The main points of my campaign are as follows:
1. I’m young, and this usually wouldn’t matter as much but in a Labour council that’s failing on Education and youth engagement, it’s more important than ever that young people are elected to the Council. If I’m elected, I promise to work on engaging young people in Paisley Southeast and throughout Renfrewshire on the work of the council, and encouraging them to give their ideas and feedback on how we improve our services.
2. In Paisley Southeast, one of the main issues for residents is with the old RAI building – which residents have been in touch with me about. Though they have been raising the condition of the building (and how derelict the site is) for months, residents feel that the problem has still not been properly dealt with and believe that the council have been failing them by not taking proper action against the owner. While I’m aware that some moves have been made to try to make the derelict building safe, I would absolutely agree that not nearly enough has been done to try to force the owners to do more to clear up the site. They were quick to buy over the building, thinking they’ll make a quick buck, but are not so quick to look at the mess they are leaving to residents.
The two main things which, as a new councillor, I would push for are
1 Full enforcement notices, with financial penalties, must be imposed on the owners, and
2 Raise the whole issue within the wider planning process to increase dramatically the penalties for speculators and developers to force them to develop a site within a certain period of time, and not leave it to go derelict.
I hope these points are helpful and, as ever, feel free to get in touch for any clarification.