Community representatives on the Councils Community Participation Committee raised concerns about the changes to the Councils budget consultation process this year. In particular they were concerned that the annual Citizens Panel Survey on the budget savings options will not be carried out this year by the SNP administration. There are around 1,400 members of the [...]

At a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council in December  Labour Councillors raised concerns about the overspend in the Educational Services budget.
The Education budget was showing a significant adverse overspend at period 7 (to 15th November) of £380,630 and the anticipated year end spend without corrective action was expected to be around £1.5million. The main overspends [...]

West Dunbartonshire Schools were rated second bottom of national school league tables in 2009 for the percentage of S5 pupils gaining 5 plus Highers. The West Dunbartonshire average was 6% well below the Scottish average of 10% and only slightly above Glasgow who had an average of 5% of S5 pupils gaining 5 plus highers. [...]

At the December Council meeting a report from the Executive Director of Corporate Services, Joyce White recommended the revision of  the councils £31.911m capital programme. The main change to the 2009/10 capital programme was in Educational Services with the increase in the schools fund from £9.692m to £10.495m, an increase of £803,000 on expected capital [...]

At the December Council meeting Labour Councillors were delighted with the decision to overturn the ‘unsafe decision’ previously taken at a recent meeting of the Corporate & Efficient Governance Committee. The committee had agreed to stage the reductions in council tax discount to owners with more than one property. However this would have meant that the [...]

At a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council on 16th December, councillors considered the support for the Vale of Leven Community Forum. The report from Chief Executive David McMillan, noted that the Vale of Leven Community Forum had not responded to letters from the Chief Executive offering a meeting with Council officials to discuss the needs of the Forum [...]

The West Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnership (CPP) has added together the Fairer Scotland Fund and existing spending on services by Statutory partners such as NHS, Police, Fire Service and others throughout West Dunbartonshire showing a total of £180m . The CPP recently announced the existing spend total, including the reducing Fairer Scotland Fund as:  ‘ a £180 million  programme of local initiatives to [...]

Labour Shadow Finance Secretary Andy Kerr has hit out at Scottish Goverment budget claims. The shadow finance secretary Andy Kerr said ‘the SNP’s big budget lie’ were a desperate attempt to con the public and cover up their incompetence as the Scottish Government’s own figures show there will be increase of almost £1bn in 2010-11. Alex [...]

On Remembrance Day 2009 West Dunbartonshire Councillors joined the Lord Lieutenant of West Dunbartonshire, the Provost, invited dignitaries and members of Clydebank community to witness the unveiling of the Clydebank War Memorial, and re-dedication service following improvement works which allowed the Town to honour a commitment made way back in 1922 which was to include a roll of honour [...]

The cost of childcare in West Dunbartonshire is set to rocket following a recent SNP decision to increase Nursery and Out of School charges at the November Council. The schedule of charging which was set in 2001 was updated by the SNP Administration in September 2007, following an extensive consultation. The 2007 charges meant families [...]