Land for City Deal project in Bowling now under Council ownership
The Esso (ExxonMobil) polluted site, which West Dunbartonshire Council now owns, banks on to the River Clyde just north of Bowling Harbour in this picture.
Special report by Bill Heaney
A deal to transfer ownership of land at ExxonMobil’s former Esso site in Bowling to West Dunbartonshire Council has been completed.
According to the SNP council, the transfer marks a significant milestone for the £34million Glasgow City Region City Deal project, and will mean plans to transform the site by creating a major industrial and commercial development can now progress.
However, Cllr Jim Bollan of the Community Party, has condemned the deal, which has been shrouded in secrecy.
He told The Democrat: “The confidentiality agreement signed by officers kept all the financial and other key matters secret and away from myself.
“I can’t speak for other councillors, but we were given a guarantee all the information would be provided before a decision on transfer would be taken. This guarantee was never fulfilled.
“The Council consistently said WDC would not pick up any of the cost of remediation, but a recent report confirmed we would indeed need to remediate some land and pay the cost.
“Esso [Exxon] will think Christmas has come early. All toxic contaminated land transferred to WDC which would have cost them tens of £millions to treat and they have handed us a paltry £1m.
“Esso has a clause in the transfer agreement ensuring they can never be held responsible for any problems arising from the site, for all time.
“Esso has played the Council like a fiddle and is laughing all the way to the bank while the public purse will need to pay for the toxic consequences arising from this ground.
“The deal has now been signed and within a few days the main negotiator of this one sided deal takes early retirement.
“This officer and others knew all the arrangements including the financial details but councillors were kept in the dark.”
He added: “There are too many councillors on WDC who are prepared to sit and nod their heads at deals like this instead of questioning and challenging the system to be open and transparent.
“What happened to the mantra in Scotland that the polluter will pay? Does that not include multinational energy companies like Esso who made £13 billion in profit?”
The 150-acre site is currently undergoing extensive remediation to prepare it, and the Council will start work on the land when this is complete.
As part of the deal, the Council takes ownership of the whole site, running from Eastfield near Scotts Yard at Bowling Harbour, to Westfield and Sheepfold at Glasgow Road, Milton, without cost.
The Council will receive £1 million from ExxonMobil, which will most probably require to be offset against the projected total cost of the reclamation work, which is estimated to be in the region of £6 million but could well turn out to be double that.
None of this is made clear in the Council’s statement which was issued at lunchtime today because details have been kept secret from the press and public all the way through the negotiations.
Put simply, however, the Council appears to be spinning the deal as a major pre-election success for the SNP at national and local level while the possibility remains that the Exxon site will turn out to be a money pit for which local council taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.
The seemingly forever cash-strapped Council will have to find the cash for this on top of the many £millions the ongoing Covid-19 crisis is finally going to cost the community.
Cllr Jim Bollan and some pictures of Bowling, including the old tank farm and Esso terminal with Dumbarton Rock in the background.
Of the 150 acres the Council now own, 45 acres will be developable land, and it is proposed that a further two acres are used for the creation of a new road, which would provide an alternative route to the A82 Glasgow-Loch Lomondside route through West Dunbartonshire.
The deal comes three months after elected members in West Dunbartonshire approved officers’ plans to progress a commercial deal with ExxonMobil, one of the richest companies in the world and a member of the “dirty dozen” group, who have been named by climate change activists as the world’s worst polluters. Missives on the land were signed this week.
The Council say that all the land will be remediated by ExxonMobil to standards agreed by the Council’s Environmental Health team and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), with their strategy approved by Planning Committee last year. This process is expected to take two years.
Following successful remediation, the Council will undertake its own development works.
The transfer of ownership follows an application for Planning Permission in Principle for the project made on behalf of the Council last month.
It details proposals to locate office and industrial development in Eastfield, business in Centrefield and storage and distribution in the Westfield areas.
The application also describes plans for landscaping, open space, green corridors and public spaces as well as a new 1.95km link road with upgraded A82 and A814 access junctions alongside a railway underpass and overbridge.
A heritage area identified around Dunglass Castle and a protection zone is included in the application to ensure the listed structure and its setting are not compromised as the site develops and evolves.
Council officers are currently negotiating with surrounding landowners regarding the transfer of their land ownership to enable the wider development.
SNP councillor Iain McLaren and West Dunbartonshire Council leader Jonathan McColl.
Councillor Iain McLaren, Convener of Infrastructure, Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “This is a significant step forward for this project and I am pleased that it is continuing to progress.
“As our local economy re-starts, it is vital that projects like this one – which is expected to support up to 690 full time jobs – are prioritised.
“The transformation of this site will be one of the biggest and most important infrastructure improvements in West Dunbartonshire’s history and will bring about real change for the area.”
West Dunbartonshire Council Leader, Councillor Jonathan McColl added: “This is an exciting milestone for this project and an exciting time for West Dunbartonshire, with so much regeneration going on across the area.
“The proposals for this site will transform a derelict piece of land into an accessible commercial development, which will attract even more investment in our area; improve connectivity for people who are living here, working here or visiting the area, as well as supporting extra jobs for local people.
“Our development also provides a much-needed Milton bypass road, removing the bottleneck that too often causes significant access issues between Dumbarton and Clydebank.
“The progress of this deal states loudly that West Dunbartonshire is open for business and I look forward to seeing that continue over the coming months and years.”
The Glasgow City Region City Deal is an agreement between the UK Government, the Scottish Government and eight Local Authorities across Glasgow and the Clyde Valley.
Infrastructure Secretary Michael Matheson said: “It’s great to see such significant progress in delivering this transformative project, with the partnership between private and public sector working in a positive way to unlock a development that will result in sustainable and inclusive growth for the region.
“The Scottish Government is a full partner in the Glasgow City Region City Deal, contributing £500 million over 20 years to the Infrastructure Investment Fund. The investment in this project through the Deal will contribute to the region’s economic recovery by creating jobs, and providing the commercial infrastructure to support and attract businesses to the West Dunbartonshire area.”
A UK Government spokesman added: “This is great news for Bowling and West Dunbartonshire. Under the City Region Deal, the remediation of the former Exxon site will be undertaken in partnership with the private sector to allow a major commercial and industrial development that will support jobs and economic growth. These kinds of local initiatives, alongside the wider benefits of the UK City Region Deals to Scotland, will play an important part in steering the Scottish economy through the challenges of Covid-19 and beyond.”
The planned City Deal funding: The partnership was the first in Scotland to benefit from City Deal funding from both the UK and Scottish Governments.
The UK and Scottish Governments will each give the City Region £500 million in grant funding for infrastructure, and the local authorities will borrow a further £130 million.
There are 27 projects. The £1.13 billion infrastructure fund will deliver 21 projects focusing on improving connectivity and unlocking new sites across the region for commercial, housing and retail development.
A further three innovation projects have been supported by £18.7 million funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and three employment projects are funded to £24.6 million through contributions from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Member Authorities.
This whole story sounds like gobbledygook! It seems to lack substance, as it is based on guesswork and a clip from Jim Bollan. As details are thin on the ground, would it not have been better, to get more information prior to this list mash of guessing. I have good memories of Jim and of Bill Heaney, I also know that we need to be kept abreast of this development, however telling us what the pitfalls are if certain scenarios are or are not in place, muddies the water. Is that the intention?
I admit this is complicated. Calling it gobbledeygook is an exaggeration though. If I remember when I first heard about this and that the discussion were secret, I asked why. What did the Council have to hide? What were they ashamed of revealing to the public. I still have questions but they close the door in my face every time I ask anything about anything. It is this. How much money was paid by the Council to Exxon in connection with this deal? And how much of that money will Exxon now pay back to council taxpayers? It appears, although you admit that you don’t understand how it could have come to this, Charles – you are not alone in that – you have a feeling that you are not being told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Ask your local councillor to have a look at the reports and other papers. If he/she refuses then you have to ask the best question of all – why?
Interesting comments from the Scottish Government Minister talking about the positives of working between the private and public sector is welcome? Has he forgot so quickly about PPI and PPP the latter which continues to cost WDC £14m per year for 30 years for our new schools, before we buy one pencil for any child? The Tory Minister also lets the cat out the bag by stating “the remediation of the site will be undertaken in partnership with the private sector”. Not according to our officers, it won’t. We asked a basic question early in this fiasco, what is the current value of the site? That info is confidential, and you can’t have it. The land has been transferred to WDC without us having access to the ESSO remediation procurement document or the remediation timetable programme. Planning consent would not be given for houses on this site. Why? The Council approved the Thermal remediation method of treating the toxic material, in March 2019. Two weeks before the planning application was submitted around June 2020 this was changed to the Water Wash method which is a lot less costly.
Once again the public purse will subsidise rich shareholders in big business.
Changed to water wash? We’re supposed to believe Exxon had already embarked on this work. What method have they used, if any at all. It’s most probably whitewash, they hv an excess of that at the Council.