DEAL We need to clean up our towns
BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP NEIL BIBBY
Five years ago, the incoming SNP council promised to clean up Renfrewshire.
At Renfrewshire’s election on May 5, residents have a chance to deliver their verdict on whether they think they have delivered on that promise.
I think the answer is clear. We live in a beautiful county, with much to offer.
Our streets, public spaces and wider environment should be clean, safe, and pleasant places to be.
Under this council, however, litter is a major problem in many of our towns and villages, our green spaces and scenic areas. Bins are regularly overflowing. Rat infestations have become alarmingly commonplace.
This SNP administration has cut household bin collections whilst wasting £1.3 million on bins that weren’t needed.
They now rely on volunteers and schoolchildren to pick up rubbish. These citizen efforts are marvellous and we absolutely commend them but the council shouldn’t be reliant on them.
When they said they would clean up Renfrewshire, this is not what we thought they meant.
Fly-tipping, meanwhile, has reached epidemic levels in many areas.
We need better, safer, and cleaner streets. We need a greener Renfrewshire, and a local environment that is pleasant and welcoming for all who live here.
This is not a pipe dream; we just need to get the basics right.
We REALLY clean up Renfrewshire by funding the frontline.
We reverse the cuts implemented by the current SNP administration upon council jobs that tackle fly-tipping and litter.
It is also long past time for a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping, littering, and dog-fouling. We need to target wardens and CCTV in antisocial behaviour and dumping hotspots to make our streets and parks safer and cleaner.
We should also be actively enhancing Renfrewshire’s parks and green spaces.
This includes upgrading and renewing all play parks so that they are fun, clean, and safe places for children to play.
A vote for Renfrewshire Labour is a vote for all these things.
It is also a vote for restoring a sense of hope and civic pride to our lived environment more generally.
This SNP administration has sat idly by as our town centres are increasingly boarded up and retail moves elsewhere.
The loss of Marks and Spencer from Paisley High Street was a major loss and shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
Initiatives and experience elsewhere show that the decline of high streets is NOT inevitable.
Creative thinking can regenerate and reinvigorate our town centres as leisure and retail destinations if only the political will is there. It’s been a long-held community ambition for Paisley town centre to have a cinema.
This council has held that project back, but it’s long past time to deliver it.
Renfrewshire Labour has a proud record here, the 201217 Labour-led administration having launched the Paisley Museum and Art Gallery project, as well as refurbishing the Russell Institute and Arnotts site and massive investment in Johnstone, Linwood and Renfrew town centres.
There is much more to be done, however, if we only have a council with the vision to do it. None of this is rocket science. It’s about getting the basics right, and then being ambitious for Renfrewshire, willing to stand up for residents against central government cuts, and work creatively with the powers we have to deliver for local people.
This SNP council has had its chance and has been found badly wanting. It’s time for change.