THIS week the health board agreed to move forward with its plans to close the birthing services at the Vale maternity unit.

That means that local women would no longer have the choice of giving birth at the Vale. Labour members on the health board fought hard to halt the proposals, forcing a vote on the cuts, but in the end the board voted to go ahead with a very limited form of consultation on the service change.

I have been campaigning against the closure from the very beginning. When the proposals were leaked to the press before the elections, I was the only candidate who wanted to improve, not remove, services at the Vale.

While I was busy meeting key health board figures and collecting signatures for a petition against the cuts, the SNP tried to pull the wool over people’s eyes and accused me and others of scaremongering.

It is a matter of regret that we were right because it means that the plans for closure are real.

The SNP cannot sit back and do nothing while the promises made in the Vision for the Vale are torn to pieces. Every household in Helensburgh and Lomond received a newsletter back in 2009 from the health board which promised on its front page to “sustain and promote” the maternity unit. The SNP Health Secretary showed worrying signs of watering down this pledge when she told a public meeting in Glasgow that the Vision only committed to a marketing campaign.

The SNP still has time to do what is right for our local communities and block the closure. The Vision for the Vale was a landmark agreement between the Scottish Government and the health board. I supported it then as I do now.

The question is, does the SNP government?

The SNP is ultimately responsible for the health service in Scotland. They should stick to the promises they made before the election and step in to protect our local services. The SNP Health Secretary must insist that the final decision on the CMU is hers and hers alone.