I had a chance meeting with an architect last Monday. Among other things we discussed The Hill House.

My consultant pointed out that whatever the merits of Charles Rennie MacIntosh he wasn't a competent practical architect. There are no roof nor window overhangs in the design for The Hill House.

On Tuesday evening I went to The Hill House and took the attached photos that illustrate to problems in the building design. The red roofed building in two of the photos is Culvona, the villa to the east of The Hill House.

The problem is particularly acute at the gable ends where MacIntosh has no overhangs in the roof. His design relies on competent lead work to prevent water ingress to the interior.

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) are spending 4.5 million pounds to put a large tent over the building. This is an attempt to be seen doing something about the problem. They have no plan. No solution other than to wait five or ten years. The Big Box will have visitor ramps and platforms so that they can view the roof and exterior of the building and get views of the river Clyde. There is nothing remarkable about the roof or exterior of the building and good view of the Clyde can be had by walking further up the hill.

NTS say that the building needs to dry out slowly to avoid damage to the structure. This is a building built in 1901. It has been subject to the weather cycles of the west of Scotland for 117 years. It is not the Mary Rose, sunk and underwater for centuries.

This summer has been hot and dry. The building will already have dried to a large extent. Moisture levels should have been monitored on a weekly basis over the last six months.

NTS bought The Hill House on the open market in 1982. It was not an unwanted legacy. The building has been neglected by the central management of NTS.

A plant grows from one of the chimneys. In the interior, the stair carpet is in serious need of attention. The garden is a disgrace. The roses have not been pruned.

To the immediate east of the building, there are four foot stumps of rhododendrons. These should have been removed entirely. The front lawns are six inches of moss.

NTS have not taken care of a building that ranks with the now destroyed Glasgow School of Art on the pantheon of work of an architect viewed as a Scottish icon.

John Black

email

The easiest element in modern society, but also the most problematic, is the art of communication. A lack of communication is the breeding ground for rumour and frustration.

Nowhere is this more evident than the development of Argyll and Bute Council’s waterfront project in Helensburgh, in which ‘public consultation’ has been misconstrued as a one-way process.

There has been widespread dissatisfaction among the community to the cavalier treatment of the Helensburgh Community Council survey, which attracted more than 1,100 responses with 2,360 comments coalesced into seven recommendations for consideration.

Despite the community council’s participation in the project under the Community Empowerment Act 2015 the results of the survey were largely ignored.

There is an unexplained haste in the progress of this project, leading to shortcomings.

The specialist report on flooding was updated but the redraft has not been received by the community council.

The car parking report had to be re-drafted a second time due to deficiencies in its content, and this has also not been provided to the community council.

Therefore, two of the fundamental factors that influence this project were not available during the consultation process.

It is worth emphasising that this project is funded by public money, which will have to be paid back by the public in due course. Yet the essential priority in achieving value for money, and arguably the most important element of the project – the optimum position of the leisure centre on the pierhead – has not been subject to detailed scrutiny.

The 2012 Masterplan on which the project was founded placed the leisure centre halfway up the pierhead towards the town. This was changed at the December meeting of the Helensburgh and Lomond area committee to the extremity of the pierhead for no convincing reason.

The placement of the leisure centre at this location adds considerably to the cost of the provision of power, utilities, flood defences, etc.

This money could instead be spent on the positive facility improvements that the community wanted in the survey results – a skate park, soft play space, fun pool elements, climbing walls, etc.

Flooding research carried out by the community council indicated a high risk of potential flooding in the near future and the exposed nature of the siting of the centre laid the building open to storm damage.

Our findings were forwarded to the project team and were not rebutted. At the very least, a technical re-evaluation of the proposed siting should take place.

The facile argument that, “if you are not with us you are against us”, should not be allowed to stifle debate on the subject.

Let us make sure that money is spent wisely, decisions are made openly and transparently, and the best interests of the community are safeguarded.

Norman Muir

Convener, Helensburgh Community Council

I have always found it amusing to read the claim by English fans and commentators that a World Cup win would see football “coming home”.

If it were truly “coming home” it would be to Scotland and not to England it would be returning, for it was the Scots who truly devised the modern version of the game as we know it. Without our civilising intervention, what England might have given the world was just another version of rugby.

When the so-called Football Association' was formed at the instigation of a young solicitor from Hull, Ebenezer Morley, what he proposed would be seen now as a basis for rugby with extra violence.

Morley's draft laws provided that a player could not only run with the ball in his hands but that opponents could stop him by charging, holding, tripping or hacking. A more civilised code did emerge but the English game was still mainly a question of head-down dribbling.

It was the Scots who had the notion of artfully distributing the ball among the players. It started with young men, from Perthshire and the Highlands mainly, who gathered at Queen's Park in Glasgow in 1867. They obtained a copy of the FA laws and amended them to conform with an almost scientific blend of dribbling and passing.

When they invented passing, these men had invented football. Far from being an English game, it was one that was conceived to confound the English because the Scots, being generally smaller than their opponents in football's oldest international rivalry, could hardly afford to take them on physically.

As Scots we can truly feel pride some pride this week as England take on Croatia in the World Cup semi-final. To have the English borrowing our history is quite a compliment, the only downside being that we are not in Russia to share in the glory of our invention of the ‘beautiful game’.

Alex Orr

Via email

At Breast Cancer Care, we were devastated to have made the tough decision to reduce our Helpline opening hours earlier this year due to the challenging financial climate, which was a decision we didn’t take lightly.

As Scotland’s only specialist breast cancer support charity, we are here to provide care to anyone who needs it, and with more people than ever being diagnosed, there has never been a more urgent need for our vital support services.

We are working hard to make sure that the Helpline stays available to everyone who needs us so we can continue to provide support for free, but we can’t do it without your help.

You can support Breast Cancer Care by having an Afternoon Tea to raise money this summer. Simply choose a date and invite friends and family round to enjoy a cuppa with some tasty sandwiches and treats. Breast Cancer Care will provide you with a free kit with everything you need to plan your tea.

All money raised will enable the charity to continue to be there for the 58,000 people living with breast cancer in Scotland today, and it’s essential that these services remain free. Breast Cancer Care is not government funded so every penny that you raise makes a huge difference.

Order your free fundraising kit at www.breastcancercare.org.uk/cuppa or call 0300 100 4442.

Angela Harris

Via email