Win for Free at Three campaign

Parent power has earned an important victory for working families and young children in Renfrewshire.

- BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP NEIL BIBBY

In my previous Express column, I wrote about the serious concerns I had received from a number of constituents about access to childcare.

Working parents and their children were being left in the lurch by an unfair policy change made by SNP-run Renfrewshire Council in March last year.

The change meant that local toddlers, while previously eligible for free childcare places as soon as they turned three, now had to wait until the start of the next school term for access.

Parents, whose children turned three early in the school term, were thus forced to pay up to £4,000 to fill in the gap until the next term started.

This year's 9.5 per cent council tax rise - the biggest in Renfrewshire Council's history - only added insult to injury.