I feel I must take my former ICOD colleague John Moody to task over his letter in the Telegraph 9.10.09 and correct him on a number of inaccuracies.

He first of all refers to a comment that I made at a recent council Health & Social Care committee meeting that was reported in the Telegraph. I must point out that the comment John refers to was only part of what I said and asked at the meeting.

If he had attended the meeting he would have heard the questions I asked and the points I made regarding the presentation on the reconfiguration of mental health services. As he knows fine well from working with me in the past, I am never usually slow in asking questions, in fact I have often been accused of asking too many!

It was not only at the recent council meeting that I made comments and asked questions about Ravenscraig Hospital, in fact there were meetings about the closure of the hospital more than ten years ago that I attended at Greenock and Paisley town halls, public meetings that at that time I cannot remember John attending either as a member of the public or at that time as a Lib Dem councillor. In fact on those occasions I cannot remember too many, if any, of his Lib Dem colleagues attending those two public meetings but please excuse me if I am wrong. I would also like to point out to John that at a recent Policy & Resources committee meeting I asked if the council would consider running a seminar regarding mental health issues for elected members.

With regards to the sale of the Ravenscraig site and where the money from the sale will go. Unfortunately, none of John's Lib Dem councillor colleagues turned up at the quarterly meetings that myself, two of the Labour administration and council officials had with the chairperson of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the chairperson and director of the local Community Health Partnership over the past year or so, otherwise he may know that I have asked the question not once but twice as to where the money from the sale of the site will go. And on both occasions I have been told by Andrew Robertson, chairperson of the health board, that the money will be reinvested within local health services in Inverclyde.

John is right though, and again it is something that I have raised myself, that members of the public must be kept fully informed as to what is happening, especially those who have loved ones who are patients at Ravesncraig and who use mental health services.

With regards to John's comments about the SNP, our councillors took a decision when elected in 2007 to do things differently from the tribalism that has often existed in party politics in the past and where we agree on actions and policies of other political parties we will agree but where we disagree with those policies we will oppose them vehemently.

It has become abundantly clear that many people are now switched off by the kind of politics where one party is continuously slagging off another one just for the sake of it instead of working for the good of our communities. Besides if John wants to take a look at our SNP local elections manifesto from 2007 and consider many of the positive actions that the council has undertaken in the past two and a half years he will see quite clearly that many of those polices came from our manifesto, i.e. doubling of school clothing grants, refurbishing and reopening of public toilets, improving sports provision and council properties, etc.

Finally, I am sure the SNP council group would be happy to meet with Mr Moody at a time that is convenient to discuss any concerns he may have over Ravenscraig Hospital and/or any other issues.

Jim MacLeod
SNP Group Leader
Inverclyde Council