GREENOCK east end residents who say their area has long been overlooked are making their voices heard by setting up a new community council to represent its people.

A group of community-minded locals are taking the first steps towards greater representation for one of Inverclyde’s most deprived areas by holding a special meeting at Craigend Resource Centre on Monday.

They are urging other residents to step up and play their part in the new forum, which they hope will help shape the future of their side of the town.

The east end working group are also aiming to help identify and address any community safety issues that people are concerned about.

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Group member and proud eastender Susan Clabby told the Tele: “Right now, we’re the only community that haven’t got a community council and I think we’re getting ignored as a result.

“We knew it was better to have a group with meetings that councillors could come along to rather than having about 25 people complaining about the same thing.

“We can have our say and know we’ll be listened to, this is about giving people in the east end a voice.

“We’re being forgotten about, not even that we’re being ignored."

Susan added: “I went to a big meeting a while ago about funding up in the Beacon and they said they were treating the east end as a triangle when they were going for money.

“That’s the way the cash could be split up so different bits of that area could get money.

“I then went to another meeting about six months ago where they handed out leaflets which had the east end down as a square, and I said, ‘we never got any money when it was triangle!’.

“So, the east end got nothing and now we’re a square.

“I don’t want to be a square or a triangle, I don’t want to be a NIMBY, or a ‘Not Going Anywhere’, I just want something for the east end.

“We’ve got people here who keep the place good and do a lot of good work but they don’t speak out about what they want done.

“We need people to join us and have their say so we can make the place better for everyone.

“We could get a lot done as one voice, I really want this to be positive.”

The group members say it is essential that as many people as possible come along to the meeting, which will take place between 6.30pm and 8pm on Monday.

They hope that a community council can be established in time for the district-wide community council elections next year.

Joanne McInnes, who also stays in the east end, said: “I just want to have a level of local power that having a community council gives you.

“The more I’ve heard about what’s going on in the east end the more I want to be in a community group that’s got more power.

“I feel as if it’s only the local people that can fix stuff in this town by saying ‘give us what we need’.

“We know best how to spend money. Places like Auchmountain Glen are examples where locals have sorted things out themselves.”

Fellow resident and group member Lorraine Moran said the forum would give locals a way to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of the area.

She added: “The only people in Inverclyde who don’t have a community council is us here in the east end and we’re one of the most deprived areas.

“Community learning and development are helping us set this up, at the moment we’re just a working group.

“The more people who come to the community council meetings the more they’ll learn things about their area and what we can do.”