Disruption to the disposal of sofas and soft furnishings …

Dumbarton Notebook by Bill Heaney

Three chairs for the Council — and a couple of sofas thrown in, or more likely thrown out along with an odd mattress perhaps! Read the following and weep. The “give me ten good reasons why nothing can be done” club continues to flourish here.

One of the most astonishing revelations for me from the parliamentrary election was that two lame duck councillors in West Dunbartonshire were part of the Scottish Labour team backing Dame Jackie Baillie’s campaign to retain the Dumbarton seat in the Scottish Parliament.

Really? How Jackie worked that one out, I have no idea. Lame ducks are lame ducks by any other name. Mercifully for Jackie it all worked out in the end for her.

Martin Rooney, whom the seven times winner of the Dumbarton constituency seat chose to be her election agent, hasn’t actually got any form for winning anything. Closing things though, such as Balloch Library, Martin and his sidekick David McBride excel themselves at.

As for Michelle McGinty. She was the councillor well to the fore some years ago, along with education director Terry Lanagan, who came up with the idea to relocate Our Lady and St Patrick’s Secondary school down by the wet and windy riverside at Posties Park.

Thankfully the public didn’t agree with their non sensical plan, but Michelle wouldn’t take No for an answer.

And, in the end, Councillor McGinty and her Labour colleagues subsituted an equally poor alternative  proposal and stuck the new school at the top of Bellsmyre.

To the great dismay of most of  the parents and pupils, especially those in the deprived West End, where record absentee statistics are being recorded for pupils from Castlehill, Brucehill and Westcliff.

It mattered not to Michelle and Martin though since their eyes lit up when they heard the price the council was getting for the old school, which was already falling into disrepair on the Cunningham Graham monument park on Cardross Road. That would fill in another bit of their budget black hole.

Houses, houses, houses. The vision of our councillors doesn’t seem to stretch beyond that. And it’s not social housing.

Maybe it’s high time Jackie Baillie and the decimated Labour constituency party started thinking amenities, amenities, amenities and town centres for Dumbarton and the Vale that reflect the once proud history of this area instead of being left to degenerate into a neglected dump.

No wonder Jackie Baillie was in tears and filled with anxiety the day before the election. She must have known that if she had to depend on Labour’s record at council level she was stuffed.

Her Labour council colleagues have steadfastly refused to take any responsibility for the state we are in here and keep trying to pass the hospital parcel of mismanagement and neglect to the SNP opposition, who are naturally relutant to take it up.

Although the SNP too, especially in the time of Jonathan McColl’s council leadership, have a sin to answer for. Yes, that’s you, Jonathan.

Which takes us back to the disruption to the disposal of sofas and soft furnishings, which is to become yet another area of public service the long suffering public will have to do without in DIY Dunbartonshire.

The council have sent out a circular to residents, which says: “Unfortunately, our contractor responsible for disposing of sofas and other soft furnishings is experiencing issues with their machinery, meaning they can’t currently accept this type of waste.

“While we hoped this would be resolved quickly, we’ve been advised that there is no timescale for when the service will resume.”

Responses from the public to this strange proposal have been along the lines of “We’ll soon have a sofa on every street corner here.”

The council circular adds: “As a result, until further notice:

• Our two recycling centres will not be accepting this type of waste

• We are suspending all special uplifts, including any new requests.