan McColl, was quite rightly on his feet in the early part of the meeting praising our staff for their amazing efforts during the recent extreme bad weather. Part of that effort was made by 60 Greenspace staff who worked in atrocious conditions, sometimes hand gritting pavements and paths from the back of Council vehicles. Later in the meeting the SNP/Tory budget cut over £600,000 from the Greenspace budget which will result in job losses in that department.
To rub salt in the wound the coalition then attacked the Unions who represent Greenspace workers by cutting the facility time for them, and all the Council Unions. Hypocrisy from the SNP.
The cuts will affect you from the cradle to the grave. Educational Maintenance Allowances which allow young people to remain in education, has been slashed. Grants to Parent Councils has been cut back. If you play golf you will pay an additional 30% on your ticket for Dalmuir, a rise of ten times the rate of inflation. Grounds maintenance of our cemeteries, parks and open spaces will be cut back from weekly to every three weeks. A review leading to the closure of Community Centres. Attacking Union members and their right to be represented in the work place by cutting facility time which will lead to more costly disputes. Cutting grants to elderly and disabled groups which has already been confirmed is unsustainable and will cause hardship and exclusion. Cutting funds to CAB, and other strategic partners many of which are charities, which are already swamped by constituents as a result of rising poverty levels in West Dunbartonshire. The mask is slipping on the Tartan Tories who are running WDC.
Councillor Jim Bollan, West Dunbartonshire Council