SO THAT WAS CHRISTMAS: SCROOGE HADN’T A LOOK IN: GOLDEN BALLS IN STATION ROAD

NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY

There may be a Cost of Living Crisis, an epidemic of child poverty and homelessness, ubiquitous pot-holed roads and broken pavements, child murders, drug deaths and wrecks in the sewage-contaminated River Leven, but West Dunbartonshire Council could have tried even a wee bit harder – that’s if they did try at all – to take the bad look off Dumbarton and the Vale Town Centres.

These arrogant gauleiters could have put the community first for once instead of themselves, their overly generous pay packets and the political parties to which they belong and all too regularly claim allegiance.

And in which they are whipped to vote like nodding donkeys and generously armed to campaign enthusiastically for an election in the New Year. No holds barred there then.

They carry on brazenly with the politics of failure and bring us all into disrepute with their in-fighting and heartless decisions such as the one to close Balloch Library to the children and old folk in one of the more deprived areas of the shire.

They could have switched on some Christmas lights. That would have cost them next to nothing since they had them in storage from previous years. In fact some of them had never been taken down since last Christmas.

However, what a bunch of selfish roasters they are. They’ll tell you they are legally compelled to make budget cuts such as closing the library. They are not. They’re no way Santa’s elves. They are all for themselves, following the party line which protects their extremely attractive salaries considering how long they work and how little they do.

They will tell you that that any money they have managed to save from not making some of the cuts that Labour inherited from the SNP is ring-fenced. It is not. They could get round them with a sensible modicum of political acumen.

They, not any one else, made the decision not to have Christmas lights away back in March, which only goes to show how much political vision and foresight they have, which is absolutely none.

And they are now demonstrating how little good taste and common sense they have by “decorating” Station Road in Dumbarton with the biggest concrete balls up some of us have ever clapped eyes on.

This is an embarrassment. One huge embarrassment the community will have to live with for years to come.

If it is part of the levelling up scheme to bring town centres out of the dark ages then it’s an unmitigated disaster – and £7.2 million for a library at Glencairn House, plus the concrete balls in Station Road, is the fall-out from it.

This is a balls-up of magna proportions, kitsch with a capital K, even worse than the concrete monstrosity that is the town square in Dumbarton and Mitchell Way was in Alexandria. It seems that the person who first posted a picture of this on Facebook took cold feet and withdrew it. More council cover-up then?

There is nothing politicians hate worse than being laughed at, so why do they appear to be determined make such fools of themselves?

Christmas lights were just small displays on lampposts near Alexandria community centre and opposite the Iceland supermarket as well as a few lights on a sad looking tree. Vale folk are scunnered with the way they are being treated.

**Some places are beginning to look like the Gaza Strip without the sunshine.**

We are told by the Lennox Herald that residents have hit out at drab decorations in Alexandria, saying they leave the town lacking Christmas spirit.

And that last month the cash-strapped Council came under heavy criticism for scrapping big Christmas light switch-on events as part of budget cuts to close a £20 million deficit.

Budget deficit my tonsils. I have been covering local government in and around Dumbarton and the Vale for more than 60 years and I have heard all this stuff before.

How councils would be made bankrupt … that councils would be put into special measures … that elected representatives and officials would be jailed if they didn’t do what the government told them.

That is all shroud waving and scaremongering, designed to put the wind up anxious council tax payers.

I did once meet a group of Dunbartonshire councillors in Barlinnie Prison. They were in doing an inspection and I was there to recover our camera, which had been confiscated by the warders a few days previously for asking too many questions.

And taking too many pictures of a nun doing good work as a social worker helping prisoners’ wives and children while the breadwinners in their families were locked up.

Needless to say the councillors’ inspection didn’t achieve very much since Barlinnie is now crumbling and falling down, and the then governor’s sanctions on me achieved nothing since people like the Council’s spin doctors believe I still ask too many questions about matters which they believe should be kept hidden under the carpet.

They banned me, of course. That the same course of action the Israeli Defence Force have taken against journalists trying to report the actuality from Gaza.

Too much of the truth would not be helpful to their cause, just as too much truth would be unhelpful to West Dunbartonshire’s ongoing con on the local public.

Democracy has been destroyed in Dumbarton.

Think about it. Why else would an allegedly cash-strapped council be spending nearly £400,000 a year on propaganda and spin?

It’s time they had a reality check in Church Street. That money would be better spent on regeneration projects in Tontine, Bonhill and Brucehill, where we had vigilantes on the streets because local people felt the public authorities had let them down on social unrest and the police were too thin on the ground.

The council, yet again economical with the truth, announced that lights and decorations would be installed around the local area at Christmas and New Year and only the switch-on events had been axed – but residents were left underwhelmed by the festive displays.

The Council spin doctors refuse to discuss the cost of these golden balls with The Democrat, but you can be sure that it is plenty of the money they keep telling us they don’t have.

One contacted the Lennox to say that the Vale “had no festive atmosphere”, while the Rev Ian Miller, who speaks up for the Vale more than any elected councillor, was unhappy with what transpired and Alexandria Community Council cumulatively said the town once again feels “neglected”.

A dejected Alexandria resident told the Lennox: “It’s a really poor show. You’d stand in the middle of the Main Street and not know it was Christmas. It doesn’t feel different from any other time of year.

“It was disappointing when the switch-on events were cancelled for the kids, but we were under the impression the usual decorations would go up. There’s just no festive atmosphere in the area at all.”

The Vale has not just been neglected. It has been cruelly neglected and even abused. The residents are being conned by the council, which is telling them that they have plans for £12 million to be spent on the challenging task of doing the place up.

The word “challenging” is being bandied about. That’s the word local government officers use as a replacement in their reports to cover up for disaster, which truly reflects the situation they are addressing.

The council is about as good with its words as it is with its promises, claiming that a new Lidl supermarket is part of “ambitious £12 million plans to totally transform the Vale which also include renovating the historic Smollett Fountain”. Geeza break, as they say in Haldane.

Ian Miller summed things up when he said: “We are realistic enough to know that money must be saved.

“But in view of the time it has taken to sort out demolishing Mitchell Way, the chaos and traffic dislocation in the Main Street, the dilapidated state of the area and the interminable time it has taken to complete the fountain renovation, 21 weeks so far and counting, there is a feeling we are neglected.

“At ground level there is an increased level of dissatisfaction and a confirmation in the minds of some that we are third in line when council favours are being dished out, behind Clydebank and Dumbarton.

“WDC’s recent compromise for our area is to belatedly throw a community grant opportunity and some minimal lighting.

“There is a hope that maybe next year community interests may take precedence. If Helensburgh can do it, we should be able to do it.

“But galvanising support for this might not be easy. I think the grand promises and high hopes of a vision for the Vale right now seem utopian. The lights might just have lifted spirits locally but from what I see right now around me they look a little more like a damp squib.”

Galvanising support from the community to ever vote for these councillors again might no be easy.

The SNP killed the towns but what the Labour council is trying to do is like putting lipstick on a corpse.

A spokeswoman for West Dunbartonshire Council told the Lennox – they refuse to speak to The Democrat – said: “The council has installed Christmas lights in Alexandria, Balloch and Dumbarton, as well as providing Christmas trees in eight different locations throughout the area.”

Most people would like to know where they did this, since there was no obviously special decoration done anywhere we could see.

The Council added: “A proposal to cease Christmas light provision was agreed in March as part of work to close a £21 million budget gap, but changes to the light displays to lower installation and electricity costs meant the saving could be achieved while maintaining festive lighting.

“The council will provide support and practical assistance to communities who are interested in taking on the provision of decorative lighting at Christmas.”

I love the line about the electricity costs. This is from a council that spends a fortune lighting up the old Burgh Hall in Church Street, Dumbarton, when there is no good reason to publicise some obscure cause.

I have written this before and I refuse to apologise for repeating myself: Ignorance can usually be cured with education and information. Stupid is forever, and that is what we are witnessing before our eyes in Dumbarton.

Captions at top of page: The concrete balls-up in Station Road. The puddle is courtesy of the contractors, and what Dumbarton should have looked like lit up over the festive period if the local council had the wisdom and the acumen to deliver the services they were elected to provide.