Name game for new development

The inventor of the Braille system, town benefactors and former councillors look set to be honoured in a new housing development in Helensburgh.

The first phase of housing on the former Hermitage Academy site is nearly complete and Argyll and Bute councillors have been asked to agree on street names.

Four years ago the Royal National Institute of Blind People asked for a street to be named after Louis Braille, who invented the system of read and writing for use by the blind and visual impaired.

The town’s community council and Dunbritton Housing Association both asked for a street to be named after Councillor Al Reay, who died in February 2012.

And Helensburgh Heritage Trust suggested that town benefactors the Templetons, Cramb and Andersons should be included, as well as the Comet after Henry Bell’s steamship.

They also suggested Hermitage, Fruin, Colgrain, Academy, St Bride (a Helensburgh church and chapel in Glen Fruin are both named after her), Findlay, after Colonel George de Cardonnel Elmsall Findlay, Helensburgh’s only resident to be awarded the Victoria Cross and North British, after the steamship company which started the steamer services from Craigendoran.

Finally the trust asked for a street to commemorate the long service to the Helensburgh community of former Provost and tourism board chairman Billy Petrie OBE, saying there is a precedent to streets being named after living persons – Glen Drive was named after former councillor Norman Glen while he was still alive.

Council officials have recommended the following names: Hermitage Avenue, Campbell Drive, Anderson Avenue, Talisman Crescent and Guy Mannering Road (both possible continuations of existing streets), Mackintosh Court, Reay Gardens and Petrie Park.

The decision will be made on Tuesday by councillors on the Helensburgh and Lomond area committee. For details of the site plan, click on the thumbnails below; for information about the heritage trust suggestions, see their website here.