DEAL Renfrewshire deserves change
BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP NEIL BIBBY
Next Thursday, Renfrewshire goes to the polls to choose who will run its vital local services for the next five years.
Under the current SNP council, Renfrewshire has been going backwards.
They have been content to manage decline. They have broken promises, cut services, and wasted money.
The administration has managed both to hike up council tax, at the same time as repeatedly squandering taxpayers’ money.
They wasted £1.3 million on bins that weren’t needed. They wasted £250,000 on dangerous cycle lanes that had to be removed.
They wasted £20,000 on a council by-election that had to be cancelled because they hadn’t done their homework.
Not only have they failed to spend taxpayers’ money wisely, they have also entirely neglected to stand up for Renfrewshire as their bosses in Edinburgh have inflicted savage cuts, year after year, upon Renfrewshire’s budget for schools, roads, refuse, and social services.
They didn’t stand up for the RAH children’s ward, closed in 2018. They didn’t bother to submit a city bid from Paisley for the Platinum Jubilee.
They shrugged their shoulders as Marks and Spencer’s and other retailers closed, leaving our high streets and town centres increasingly abandoned. It doesn’t have to be like this. This administration have had their chance, and been found badly wanting. It’s time for change in Renfrewshire.
This election is not about the constitution.
It’s about local people, their vital local services, and about getting the basics right.
It’s not rocket science. Renfrewshire residents simply need a council administration with fresh ideas and renewed energy to tackle our problems and stand up for Renfrewshire against cuts and complacency from the
Scottish and UK governments.
Both have cut Renfrewshire’s budgets. And neither are doing anything like enough to help people in the face of an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, with energy bills and inflation soaring ever-higher, and an ill-timed National Insurance tax hike on the back of the shameful cut to Universal Credit last year.
Scottish Labour, by contrast, has plans to mitigate these effects and save every household in Renfrewshire up to £1,000.
We propose a windfall tax on the oil and gas giants to reduce energy bills. We are also proposing a £400 payment to families struggling with their bills, a £100 rebate on water bills, and a freeze on water charges and cuts in bus and rail fares.
This is a cost-of-living election. Renfrewshire residents deserve councillors who will take their plight seriously and move to tackle it urgently.
No one should be choosing between eating and heating.
But due to inaction in both Edinburgh and London, this is the disgraceful reality for many.
The Scottish Government stokes constitutional division whilst cutting local services.
The Scottish Conservatives and their leader, meanwhile, are rendered pathetic and toothless in the face of the Partygate scandal and their inability to stand up for what’s right, even when politically inconvenient.
Renfrewshire Labour has pledged to invest in our children’s education and future, to improve our roads with a new repair strategy, to clean up our streets and public places, and to relentlessly stand up for Renfrewshire in the face of complacency and inaction from both governments on the costof-living.
It’s not promising the earth. It’s just promising to get the basics right, as many other councils have managed. The people of Renfrewshire deserve better – and things CAN be better.
It’s time for change and May 5 is our chance to deliver it.