Third U-turn from Labour

Dear Editor,

Must the North Lanarkshire public suffer the next five long years under the current minority Labour administration, backed by the Tory group? Labour’s U-turn on school pupils’ transport is their third major mess.

First came the wheelie bins blundering. Before the election [council leader] Jim Logue stated:“If reelected,Labour will make sure bins are collected on the same cycles as they are at present.” After the election,he broke that promise (thanks to key Tory support) and rushed in a botched bins fiasco.

On community alarms for the elderly,we are now on Labour’s third policy in the space of a year. One: charge £5 a head; two: drop the £5 charge and pay back the money (December 2016,with elections approaching) ; three (after the elections): consider new, means-tested charges.

At last year’s local elections the North Lanarkshire public voted 38 per cent SNP,33 per cent Labour and 15 per cent Tory. The SNP offered a stable, Labour-SNP coalition, based on 71 per cent public support.

Sadly,Labour went in with the Tories (the Tory leader has a convenership in the administration).

Labour is in a mess: 10 experienced councillors split from the group and stood against them in the elections. Labour, now with 17 new, inexperienced councillors, must fumble along now with their Tory backers: hence the series of blunders,costing thousands of pounds.

The SNP is simply streets ahead of Labour in understanding the public mood.

Councillor Tom Johnston, Depute leader, North Lanarkshire Council SNP group