Community Council
‘WHAT IS HELENSBURGH COMMUNITY COUNCIL, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?’
FIRSTLY this month, a word of thanks to everyone who volunteers in the town. A particular thanks go to those who have recently cleaned the beach and tidied the shrub beds in Colquhoun Square.
These activities continue through the summer and are flagged on our Facebook page, so please come along and help.
Thank you also to Bill Purdon, Louise McCormack-Fisher and Simon Vella, who put their names forward as additional Community Council members in a by-election which concluded last week.
The ballot papers caused a number of people to ask me about how the Community Council differs from Argyll and Bute Council, so here’s a brief guide...
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Who are we?
Community councils are established by Government statute. Our role is to give the town community a voice and take whatever action is necessary for its interests. We are strictly non-political and are
elected by the community.
Our vision is: to sustain and grow a successful, safe and caring community by representing and serving the best interests of those people who live or invest in Helensburgh.
We are all volunteers, and our role is to discover the concerns of the community and work together to see how they can be addressed using the resources of the Community Council.
In practice, that means that we connect people to the right person, often in Argyll and Bute Council, and also work with community groups in the area to benefit all.
We are statutory consultees on licensing and planning applications. We monitor the town’s infrastructure to encourage good maintenance and upkeep. We sponsor town seminars, conferences and festivals to promote town interests and tourism.
We meet in-person on the last Thursday of every month at 7pm in the Civic Centre and the public are encouraged to attend our meetings, provide input, and lend a hand with our initiatives. Our next meeting takes place on Thursday, May 30.
If you have any questions about Helensburgh Community Council please look at our website at helensburghcommunitycouncil. co.uk. Our Facebook page is also regularly updated with events - see facebook.com/ helensburghcommunitycouncil. ***
Pierhead site
Our community council website details our bid for community ownership of the pierhead site.
This was rejected by the elected members who sit on Argyll and Bute Council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee councillors in March when, instead, they selected two commercial bids.
No information has been made public about any of the bids (apart from ours) and therefore we do not know which bids were preferred.
We believe that community views were excluded from the bidding process, and that the selection was based on flawed evidence.
We are concerned that this might lead to large retail development on the waterfront site, against the wishes of the community and harmful to existing retail in the town. We have written to our local Argyll and Bute councillors, as well as to MSPs and MPs to raise this concern.
The recent change in the political administration at Argyll and Bute Council potentially gives the local authority an opportunity to review the bidding process, and we would welcome being involved in gathering real community input to the process.
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Skatepark
Finally, congratulations to another set of volunteers the Helensburgh Skatepark Project who have worked valiantly for several years to ensure that there is a skatepark on the pierhead site.
It is fantastic to see this replacement facility being used so actively, and with good spirit, by the young (and not so young!) on all forms of wheels.
We know the community strongly support having a skatepark at the centre of our town, where it is easy to access and visible to all. We are doing all we can to encourage our Argyll and Bute councillors that it should continue to exist at the Pierhead.