Port Glasgow will not be second best

Letter published in the Greenock Telegraph 04/01/10

While I can well understand the anger of your correspondent Port Glasgow Council Taxpayer (‘Fed-up with slagging off of Port Glasgow’, 16 December), I can assure him or her that my Administration is seeking to address the needs of every part of Inverclyde.

Contrary to what your correspondent believes, the secondary shared campus is not about saving money. Any savings realised from the closure of the two existing schools will go towards the cost of the new campus, which will be in the region of £35-40m.

The purpose of the shared campus is to provide a modern learning environment for all our young people – including my own children - and at the same time provide a sustainable future for secondary education in Port Glasgow that does not rely on bussing in hundreds of children from Greenock each day. It will also deliver state of the art facilities for community use out with school hours.

I do accept that Port Glasgow Town Centre is in need of significant further investment and that is what is planned. The £600,000 received from the Town Centre Regeneration Fund is being matched with £100,000 from the Council and a further £270,000 from our urban regeneration company Riverside Inverclyde, making a total of £970,000. This builds on earlier investment by the Council and RI in environmental improvements in the Town Centre. The Council is also funding a replacement for the Comet at a cost of £180,000.

I completely understand why some people will only believe that investment will take place at Parklea when they see work start. I can assure your correspondent that my Administration is absolutely committed to delivering on our promises and that with a fair wind the first phase of Parklea – a new third generation pitch – will start in February and be completed by May. This is part of an overall development costing around £6.4m, which will also see the upgrade of 8 grass pitches, a new community stadium and a new changing pavilion by June 2012.

Further major investment is being made in new housing in the town. River Clyde Homes have started work on 195 houses at Woodhall, Oronsay and Moray Road at a cost of £26.6m.

Riverside Inverclyde has recently started ground works at Kelburn to provide platforms for new businesses at a cost of nearly £1.8m.

I acknowledge that more needs to be done.

The long-term future of parts of the Town Centre needs to be addressed. The Council is working with RI on developing proposals for this.

The Council has been pressing Gallaghers to complete the non-food retail park beside Tesco’s. Unfortunately this development has been delayed due to the economic downturn.

Following my intervention, Riverside Inverclyde have been working up proposals for major improvements to Port Glasgow Industrial Estate in order to support the businesses that are already located there and potentially attract new job creating businesses.

Through the Clune Park Task Group I have been lobbying the Scottish Government to commit funding for the redevelopment of that area.

Anyone who knows me knows that Port Glasgow will not play second fiddle to any other part of Inverclyde as long as I am Leader of the Council.