DUMBARTON NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
Forget about Nicola Sturgeon and her jaunty wee husband when it comes to voting at the Scottish Parliament elections on May 7.
Consign your prejudices to the past. Put aside the naive budget cuts imposed by the Jonathan McColl-led SNP administration when they were in power in Church Street.
He has now deservedly been put out to lick the grass he so obdurately refused to have cut. Long may he remain in the wilderness.
Draw the political curtains on the shambles we have had to suffer on the local government front in recent years.
And let’s put a plan together for change designed to make Dumbarton great again.
We have given the main political parties the opportunity to show what they have to offer, and that has turned out badly. Very badly.
The next council elections do not coincide with the Scottish Parliament elections this year.
It will be May 7, 2027, before we are able to choose our new councillors.
Who shall we turn to then?
They say that if you always do what you always did then you’ll always get what you always got.
That means that most of us will mark our X beside Labour or Conservative or SNP candidates.
If we really want change in Church Street, however, we suggest that electors should vote Independent.
We should ignore the big party candidates and vote for new people who know and love Dunbartonshire; articulate and intelligent people who would set the bar far higher than it is now and who would bring back the respect we used to have in our homeplace.
The Dumbarton Democrat is a completely independent publication, locally owned and edited and FREE at the point of delivery on-line. And beyond.
But we are not welcome here. At least not by the local council who refuse to speak to us.
According to the Provost that’s because we spelt someone’s name wrong.
And, so far as the council are concened, that is unforgivable.
The truth is that we asked too many questions at a turbulent time in local government history and they made up a story that would see us banned.
We didn’t interupt a meeting when we asked for the audio system to be turned up so that we could hear what was being said, not that it was all that interesting. It seldom is.
But they claimed we did. They lied because we refused to be economical with the truth about matters they wanted to keep secret.
Both Labour and the SNP are standing by that decision, which they allowed a comunications officer with an axe to grind to make.
Perhaps the time has come to reintroduce ancient custom and practice which allows the press to hold power to account.
But West Dunbartonshire Council in the 21st century doesn’t allow that.
Councillors can shout and swear at each other in the chamber. We have even been threatened with violence after campaigning against their decision to shut the community library in Balloch, and so much else.
There is so much wrong with West Dunbartonshire Council by whom this community are fleeced for council tax for services. They couldn’t deliver a pint of milk.