This week's Community Column is written by Helensburgh Community Council convener Norman Muir.

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First this month, a sincere thank you to the volunteers who came along and helped weed the shrub beds in Colquhoun Square.

Your work has made a tremendous difference. We would also like to thank the generosity of the Deli for various nourishment, and the kind offers of refreshment from the Terrace and the Royal Bank.

The rollout of progress in the square will be as follows: finish the weeding of the remaining three shrub quadrants; apply the replanting programme from our horticultural adviser and remove dead or inappropriate shrubs; mulch and freshen the soil in the shrub beds; plant out with shrubs in the spring, ready for the summer.

We have a mutually supportive arrangement with Argyll and Bute Council staff and between us we will bring a pride of appearance back to the square. So, keep volunteering!

Environment and recycling: HCC has started to take a pro-active stance on this important subject. The UK is bad at recycling compared to other European countries and this has a severe impact on the environment in the way we dispose of waste.

It is not an easy subject to grasp but we are learning and getting to grips with the nuances of the problem, which we will share with the community. We will follow three strands; education on the subject, confidence in the process, and engagement with the public.

We know how seriously our school children take the environment. It is their future we should consider as our guide.

Roads infrastructure: We are beginning to get a number of reports from the community concerning the serviceability of our roads infrastructure in the town.

The community council cannot cover the town in its entirety so we need your help and we would like to stress the importance of keeping these reports coming in through our website.

They will be used in our roads infrastructure participation meetings with Argyll and Bute to help us improve the situation and establish a priority of action.