I am delighted that common sense has prevailed in relation to the recent proposed boundary changes. Our representations to the Scottish Government have been successful. It was pointed out during a meeting with the Scottish Government Minister for Local Government, Councillor Robert G MacIntyre and myself, the importance of future candidates being able to commute throughout the ward by public transport, allowing anyone, regardless of ability to drive the opportunity to represent their local area.

Centre 81: Many of you will be aware of the wonderful work and facilities that Centre 81 provides to the immediate and surrounding communities. Whether you fancy fencing, aerobics, spin classes, boxing or bring your child to the café and play, there’s plenty going on for people of all ages. It is also the host of Route 81 Youth Project, which has proved extremely valuable. As with all community projects, funding is a constant struggle and one in which I feel is hugely important. I would recommend if you haven’t yet had a look at the range of services they offer, to visit their website, www.centre81.org.uk volunteers are always more than welcome also!

Housing: Sometimes my roles merge from councillor to MSP which allows me to raise our local issues within the Scottish Parliament, this was the case last week when I spoke in Parliament about the local housing problem we have in Helensburgh.

The SNP has seen a drop in over 40% in housebuilding within Scotland since 2007, this has affected over 74,000 households which now suffer from over-crowding. There are over 5000 children living in temporary accommodation, 25% of which are housed in B&Bs and hostels as there isn’t enough social housing. This is the situation within Helensburgh.

In the last 9 years, private house building was down 44%. I recommended that the Scottish Government takes some suggestions out of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist’ manifesto to help encourage the housebuilding private sector and encourage local authorities to compile publicly available brownfield land registers which would allow house builders, both big and small, to explore their options more easily.

Moving on to the planning system, I think it is wrong that the Scottish Government is overturning half of local council planning decisions. The SNP top-down approach to planning permission is I believe wrong and misguided, we shouldn’t be aiming to take away power from those that are most affected by planning decisions but empowering them.

That’s why the Scottish Conservative & Unionists believe that simplifying the planning system and speeding it up is of the utmost importance, not only would this support house building in Scotland by making the system easier to navigate, it would also make planning decisions easier for the public to understand and would remove some of the confusion and stress that can be felt by local communities when trying to understand why decisions can take so long to be made and why they are made certain ways.

Not only should we be building new houses though, we also need to ensure that the housing we do have in Scotland is more effectively managed and used.

For example, there are an estimated 27,000 empty homes in Scotland, these are a wasted asset and bringing them back into use would be a good first step in providing more housing for the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Conservative & Unionists have also called for the constricts that are placed on allocation of housing from central legislation to be removed.

I think everyone would agree that allocation policy that would be good for my constituents in Dumbarton, Helensburgh, Greenock for example maybe wouldn’t work as well for other member’s constituents in other parts of the country. Allocation policy should be decided with, those that are most affected by it in mind, the local communities. That’s why I want those decisions taken at a local level.