THIS WEEK’S COLUMN FROM MSP DEREK MACKAY Invitation to Chair YES Meeting I am delighted to be invited to chair the YES public meeting in Renfrew, which has a panel made up of key speakers from across the YES campaign.

The local campaign for an independent Scotland, YES Renfrew, will be hosting a public meeting in Renfrew Town Hall at the start of April. The public meeting, designed to allow local residents to ask key campaigners questions on independence, will take place on Thursday 3rd of April starting at 7.30pm.

The meeting will be chaired by myself and speakers include; former Govan MP Jim Sillars, former Labour special adviser and women for independence campaigner Jeane Freeman, and Ivan McKee from Business for Scotland.

Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available and everyone is invited to attend.

I encourage anyone who has not quite made their mind up yet to come along to the meeting and get your questions answered.

I know once people hear the positive case for independence they will back the YES campaign.

Investment in Defibrillators Local communities across Scotland are to benefit from a £100,000 investment to increase the number of public access defibrillators across Scotland.

The Scottish Government funding will allow the Scottish Ambulance Service to purchase and deploy defibrillators across the country, providing local communities with lifesaving equipment and training.

The £100,000 scheme will help to fund equipment that has up until now been almost entirely funded through community, charitable or business resources. It costs approximately £3,000 to purchase, fit and install one defibrillator.

Defibrillators are lifesaving pieces of equipment and we are fortunate to be able to provide communities with them and the appropriate training to use these devices.

Ofcourse, in the event that someone suffers from cardiac arrest we must immediately call the emergency services however, having the access to defibrillators will allow us to provide immediate care for the patient, before the ambulance or medic arrives.

Renfrewshire Council Cuts Back At a local authority budget meeting last week, chiefs voted to slash funding to the Streetscene project. Cut backs of £250,000 from the department responsible for keeping our community clean will that the local council will no longer consistently remove chewing gum from our local streets.