HELENSBURGH Community Council is to pursue the idea of setting up a ‘community trust’ to raise cash for, and give money to, good causes in the town.

The idea, first reported last month, is to set up a shop in the town, with all proceeds from items sold going to a local trust for onward distribution to community groups. The model is similar to one already in operation in Rothesay, where a charity, For Bute, has raised more than £100,000 through the sale of antiques, bric-a-brac and second-hand clothes at a shop in the town in the last three-and-a-half years.

At Helensburgh Community Council’s latest monthly meeting, members raised no objections to the establishment of a Helensburgh Trust – though further work is to be done on the finances of a Helensburgh shop and on exactly what items it could sell.

HCC member Richard Quinn and his wife Wendy recently visited For Bute on a fact-finding mission and reported the results of their Rothesay visit at the community council’s meeting at the Victoria Halls.

Mrs Quinn said: “For Bute’s total monthly costs are £631. They have an estimated monthly turnover of up to £3,900. Our costs would be markedly higher than theirs – roughly double – but that means you would still have about £2,000 month to put into the community.”

The idea will be discussed further at HCC’s next meeting at the end of April.