Is this the worst Council in the history of Dunbartonshire?
By Democrat reporter
The SNP budget for West Dunbartonshire Council was delivered so badly that that Finance convener should never be allowed to speak in public again.
This is the view of Iain Ellis, pictured right, a well-known and respected Dumbarton man, who was present at the annual budget meeting in the Burgh Hall on Wednesday.
He said: “Councillor Ian Dickson was so bad I was actually embarrassed for him and the SNP, for about a second. He shouldn’t be allowed to speak in public again.
“Maybe he should have been doing Councillor Ian McLaren’s job during the meeting, posting on social media.
“This was an absolute disgrace, stating that management adjustments aren’t just another way of saying for cuts, at least [they should] be honest with us.”
This meeting was a water-shed in local government history in Dumbarton.
It was so bad it was almost tear inducing.
Margaret McMillan said: “We could not hear him [Dickson] and when we did, he was talking about horses.
“It was a question a councillor asked him that he still didn’t answer.
“I saw him shaking his head and reading something off another person laptop. Disgrace.”
It was indeed that bad. Every SNP councillor had their own scripted piece to stumble their way through in relation to their special interest of convenership for which they receive extra cash.
Margaret Wood, left, the UNITE trade union convener, wasn’t unlucky enough to be in the audience in the Burgh Hall.
But she still couldn’t hear the outpourings of gobbledygook on the Council’s audio streaming site.
She said: “I just listened to it. Don’t know about anyone else, but these councillors are a disgrace.
“They cannot deliver a speech as they are totally out of their depth and uninterested.
“I am fed up listening to they did this and they did that.
“It’s like play school and totally pathetic. These councillors should hang their heads in shame.”
Patrick Murray’s verdict was that the councillors “should all be made to sign a contract before being employed and then and work for the people. If not, they should be held accountable.”
Josephine Agnew said: “They allegedly speak for us, but more often than not they do what they like and to hell with the community they were elected to support.”
Danielle Donnachie suggested that the councillors themselves were so incompetent they had to rely on Joyce White, right, the Chief Executive and her officers, to draw one up for them.
Craig Edward added: “Labour proposed extra formalised funding for staff extra time off work due to domestic abuse, and proposals to have activities for children over the school breaks with meals included – both rejected by the SNP and Denis Agnew [and the Tories].”
Bankie Claire Gallagher said this was “the same Denis Agnew who was subjected to adverse poverty as a child. Shame on him and all the other traitors of the working class.”
Margaret McCallion described these councillors as “a WASTE of space and it was time the people they are representing had a vote again. The result would be NO CONFIDENCE.”
The Council, whose slogan could easily be ‘a blunder a day keeps scrutiny away’ had another one land in their lap when Cameron Cairney told social media: “I got my payslip today and on it the council are wanting us to report fraud and corruption. What a brass neck they have.”
UNITE convener Margaret Wood was speechless at that one – “Does it really? I would say more but will bide my time.”
None of the three officials named in the internal audit report in relation to the ongoing graft and corruption inquiry turned up at yesterday’s meeting.
And neither Cllr Ian Dickson, left, nor Council leader Jonathan McColl mentioned it at the meeting.
Danielle Donnachie said the payslip blunder was “unbelievable!
“They have a bloody cheek. [They are] happy to cover it up [themselves] but ask the workers to report it.”
Community activist and peace campaigner Louise Robertson, who supports Scottish independence said: “I could despair for the people of West Dumbarton being represented by this group of councillors who just don’t seem to know their brief and depend far too much on the officers of the council to do their job for them.”
Music charges hit bum note
By Democrat reporter
Some of the increases in the charges for Council services were details by Labour councillor Lawrence O’Neill, right.
One of them was doubling the price of community alarms for elderly people to £10.
Charges for young people will also increase and working families will also see a significant hike.
Hourly nursery charges, out of school charges and school meals for nursery, primary and secondary school youngsters will go up with secondary pupils being asked to pay £2.70.
And school lets for local community groups will go up, forcing many clubs out of premises they currently use because they can no longer afford the rent.
The Council, who appear to have a down on arts and culture, having cut opening hours in libraries, have increased by 18 per cent charges for hiring musical instruments.
Currently, there are nearly 600 school pupils registered on the programme with about 250 eligible for the hire charge.
Guitar and drums are not eligible for the musical instrument charge. Lessons are free.
Exclusions of the £85 fee are students who receive free school meals, sitting their SQA in music or own their instrument.
Instruments prices vary with flutes and clarinets costing anything from £200 to £500 with a trumpet costing between £300 and £5,000.
The SNP gave doubling the charges for Council gardening services a body swerve, no doubt recalling how last year their proposals on grass cutting in parks and open spaces came back to haunt them.
OPINION
By Jim Bollan, Longest serving member of West Dunbartonshire Council
The Community Party will move away from setting austerity budgets which are part of a Tory Government’s agenda to under-fund and undermine local democracy and Council services.
Local democracy has been systematically undermined through Council Tax Freezes, cuts to Council Funding by the Tories and the centralisation of Police and Fire services coupled with teacher numbers being controlled centrally and external private influence over the school’s estate.
Day in day out our Councils are diminished by these measures and we must now take a stand.
The job of councillors who oppose austerity is to demonstrate political leadership. The present agenda always entails cuts to key front line services and jobs.
The Community Party believe a needs-based budget needs to be agreed with input from our Trade Unions and the wider public in West Dunbartonshire.
We need to present a needs-based budget which would reflect the services needed by local people, coupled with the vital local jobs needed to carry out these public services.
We would expect the Council to play the leading role in organising a broad-based public campaign and include the unions and the wider public, to support this position.
We are not prepared to implement Tory cuts. The first step is to refuse to set budgets which set neighbour against neighbour and worker against worker by applying cuts to jobs and services which then become divisive and leads to inferior, and in some cases the entire loss of vital services.
The SNP cut £1.1 million from the budget last year. They have cut £2.3 million for 2019/2020 resulting in the loss of 86 jobs.
The Social Work Department is in crisis with 12 unfilled posts. Vulnerable families are at risk.
The Community Party would roll back the delegation of powers to officers which have contributed to the Fraud and Corruption scandal on the Council.
Reports from senior officers would require to broadly reflect the agreed political agenda of the Council, carried in the Manifesto.
The Community Party will develop an empowerment strategy where tenants and residents can directly become involved in shaping Council Policy in a decentralised decision-making structure, including voting rights on Service Committees.
The fightback needs to start now. Our communities are being punished by a vicious Tory Government. While the Tories make the rich and big business richer, many of our residents continue to need support from food banks.
We are in a class war and we need to do all we can to fight for and protect the people of West Dunbartonshire.
Resistance to services and job cuts is the first step we need to take to build a movement of all sections of our local Community to defend as best we can the working class population of West Dunbartonshire.
It is time to get off our knees and organise, to demand no more cuts to our Public Services and Jobs.
- The Dumbarton Democrat is a locally owned, edited and independent newspaper.