I’m sure many of us have been there, four months into a new job and you’re beginning to realise who the positive people are within the organisation that get the work done.

You’ve worked out the character you least want stuck in a lift with. You’re also well aware of who’s on the side lines sniping about what can’t be done and how difficult it is and how there’s no point in trying, oh and about how you’re doing it all wrong.

Well, that’s life as a new councillor within West Dunbartonshire.

There’s no denying there are problem areas that need to be tackled, there’s no denying there’s very little money to go round as Westminster imposed austerity continues, however there’s a lot going for our area and with a bit of clever thinking and positive input we could make things better.

With little resources needing to be spread ever thinner the important thing for us to do is to protect the most vulnerable in our area.

Over the past few months I have been visiting some of the most important groups working within West Dunbartonshire and hearing about the crucial work that they do.

This month Women’s Aid is celebrating 30 years of working here in West Dunbartonshire. Recently I visited them and left in awe of the essential work they do to protect women, children and young people from something that shames us as a society. Only last week I visited Rape Crisis, in Glasgow, and met their West Dunbartonshire outreach worker. Like Women’s Aid they not only help in crisis but also have a programme of work to educate and challenge perceptions of women’s role in society.

So despite the negative that requires Women’s Aid to work in this area, the positive is that they are helping to grow a healthier society that values everyone.

Undoubtedly we will all have different ideas of how we might best use the resources we have in our area.

I hope we will all be able to agree that there are some groups that we must support in order to make long term positive change and positivity is something we could all do with more of.