Lochgilphead’s facelift

Sir, Not one, but two schemes to refurbish Lochgilphead. One million pounds to be spent on a facelift for our heritage buildings, and one and a half on the front green. Not a moment too soon.

The front green plan has not yet, to my knowledge, been published. I hope that when it is revealed the primary objective is to put an end to the regular flooding of the green and the adjacent road, and the subsequent expensive ritual of raking up the seaweed and carting it off to the rubbish tip.

The sight of sandbags stacked in readiness by the doorways of newly renovated buildings would rather undermine the good effects of the cosmetic work.

The problem is that the level of the front green is simply too low, lying just at the level of high spring tides. So whenever we have a strong onshore wind and low atmospheric pressure coinciding with such a tide, flooding is inevitable.

Raising the level of the green by about two feet would prevent this, not an impossible task either financially or technically. The costs could be kept to a minimum by first stripping the turf and setting it aside for reuse when the backfilling phase is completed.

The existing concrete seawall is functional up to a point, but it also is too low, quite ugly, and prevents access to the shore when the tide is out. An obvious solution would be to extend it with a natural stone parapet and ramps allowing pedestrian access to the beach at low tide.

I first made this proposal about 25 years ago when I worked for the council and one of my duties was to clean up the mess on the front green after storms.

My suggestion was ignored, and I can’t even guess how much money has been wasted as a result. Let’s hope common sense now prevails at last. S White, Minard.