The Nationalist Voice by Councillor Ronnie McColl
Published 24 Mar 2011 10:00
I'M pleased to see that Labour's Scottish Leader has finally agreed with the SNP's position of no Council Tax rises in the foreseeable future.
The SNP Government and council administration have delivered this policy since 2007 despite attempts by Labour to de-rail this popular SNP initiative.
I look forward to the Labour opposition in West Dunbartonshire Council finally getting behind the administration and supporting our hard working and hard pressed constituents.
In these financially challenging times, once again, Labour is clutching at the coat-tails of the SNP policy makers.
I MUST take issue with comments made by Labour opposition leader, councillor Martin Rooney, in this paper a couple of weeks ago, and a letter he sent to the chief executive of West Dunbartonshire Council, which he copied to all councillors.
He made a number of comments, assumptions and allegations which frankly, are misinformed and untrue. So let me set the record straight.
In both letters, Councillor Rooney asserts that he is the only councillor in position of all the facts about Asset Securitisation.
In fact, the SNP administration has had numerous meetings with and presentation from officers on all aspects of this initiative.
I cannot comment on how the previous Labour administration went about its business, but I believe that we would not be doing our job if we hadn't been fully informed.
He also stated that SNP councillors missed a seminar on the subject due to being at a photo-call at St Eunan's Primary.
This is at best misleading, and at worse, a deliberate attempt to deceive the public and other councillors.
I can confirm that SNP councillors missed this hastily arranged session because we were involved in a meeting about the council's £240m plus budget.
Maybe if Martin had meetings with his group on council budgets, Labour's attempts at producing one wouldn't have been such a shambles.
One incompetent General Services budget and two incompetent Housing Revenue Account budgets are not what the vast majority of people would expect from an opposition council group wishing to be taken seriously.
Finally, in the letter to the chief executive, he seems to be calling into question the professional expertise of senior management.
It appears to me, that Councillor Rooney is positioning the Labour opposition to vote against proposals that are likely to come before council in June.
Until now, the Labour opposition has been fully supportive and indeed have voted with the SNP administration every time this issue has been debated by council. I wonder if their reluctance to see this project go ahead in the coming financial year is a political strategy?
It is a brave politician indeed that votes against new schools, better frontline services, improved street lighting and a whole host of other proposals.
The public will rightly ask why postpone investing in our communities when it has been proved that Securitisation is not only affordable, but cheaper that traditional forms of funding?
This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 22 Mar 11
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