UK general election

The election is now well and truly underway. This is my 11th general election campaign in my 41 years as a member of the Labour Party, so I am very much now at the veteran stage.

It was great to have UK Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer in Inverclyde on Friday to launch Labour’s ‘First Six Steps for Scotland’ and to visit the Port of Greenock along with our candidate Martin McCluskey. I am sure we will see other leading politicians from all parties here over the coming weeks looking for our votes.

If you want to vote in the election the last day you can register is June 18. You have until June 19 to register for a postal vote and June 26 to apply for a proxy vote.

Remember at this election you need to show photo ID when you vote in person. Acceptable forms of ID include your passport, driving licence card, Scottish National Entitlement card for concessionary travel and the Young Scot card.

If you do not have any photo ID, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate by June 26. You can find more details on all the above at www.inverclyde.gov.uk/election

Cruise ship visitor levy

On Saturday I had the pleasure of joining our Provost Drew McKenzie on board the new Cunard luxury liner Queen Anne as she made her maiden call to Greenock. As is tradition, the Provost exchanged plaques with the Captain to mark the visit.

It was great to have a tour of the liner and to see how the other half live.

Earlier in the week the Scottish Parliament passed the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, which will allow councils to introduce an overnight visitor levy or tourist tax for certain types of accommodation. While this new discretionary power is welcome, I was deeply disappointed that the Scottish Government would not support the inclusion of a cruise ship visitor levy in the bill, preferring instead to consider it as separate legislation.

This is a missed opportunity, and I am glad that council leaders agreed to my request at our meeting on Friday to press the government for progress on this matter as soon as possible.

A small charge of £3 per visitor, for example, would generate around £300,000 for the council, which could be used to enhance our local offer to tourists, encouraging more of them to remain in Inverclyde during their visit rather than go on excursions to places like Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Loch Lomond.

The Pride of Inverclyde

Last Thursday I was a member of the judging panel for the council’s staff recognition scheme, the Pride of Inverclyde Awards.

The panel was hugely impressed by the quality of the nominations and found it exceedingly difficult to choose the winners in the various categories. It was great to see how many committed and skilled individuals and teams we have working for the council across all our services, doing fabulous work each day for the benefit of the community.

I had a similarly tough job recently when I was on the judging panel for the Tele’s own Community Champion Awards 2024. I would like to congratulate everyone who was nominated and short-listed for these awards.

We have so many wonderful people in our community who give so much to make Inverclyde a great place to live. It is important we tell them they are appreciated and these awards are one way to do that.