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A joint venture to save Helensburgh’s pier received overwhelming support at a packed and sometimes heated public meeting yesterday.
More than 100 people attended the event in Helensburgh Parish Church halls, which was called after Argyll and Bute Council closed the town’s pier to mariners last month.
Helensburgh Seafront Development Project (HSDP) received a unanimous ‘yes’ when asking those present whether something should be done to save the pier.
Three options for the way forward were then presented:
- The council fulfills its responsibilities and carries out the work required to bring the pier back to a safe standard where marine craft are allowed to berth again. This option would not require any external funding but was backed by only a handful of the audience.
- A joint venture or ‘participation agreement’ between the council and the HSDP, which would aim for a combination of council and external funding required – this was backed a clear majority.
- A community takeover the pier (by way of a Community Asset Transfer) – this would rely purely on external funding and was the second most popular option of the three.
HSDP chair Ian MacQuire told the meeting that the council had 39 piers and Helensburgh was the only one without any spending allocated to it.
He suggested that revenue for maintenance costs could come from
- Fees from visiting passenger groups from Greenock
- Craft using new pontoons to the east of the pier
- Donations and sponsorship
- A visitor centre or shop on the pier
- Changing areas and showers for visiting kayakers and sailors
David Cantello, a trustee of HSDP who drew up a report on the condition of the pier earlier this year, said some sections of it were in ‘extremely poor condition’.
“The pier is the visual focal point of the town and the main access point,” he added.
“The loss of the pier would inhibit the future regeneration of Helensburgh seafront.
“The pier has had not proper maintenance or repairs for some years but the council has continued to operate at risk.”
Maurice Corry, Conservative MSP for the West of Scotland region, said he was brought up in Helensburgh and understood the importance of its pier.
“It is a great sadness at the moment that it is not really being looked after properly,” he said.
“What we don’t do in the Clyde area is really make use of our sea space.
“We should petition the council to make sure they ensure that the resources of this area come first.
“There is a budget in the marine part of the council and we want to get our fair share.”
And Labour’s Jackie Baillie, the constituency MSP ,said she understood that the timber section of the pier was ‘a very real and genuine concern’ and the costs of repairs needed to be clearly understood.
“I regard the pier as very special. It matters to the economy and the heritage of this area,” she said.
“Simply doing nothing is not an alternative for this area.
“I have raised a motion in the Parliament about the pier and I have asked questions about funding.”
HSDP’s vice-secretary Brian Robertson said there was still uncertainty about who actually owned the pier.
“I am led to believe that at the moment the council is spending a great deal of time and money is establishing the title of the pier,” he said.
“The council was invited to attend this meeting but declined because of the short notice and unavailability of the report that caused the pier to be closed.
“There is now a very clear and logical case for the pier refurbishment to be carried out.”
And the project’s vice-chair Gerard Lindsay told the audience: “We want to know, is there an appetite to do something, is the desire enough to save Helensburgh pier and how do we do it?
“We are doing it to being the town back to its glory days.
“We have a major town on one of the most famous rivers in the world.”
He stressed that they were only talking about the actual pier, which has nothing to do with the council’s £18.6m leisure centre project, and said the group had been told explicitly that the pier would not be included in this.
They had been told that a ‘ballpark estimate’ for basic regeneration to get the pier up and running would be £800,000.
The only councillor at the meeting was the opposition SNP’s Lorna Douglas, who said ferries should service the pier again – the service was cut in 2012 by SPT, who cited low passenger numbers.
Cllr Douglas said the problem had been a bad timetable and people drove from Helensburgh to Kilcreggan to catch the ferry.
“If they had run a ferry early enough from Helensburgh people would have used it,” she said.
“I would like to see the Helensburgh pier open and working.
“I live in Craigendoran Avenue and it is amazing how quickly a pier can deteriorate – the timber aspect will fall into disrepair very quickly.”
HSDP has so far raised £13,500 towards its target of £20,000 for a feasibility study into a three-stage project – the first stage would see the restoration of the pier, and the other stages would see creation of a walkway and marina, with pontoons.
The project’s trustees are appealing for donations and volunteer support – they can be contacted via their website or Facebook.
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