IT is the start of a new year and so a good time to look forward to new opportunities.

I look forward to realising the dream of losing two stone and returning to the weight I was when I played in goal at the Port Juniors.

I hear Morton are on the lookout for a new goalkeeper? We can but dream.

This year, it is essential that we make real and lasting progress towards tackling inequality and creating equal opportunities for all. We know that inequality has its roots early in life and we must do much more to tackle it at source.

Just over a week ago as ‘The Bells’ were still ringing, our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was already back at work as she was launching The Baby Box.

The baby box will provide essential items to help give every child the best start in life, with practical assistance for parents, whilst also encouraging engagement with local health services that I hope will improve both the health of newly born children as well as maternal health.

The baby box is just one example of a number of policies that will help deliver a fair and equal start for children in Inverclyde.

Such support will continue right through children’s early years with the pledge to double the number of free hours of early learning and childcare to more than 1,100 hours by the end of the current Scottish Parliament - children born in 2017 will be some of the very first to benefit.

This is just one example of the change for the better that can be delivered when we have a Scottish Government in Edinburgh and a council here in Inverclyde working in partnership to improve the lives of every single person.

For too long we have watched on as our council attacks the Scottish Government instead of working with them. It is time for that to change.

Inverclyde has some of the most deprived areas in Scotland, this was one of the key reasons I got involved in politics, to fight for everyone to have the same opportunities in life.

This year we will continue to work towards our number one priority to close the gap in educational attainment between children in the most and least deprived areas.

Ensuring that every child in Inverclyde has the best possible chance within our education system will be absolutely paramount to the SNP and if you put your trust in us to be your new council administration in May it will continue to be so into the next decade.

However just providing a good education to Inverclyde’s children isn’t good enough. Once they leave school and want to move onto the world of work or college/university they need jobs.

We once had a reputation as being the export capital of Europe. Now our biggest export is our young people as year after year they leave Inverclyde to find work.

The declining population of Inverclyde could be reversed if the young people already here stay here. We must reject the status quo that people must travel to find work. It is our job to find work and bring it here for them.

In truth the current council has failed to grasp this since the decline of all our major industry.

I predict that this more than anything else will be one of the key aspects our current and future councils are judged on.