Visions for Helensburgh Exhibition

The Helensburgh Community Council exhibition has created a great deal of discussion and interest in the Victoria Halls on 12/13 March. The principal aim is to get community input into the future development of Helensburgh and maximise the potential of its assets. The Helensburgh Community Council is providing the forum, but it is the community that has to express its opinions and preferences for the future. Members of the Helensburgh Community Council have done a great deal of work to provide the necessary background to stimulate interest, and we look forward to a stimulation of interest.

The major natural asset of the town is our waterfront, and the exhibition will look at it in its entirety from Craigendoran to Kidston Park. This encompasses a number of diverse elements and possible uses in key zones; e.g. Craigendoran, East Bay, the Pier and Pierhead, the main Promenade and Kidston Park. We shall be looking
for lots of ideas.

A significant concern is the pierhead space left after the completion of the new leisure centre and the demolition of the old swimming pool. Helensburgh Community Council has, without success, asked for a discussion with Argyll & Bute Council on the possibilities for this area. We see the space as principally
community space with an emphasis on leisure facilities for our youth in the town. We shall be looking particularly hard for community opinion on the matter.

You can find out more about Visions for Helensburgh here on the site.

Golf Club Housing Development

A number of objections to the project are in the pipeline. The Helensburgh Community Council do not object in principle to the project, but there are a number of significant concerns that have to be addressed. The HCC will pursue the resolution of these concerns in support of the public.

Restructure of School Administration in Argyll & Bute

The Helensburgh Community Council will be producing a paper on the subject in conjunction with the PTA/Cs in the town, reflecting the deep concerns parents are expressing on the proposed restructure. The paper will be displayed on the website shortly.

Speed Limits in Helensburgh

Helensburgh Community Council passed unanimously a motion to apply to Argyll & Bute Council to institute a 20 mph speed limit within the town limits. This is in direct response to the prevalence of speeding in all areas of the town, which authorities show no sign of enforcement action.

Our news feed on the website has been poor throughout the pandemic and we are making amends from now on. Here are some of the main issues that we are dealing with at the moment. Further information will be forthcoming, but if you wish to raise queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact us through the website.

Water and Sewage Support in Helensburgh

Helensburgh Community Council received an online briefing from Scottish Water on Wednesday 2 February 2022. The aim of the briefing was to investigate if the existing water infrastructure was currently functional and would remain robust enough to cater for the significant housebuilding projects in the town that are coming online now and in the future. The discussion was wide-ranging and informative. The main elements were;

• The water and sewage systems in the town are able to sustain current and future housebuilding projects.
• 80% of the waste water, including rainfall, and sewage outflow in the town are discharged via a combined system. Scottish Water no longer uses this system, and so for current and future new builds water running off from roads, roofs, etc. will go into burns, while sewage, etc. is sent to the treatment plant near Ardmore.
• The overall system is constantly monitored and assessed via a Strategic Drainage Impact Assessment annually and reviewed every five years.
• Future works involving a Rising Main replacement project at Suffolk St was noted.
• The environmental issues affecting waste systems discharging into the Clyde Estuary are now of major importance and Scottish Water are engaging with SEPA in a major environmental study in the Clyde Estuary. Helensburgh Community Council and Plastic Free Helensburgh indicated their willingness to assist in any way.
• It was pointed out that not all properties in the locality are connected to the sewage system, and that there may be some that discharge directly into the sea, particularly outside Helensburgh. Tidal flows, etc. may well bring these sewage discharges onto Helensburgh beach, even though they did not originate here. One positive assistance would be to identify any local areas of the beach area suffering from sewage detritus. These can be registered with Scottish Water with the aim of hunting down the source of the discharge in the sewage management system.

Hermitage Park

It is widely known that the Friends of Hermitage Park have terminated their association with the Park authority. Although much of the renovation work has taken place, the Memorial Garden has yet to be improved and restored. At the January meeting of Helensburgh Community Council, it was agreed that Helensburgh Community Council would undertake the coordination of the action to do this. Helensburgh Community Council also agreed to safeguard in its bank account any donations made by individuals earmarked specifically for the garden restoration. Action will start once conformity with existing plans and Heritage Lottery conditions have been confirmed.

The aim will be to harness community expertise particularly from interested horticulturalists and the Helensburgh Horticultural Society to arrive at a consensual agreement of a garden plan. This will be followed by the difficult part of funding and implementing the plan.

Education Change Programme – Educating Educators

There is considerable concern being expressed on an Argyll and Bute Council survey on what’s been labelled the Education Change Programme which is currently in circulation. It is a complex issue and raises more questions than gives answers. Helensburgh Community Council has no expertise in this area and can only provide a forum for discussion in the town in order to collate questions and concerns that our local teachers, PTAs and parents have raised. These can then be forwarded to Argyll and Bute Council for consideration and scrutiny. We are working on the best approach to this and will post more details soon.

Vision for Helensburgh

After many months of gathering, collating and interpreting the views of the people of Helensburgh on the future of the town, the pandemic struck. Two years later and the exhibition of the initial findings will take place in the Victoria Halls on the 12/13 March. You can get more detail on the overall Vision for Helensburgh project but the potential of Helensburgh cannot be realised without the help of the community to give their views for the future direction of the town, so mark the dates in your calendar and come along.

It’s now sixteen years since the Helensburgh Study Group published their review “Helensburgh – A Town For The Future”.  Sixteen years on we are now in a recognisably different demographic, political and economic context.  Aware of these changes, Helensburgh Community Council conducted an initial ‘Vision for Helensburgh’ study in 2017, but was happy to stand back, share that research and participate within the Council’s ‘Helensburgh Making Places’ initiative that has recently been published. 

This much-awaited research report points towards many creative opportunities for Helensburgh, and the HCC’s Vision for Helensburgh group has set out to put some flesh on this new Vision for Helensburgh.  Over the coming seven months the HCC’s Vision for Helensburgh group will canvas the opinions and aspirations of local residents, businesses, community groups and visitors through online and paper-based surveys and workshops.  Please submit your online feedback on this form.

However, collecting further statistical community information is the starter – not the main course. Unlike many Community Development Plans, VfH will not be concluded by a Report.   While the HCC is no executive organisation, we are in a good position to broker partnerships with implementing bodies (ABC, granting bodies, commercial, retail, leisure) in the pursuit of the needs/wants/desires of our community. 

The Community Council is relying on strong community participation and aims to gather feedback through open engagement with all segments of our community and then present emerging themes back to the public at an open event in late Autumn.  Further opinion collected from this exhibition will then guide our focus towards those proposals that have gathered widest community support.  The aim of these subsequent Development and Delivery phases will be to attract local and external expertise, liaise with A&BC, commercial and leisure developers and seek potential funding and resources to help test out these emerging initiatives, and deliver them for our community.

What does the Community Council hope to be different after the VfH project completes?

• Will have gathered a comprehensive cross section of community opinion
• Bring folk together and build stronger relationships in and across the community
• Co-design: Enable more folk to engage and bring their potential by working to address community issues and opportunities at their earliest possible stages
• Potential to guide a future investment towards community aspirations
• Improve the places and spaces that matter to the community

Snapshot Helensburgh

Almost everyone has a smartphone, a camera or a tablet.  We invite you – residents and visitors – to take photos of our community and send them in.  Look around, spend some time to snap your impressions – just what you see and experience in Helensburgh, its immediate environment and what makes it special.

Your snapshots of the town and surroundings will add up to a rich record of Helensburgh’s community and setting that will accompany the emerging proposals from Vision for Helensburgh at a public event in the Autumn. 

Requirements for submission:

• Dgital images: cameras, tablets or smartphones
• Maximum 8 images per individual submission
• jpeg format: your name in jpeg file title, or ensure your name is included in the accompanying email
• By submitting your photographs you allow HCC to select from potential duplicates and unify formats where appropriate.   Any pictures we use will be attributed to the photographer.

(Photos on this page courtesy of Geoff Kitt.)

Update: 4th November, 2020

The saga has run its course and despite our best efforts we have been unable to modify the current guidance in place for COVID. We have been left with no parade, no band, no service, no singing, no standards, no assembly.

However there will be a token ceremony on Sunday. The Memorial gates will be open at 09.00 for anyone who wishes to lay a wreath for their organisation on an individual basis. I know that some of you will be
doing just that.

At 11.00 Pipe Major John Low of the Helensburgh Clan Colquhoun Pipe Band will play a Lament and medley. Anyone wishing to lay a wreath within a 20 minute bracket of time from then, again on an individual basis, will be marshalled by the Community Council to maintain social distancing regulations. As a matter of detail, youth organisations should be represented by their leaders in laying wreaths.

Thank you for your understanding. 

Thursday 17 September –  Webinar on Zoom – 7.00 pm

When we think of young people in the Pandemic, our minds generally jump straight to exams and while this is certainly important, there are so many other elements of young people’s lives that have been affected. This session aims to identify and explain the main issues faced by young people as a result of COVID-19.

We will also look closer to home at the changes young people would like to see in Helensburgh and Lomond. Finally, we will think forward to the progress being made, the organisations working to support these changes, and the actions we can take as individuals and a community.

Contact Tariq Durrani by email on tsdurrani@gmail.com to join the webinar

Helensburgh Webinar Series

The Helensburgh Community Council is presenting a series of Information Webinars – talks on the Internet – to inform the Community and to seek its views. The series includes presentations on challenging topics, starting with a talk on “Helensburgh – Past Present and Future?” by Helensburgh’s noted  historian Stewart Noble on Thursday 4 June at 7:00 pm.

This Webinar will cover:

• The past. Helensburgh developed in 3 stages: Henry Bell’s Comet, the arrival of the railway, the building of Faslane and its subsequent use by submarines.
• The present. New housing, the regeneration of Hermitage Park, and the proposed new swimming pool – but will any be scuppered by COVID-19?
• The future?

The Webinars will take place every alternate Thursday. Information on other topics will follow.

To attend the Webinar on the Internet, via ZOOM, please drop a note to Helensburgh Community Councillor Tariq S Durrani on tsdurrani@gmail.com.

Have you a great business idea but want support then the HUB can help.  If you want to tap into like-minded individuals then look no further.  And where better to live and work one of Scotland’s finest small towns.  If this is for you then welcome to: 

THE JLB (John Logie Baird) HUB IN HELENSBURGH LIBRARY 

The HUB will provide ambitious start-ups and those wanting to take their businesses to a new level with: 

• Furnished co-working space on flexible terms
• Meeting a variety of businesses facing similar challenges. Business support & advice to help you grow and succeed – selling : branding : funding : legal matters
• Access to business advisors and mentors
• Training and events tailored to your needs
• A business address : fast Internet : manned reception : free printing : free coffee & refreshments 

Looking south over the Clyde, Helensburgh is one of Scotland’s finest small towns with award-winning restaurants, 3 supermarkets and an exceptional range of independent local retailers & businesses. 
Next to the sea there is a host of recreational, sporting, leisure and cultural activities to enjoy. Glasgow is only 25 miles away with its modern businesses, research facilities and easy transport networks.

Saturday 5th October 2019 @ 10.00 am.

Community Councillors are being helped by The Army Cadets.

All Volunteers are welcome to keep our Square an inviting space for locals and visitors alike 

Text taken directly from Argyll and Bute Council’s press release published on 6th March:

If you care about what happens in your community and would like to have a role in developing its future, you are invited to find out about becoming a community councillor.

Community Councils are the first or the “grass roots” tier of statutory representation in Scotland. They provide a link between local authorities and communities, and help ensure that public authorities are aware of the opinions and needs of the communities they represent.

While their primary statutory purpose is to represent the views of their community to the local authority and other public bodies, most Community Councils also involve themselves in a wide range of other activities which might include fundraising for local projects, running community and educational events, or organising environmental projects.

To become a community councillor you must be a resident within the community council area you would like to join, and be on the Local Government Electoral Register.

You can find out more about becoming a community councillor at www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/council-and-government/community-councils

Helensburgh Community Council continue to be supportive of the need to replace the existing swimming pool with an up-to-date facility. But we know from our community survey that the majority of our respondents do not approve of the current proposal.

Any previous comments at the Pre-Application Consultation stage are no longer valid – new comments need to be submitted to the planning authority about the current planning application.

We have been asked how to make comments on the planning application:

• Either go to the A&BC website at https://publicaccess.argyll-bute.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=PC4IVWCHFK100&activeTab=summary and follow the ‘Comments’ link.
• Or, to simplify the process, use the quick form at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/HCCWaterfrontFeedback/ to create text that you can send as an email directly to the planning department.

Note that it is up to the public to send their comments – the Community Council will make our own submission, but the planning department expects individuals to comment on the planning application directly.

We encourage everyone to make their voice heard at this final stage. Will your comment count? All that is certain is that if no-one comments then nothing will change.