Major boost for hospital campaign: Local hospital campaigners received a major boost this month when the Scottish Government finally confirmed that the proposals to close the Vale birthing unit will be considered as a ‘major service change’.

This means that the decision on whether to cut local maternity services will be taken by the SNP Health Secretary.

I have been calling for this outcome for months because it means that the unelected health board will not be able to override the wishes of our local community.

Now that the Health Secretary has confirmed that she will make the decision, we should unite as a community to demand she uses her powers to stop the cuts.

The First Minister and Health Secretary have both said that they will not approve anything which goes against the Vision for the Vale.

Well let’s remind them that the Vision for the Vale contained a very clear front-page promise to “promote and sustain” local maternity services.

Local women should have the full range of choices about where and how they give birth. Let’s not take the choice of a local midwife-led birth at the Vale away from them.

SNP budget means spending cuts and tax rises for local councils: The SNP government unveiled a budget last week that imposes another whopping round of cuts worth £327 million on local councils.

West Dunbartonshire Council has already suffered from year on year cuts from Edinburgh to the budgets that pay for local schools, social care, roads and other vital local services.

Scottish Labour has a better plan. We would ask the richest one per cent to pay a little bit more with a 50p tax.

We want to stop the cuts to local services and use Scotland’s new powers to make different choices than the Tory Chancellor.

The cuts in the SNP’s budget will force local authorities to raise council tax by up to three per cent – or higher if your house is in Band E or above.