IN just under one month communities across Inverclyde go to the polls.

The 2017 council election polling day is of course May 4 but many thousands of Inverclyde voters who are registered to vote by post will start to receive their ballot papers through their letter box between the middle and end of April.

This election shapes what our council services will look like over the next five years. It is important that everyone who casts their vote does so with the facts about what the person you cast your vote stands for.

As an SNP member I am proud of what my party stands for on the ballot paper for this election both locally in Inverclyde and nationally.

At Westminster we are holding Theresa May’s right wing hard Tory Brexit government to account every single day.

At the Scottish Parliament we are delivering an NHS that we are all proud of, we are working hard to tackle the educational attainment gap for children in Inverclyde.

Across Inverclyde, crime is at a record low and there are so many more achievements by our Scottish Government that we all benefit from in our communities across the area.

I am particularly proud that we are the party standing up for EU nationals.

People like those that work hard in our colleges, our universities and our NHS, and protecting their right to stay in Scotland.

Furthermore I have never been more proud to call Inverclyde my home when, across the world, nations were turning their back on refugees fleeing a humanitarian crisis, but in Inverclyde we said, and continue to say, ‘refugees are welcome’.

I want a new council to deliver record levels of childcare, help build more affordable homes and importantly rid Inverclyde Council of its historic equal pay shame. When you vote that is what you are voting for.

It’s time for a new partnership between communities across Inverclyde and the council that is elected to serve them.

It is time for communities to have a far greater say in decisions about their future. The council must stop doing things TO communities and start doing things WITH them.

I believe that if localities have more control over the decisions that impact upon them, then people will care more about improving the area they live in.

It is was for that reason that I was delighted to read that the Greenock Telegraph have launched a new Community Champion Awards, recognising, rewarding and celebrating the very people that make our communities a better place to live.

I can’t help but think of some of the real community heroes out there that have made Inverclyde a better place to live, purely because of their love of their area and their passion for what they do; Larry Barrilli, the late Reggie Scorer and William McPherson dedicating their lives to football; Nell McFadden championing the rights of pensioners; John Muir, who has campaigned admirably to make Inverclyde a safer place to live; the real life heroes of our NHS, our Fire Service and our police; and the hundreds of volunteers across Inverclyde that bring so much to the fabric of what makes Inverclyde.

In Glasgow they say that ‘People make Glasgow’, well down here it’s a bit simpler – the people ARE Inverclyde.