Funding plan wasn’t ours, says Labour leader Rooney
NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
The current lease is held by the arms length Health and Social Care Partnership to which Council leader Martin Rooney tried to switch responsibility for its financial failure during a social media debate this week.
People right across the West Dunbartonshire are dismayed that the Labour council decided to go down the road of selling this valuable community asset.
What they really need is a philanthropist, such as William Denny, the shipyard owner who gifted Levengrove to the then Town Council, or a change of government which might not be as cack handed at running the country as the SNP.
The Health and Social Care Partnership (HSPC), which took over the “hospital pass” funding plan from the then in power SNP local authority – it was a mistake that the HSCP was ever formed – has said would withdraw its management in light of a £10 million deficit.
The Pavilion deal was like one of us going into a dealership and buying a Rolls Royce knowing there was no real prospect of us ever being able to pay for it.
Opened in 2019 as part of a £3.7 million regeneration of the whole park venue, the coffee shop, pictured left, has become a popular spot for park users such as joggers, cyclists and a mum-and-baby group.
However, if the council had consulted more widely on the project and actually listened to the community, they would have been told by people who really know the area and have actual hospitality business experience, the cafe would never have opened.
Their view was widely publicised but the council once again demonstrated their contempt for press and public opinion that the cafe would never successfully see out a Dumbarton winter in the park which is wide open to the elements.
It hasn’t and now it needs £90,000 a year to keep going.
After a period of delaying the opening of the cafe at its inception, it was decided to merge it with an adult training centre which was already in place in the park.
Unlike the Atlas boulders in Station Road, the cafe has been one of the most popular and suffessful projects the council has come up with in recent years, although if we are to take Cllr Rooney’s word for it, it wasn’t a council project at all.
It is the Health and Social Care Committee some of whose members, including its chairman, a local GP, are unelected. No one has ever voted for them.
The HSCP follows in the footsteps of the Western Regional Hospital Board, the Argyll and Clyde Health Board and the Lomond Healthcare Trust, all of which were deemed failures and lost a fortune.
These bodies were replaced by the Greater Glasgow Health Board which at present finds itself the subject of inquiries on a number of important issues, including patient deaths at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Dame Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton MSP, told Labour’s annual conference that if Labour win the majority of seats in the next Scottish Parliament election they will replace the current number of health boards to just three.
This would almost certainly see off see off the Greater Glasgow Health Board and bring in sweeping changes.
West Dunbartonshire councillors have been told there would be an annual saving £90,000 if the HSPC cuts its ties with the cafe, as they face a £10.4m budget gap for 2024/25.
Currently, seven people are employed at the venue, with six of these roles on fixed term contracts until October 2024.
A total of 11 volunteers also lend a helping hand with the report outlining all will be helped to find a new job.
Top picture: The notorious Councillor for Cuts Jonathan McColl cuts the ribbon sat the official opening of the Pavilion Cafe in Levengrove Park.