On Wednesday, March 31, 2004 we reported that...

STRIKING nursery practitioners brought Dumbarton to a standstill recently with a march through the town.

And as the Reporter went to press efforts were being made to settle the four-week-old strike in West Dunbartonshire.

In the biggest demonstration in the town centre since a protest against the invasion of Iraq over a year ago, the practitioners were backed by some mums as they voiced their demands for more money.

Almost 300 placard and banner-waving nursery practitioners and mums chanted ‘what do we want — more pay, when do we want it — now’ and blew whistles as they brought traffic to a standstill.

The good-humoured group, led by police, wound its way from the Meadow Centre, along Bankend Road, into Station Road to the Artizan Bridge — where police stopped the traffic at the lights to allow the marchers to pass — and along the High Street before gathering for a rally in the Denny Civic Theatre.

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En route the strikers also blew whistles and chanted to motorists to honk their horns if they supported them, which many drivers did.

Even the driver of a passing train sounded its horn in support of them.

Nursery practitioners in West Dunbartonshire were joined by others from places such as Drumchapel, Renfrewshire and Helensburgh.