West Dunbartonshire council elections: Old hand throws hat back into the ring

One of the SNP candidates standing for the local authority next month, he agrees much has changed in the past 10 years. “My biggest challenge is probably getting up to speed with social media,” he says.

McColl, who will contest the Leven ward, says he was tempted back into politics with the prospect of helping the community on issues such as the regeneration of the area’s town centres, which include Dumbarton and Clydebank.

“People obviously know locally that I have been on the council, so they talk to me about different issues and I thought it is maybe time I got back in and get hands on again,” he says.

“I have now got a greater life experience 10 years on – I think I will probably be one of the oldest candidates locally.”

If he wins, McColl will also be working alongside his son Jonathan, who has been leader of West Dunbartonshire Council since 2017.

They joke about how Jonathan beat his father in the election contest of 2012. Ronnie says: “We moved his ward to the same ward as mine – and his name was above mine on the ballot paper.

“I should never have named him Jonathan.”

On a serious note, Jonathan also says that his father’s experience will be a useful addition to the council if he wins a seat.

“Our difficulty this time around was finding older candidates, as in fact we have a very young field which is unusual,” Jonathan says.

“Our youngest candidate Lauren Oxley is 18 years old and standing in the Clydebank Waterfront ward – and as the second candidate on the ballot paper has a very good chance of being elected in that ward.

“Most of our candidates are under 30, which is unusual.”

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West Dunbartonshire Council serves nearly 90,000 residents and covers an area stretching from Clydebank to Loch Lomondside. The SNP gained four seats in 2017 and increased their share of the vote by nine per cent to overtake Labour as the biggest party.

However the defection of councillor Caroline McAllister to the Alba Party in 2021 left the SNP with a minority rule.

This time the SNP is standing 12 candidates. Labour is also fielding 12 hopefuls including Gurpreet Singh Johal – known for campaigning for the release of his brother Jagtar Singh Johal (below), who has been imprisoned in India without charge in 2017. The Tories are standing five candidates.

Jonathan is hopeful the SNP this time can win a majority, saying campaigning is focusing on highlighting the party’s track record in the council over the past five years.

He also says the party has been “strategic” about where candidates are standing. One example he cites is the Clydebank Waterfront ward, where the SNP came close to having three councillors in a four-member ward in 2017.

“We were less than 100 votes short of getting three elected last time, so we are targeting that,” he adds. He says overall the party is hoping to get at least 11 councillors elected, which will give the SNP control of the council.

When it comes to the issues which matter most to voters, Jonathan says it is mainly the “bread and butter” of local politics, such as roads, pavements and parking.

But wider national issues do sometimes get raised on the doorsteps. “I got told at our stall at the weekend that a chap wasn’t going to vote for me because he didn’t believe I could build ferries on time,” he says. “I just said yes I agree – I don’t think I could build a ferry on time.”

Parties putting forward single candidates for West Dunbartonshire include the Greens and the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, with one independent standing. The Scottish Family Party has two candidates.

The council is also thought to be unique in Scotland in having a party dedicated to tackling local issues.

West Dunbartonshire Community Party was founded eight years ago and has one councillor Jim Bollan, who is standing again in the Leven ward. He argues there is a need for the party which is solely focused on local issues.

“Some of the leaflets that have been delivered from the national parties locally talk about things that are in the gift of the Scottish Government and the Westminster government, which local authorities can’t implement or even challenge,” he says.

“It’s a broad brush – they don’t home in on local communities to really get feedback from local people on what the real issues are in their housing estates and on their streets, what is affecting people locally.

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“That is what we try to do by having regular surgeries and regular stalls in the local shopping centres.

“We get feedback and try and table those concerns at the council to get them addressed.”

Bollan, who was first elected in the area for Labour in 1988, says it will be a major breakthrough if the West Dunbartonshire Community Party’s other candidate Drew MacEoghainn is elected.

“We are a very small party, so we have only been able to fight two of the wards instead of six this year,” he says.

“The feedback we are getting is we have got a chance of getting the two seats which would be a breakthrough for us.

“I have been on the council myself for a while but the way the structure of the council operates is I can put as many motions down for discussion if I want, but if I can’t get a seconder the issue doesn’t get debated.

“If my colleague gets elected this time, we will bring up all the issues that people bring to us to the table and force the two big parties to take a view on them.

“We are getting there and we genuinely think there is a need for a local voice.”