This week's Councillor Column is written by David Kinniburgh, Conservative councillor for Helensburgh and Lomond South and Argyll and Bute's policy lead for planning and regulatory services.

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In my last column I wrote about how we must keep our minds focussed on delivering the Helensburgh waterfront project.

Since then Cllr Richard Trail, in his column of August 10, posed the question: will it be a building worthy of its prominent location, or will it be a soulless sports facility covered by a box?

Local councillors and officers have now had the opportunity to visit the recently opened West Dunbartonshire facility in Clydebank, which Cllr Ellen Morton gave an apt description of in her column last week.

Prior to that visit, I had looked at the Clydebank facility online, and had formed a view that would have fitted with Cllr Trail’s description of a soulless sports facility covered by a box.

How wrong I was! What I saw on that visit was a building that was designed to reflect on the site’s prior use as John Brown’s shipyard –which, to my mind, was not blatantly obvious at first.

But what gave the building real soul was the use of quality materials on the exterior and interior of the building, the use of natural light throughout the facility and making best use of the panoramic views looking up, down and across the river from the various fitness suites, gyms and conference rooms.

In short, what has been created in Clydebank is a building worthy of its prominent location.

Although the site we have to develop in Helensburgh presents different challenges, I believe it is all about striking the right balance to deliver a facility we can be justly proud of.

We have to work with the budget available to us, bearing in mind that a significant part of that budget will have to be used dealing with flood defences first.

The interior of the Helensburgh building has to have state-of-the-art facilities to cater for all ages that will be used on a regular basis making best use of the space available.

There is little point installing facilities that would be used infrequently, taking up valuable space in the limited footprint we have to work with.

We also have to use quality materials both inside and out, and we have to make best use of the panoramic views we have at our disposal.

Those views can be simply stunning, making Helensburgh’s new leisure centre a facility worthy of the prominent location on which it will be situated.