AFTER months of preparation and excitement, the presents and bottles have been opened and enjoyed, the turkey is finished and Jackie Bird has left our TV screens and gone to bed.

The festive season is over for another year and 2016 has been welcomed with good intentions and resolutions.

So I want to wish you a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2016 brings laughter, joy and happiness to you all.

I’m not sure I can remember a quiet year in Glasgow but 2015 certainly wasn’t it.

A sports team from Glasgow had major international success with a ball when Glasgow Warriors won the Pro12 rugby championship, putting their football counterparts to shame.

We built on the success of 2014 by hosting the World Gymnastics Championships and the World Swimming Championships, once again drawing the sporting eyes of the world to Glasgow.

2015 was also the year that Robert Carlyle brought the streets of the East End to life with his film The Legend of Barney Thomson.

I remember the initial filming at Bridgeton Cross and the many landmarks of the city caught on camera made it feel like a modern day Taggart as I engaged in my favourite pastime – “Glasgowspotting.”

Equally as exciting for me, Bruce Springsteen – ‘The Boss’ - re-released one of the albums of my teenage years, The River.

The first time I bought this iconic album I was on my way to catch the bus to play football.

My biggest worry had nothing to do with budget cuts, but keeping my teammates from pinching it from my bag in the changing rooms.

And speaking of ‘The Boss’, 2015 was also the year when I was given the opportunity to lead my city during one of the toughest periods in its history.

A great honour and privilege, as well as a heavy responsibility.

In political terms this job is a bit like starting up front for your boyhood heroes - you have the chance to make a real difference whilst simultaneously being the target for thousands of heckles every week.

New Year allows us to take some time to pause and with new found optimism and ambition set our goals for the next year. Sign up to that new gym, bite the bullet and change jobs, stop smoking or cut back on the wine; we’ve all made them – even if we haven’t always kept them.

My resolution last year was to read more and I was making good progress until becoming Council Leader. What was once spare time is now dedicated to meetings about how we as a city are going to protect local communities from John Swinney’s recent raid on our city’s budget.

2016 was already set to be a tough year, but because of the Scottish Government’s decision to add another £10m to our city’s budget shortfall, increasing it from £121m to £131m, it is looking significantly worse.

The Deputy First Minister promised his budget would be anti-austerity, but in reality it was anti-Local Government.

He received glowing praise from Tory leaders for following the Chancellor’s lead, as it was a budget full of Tory cuts.

Mr Swinney turned out to be a pretty unconvincing George Osborne tribute act.

He cannot claim to be protecting education and social care while at the same time decimating the organisations expected to deliver those services.

He could, and should, have chosen a different path.

So in the spirit of New Year I make this resolution to you; I will explore every avenue, challenge every convention, do everything in my power to use the city council as a shield to these cuts and mitigate the impact they will have on the most vulnerable in our communities.

It will be a tougher resolution to keep than last year, but with the scale of cuts coming from Holyrood and Westminster, it is one that the city needs to be kept.