IT has been almost two months since I wrote in the pages of this paper about the launch of our campaign to #BringBackBulkUplift and more than five weeks since Conservative councillors brought a motion to a meeting of Glasgow City Council identifying fly-tipping as anti-social behaviour and calling for the bulk uplift service to be reinstated as soon as possible. In that time I’m sorry to say that the council’s SNP administration has made no identifiable progress either towards resuming the service or more generally in addressing their neglect of our city’s maintenance that has turned Glasgow from the Dear Green Space into a dumping ground for litter and worse.

Almost every day I open this paper to read about another area of the city where fly-tipping is out of control. From Paisley Road West to Tollcross and Drumchapel, the failures of this council are written all over the (waste-laden) streets of Glasgow. It’s no wonder that we have shamefully been named the fly-tipping capital of the UK, receiving more complaints about fly-tipping than any other local authority in Britain – with the number of illegal dumpings over the past five years increasing by 47%. While there is no excuse for fly-tipping, it is common sense that the longer the council’s bulk uplift service is suspended, the worse this problem will become. Communities across Glasgow should not have to tolerate it.

Last week it was revealed that Glasgow spent almost £650,000 on graffiti removal last year – more than any other council in the UK. We are spending more than twice the amount of the next highest spending local authority and more than five times the amount of our neighbours in North Lanarkshire Council. Walking along Sauchiehall Street recently, only months after the completion of its multi-million-pound refurbishment, I saw chewing gum and litter scattered across the brand-new pavements. This is a shameful failure on the part of the

council – we need ongoing investment after projects like these are completed, not just a bit of cash to make it look nice for a while and before it’s forgotten about.

So let’s have a look at the recent priorities of the SNP administration. Last week, the leader of the council posted on social media that she had “goosebumps” about an opinion poll on Scottish independence and admitted she wasn’t complacent about her party’s drive to rip apart the United Kingdom in the middle of a health crisis where all four nations should be working hand in glove to defeat the virus.

Unfortunately for Glasgow, her complacency over the day job is palpable to anyone walking this city’s streets and her priorities at a time like this really do beggar belief. Next, the depute leader of the council, on the day that hospitality venues in Glasgow were forced to close without any detail on the financial support they would expect to receive from the Scottish Government, thought it appropriate to tweet a crass joke about those worried about their livelihoods. This SNP administration’s priorities are just all wrong.

From fly-tipping to graffiti, Glasgow is racking up all the wrong accolades under its current stewardship. A council administration that has spent more time debating Catalan independence than littering clearly has the wrong priorities on behalf of the people of Glasgow whom we serve. It’s time for the council leader to take more notice of her complacency at the day job than she does about constitutional grandstanding and make the cleanliness of the city of Glasgow a real priority.