PEOPLE in Helensburgh will get the chance to see local democracy in action, and to ask questions of their local councillors, at a meeting in the town on Thursday, March 21.

The meeting of Argyll and Bute Council's Helensburgh and Lomond area committee is one of only four days in the year when all the area's elected councillors hold public meetings.

The agenda for Thursday's meeting includes the following topics:

- an update from Police Scotland on recent developments and future plans in the Helensburgh and Lomond area;

- a progress report on the council's plans to hand over responsibility for Christmas lighting displays in the area to community groups;

- an 'area scorecard', reporting on the authority's performance in a range of key areas such as car parking income, dog fouling penalties, street lighting faults, complaints about waste collection, and staff absence;

- a report on the council's attempts to sell surplus buildings owned by the authority in Helensburgh and Lomond;

- an update on the latest progress in relation to the Helensburgh waterfront project;

- a progress report on the Helensburgh-Cardross-Dumbarton cycle way.

The agenda also includes a dedicated 'public question time', giving members of the public the chance to ask questions of elected councillors and of the council officials present.

The meeting, at the Helensburgh and Lomond Civic Centre in East Clyde Street, starts at 9.30am.