West Dunbartonshire Councillor Martin Rooney

Martin Rooney

Daily Archives: September 6, 2017


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A PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT THAT FALLS SHORT

Alex Rowley – Labour

Nicola Sturgeon promised an ambitious Programme for Government. Instead, her programme tinkers round the edges and refuses to make bold use of Scotland’s powers to end austerity and tackle poverty.

Key issues:
 
Economy 
 
– The SNP is copying Labour policies on public sector pay and a national investment bank – but not outlining how it will pay for them.
NHS
– This Programme for Government offers no major new ideas for the health service, despite it becoming clear that the NHS and local services are under pressure.
Education
–         
he —  The Education Governance Bill proposes reforms that are opposed by teachers, parents and pupils – the real reform our schools need is more funding, but the SNP still won’t commit to using the tax powers.
 
Social Justice
 
– A £50 million child poverty fund is welcome but is nowhere near the scale needed. Labour’s plan to increase child benefit by £240 per child by 2020 would lift 30,000 children out of poverty.
 10 Labour policies that ‘inspired’ the SNP Programme for Government…
  1. A soft opt-out Organ Donation Bill has been a Labour Member’s Bill in this and the previous sitting of the Scottish Parliament. Last year SNP MSPs voted against an opt-out Bill brought forward by Anne McTaggart[1]
  2. Free access to sanitary products in schools, colleges and universities is part of a Member’s Bill from Monica Lennon[2]
  3. An end to rough sleeping was in Labour’s 2017 manifesto, and it was the last Labour led Scottish government that passed world leading legislation aimed at ending homelessness in 2003.[3]
  4. Labour has attempted multiple Member’s Bills to reregulate buses in Scotland.[4]
  5. Labour proposed a publicly owned People’s ScotRail in our 2016 manifesto – a step further than the SNP’s commitment to a public sector bid.[5]
  6. A Pupil equity fund is Labour’s Fair Start Fund – first proposed in 2015.[6]
  7. Labour proposed a Scottish Investment Bank in our 2017 manifesto- with £20 billion of lending power behind it.[7]
  8. Labour supported the Frank’s Law campaign in our 2017 manifesto –but would have gone further and scrapped charges regardless of age, and not just for those with prescribed conditions.[8]
  9. Labour councillors already started work on exploring a basic income in Glasgow, Fife and North Ayshire[9]
  10. Scrapping the public sector pay cap was a Labour manifesto pledge – and one the SNP voted against in the spring.[10]
…and five that didn’t…
  1. No commitment to using the tax powers to end austerity
  2. No plan to use the powers of the parliament to increase Child Benefit.
  3. No pledge to ban fracking.
  4. No plan to scrap the unfair Council Tax.
  5. No commitment to drop a second referendum on independence.


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SNP PERFORMANCE ON MENTAL HEALTH WAITING TIMES ‘COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE’

Monica Lennon – Labour

Waiting times for children and young people’s mental health treatment have been branded completely unacceptable by Scottish Labour.

Figures released by ISD Scotland today show that one in five children waited more than the government standard of 18 weeks for mental health treatment.

Labour has been calling on the SNP government to make mental health a priority for over a year, and has previously published proposals calling for every high school in Scotland to have access to a school counsellor.

Labour inequalities spokesperson, Monica Lennon, said:

“The SNP government’s performance on mental health waiting times is completely unacceptable.

“Again and again Labour has raised the issue with Nicola Sturgeon, but instead we have seen an underwhelming mental health strategy, published after months of delay, and without a key commitment to improving access to counsellors in schools.

“The longer waiting times go unmet, the more it looks like the SNP government is simply paying lip service to mental health and wellbeing, rather than giving it parity of esteem with physical health.

“The SNP Mental Health Minister Maureen Watt is failing to deliver for vulnerable children and young people and I urge Nicola Sturgeon to put urgent plans in place to turn this around.”


NOTES 

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Waiting Times in NHSScotland Quarter ending 30 June 2017
Eight out of 10 (80.7%) children and young people were seen within 18 weeks and half started their treatment within eleven weeks. This compares with 83.6% in the previous quarter and 77.7% for the quarter ending June 2016.

Source: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/index.asp#1961


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PARTIES UNITE TO DEMAND MSPs APPOINT NEXT SPA CHAIR

A joint letter to the Justice Secretary, signed by all four opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament, has demanded MSPs are given the authority to appoint the next chair of the Scottish Police Authority.
The previous chair of SPA retired early after pressure from Labour, following a scathing report from Scotland’s police watchdog.
It is not believed that any additional legislation will be required to accommodate the process.
The letter, signed by Claire Baker, Liam McArthur, Liam Kerr and John Finnie, calls on the government to delegate responsibility to Parliament in order to achieve greater transparency and accountability around the SPA.
The full text of the letter is below
Dear Michael,
Chair of the Scottish Police Authority
Following the announcement of the resignation of Andrew Flanagan as Chair of the Scottish Police Authority, we welcome that the process to find a new Chair is currently taking place.
For a number of months the SPA has been under significant pressure and faced serious criticism, including the concern raised in reports of two Parliamentary committees. It is vital that the right choice is made with this appointment.
We would all like to move on from the dificulties that have been identified with the SPA and Police Scotland since their inception. We all want to see the single police force succeed and ensure that the public, along with serving officers and staff, can have confidence in its leadership.
We believe there is a need for greater transparency and public accountability of the SPA.
We believe that the Parliament can play an important role which would benefit the SPA. While the 2012 Police and Fire Service Act gives the appointment of the chair to the Scottish Government, we propose that this decision be delegated to the Scottish Parliament. In the same way that the Parliament decides on the appointment of, for example, the Information Commissioner, a committee of MSPs would undertake the appointment process and make a recommendation to Parliament. We believe that the process can be accommodated within the current legislation.
It is important that the next Chair of the SPA has the support of the Scottish Parliament and we would urge you to consider this proposal to improve the appointment process of this important public role
We look forward to your response

Claire Baker MSP
Liam McArthur MSP
Liam Kerr MSP
John Finnie MSP


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PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT MUST WORK FOR THE MANY, NOT THE FEW

Alex Rowley – Labour 

The SNP’s 2017/18 Programme for Government must deliver policies that benefit the many in Scotland, not just the privileged few.

Reports on Sunday have suggested the SNP will succumb to Labour pressure and U-turn on the public sector pay cap.

Labour has welcomed this move, which it describes as long-overdue. However, the party has urged the SNP government to go further and deliver on Labour policies that would create a government that works for the many, including:

  • Scrapping the unfair Council tax
  • Using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to increase Child Benefit
  • Bring Scotland’s railways into public ownership
  • End cuts to local government
  • Increase the top rate of tax to 50p

The SNP lost almost half its seats in the 2017 General Election and is under pressure to deliver a more radical agenda.

Labour has said that, if the Programme for Government does not contain a radical set of proposals to make Scotland fairer, then the party will put its ideas to votes in Parliament and force the SNP to choose between radical policies with Labour or more cuts and privatisation with the Tories.

Speaking ahead of the Programme for Government, Scottish Labour interim leader Alex Rowley said:

“The Scottish Parliament is one of the most powerful devolved administrations in the world. It has the ability and the flexibility to make real, radical changes to people’s lives.

“The SNP can use these powers to stop Tory austerity and change Scotland. Yet, this government has delivered little. Indeed, ask yourself what, in the last ten years, has improved for people under an SNP government?

“We have a sluggish economy where growth continues to trail behind the rest of the UK, working poverty at the highest level since devolution, our national deficit stands at £13 billion, and our NHS has a workforce crisis.

“It should, frankly, be embarrassing for Nicola Sturgeon that two years after she promised education was her top priority our teachers are at breaking point and we are sliding down the educational international league tables.

“And despite all the expert evidence she is pressing on with hated governance reforms, which have been derided by teachers and education professionals.

“We are thankful that the SNP bowed to Labour pressure on lifting the public sector pay cap. Now, it must adopt our whole radical agenda.

“And if it doesn’t, and chooses to follow the path of cuts and privatisation, then we will put our ideas to the vote in Parliament. The SNP can then choose to vote for austerity with the Tories, or vote for a fairer Scotland that works for the many, not the few, with Labour.”


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West Dunbartonshire-led Partnership wins National Lottery support

 

 

An ambitious project to bring history to life to promote the Antonine Wall and its fascinating past has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Rediscovering the Antonine Wall will be led by West Dunbartonshire Council in partnership with Glasgow City Council, East Dunbartonshire Council, North Lanarkshire Council, Falkirk Council and Historic Environment Scotland (HES). It aims to engage local communities along the length of the Antonine Wall ─ a World Heritage Site since 2008 ─ to develop proposals for Roman-themed play spaces, replica stone slabs which marked distance points along the route and a community-led video tour of the Wall.

The project aims to increase awareness and understanding of the historic site, including the area of the exposed Wall rampart which lies within Goldenhill Park, Clydebank.

Development funding of £97,000 has been awarded to help West Dunbartonshire Council and its partners progress the plans to allow the group to apply for a full grant next year to implement the project.

Training, local content development and community-led events will underpin the delivery of the full three year project and ensure that what is delivered is unique to each area of the Wall and carefully curated to meet the needs of individual local communities.  A Project Manager has been appointed to deliver the development phase and during 2017-18, Emma McMullen will work with communities and key stakeholders to develop the final designs and briefs for a range of products.

These will include: five new replica distance slabs (similar to that in Bridgeness, Falkirk); new interpretive play spaces that will see themed equipment merged with digital content to create exciting new learning environments; a series of arts/performance events designed and delivered by local communities; and the recruiting of a ‘21st century Legion’ to help promote the Antonine Wall in local areas.

The Antonine Wall (www.antoninewall.org) was constructed in the second century AD and is one part of the much larger Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site (FREWHS), alongside Hadrian’s Wall and the German Limes. Extending 37 miles from Old Kilpatrick (in West Dunbartonshire) in the west to Carriden (in Falkirk) to the east, the Antonine Wall represents the most north-westerly extent of the Roman Empire’s general system of defence. Today, visitors can explore traces of ramparts, steep ditches, and the remains of forts and bathhouses – and imagine what life was like for the Romans posted on this remote frontier.

Lucy Casot, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: “Stretching from one side of the country to the other, what was once built as a barrier will bring the communities along its length together to explore and celebrate their shared heritage thanks to funding from the National Lottery.   It’s an opportunity to raise the profile of this incredible feat of construction while benefitting communities across five regions of Scotland. We are excited to see the plans develop.”

HES World Heritage Co-ordinator Patricia Weeks said: “Working with local communities and partners to enhance and improve the local historic environment across Scotland is a hugely important part of what we do. We’re pleased to be collaborating on this exciting project with our five council partners to help both local communities and visitors to the region to rediscover the Antonine Wall.”

Notes 

First-round pass

Heritage Grants applications are assessed in two rounds.  A first-round pass is given when HLF has endorsed outline proposals and earmarked funding. A first-round pass may also include an immediate award to fund the development of the project. Detailed proposals are then considered by HLF at second-round and as long as plans have progressed satisfactorily and according to the original proposal, an award for the project is confirmed.

About West Dunbartonshire Council

West Dunbartonshire Council serves 89,810 residents and a lively business community in an area stretching from the banks of Loch Lomond to the shores of the Clyde. The region is one of great diversity and natural beauty, just half an hour from the heart of Glasgow, and includes the towns of Clydebank, Dumbarton and Alexandria. It has a rich past, shaped by its world-famous shipyards, and boasts many attractions, ranging from the rugged beauty of Dumbarton Rock to historic whisky warehouses. The Council has big ambitions to deliver first class services, grow the local economy, revitalise the region’s town centres and waterfront, and provide a modern education service for future generations.

Antonine Wall Partnership

This is the first pan Antonine Wall project designed to increase awareness and understanding of, and engagement with the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site. The Management Plan partners (Historic Environment Scotland, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City, Falkirk and North Lanarkshire Councils) have collaborated to design a series of initiatives – in response to community and stakeholder interests – that will be delivered over a three year period, creating direct and indirect benefit to areas adjacent to the line of the Wall and beyond.

About the Heritage Lottery Fund

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. www.hlf.org.uk

For further information, images and interviews, please contact: Stef Lach, West Dunbartonshire Council, on tel: 01389 737529 or email: stef.lach@west-dunbarton.gov.uk


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SARWAR TO STAND FOR SCOTTISH LABOUR LEADERSHIP

Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar is to stand in the Scottish Labour leadership election.

The Glasgow MSP has the experience and energy required to lead the party and return Labour to power.

Mr Sarwar said he will unite Scottish Labour around a shared vision for the future, taking the fight to the SNP and the Tories.

His campaign will be co-chaired by Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill and East Lothian MP Martin Whitfield.

Scottish Labour leadership candidate Anas Sarwar said:

“This is an election that nobody wanted or expected, and I would once again like to pay tribute to Kezia Dugdale for her dedicated service.

“Labour is revitalised in Scotland and I am ready to unite our party and lead us back to power.

“The people of Scotland do not need a Labour Party that is fighting itself. They need a united Labour Party in Holyrood that is fighting the SNP and ready to form Scotland’s next government.

“And they need a united Labour Party across the UK working together to elect Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.

“I am delighted that Pauline McNeill and Martin Whitfield have agreed to co-chair my campaign and I would like to thank the many friends and colleagues who have urged me to stand.

“Over the coming weeks I will set out my positive vision for Scotland’s future, rooted firmly in Labour’s values.”

Campaign co-chair Pauline McNeill said:

“Anas has the experience and energy to take on the challenge to transform us from being an opposition party to being the next Scottish Government.

“I know he can unite our party behind our common aims and socialist values by addressing the deepening inequalities that prevail across the country.

“We will run a positive and constructive campaign and we will focus on the battle of ideas and issues our party needs to be at the vanguard of.”


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LABOUR CALLS FOR PARLIAMENT TO UNITE TO HALT UNIVERSAL CREDIT ROLLOUT

Alex Rowley – Labour

Interim Scottish Labour leader Alex Rowley has called on the Scottish Parliament to unite around halting the rollout of Universal Credit in Scotland.

Mr Rowley has lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament, which has achieved cross-party support, and a Members Debate will be taking place in the Parliament on Thursday.

Last week, 24 third sector charities and individuals united to call on the rollout to be halted in a public letter.
Labour would immediately end the cruelties of Tory welfare reform and create a social care system that is built on the principles of dignity and fairness.

Scottish Labour Interim leader Alex Rowley said:
“Universal Credit’s rollout has been shambolic, with families being pushed into poverty and debt to get by.
“The system is supposed to make social security simpler and easier for families, but there is nothing simple and easy but having to rely on food banks.
“Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening while people wait for payments under the six-week payment delay at the start of the process.
“We cannot allow that to happen in Scotland.
“It is time for all parties in the Scottish Parliament to unite to halt the rollout of Universal Credit in Scotland until the issues are resolved.”

NOTES
See motion below
Motion S5M-07056: Alex Rowley, Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour, Date Lodged: 08/08/2017Support for Citizens Advice Scotland’s Call to Stop Accelerated Roll-out of Universal Credit

That the Parliament notes with concern the reported evidence from Citizens Advice Bureaux regarding the initial roll-out areas in Scotland, and elsewhere in the UK, which it believes highlights that the reality of universal credit risks leaving many people in Scotland without the support they need, pushing them into debt and leaving them unable to make ends meet; is further concerned that Citizens Advice Scotland, it understands, has reported that evidence from initial roll-out areas shows that, since universal credit was introduced, bureaux have seen a 15% rise in rent arrears issues compared to a national decrease of 2%, and an 87% increase in Crisis Grant issues compared to a national increase of 9%, and that two of the five bureaux in impacted areas have seen a 40% and 70% increase in advice about access to food banks, compared to a national increase of 3%; notes the call from Citizens Advice Scotland and a host of antipoverty organisations across Scotland for the UK Government to pause the accelerated roll-out of universal credit until the reported design and delivery problems have been addressed; notes the comments from the Chair of Citizens Advice Scotland, Rory Mair, that “universal credit has major delivery and design flaws which risk hurting families instead of helping them. These include long waits for payments that push people into crisis and debt, all the while battling a highly complicated process with little support”; considers that it is not right to proceed with the accelerated roll-out of universal credit in the knowledge that it will, it believes, result in tens of thousands of men, women and children in the Mid Scotland and Fife region and across Scotland being driven into debt and rent arrears and having to turn to foodbanks just to survive, and notes the calls on the UK Government to pause the process, listen to the evidence and act accordingly to address the issues.
Supported by: Mark Griffin, Kenneth Gibson, Iain Gray, Pauline McNeill, Neil Findlay, Elaine Smith, Alex Neil, Bill Kidd, Ben Macpherson, Sandra White, Stuart McMillan, Richard Leonard, Stewart Stevenson, Monica Lennon, Joan McAlpine, Mark Ruskell, Ross Greer, John Mason, Ivan McKee

Current Status: Achieved Cross Party Support

http://www.cas.org.uk/news/scotlands-third-sector-unites-call-universal-credit-roll-out-be-halted