East Renfrewshire Conservative & Unionist Association are proud to represent the people of East Renfrewshire at what we believe is a crucial time for our local area. Our principle focus is on delivering for local people on local issues.
It is something of a disappointment to us that others who are supposed to represent local people have not felt able to support us in delivering on local priorities in recent months. Indeed, when it comes to the principle of local accountability it appears we are the only local Party prepared to play our part.
Although both Conservatives and Labour ended up winning seven Council seats each in May 2007, local Conservatives out polled Labour by more than 2,700 first preference votes. Using the SNP’s principle in the Scottish Parliament, where they argued that the party with the largest number of votes should assume the administration, you would have thought they and others would have recognised our electoral mandate and allowed the Conservatives to assume control of East Renfrewshire Council – in the same way as Scottish Conservative MSP’s allowed the SNP to assume control at Holyrood.
Unfortunately SNP and Independent Councillors conspired to flout the will of local people and reinstated the discredited Labour administration of East Renfrewshire Council – in direct contradiction of their own election pledges.
In the Scottish Parliament our Candidate for Eastwood and MSP for the West of Scotland, Jackson Carlaw, is playing a vital role in holding the SNP administration to account. His actions, along with those of his Conservative MSP colleagues ensured the SNP delivered an extra 1,000 Police Officers, an immediate reduction to Business Rates for small and medium sized enterprises and a new drugs policy based on abstinence – all policies the SNP had tried to renege on but which formed important parts of our Conservative manifesto in 2007.
The final piece in our jigsaw is our work towards the next Westminster General Election where our candidate, Richard Cook, is leading a number of vital local campaigns. We believe in making our communities safer by putting more Police onto local streets; we believe in making the NHS more accessible by backing the creation of a new Health Centre for Newton Mearns and the retention of Accident & Emergency at the New Victoria; we believe in improving our local area by taking graffiti “Off The Wall” and investing into road repair/renewal; and we believe it is time our local politicians actually led on the priorities of local people and not on the priorities of their own Party.
To find out what we are doing in your local area please use this website and give us your feedback wherever possible. East Renfrewshire is a terrific place to live and will remain so as long as we start to take better care of our local society.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our website!
Find Out More About Richard Cook On His Daily Blog.
Read the Conservative East Renfrewshire Council Budget Amendment by Councillor Jim Swift.