Normal Service Resumed

Following a break for my annual family holiday, I am now ready to resume normal service.

In these days of satellite television and the Internet it is possible to keep reasonably up to date with national and local developments while on holiday. Inverclyde Now and The Greenock Telegraph websites are very useful for the latter.

One of the first things I do however when I get home - after opening my mountain of mail - is to read the back issues of the Telegraph, which my mother always keeps for me.

The news over the last few days has been dominated by the tragic deaths of the two young Greenock women killed in the car crash in Ayrshire. I can only imagine how their families are feeling.

It has been interesting following the debate about the positions adopted by Regional List MSPs Stuart McMillan and Ross Finnie on the proposal to introduce mandatory prison sentences for knife carriers. I suspect that this issue will feature prominently during next year's Scottish Parliament Election.

On the regeneration front, I was pleased to see the announcement of 72 new jobs with the opening of a new Wilkinson store in Greenock's Oak Mall. I was also delighted to see the planning application for 100 new houses at Kingston by Persimmon Homes. These are positive signs for the local economy, although we should not get carried away as the national economic recovery is still very fragile and is being put at risk by the policies of our new Con Dem Coalition.

I was also pleased to see my own coalition partner David Wilson up to his not inconsiderable waist in weeds to highlight the disgraceful state of the carriageway verges on the A8 at the Gallagher development at Port Glasgow. Like David I have been pushing for this matter to be resolved for longer than I care to remember. It would appear that the various bodies involved are close to a resolution. Not before time I say.

On a less positive note, I was disgusted to see the vandalism to the picnic and play area at Lilybank School. Such behaviour is totally unacceptable.

I was cheered up a bit however when I read about the achievement of the UNICEF Level 2 Rights Respecting Schools Award by Glenburn School. Well done to the pupils and staff at the school on this prestigious award.

More locally, I see that my Ward 1 colleague, SNP Group Leader Jim MacLeod, is disappointed that the popular Pods - temporary community facilities in converted storage containers - are being moved from Slaemuir to Larkfield. Jim mentioned the fact that the SNP put forward money in their budget proposals for additional pods. What he failed to mention was that his Group was not prepared to discuss their budget proposals in advance with my Administration and as a result we were not able to consider this particular proposal. If they had shown a bit more maturity we may well have agreed to this proposal.

In any event, we did set aside £750,000 for new community facilities and there is no reason why local groups could not submit bids for funding towards the cost of a pod.