Newly elected councillors at West Dunbartonshire have appointed a new provost and leader of the administration for the next five years.
Members unanimously elected Labour councillor Douglas McAllister to serve as their provost while councillors Martin Rooney and Michelle McGinty will serve as leader and depute leader of the council respectively.
Councillor McAllister, who previously served as Provost between 2012 and 2017, says it is a great privilege to be elected for the role for a second time and that he will do his best to serve West Dunbartonshire to the best of his ability while councillor Rooney takes on the role of leader for the third time.
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Mr Rooney first became leader of the council between 2006 and 2007 and again between 2012 and 2017 where he was the first leader to serve in the role for the full five year-term.
Mr McAllister, who is taking over from Provost William Hendrie, will be joined by Labour councillor John Miller who is taking the position of Depute Provost, a post previously held by councillor Karen Conaghan.
Speaking about the role Provost Douglas McAllister said: “To be elected into the position unanimously is a great honour and I would like to thank the opposition for doing that - that’s a touch of class on your part and is greatly appreciated by me.
“As people may be aware I held the post previously between 2012 and 2017 so I am well aware of what the post entails. It is a great privilege and I will do my very best to serve West Dunbartonshire to the best of my ability.
“It is a great privilege as Provost to see the very best of West Dunbartonshire. You get to meet some fantastic people in the community and some fantastic community groups.
“I also recognise the work of our staff here at West Dunbartonshire and I look forward to working with them over the next five years.”
Provost McAllister also thanked former Provost William Hendrie for his hard work between 2017 and 2022 and said he would try to be as courteous in the role as his predecessor.
He added: “Before we move onto any further items of business I would like to recognise the contribution of our outgoing Provost - Provost Hendrie who served over the last five years.
“He obviously didn’t get to enjoy the post to the fullest over the last couple of years because of the pandemic and because of his ill health. Our best wishes go to Provost Hendrie and his family and we wish them all well.
“I am sure he will be very proud of the fact that his granddaughter, councillor Oxley was elected and she will now carry on that torch and flame that the provost had.
“If I can have even half as much of the courtesy Provost Hendrie showed all of us over the last five years of this council, I will be doing a good job.”
Following the election of the provost, councillor Rooney was confirmed as the new leader of West Dunbartonshire and will be joined by Labour councillor Michelle McGinty who will serve as his deputy.
Speaking about his new role, councillor Rooney said he hoped he and the rest of his party could work together for the best interests of the people of West Dunbartonshire.
He said: “I was first elected leader of the council in 2006 for what was a very short term as there were a few things going on at that time. The post was taken over by councillor Denis Agnew in 2007.
“I was elected again in 2012 until 2017 and became the longest serving leader of West Dunbartonshire for five years and that was repeated over the last term by councillor Jonathon McColl who had the same honour.
“Today I have been elected for a third time and hopefully it will be third time lucky and we will get all the things done that we set out to do in 2012 as we did set a lot of things in motion then and there is a lot that is still to be done.
“Thank you very much to everybody and hopefully we can work together for the best interests of West Dunbartonshire.”
