A CRAZY golf course is being proposed for Helensburgh’s waterfront site as the debate over the town’s potential new leisure centre rages on.

And Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) have also urged Argyll and Bute Council to follow the example of two Merseyside leisure centres to reduce the sun glare risk from the planned new building.

The council’s planning, protective services and licensing (PPSL) committee is set to consider whether to allow planning permission for the leisure centre when it meets again on Wednesday, January 23.

In a document published on the local authority's website last Thursday, HCC has submitted an alternative plan for the site which removes the potential retail development in front of the proposed leisure centre. Retail units would be subject to a further planning application.

The HCC submission said: “The remainder of the ‘blank area’ in the applicant’s proposal is still assumed to be future retail units, despite this being roundly rejected by 62 per cent of the community survey in May 2018.

“We urge the applicant to therefore take the opportunity for the remainder of the ‘blank area’ to be repurposed for uses which the community have endorsed – leisure and car parking.

“The income from the additional 100 (approximately) car parking spaces that would be provided would go a long way to offset the loss of capital income from not being able to sell the land for retail.

“The remainder of the space, along West Clyde Street, could be provided as a site for crazy golf, which would again lead leisure-based users towards the leisure centre (from where they could pay for the clubs and balls).

“Further, the ‘town square’ currently planned for the east end of this area is not required or desired by the community, and removing it would save the £0.5m additional landscaping that the Area Committee have just been asked to add to the budget.”

The report also highlights the design of Maghull and Formby Leisure Centres, near Liverpool, which were designed to stop sunlight affecting the swimming pool.

HCC said: “If the designers are willing to recommend an additional £20,000 be spent for the 0.5m increased seawall to reduce the flooding risk to users of the leisure centre, as they did in December, then they can address the equally significant glare issue with an equivalent costed solution involving shading.

“This has clearly been done by the designers at other sites.”

The Advertiser reported last week that CHORD project manager John Gordon had stated that moving the leisure centre elsewhere on the waterfront site would not reduce the risk of flooding or damage to the building.

But that is a claim that HCC disputes, adding on the prospect of moving the building away from the seawall and switching its orientation.

The latest HCC submission states: “This building would be protected from wave overtopping by its distance from the seawall, and would offer additional benefits.

“The entrance would still be to the north-west, which would be easily accessible by pedestrians from the town and also accessible from the majority of the car park.

“The swimming pool would benefit from views to west-north-west, approximately along the line of Helensburgh promenade.

“The upstairs gym and studios would have views to Ardmore and Greenock with a potential option, if the first floor layout was switched with the gym to the south, the gym could take maximum advantage of views in this direction.

“Once the leisure centre is positioned and oriented as above, the ancillary changes in this section are in fact tweaks to the site layout and would require minimal intervention from the applicant.”