The report on my motion asking West Dunbartonshire Council to adopt an official water safety policy will be discussed at a full meeting of the council this week.

I have sought advice on this issue from groups that use Loch Lomond and the River Leven and from a professional harbour master. I have also put the fire and rescue services in touch with these various bodies and all have agreed to keep a constant eye open, along with local people, for the needless destruction of the water safety equipment.

I will encourage West Dunbartonshire Council to join Water Safety Scotland to ensure that we stay abreast of good practise examples and developments learning from what works well in other areas, so that we can save lives.

I have put forward a motion to this week’s council meeting asking the authority to consider taking up the recommendations in a management plan for Balloch Park that was drawn up in 2014.

If the plan could be updated, and funding applied for, a 20-year programme of regeneration could begin. The tree collection in Balloch Park is very special but needs intervention to restore it.

The lack of facilities in the park badly needs to be addressed, and by making improvements we can at last begin to push out the anti-social behaviour that has affected a very special place for far too long.

There have been reports of a reduction in the level of cover provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service at the Vale of Leven Hospital. These proposals are worrying for our locally-based ambulance crews. Patients should be guaranteed easy access to ambulance services in their own community rather than relying on services from elsewhere.

Our local ambulance crews have gone above and beyond during the pandemic and these proposed cuts are an insult to them and to the communities they serve. The SNP Scottish Government must give the ambulance crews the resources needed to deliver adequate services across Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven.

Finally, the Glasgow City Region is to become one of three new ‘Innovation Accelerators’ in the UK, alongside Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

There will be investment in centres for innovation, research and development which will drive up prosperity and opportunity for local people – and each region will be backed by a share of £100 million in funding from the UK Government.

This is part of an ambitious plan to close the gaps between those areas of the UK that are currently top performing, and those that are lagging behind. West Dunbartonshire will benefit from these new opportunities.