Letters: Do your bit by standing for election

It is a very simple process and any assistance to overcome any shyness is on tap from current community councillors through our website. The election papers are held at the Civic Centre and issued on request.

Nominations close at 4.00 pm on Thursday 6 October when completed papers have to be submitted to the Civic Centre. If you have any queries you wish to address in advance of applying for election, please contact me on n.muir@btinternet.com

The community spirit is alive and well in Helensburgh and we need those with such spirit to come forward and help its continued development.

Norman Muir, Convener, Helensburgh Community Council

* * * * * * * * * *

DERICK Gray, in September 15 edition of the Advertiser, states that the cycle path from Helensburgh to the Base is "perfectly servicable". This is certainly not the case. Most of it is shared with pedestrians, pushchairs, toddlers and dogs on leads. The surface in many places is broken. Using the path involves crossing the main road several times. The path diverts through Rhu village and up behind the playing fields where the path is again shared with children and dog walkers. Ok for a Sunday afternoon dawdle, no use at all for fast commuting.

It will do drivers no harm to wait a few minutes to safely overtake a cyclist.

Peter Knox, Rhu

* * * * * * * * * *

This week I received an email from Police Scotland stating the mobile police unit covering the Helensburgh and Lomond area, along with Bute and Cowal, is to be withdrawn.

The justification given is that “due to several factors such as staff changes, other operational requirements for the vehicle across the division, alongside the officer safety implications of allowing an officer to work alone in remote areas for extended periods of time”, they “are no longer able to provide this additional police service”.

Given the ongoing cuts in police services over recent years across our rural communities, we are now at the stage where the public in our rural communities has all but lost its police service.

The history of the ongoing cuts in our police services started when Strathclyde Police closed the police offices at Arrochar, Luss and Kilcreggan and centralised the police services across the Lomond North area at the new Garelochhead police office in 2002.

Without any consultation, councillors were then informed in 2011 that police officers at Garelochhead would be transferred to the Helensburgh police office. Serious concerns were raised by me at that time at Chief Superintendent level on the reduction of police services within my Lomond North ward.

Although my concerns were ignored, officers on the ground were instructed to carry out high visibility patrols across my ward to try and reassure me and my constituents that there was still a police presence within the area.

Needless to say, these high level patrols did not last. Apart from very occasional use, Garelochhead police office has been empty over the past five years.

When it was abandoned, arrangements were made for a mobile police office to be deployed on a part time basis within my Lomond North ward and was shared with communities in the Bute and Cowal area.

It became clear to me within the past few weeks that further changes were afoot when Police Scotland informed me that they now intend selling the empty police office at Garelochhead. This clearly indicates that they have abandoned any thought of returning a police presence to my Lomond North ward.

I would argue that the mobile unit was certainly not an “additional police service” but a reduced service that was introduced to try and alleviate the concerns of my constituents across the Lomond North area in the face on the ongoing cuts in police services in my area over the past 14 years.

Although police officers within the Helensburgh and Lomond area are to be complimented on the service they try to provide to the public in the face of ongoing cuts, all the statements from the Scottish Government on the additional 1,000 police officers on our streets means absolutely nothing when it is clear that we are now at the stage where police services across our rural communities have all but disappeared.

Cllr George Freeman (Independent, Lomond North), Upland Wynd, Garelochhead

* * * * * * * * * *

AFTER team Great Britain has achieved it's best Paralympics result in over a 30 years, We can all take pride in our country's almost unbelievable medal haul and sporting prowess. Out of the entire world our country has come second ahead of the US in the Paralympic games. I would like to pass on my congratulations and thanks to all of team GB for showing that once again Great Britain is a world beater when our United Kingdom works together as one.

Alastair Redman, Portnahaven, Islay

* * * * * * * * * *

HELENSBURGH Retailer Conference

The Community Council carried out a mailshot to advertise the Retailer Conference we are going to run on October 11 in Victoria Halls. We managed to cover more than 100 business and retail premises but a number of premises were shut. We shall try and get round those concerned but it would greatly help if businesses who were shut and wish to attend the conference could contact the Secretary of the HCC and ask for a copy of the flyer. Her email address is bethanyrscott@outlook.com

Norman Muir, Convener, Helensburgh Community Council

* * * * * * * * * *

EVERY day in the UK, 100 people begin to lose their sight. And right now there are over two million people affected by sight loss here in the UK.

Thankfully, RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) offers a wide range of support, helping blind and partially sighted people to live independently and face the future with confidence.

From its Talking Books service, which provides more than one million audio books every year to people with sight loss, to its helpline which provides emotional and practical support, RNIB is there.

That’s why I’m backing RNIB’s ‘Wear dots... raise lots’ – a fun-filled fundraising campaign inspired by the system developed by Louis Braille featuring raised dots, which revolutionised reading and writing for blind and partially sighted people.

It’s all about getting involved in fun activities involving dots – whether it’s wearing a polka dot dress, shirt, or tie to work, holding a dotty cake sale or setting up a dots-themed nail bar and encouraging colleagues to make a donation in return for a dotty makeover.

You could even play a dotty game like dominos or Twister – anything to get people together and raise money for RNIB.

For more dotty ideas and a free fundraising pack, sign up at www.rnib.org.uk/weardots or call 0345 345 0054.

Brian Blessed OBE, RNIB Supporter