Helensburgh Community Council Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 7 May 2024
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 7 May 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Helensburgh Community Council Update for CPP May7th 2024 ❖ Elections are currently taking place for two vacancies on the community Council. Three candidates have come forward who would all make excellent councillors Bill Purdon, Louise McCormack Fisher and Simon Vella. The postal ballot is currently taking place and closes on May 2nd ❖ Waterfront and Helensburgh Pier- We were disappointed that our bid for the Waterfront was rejected by the Helensburgh and Lomond Committee. We will continue to consult and engage with Argyll and Bute council over this area as we firmly believe the area should be used for community led activities and our community consultations including Vision for Helensburgh back this up. The Community Council has representatives on the Pier Regeneration Group which continue to explore, with Argyll and Bute Council ways the pier can be brought back in to use. A four stage plan has been developed and funding is being explored. The community are strongly in favour of this happening. ❖ Huge congratulations must go to the Helensburgh Skateboard Project who recently opened the new park on the Waterfront. They have worked hard to ensure it has been replaced as promised and their persistence has finally paid off. The skateboard park has been warmly welcomed by the community as a whole and in particular the young people of Helensburgh. ❖ Police and Road Safety -We continue to discuss local issues regularly at our meetings and supported the Road Safety Event with advertising. We continue to have concerns re speeding in the town and close to our schools. The Community Council supports a 20 mph speed limit within the town. ❖ In common with all community councils we are a statutory consultee for local applications. We are currently involved with a number of representations on the proposal for a Battery Farm and we monitor all other applications. ❖ Helensburgh looks particularly beautiful at this time of year with blossom lined streets and we would like to thank the Tree Conservation Trust for their hard work in making this happen. ❖ Consultation on the Dumbarton to Helensburgh Cycle Path continues and we participated and encouraged others to engage with the Helensburgh in Motion study. We are disappointed that this has not been completed after twenty plus years with little recent progress and we are working with the Cardross Cycle Action Group to find a way forward. ❖ The Community Council has supported a number of spring clean initiatives along with Plastic Free Helensburgh, with financial support from the newly formed Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network. These include the play park at Kirkmichael, the Hermitage Park Spring Clean and our regular Beach Cleans held at the pier on the last Saturday of the month.
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❖ We participated in the Big Conversation an event encouraging and enabling groups involved in environmental activity to get together, discuss issues and plan how to work better together now that we have the network. ❖ We will discuss ideas for continued maintenance of Colquhoun Square shrub beds at our April Meeting. ❖ Music in the Square is a community council fund with money to support young musicians and community events around the town. We encourage groups and individuals with ideas to contact the Community Council for support. ❖ Our petition to the Scottish Government raising the issue of local issues being decided by local communities will be discussed by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee on May 1st ❖ Our Town Centre Group continues to raise issues and resident concerns drains, bins repairs, parking etc. We encourage residents to use the “Report It function” on the Argyll and Bute website as well as raising issues with us. ❖ Our monthly meetings are held on the last Thursday of every month at the Civic Centre 7:00pm. The Meeting on May 30th will be our AGM. The Community are encouraged to attend all our meetings and a good number regularly do. Sarah Davies HCC Secretary Sarahdaviesde@yahoo.co.uk Tel 07845193590