Successful first year

We have recently marked the first anniversary of the SNP taking control of the administration at South Lanarkshire Council and my first year as council leader - and what a year it’s been.

The SNP were elected on a manifesto which promised change.

Our vision was to put people and communities at the heart of everything we do, and to make the council more accountable, open and transparent. In our first year we have been busy delivering on these commitments.

To give one example, we promised a petitions committee to give constituents with shared concerns a way to have these discussed by the council.

I’m happy to report that the working party we set up shortly after being elected has now concluded and that the proposed petitions committee will come before the council for ratification very soon indeed.

We are also making progress with arrangements to introduce webcams to allow the live internet streaming of committee business.

All of our committees are already open to the public and in order to reach more of our citizens we have introduced a council Facebook page and increased our Twitter activity.

We are in the process of improving our council website too.

We have also introduced regular meetings with trade unions, the third sector and small business representatives, all in an effort to help make our local decision-making more open and to help restore trust in local democracy.

One of the main areas of concern which has been brought to our attention is the need to regenerate our town centres, after many years of stagnation under the previous Labour administration.

With less than a year under our belt we have brought forward positive plans for the regeneration of Hamilton town centre. This is only the beginning.

We have ordered town centre audits to be undertaken for a number of others so that we are in a better position to understand the effects of changing shopping patterns and how we can best future proof and revitalise our ageing town centres.

Despite being a minority administration, the SNP’s first budget was a positive and progressive one which contained many new initiatives.

We achieved this without having to cut any of our key frontline services.

These new initiatives include free school breakfast clubs for primary schools, which will ensure every child can enjoy the sort of healthy breakfast that we know helps improve learning and attendance.

There will also be holiday activity lunch clubs, situated throughout the area and providing children with continued access to healthy and nutritious meals throughout the summer school break.

We also increased by 50 per cent local clothing and footwear allowances for children entitled to them – and we are working with the Scottish Government to deliver a £100 allowance.

In an innovative move we also moved to “automatic entitlement” which means kids will get this allowance without having to rely on parents filling in forms.

We are doing the same with free school meals and we expect this will make a huge difference given that previously 1200 local children were not taking free school meals they were entitled to, while 1700 children were not taking their clothing allowance.

Automatic entitlement reduces stigma and means we treat these kids and their parents with dignity.

Other highlights of our first year and first budget include securing funding for 32 more teachers and 33 additional classroom assistants for our schools. This is part of our longterm workforce planning, which has included thinking ahead to what local needs will be in terms of nursery provision and care for the elderly.

Both will undoubtedly grow in the years to come; the first because the Scottish Government is committed to providing every child with 1140 nursery hours and the latter because of our ageing population.

I was delighted, therefore, that your SNP administration was able to earmark funds for two years to train 50 early years and 50 elderly care modern apprentices on the job.

This means local people – many of them youngsters looking for a career – will earn while they learn and at the same time we build a workforce for the future in these two key areas.

We don’t aim to stop working hard on your behalf – we have three new elderly care facilities to build and others to upgrade, we have an ambitious programme to revitalise our local communities and give you a much greater say in the issues that matter to you and your local community.

Exciting times ahead. I am determined that our second year will be every bit as successful as our first.

The SNP’s first budget was a positive and progressive one...