Sarwar plots clean sweep in FM’s seat
ANAS Sarwar accused council bosses of tidying up Govanhill prior to his tour of the community highlighting what he called “14 years of SNP failure”.
Speaking yesterday in response to questions from the Glasgow Times, the Labour leader said cleansing staff claimed to have been out “on a clean-up operation” the night before.
Sarwar said the move was “not good enough” and “not acceptable”.
But council chiefs hit back at the claim, saying it categorically did not happen.
Cleansing workers had been sent home early on Wednesday afternoon after a fire broke out in Polmadie depot.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “This didn’t happen.
“Managers made no such an instruction – and, if anything, Govanhill received a slightly reduced service on Wednesday after crews were evacuated from their depot due to a fire.
“However, the council does have a whistleblowing policy – so, if the person who claims they received this instruction has any evidence of that, we would obviously look into it.”
Sarwar, who is standing against First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the Glasgow Southside constituency, toured Allison Street and Langside Road.
He met with local shopkeepers, staff in businesses in the area and cleansing workers from Glasgow City Council, including GMB Scotland representative Chris Mitchell.
The politician said: “I met cleansing workers who were telling me about the huge cuts they’ve seen.
“They were telling me that whenever they hear there’s going to be a political visit, either from Nicola Sturgeon or when they heard I was going to be visiting Govanhill today, they were ordered to go out and do a clean-up operation the night before.
“They didn’t want it to be a bad sight for when the cameras turned up – and that’s not good enough, that’s not acceptable.”
He also emphasised poor living conditions in the community and said the SNP had been “too slow” to devolve powers to local authorities to deal with rogue landlords.
The Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and Govanhill Housing Association have invested millions, including a further £17 million last month, in buying and refurbishing housing stock in the area.
But Sarwar added: “Glasgow Southside is Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency but it’s my home.”
Today Scottish Labour will also announce its economic recovery plans, saying this would lead to the creation of 170,000 jobs in Scotland.
The party also aims to create 19,000 jobs through a new programme of social home building, 7500 roles through energy efficiency upgrade work, a 10,000-strong Scottish Conservation Corps and 48,000 jobs through a kickstart scheme.