'Local government deserves a bit more of the pie'

Former West Dunbartonshire Council leader Jonathan McColl sits as an independent after quitting the SNP. He takes us for a walk around the Vale of Leven’s Lomond ward

Describe the area you represent in one sentence: We have the benefits of being the gateway to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, and it’s a mix of rural and urban landscape with a really diverse population of some of the lowest and some of the highest income households in West Dunbartonshire. 

How long have you lived there? All my life. I was born in the Vale of Leven Hospital and grew up in Bonhill.

Tell us something we won’t know about your local area: There’s an absolute hidden gem of a walk which is great if you have dogs. It goes right up the back end of Balloch Park in the woods between the park and the CHAS children’s hospice. You follow it right round and there’s a trail that comes round a wee waterfall through the woods. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Who is the best-known person from your area? For the wider area, probably Jackie Stewart, the racing driver. I had the great honour of being at his investiture as a freeman of West Dunbartonshire and I have a bottle of whisky I got him to sign. 

What challenges are unique to your particular part of the country? The roads. We are in an area lucky enough to have a trunk road going through it, however that and the local roads lack the capacity to take extra visitors. When the sun is out, all of a sudden the A82 is completely jammed. This area has great potential for investment in something for local people and visitors and there are lots of nice bits of land that could be developed in a sensitive way, but we need the roads infrastructure to support it.

What made you stand for election? In 2007, I was asked by two stalwarts of the SNP if I would stand as a paper candidate. It was the first election with multi-member wards and not for a second was I expected to get elected, but I was. I worked for the council as a care worker at the time and I’d had to give my notice, subject to getting elected. My boss was watching the results come in and I got a phone call from her in a panic because she was expecting me to be on shift in the morning.

I’ve loved being a councillor. I was straight into administration as convenor of social work and for 17 years I’ve held senior roles. I became the person for local people and [SNP] members to complain to, and it was just getting too much. After the Michael Matheson stuff and the Angus Robertson stuff, that was the final straw for me; I’d had enough being the face of the party and trying to answer for things that I disagreed with or didn’t have any control over.

What’s the one thing Holyrood politicians could do that would be of greatest benefit to the area you represent? Take local government and the services it delivers more seriously. It doesn’t seem to matter which flavour of government we have in Holyrood, it always seems that local services are underfunded because they don’t get a huge electoral boost from giving funding for that. It’s all about the big eye-catching things like the NHS and police funding, but all these things are important. Local government deserves a bit more of the pie.

What’s the best bit about living where you do? I couldn’t live in a better location. Twenty minutes south and I’m in the middle of Glasgow, but five minutes any other direction and I’m in the middle of nowhere. Scenery and wildlife are something we have in abundance. 

Jonathan McColl and wife Amanda

Is there a particular word you love using that only people in your part of the country would recognise? Everybody knows Duncryne Hill as The Dumpling. It’s next to Gartocharn and has cracking views right up to Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond and it’s a rite of passage as a kid to go with your parents and race them to the top. If you go at the right time of the year the woods are carpeted with bluebells.

If you could live anywhere else where would it be? Me and my wife have agreed that if we were ever to win the lottery we’d move to Mull. Some people would say Saint-Tropez, but that’s not for us.