It’s been a really busy start to the year for me with group meetings, committee meetings and my depute provost duties.

It seems a while ago now but I was fortunate enough to have time off over the festive period to spend with my family but also to attend some Christmas events including “an informal meet and greet Ukrainian style” at the Concord Centre in Dumbarton, where I got a chance to meet and speak to Ukrainian families and hear how they were coping at this difficult time. 

It can be hard enough living in a new country but more so when you are separated from family and friends due to an illegal war.

The highlight of my year so far was when I visited Blitz survivor Mrs Cathie Gilfillan at Queens Quay in Clydebank on Friday, January 13 to celebrate her 104th birthday. 

I think I enjoyed it even more than she did and it was an absolute honour for me to get to meet such a wonderful lady.

More recently, I was also delighted to attend St Ronan’s Early Learning and Childcare on February 2 in my role as vice convenor of education along with my colleague Clare Steel, our education convenor. Ive got strong associations with St Ronan’s as my children attended school there. 

I have always supported them and it was great to be there to celebrate the success of the early years staff in their recent inspection. I know how much the staff and parents do and how much the early years and school mean to my community.

The big focus over recent weeks and months has been on the massive £21m budget gap we have and looking at how we can best protect services and close the gap so that we can set a balanced budget. I can tell you it’s not been easy at all. I didn’t stand for election to make 
cuts. 

I want to see our area grow and for our children and young people to flourish, I want our pensioners and those in greatest need to get the help that they require, and I want us to invest in our local area to get jobs, businesses and to keep local services for our communities. 

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government is not giving us enough money to protect all our services and to help our residents, so it’s been really hard. 

I don’t mind admitting it, but I’ve found it really tough and I can’t understand why a cleaner, a bin man, a road sweeper, or other council staff are any less important than NHS, health staff or teachers. They all do vital jobs and they all deserve a decent pay rise and for their jobs to be properly funded by the Scottish Government.

I’m an optimist by nature, so I’m hoping the Scottish Government will come up with some more funding for West Dunbartonshire Council so that we can protect services and jobs.