NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
Will West Dunbartonshire ever be an oil rich region? I ask this not because oil wells have been discovered, but because the black stuff abounds here on Clydeside.
Unfortunately it is not spouting from wells or oil rigs but seeping deep into the ground at the former Esso tank farm at Bowling.
Bo Ling, as it is sometimes known, was expected to form a hugely profitable alliance with the local Arabs, led by one Sheikmahandi aka Martin Rooney.
The Chinese and Saudis had laid the foundations for a new industrial era that would bring 1,000 jobs to West Dunbartonshire.
All the local council had to do was come up with an initial £6 million and our prayers for prosperity forevermore would be answered.
This proposal sounded to me and very few others like it had been put together by one of those pyramid salesmen.
If it sounded too good to be true then it was most surely that.
Who would ever have thought that a few rushy, contaminated fields not suitable enough to be converted to a football stadium for Dumbarton FC would be the catalyst for a booming economy for many years to come?
Anyway, it seems that the Bowling project has legs, not bowley legs but legs straight and strong enough to underpin an economic comeback to rival the change brought here by Singer and Denny and John Brown’s shipyard at the beginning of last century.
I would have been much happier had West Dunbartonshire Council and Glasgow City Council embraced the idea of the City Deal before the organisations involved were verging on bankruptcy.
After all how ever else would we be able to afford to foot the bill for such wonderful things.
The people of Dumbarton had been conned before when KOSMOID set themselves up in a factory on the Babcock and Wilcox site in Glasgow Road to manufacture gold from base metal.
Surprisingly that did not work either. Some people got rich from it, but they weren’t from Dumbarton.
Some Sons (and Daughters) of the Rock suddenly had much less money in their Dumbarton Building Society accounts than before.
So, what are we being offered here? Something that will give us more bang for Dumbuck?
West Dunbartonshire Council think this is a wonderful idea. Only one out of 22 of our elected representatives was prepared to stand up at the meeting in the old Burgh Hall and ask to be counted out of it.
Top of page. Esso sign, Dunglass Castle, the Bell Obelisk and the Exxon mobile site.
So, what exactly is it we are being offered?
A report to the Planning Committee on Wednesday morning will spell that out in detail.
The planning application site extends to approximately 56 hectares and is located on the northern bank of the River Clyde. It is bounded by the River Clyde, the Glasgow to Dumbarton and Helensburgh railway line and the A82 Trunk Road.
The national cycle route – NCN7 runs along the northern boundary of the site and cuts across the western part. The cycle path provides a local route to Bowling and Dumbarton as well as onto Glasgow and Balloch beyond (really?).
Two Category B listed buildings comprising Dunglass Castle and Obelisk Memorial to Henry Bell are also found within the site.
The Inner Clyde Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar Site (Wetlands of international important) and the Milton Burn Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) overlap and border
the site to the south, along the River Clyde foreshore.
The majority of the site comprises land of the former Dunglass Oil Terminal which was previously occupied by and currently remains under the ownership of Exxon Mobil and Esso Petroleum Company Limited.
This was historically used as a fuel distribution terminal from the 1920s until the 1990’s. While the majority of the site comprises the former oil terminal, there are other sections of land within the application site under separate ownership.
Now that worries me when I think of how long it took the Council to come to a deal with a woman who kept ponies on a tiny part of the site.
The application site also extends beyond the former oil terminal to include surrounding, existing road infrastructure. The former terminal has been vacant and unused since decommission and clearance was completed in 2001.
Other land subject to the application includes fields and strips of land under private ownership and the Council is progressing the purchase of the whole application site.
An extensive programme of remediation – sucking the pollution out of the ground – of parts of the former oil terminal site was granted planning permission in 2019. This comprises of works for areas known as Centerfield, Garden, Northfield and Westfield.
A further planning permission was granted in December 2020 for an alternative revetment solution along the Centrefield frontage. The Eastfield area of the site has previously been remediated in 2014.
Esso and EXXON Mobil (two of the richest companies in the world) are currently undertaking the remediation works. It is currently expected that this work will be concluded by March 2024 although there is a subsequent monitoring period thereafter.
In December 2020, planning permission in principle was approved for the re-development of the site comprising a mixed use development through a masterplan approach consisting of:
• Up to 44,450m2 of commercial and industrial development comprising a
mix of storage, distribution, industrial, business and office space;
• a new spine road with associated drainage and lighting infrastructure;
• Upgrades to the public road network;
• A new junction on the A82 at Dumbuck with closure of the existing
junction;
• A remodelled junction on A82 at Dunglass;
• An enhanced routing of a section of the National Cycle Network Route 7;
• A new underbridge of the Glasgow-Dumbarton Railway at the western
access to the site;
• A new railway overbridge at the eastern access to the site;
• Flood mitigation works;
• Site drainage works;
• Landscaping, green corridors and green open space;
• Environmental mitigation works;
• Establishment of platforms for development across the site.
In January 2024, planning permission was approved by Planning Committee. This addresses the details relating to the road infrastructure, development platforms and associated works and details.
The redevelopment of the site forms part of the Council’s City Deal project. The development will provide a platform for major industrial and commercial development whilst, at the same time, providing road and infrastructure improvements to relieve pressure and provide an alternative route to the A82 through Milton.
The acceptability of the re-development of the site is already established, with the granting of planning permission in principle, but if you want – or need – to know more about it then the whole document, plans and all are available at the Council offices.
Only two question from me at the moment are if the Council is taking all this contaminated soil away from Bowling then where precisely are they putting it?
And how much and how are are the ordinary citizens going to have to pay for all this in the end?