Argyll and Bute’s MP, Alan Reid, with Helensburgh Councillor Aileen Morton, visited Cumberland Avenue in Helensburgh on Thursday 27th September to inspect what remains a wasteland after last year’s felling of the Cumberland Avenue woods and to listen to the concerns of local people.
The visit was organised through the resourceful Helensburgh Community Woodland Association. It was welcomed by local residents who had the opportunity to express their dismay at how the protected Cumberland Avenue woods were almost entirely felled in May and June 2011 without due process.
The residents briefed Mr Reid and Councillor Morton on their concern that Argyll and Bute Council has yet to take enforcement action on the matter, despite lengthy investigations and warning’s that they were about to take such action.
Residents are particularly critical of the eyesore that has been left behind by the landowner in an established residential neighbourhood – visible in the photograph above at the site; and are anxious about the danger that the site, in this condition, poses to local children, despite being fenced off from the road.
There was also strong support for action to ensure that the Cumberland Avenue woods are replanted.
Mr Reid listened carefully to these concerns and promised to take them up with Argyll and Bute Council.
He was also interested in the latest news about HCWG’s Save Castle Woods campaign, especially as he had written to the council over the summer, drawing their attention to the threat to the protected trees in Castle Woods and asking the Council to declare their intentions to prevent any unlawful felling there.
The visit by Mr Reid and Councillor Morton reflects growing political concern over the continuing degraded state of the Cumberland Avenue site; and over the threat posed to Castle Woods by the still live planning application to build 72 dwellings in its place.
The visit of Alan Reid and Aileen Morton follows a visit to Cumberland Avenue at the end of August by Jackie Baillie MSP (Labour) and Councillor James Robb (SNP).
HCWG has also invited the three Conservative councillors for Helensburgh and Lomond to view the site and meet local people and is now awaiting their response.
This looks like a very savvy community group rightly putting politicians into a competitive situation.
It will be interesting – and telling – to see which gets the result.
I hope this comes back and bites the bum of Councillor Dance.
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I rather suspect a great many Liberal Democrat MPs will be felled like this come the next general election .
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When will Argyll and Bute Council take action to get this site cleared up and replanted? Will it be allowed to remain an eyesore indefinitely? As it’s still covered by a Tree Preservation Order and assigned as an Open Space Protection Area, it’s the council’s responsibility to bring the landowner to book and insist that the mess be cleared up & the site restored. This needs to be done very soon, so that we don’t miss another winter planting season. Local residents will be grateful to any politician who can get the council moving on this one, be they SNP, Labour, Lib Dem, Tory, independent or otherwise. So thanks Alan & Aileen for coming to take a look, as James Robb and Jackie Baillie have previously done.
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As one fed up resident who has overlooked the devastation of Cumberland Woods since end May/June last year, I appeal to the Council to follow up our pleas to insist on replanting by the ‘developers’ without further delay. We have already felt the effects of one winter without the protection of the trees and the sooner we get started the better!
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I feel greatly concerned that if the council is percieved as weak and ineffective at enforcing its policies and procedures as well as it’s legal responsibilities the way will be made open for other builders to take liberties and destroy woodland without consent. The council needs to take this matter very seriously and up their game to show that they are committed to protecting green spaces within the town boundaries.
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What a pity the councillors and politicians didn’t take more interest before the Cumberland Avenue woods and wildlife were destroyed forever. How can it take a year and a half for follow-up decisions to be made?
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