Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the letter from Greenock Telegraph reader Graham Winter, of Kirn Drive, Gourock.

It may alarm Mr Winter to know that the Gourock Coat of Arms was on my Gourock Athletic Amateur Football Club Goalkeepers jersey for many a year.

Most people in Gourock like their Coat of Arms and permission is not required to use it by Inverclyde Council.

A couple of years ago I did propose that Gourock Primary Schools should be involved in creating a new 21st Century Coat of Arms for the town.

However, Inverclyde Council have taken no action on this matter - perhaps they are preoccupied with their obsession of putting a cycling lane in every main thoroughfare in the area (I digress).

Mr Winters main charge seems to be limited to the fact that I have been carrying out a survey of Gourock residents - to better understand what the priorities of people that live in the town are - but that the letter only lists my name at the bottom.

I don’t think it’s any secret to anyone in Gourock that I’ve been a vocal supporter of Scottish independence for my entire life.

And quite frankly if I am passionate about the future of the town I live in and want to help improve it for the better I’m not quite sure this is the big “gotcha” that Mr Winters thinks it is.

Gourock has been much luckier over the years in terms of its council representation through the dedicated job Councillor Ronnie Ahlfeld did for the town and Independent Councillor Lynne Quinn has done likewise since 2017.

If I can help campaign in that spirit for the town, at my own personal expense, then I see no issue with doing so.

Further, the large QR code on the survey makes it clear that I am a member of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party - again hardly a secret to anyone in Gourock.

However, perhaps the reason that Mr Winters seemed so aggrieved was the fact that he is a Scottish Labour Party activist. 

Of course, as the Labour Party have just cut the winter fuel payment for 12,500 pensioners in Inverclyde I wouldn’t want to admit to being a Labour Party activist either.

Christopher McEleny

General Secretary of Alba Party

Binnie Street

Gourock