Helensburgh Advertiser letters page: March 17, 2022

To have your say on any topic of local interest just email your views to editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk, with 'Letter' in the subject line, by 12 noon on Monday.

You can also send your views direct to us via the Send Us Your News section of this website.

Please include your name and address. We also require a daytime contact phone number in case we need to check any details at short notice, though this will not be printed.

Happy writing!

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The organisers of the Community Council’s Visions for Helensburgh exhibition at the weekend should be commended for their event which seemed to go very well.

Since I have been banging on about it now for something like three decades, what especially caught my attention was the imaginative display showing what could, should and indeed must be done about the town’s rotting pier.

Helensburgh originated first and foremost as a Clyde coast resort and its waterfront location remains undimmed as one of the town’s defining strengths.

Now that the wraps are coming off the shiny new leisure pool, the mistake of abandoning the adjoining pier is becoming all too obvious.

John Urquhart's sketch showing what a revitalised Helensburgh pier - or Helensburgh Harbour - might look like if a bid to the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund is successful

Pictured above is a rough sketch showing how an extended steel and concrete structure incorporating temporary berthing for yachts might look next to the new pool.

The ‘yachties’ would come to change crew, walk, shop and dine, and their boats would bring colour and life back to the waterfront and income for town businesses.

It would be costly, but maybe some of that ‘levelling up’ money will do the trick.

“Helensburgh Harbour” – remember where you heard it first.

PS: Any passing resemblance between the “super yacht” in my sketch and the one belonging to Mr Abramovich is entirely coincidental!

John Urquhart, Balmillig, 64B Colquhoun Street, Helensburgh

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As a former retailer in Helensburgh I was very interested in the comments published in last week’s Advertiser regarding the new space to be created when the present Helensburgh Swimming Pool is knocked down.

For many years there has been a complete lack of large retail units. This has stopped large retailers such as Aldi and Lidl from coming to Helensburgh.

Large numbers of people are currently travelling to Aldi in Alexandria and Lidl in Dumbarton.

This will increase in the future as Lidl have submitted plans to build a new store across from Aldi in Alexandria. This will attract more people from Helensburgh.

The current swimming pool and the section of car park immediately adjacent to West Clyde Street have been earmarked for retail use once the new leisure centre opens

Large stores offer a larger variety and employ more staff. An Aldi or a Lidl would, I would estimate, employ around 40 staff.

An example of a successful large store in Helensburgh is the new Home Hardware business on East Clyde Street, which now stocks furniture and is currently adding a garden centre space next to the laundrette.

In my view current retailers in Helensburgh will not suffer from the arrival of bigger retailers. A larger choice of stores will increase overall footfall in the town and will help increase trade for all shops.

I hope that new stores will be built on the current pool site, as I believe that will benefit all retailers in the town.

George Hargan, Helensburgh

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There is much discussion as to what should replace the original swimming pool on the seafront when the new pool and leisure centre opens.

The suggestions range from a new supermarket , bowling alley or covered range of small shop units.

As a small town we have a supermarket for every 5,000 people. Do we really need another one?

The new waterfront pool and leisure centre under construction

As to having more small shops, what do we need that we can’t already get?

I think those arguing for new buildings should publicly quantify why that is what they want, and identify what it is we can’t get at the moment .

John Ashworth. Woodside, Upper Colquhoun Street, Helensburgh

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The response to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has been inspiring. In just ten days, more than £16 million has been raised here in Scotland, with the UK total now past £170 million.

Given the horrendous eyewitness accounts we are seeing on our TV screens and hearing on our radios, perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised: we all want to do whatever we can.

This uplifting demonstration of global citizenship is hugely appreciated, particularly amid rising living costs here.

So, most of all, we’d simply like to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ for your support.

We are also heartened that so many have heeded our messages, shared by the Ukrainian Associations here in Scotland and across the UK, that financial support for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is the most effective way of getting the right support to the right people at the right time.

As well as the thousands of cash donations, big and small, from the readers of the Advertiser and other newspapers, along with those from businesses and local government, we must also thank Scotland’s political leaders for standing together to back this vital appeal.

A family member waves goodbye as relatives escape to safety on a train leaving Ukraine

Thanks too to the Scottish Government for their £2 million donation and to the UK Government for doubling the first £25 million we received from the public.

13 of the DEC’s 15 members, on or near the front lines in Ukraine or at its borders, are now delivering food, water, shelter, healthcare and counselling to people whose lives have been torn apart.

Those fleeing this conflict face a deeply uncertain future. We pledge to spend this money responsibly with a firm focus on the most urgent needs of all those affected in the months and years to come.

Thank you for placing your trust in us, and our work, just as you have been for our ongoing efforts to support those so badly affected by the recent conflict in Afghanistan.

For nearly 60 years, in times of crisis, the DEC has brought the UK’s leading humanitarian charities together to help people in life-and-death situations. With your continued support, we have no intention of stopping now.

Marie Hayes, British Red Cross in Scotland;

Claire Telfer, Save the Children Scotland;

Jamie Livingstone, Oxfam Scotland;

Sally Foster Fulton, Christian Aid Scotland;

Graeme McMeekin, Tearfund Scotland;

Nadeem Baqir, Islamic Relief Scotland