A HELENSBURGH man has asked for permission to put up six redundant shipping containers as a 'show home' near the centre of the town for up to five years.

James Steel says he wants to use the empty containers as a showcase for his business converting shipping containers into new low-cost homes.

Mr Steel has asked Argyll and Bute Council for planning permission to locate the empty containers on a site on East Clyde Street, next to the town's Arnold Clark garage and showroom.

According to Mr Steel's planning application form, the site, measuring 947 square metres in size, is currently used as a storage area for shipping containers associated with his international removals business.

In a supporting statement on the application, Mr Steel's agent, Paul Clark, of Dumbarton-based Clark Design Architecture, says: “The intention is to reuse shipping containers to convert into a container show home.

“This will be situated on site on a temporary basis for up to 5 years.

“Following the applicant’s environmental science studies he has become interested in recycling and re-using products with 'second life' potential and as such has earmarked surplus to requirements shipping containers as an ideal building block to form low cost housing.

“The units when combined and refitted can achieve a low carbon footprint with a combination of low carbon technologies such as solar PV energy, smokeless wood burning stove, low energy light fittings and water efficient fittings in addition to high performing insulations and membranes.

“The show home will essentially be a prototype to highlight the benefits of this type of building with a view to the applicant expanding the range to single unit, double unit portable accommodations for uses such as garden offices, mobile offices, emergency service use and temporary accommodation.”

Mr Clark's supporting statement says six containers will be used to form the structure of the show home, with internal side walls removed to create open plan living areas.

A bungalow which previously occupied the site was demolished in 2011, and the site has been used since then by R.B. Steel & Co to store shipping containers and vehicles.

Mr Clark says in his statement: “The semi-commercial/industrial look of the unit will tie in with the existing buildings surrounding the site.”

The application is currently being considered by the authority's planning officials; papers relating to Mr Steel's application can be viewed by searching Argyll and Bute Council's website for the application code 17/02154/PP.

Low-cost 'container homes' have become increasingly popular in Britain in recent years; one seven-storey block of 500 containers, to provide student accommodation, is currently under construction in the Partick area of Glasgow, while plans were unveiled last year to form a street food market, craft centre and cafe using converted containers in nearby Finnieston.