Delivering for Balloch event: September 2016
The thing about planning that we are asked a fair bit is ‘when will the development happen?’ Last night our Delivering for Balloch event was all about updating on progress on the five priority projects identified in the Charrette workshops earlier this year.
To provide the update, we had staff from West Dunbartonshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, the National Park and Sustrans Scotland, who launched their Street Design project.
This project will develop a design for an improved “quality of place” within Balloch’s centre – it will make it feel safer, have more attractive places to spend time in or travel through, and make it easier for people of all ages and abilities to travel on foot and by bike to local facilities in the area.
To help them develop their designs, Sustrans are looking for your input and we would encourage everyone to get involved by leaving feedback using their online tool. The tool is really easy to use and allows you to add comments and ideas to an online map of the area. The data captured will help inform the design process, along with feedback collected at events. All comments are anonymous.
In terms of updates, the following are some of the headlines:
- West Riverside – Scottish Enterprise announced the day before that they had appointed a preferred developer who would be preparing a planning application for a tourism and leisure development. You can read the press release here.
- Balloch Castle – West Dunbartonshire Council has almost completed works to make the property wind and water tight. The next step is to undertake a feasibility review of potential new uses for the castle.
- Village and Station Square – West Dunbartonshire Council has agreed to commit £1.2 million towards the improvements that Sustrans are designing.
- Car parking – West Dunbartonshire Council has commissioned an independent car parking survey and has just received the draft report from the consultants. This survey was undertaken on multiple days in July and August and will inform the next steps in terms of future management.
It was a busy night with over 120 people coming along between 3pm and 8pm – a fantastic turn out!
Hopefully this provides a flavour of the event – watch this space for more updates!
Stuart Mearns – Head of Planning at Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
Delivering for Balloch event, 15th September