East Dunbartonshire has hit back at claims that services were 'shut down' over the festive period.

MP Jo Swinson slammed East Dunbartonshire Council after being left on hold for 30 minutes when trying to call the 'emergency response centre' following complaints from constituents.

She said: "I think the council needs to seriously look at its plans and procedures during holiday periods."

East Dunbartonshire Council's offices were closed from Thursday, December 24, until Tuesday, January 5, but chief executive Gerry Cornes insisted that essential services continued to be provided over the festive period.

He said: "It would be wrong to suggest that the council 'shut down' over that time.

Mr Cornes added: "From road clearance crews to social work teams, from homeless teams to care teams, from leisure services staff to the park ranger services, from meals on wheels to child and adult protection services, from the Municipal Bank to the planning and building standards department, from the registrar's service to the Emergency Response Centre and Call Centre, and the CCTV services team, as well as the huge array of staff and services that were on call and standby should they be required - all those services and staff, and more, were available throughout the festive period."

But council chiefs admitted that their emergency response centre, which was staffed by 'a minimum of three people', received a huge volume of calls between December 24 and January 5 - leading to long waits for callers, including Ms Swinson.

Mr Cornes said: "The centre had to deal with almost 30 times more calls than would be usual for the time of year."

See this week's Herald for the full story.