AS many people are aware, there has been a period of uncertainty in the council when two Clydebank councillors resigned from the Labour administration.

Having lost some important votes, the Labour group resigned our positions to allow the other councillors to take over control as they have rejected the Labour administration position.

After a few weeks, no other group of councillors decided to take the responsibility and we now have a minority Labour group back in administration.

We do so in the knowledge that we will test if this group of councillors can work together and cooperate, compromise and deliver as best we can for the residents of West Dunbartonshire.

Labour have said we expect to see a change of approach by everyone by December, and should this not prove possible, it is unlikely a minority council administration could continue to operate.

As always, the council is facing a huge budget deficit. You will know we have not received fair funding from the Scottish Government for many years and all the signs are they have misspent their budget, yet even greater cuts are expected when they announce their spending plans for next year. Added to that the ridiculous decision by former First Minister to announce a Council Tax freeze last year will not only affect our funding this current year but that drop of income will be suffered for many years ahead.

The minority administration has already started the process of balancing the budget in March next year and we believe the deficit will be in the region of £10 million. The cuts that will have to be considered will include ones we have previously rejected while accepting earlier cuts to services. Unfortunately, we have no option to now consider the unthinkable cuts we didn’t implement in the last two years. The one change is this year this will not be a Labour-only budget decision, this will either be agreed by non-Labour councillors as well, or there will be no budget agreed. The council has a legal responsibility to agree a balanced budget and if we don’t then we are liable for external action of the Scottish Government.

This goes back to the Labour Group accepting the responsibility of a minority administration, time will tell if other councillors take on their responsibility of delivering a budget in the continued financial crisis we face.