We face a budget crisis at West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) thanks to years of SNP Scottish Government neglect and a decade of cuts to funding by the SNP.

The Scottish Government are responsible for funding to local Councils, not the Tories at Westminster. The SNP don’t seem to care about protecting vital local services or saving local jobs.

But don’t take my word for it. Last week finance chiefs from all 32 council’s in Scotland wrote to the deputy first minister, John Swinney, to warn the SNP that local services will grind to a halt without more help as local council’s face a £1 billion shortfall created by the Scottish Government.

This is unprecedented. The uncompromising letter is from non-elected, politically neutral finance directors. This demonstrates the scale of the damage caused by the SNP to our public services on the back of more than a decade of slashed budgets.

The SNP Scottish Government has under-funded WDC by £20 million, and unless they change their priorities, then we at West Dunbartonshire will continue to face tough decisions.

This damning letter lays bare the damage the SNP have inflicted on local services. The Scottish Government must re-prioritise their budget to protect the services that impact everyday life which the public rely on in West Dunbartonshire including our schools, waste, roads, social care, family support and public health. The SNP’s mismanagement of our finances is bad news for all individuals, families and communities.

This comes on the back of widespread industrial action taken by our public sector workforce undervalued by the SNP including the teachers in our schools. Is it any wonder that people feel they are being hit by a double whammy with the uncaring, austerity driven Tories at Westminster and an SNP obsessed with constitutional debates and now riven with bitter infighting.

Our Scottish NHS is now at critical breaking point with a shocking one in seven Scots languishing on NHS waiting lists and thousands are waiting years to be seen.

Everywhere you look things are broken and people are desperate for change, but change doesn’t come from pitting community against community or nation against nation, it comes from working together.

Labour has a clear path and a clear plan for the biggest ever transfer of power out of Westminster and not only to devolved governments, but into communities and into the hands of British people.

Change is coming, but only by voting Labour right across the UK.