Supporting residents with cost-of-living hikes and regenerating the realm whereas making “powerful selections” to shut an upcoming large price range hole are amongst priorities set out by the brand new Labour council chief.
In his first interview since taking over the highest function, Martin Rooney informed of his ambitions for West Dunbartonshire whereas laying naked a number of the challenges which lie forward – together with a projected upcoming price range hole of £13.8million.
It’s the third time the Lomond ward councillor has been council chief, having led the administration from 2012 to 2017, after Labour snatched management from the SNP final month.
Talking to the Lennox Herald, Martin mentioned the social gathering’s marketing campaign – which even noticed him leafleting the streets of Haldane on his sixtieth birthday – resonated with residents.
He mentioned: “We’ve run a robust marketing campaign over the previous few years and have been efficient in holding the earlier SNP administration to account.
“We’ve been actively participating with the group over points which have mattered to them.
“I spent the final 18 months telling my group that we'd win 12 seats and so they didn’t completely consider me, however they campaigned with that in thoughts and that’s what we acquired.
“I turned 60 in April and celebrated my sixtieth birthday campaigning out in closes up in Haldane.”
He added: “I didn’t inform anybody it was my birthday although, I carried on leafleting as they’d have informed me to take it off.”
Martin has spent the final 29 years working for the Ministry of Defence, having joined the military on the age of 17, however is retiring this week to solely deal with his council chief function.
He mentioned: “I go away on June 10 in order that I can dedicate the following 5 years to West Dunbartonshire.
“I’m joined by a unbelievable group of councillors and all of us work as a workforce.
“I believe the collective power and shared values are what is going to drive us ahead.
“We wish to see regeneration, we wish to assist these in want and we wish to give folks alternatives.”
He mentioned there have been huge plans forward for the area that are resulting from come to fruition, explaining: “We’ve acquired the £22.5m plans for the Artizan centre in Dumbarton which I believe will get the city buzzing once more.
“We’ve acquired the Alexandria regeneration plans, housing website at Garshake, the Metropolis Deal venture and the Scottish Marine Expertise Park on the Carless website.
“There are unbelievable alternatives forward and many issues that are very optimistic however we should be conscious of the actual fact the price range hole goes to be a little bit of a stall this 12 months.”
Martin mentioned the council has an enormous projected funding hole of round £13.8m subsequent 12 months and says a lot of this 12 months will probably be about determining the right way to sort out that.
He mentioned: “That’s acquired to be balanced earlier than March 31 subsequent 12 months however we actually want to begin serious about it now.
“We’re very restricted as a result of nearly all of our funding comes from the Scottish Authorities and we want fairer funding so we will ensure that we will present enough public companies to our native residents.
“In addition to that now we have a giant problem in supporting our employees. They’ve had two years the place they’ve focused on saving lives and serving to folks get by via the general public well being emergency.
“We’ve acquired to do what we will now to save lots of their jobs and to save lots of their companies as a result of that £13.8m has acquired to come back from someplace.
“We’ll have to take a look at each possibility to shut that hole as a result of legally now we have to try this. We don’t have another possibility.
“On the similar time we nonetheless wish to make investments and develop the authority space.”
Hundreds of thousands of kilos of reserves have been used to plug price range gaps over the previous few years however Martin claims the money pot is now dry.
He continued: “We had a Change Fund, which brings about enhancements in how we do issues and helps fund issues like employees restructures, and when Labour was in energy we left £3.3m of funds however now it’s all gone.
“It’s been used to stability the price range however left a giant income danger which isn’t a very good state of affairs as a result of we’ve acquired to unravel that.
“It’s a extremely large problem. We’ve spoken to the commerce unions and so they comprehend it’s an actual problem.
“You may’t shut a niche like that with out powerful selections.”
He mentioned making certain the realm is “open for enterprise” is a precedence, including: “We have to shield the issues we’ve acquired, take care of the parks, be certain communities are cleaned and tidy and the potholes are fastened. That each one makes a giant distinction.”
Martin mentioned as methods to economize, the council should additionally deal with the right way to assist residents coping with their very own monetary hardships as a result of cost-of-living disaster.
He defined: “Costs are going up quicker than folks can sustain with them. That’s an actual problem for family budgets.
“There are many people who find themselves working full-time and are going through the massive worth rises as effectively, so it’s not simply the poorest in society who're affected.
“We had put ahead a price range which had a whole lot of initiatives to handle it, equivalent to £1000 a month to foodbanks and £1000 every week in power vouchers, however it was voted in opposition to.
“We will probably be revisiting parts of the price range and will probably be what we will do that 12 months to assist residents as a result of the cost-of-living disaster is occurring now.”