Environmental improvements are attracting investors, finds Nan Spowart
Located in a beautiful setting on the Clyde Coast and within easy reach of both Glasgow and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, Helensburgh is a major centre for tourist activities such as golf, cycling, walking and sailing.
The town boasts two outstanding conservation areas and numerous listed buildings including designs by world renowned architects such as Charles Rennie Macintosh and Alexander “Greek” Thomson. Hill House, Rennie Macintosh’s finest domestic creation, is under consideration for inclusion as a world heritage site. The town is also the starting point of the new 134-mile John Muir Way that winds its way east to Dunbar. However, while Helensburgh has many attractions, it needs growth to provide more jobs. Argyll and Bute Council is currently investing nearly £70 million in the historic town centre and the West Bay Esplanade to help provide the right conditions for private enterprise.
The project has seen Colquhoun Square, adjacent streets and the esplanade transformed to bring better access to shops and create a continental-style link between the front and the centre. “We are making sound, evidence-based financial outlays that will see real, tangible benefits,” said Councillor Aileen Morton, the Council’s Policy Lead for Sustainable Economic Growth. “We are drawing in private investors and creating the right conditions for jobs and sustainable economic growth.
“As well as the £7m spend on public realm within the town, other projects completed or on-going include the new £11.5m offices on Clyde Street, £1.3m improvements to the roads depot and £2.5m worth of improvements to Hermitage Park subject to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“The council’s role is an enabling one – creating the right environment for private sector growth, to put the infrastructure in place that attracts private investment,” explained Councillor Morton. “In fact, we are already starting to see some of that private investment.”
The next big project is the redevelopment of the pierhead. Helensburgh Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the investment. Said chief executive Alan Trail: “Argyll and Bute Council’s £6.2m CHORD project has seen the town centre transformed, bringing it into the 21st century.
“We now have a town centre which is able to serve as a focal point for the town, as a gathering place and as an events centre and we now have a magnificent new municipal building bringing more people into the town daily and providing opportunity for local businesses to boost their footfall. We also have had benefit of funding from Argyll and Bute for the Winter Festival which is going from strength to strength with this year’s offering on November 28 and 29 set to be the biggest and best yet and possibly the largest Christmas Street Market in the West of Scotland.”
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