Labour announce East Ren candidates for May elections.

The party concluded its selection process before Christmas and the following candidates will stand to represent the party in the newly formed electoral wards for East Renfrewshire:

Ward 1 (Barrhead, Liboside and Uplawmoor) - Cllr Betty Cunningham and Cllr Kenny Hay

Ward 2 (Newton Mearns North and Neilston) - Cllr Paul O’Kane

Ward 3 (Giffnock and Thornliebank) - Cllr Jim Fletcher

Ward 4 (Clarkston, Netherlee and Williamwood) - Cllr Mary Montague and Cllr Alan Lafferty

Ward 5 (Newton Mearns South and Eaglesham) - Cllr Ian McAlpine

The party is standing to retain control of the Council citing its record of delivery and experience.

Leader of the Group and Leader of the Council, Jim Fletcher said: “We are fielding strong and experienced candidates who have worked hard for their communities over the years. Working with local people we have achieved so much together and East Renfrewshire has been transformed since 1996: Our schools are the best in Scotland, our town centres are regenerated and we are investing year on year to improve our area.”

The Labour Group is campaigning on a platform that calls for continued investment in East Renfrewshire to protect communities in the years ahead; with challenging times set to continue for Local Government with cuts from the UK and Scottish Governments. Labour say that a strong Council Administration is required to stand up for East Renfrewshire.

Jim added: “We know that things have been very difficult these past few years with cuts to our budget being passed on from the Tories at Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood. We have worked to ensure that these cuts are mitigated and we protect local services we all rely on. We have maintained a policy of no compulsory redundancies and ensuring that Council workers are paid the Living Wage.”

Pointing to this year’s budget: “I was delighted to announce a £4.1m programme of investment designed to make a real and lasting difference to our residents. This includes an extra £1.6m for local roads, £1.1m for our schools, helping families by halving the cost of wraparound child care in our nurseries and committing extra support for vulnerable residents. Roads improvements were identified by our residents as a top priority for the council to address following our most recent citizens’ panel survey. We already spend around £4.2m every year to maintain our roads but this extra investment is earmarked specifically for local residential roads as opposed to trunk roads which tend to get priority.”