But to thousands of local people it’s a matter for derision and a target for bitter criticism fuelled by the way the Council have become foolishly embroiled in a heated debate over budget cuts.
Abandoning grass cutting in public spaces and the installation of “Atlas” concrete balls along Station Road in Dumbarton set the ball rolling.
The failure to remove wrecks from the River Leven while spending a fortune on revamping the quayside provided more fuel for the fire.
Introducing an area-wide parking ban without wardens or staff to administer it; falling 750 applications behind with blue badge parking for disabled people; their imponderable position on planning permission for Flamingo Land at Balloch; the shambles over the introduction of new bin rotas; the charges hanging over the Council of victimisation and bullying their staff; an attempt to gag a local media outlet; the sacking of a GP in the middle of the Covid epidemic; a refusal by the Health and Social Care Committee even to look at a petition from the public to reinstate him.
All this and more and more including allegations that senior officials who had not acquitted themselves well had left the scene with notorious “golden handshakes”.
Now the scunnered public have been left with this latest scandal in embryo – the “big, green lavvy” which is under construction on the site of an old public convenience as part of an £8.5 million and counting regeneration and refurbishment of Glencairn House in the High Street.
The council would have us believe that this is to be a children’s library, but it’s right next door to premises occupied by services for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
The public cannot make head not tail of what is going on here.
Our once respected town has been brought to its knees by the incompetence of the highly paid councillors and chief officers, whose performance in office rates no more than three out of ten.
Here’s what some members of the public have to say about the Big Green Lavvy on the platform naively provided for them by the Council itself:
The complaints were mild at first, such as this one – Carol Graham wrote: “Would look far nicer clad in a different tile more in keeping with the existing building, or just in brickwork, looks completely out of place with the green tiles.”
John Hollern, brief but still critical: “It’s an eysore.”
David Logan: “Someone needs sacked for approving these two utter eyesores. They look a cross between a wigwam and a Victorian public lavvy.”
Linda Henderson: “What’s with the green tiles, they look like an old toilet block.”
One woman said she loved the tiles while another said: “They look like the old swimming pool tiles from the Playdrome.”
Claire MacDonald agreed – “I think they look like old 1930s tenement close tiles.”
May Lennox-Milton asked: “So what was wrong with library where it is ? Has its own parking , I hope the building won’t be left to rot , like the Denny house.
“Money could have been better spent on the eyesore of High Street … long empty shops rotting inside and out , (old Paige ladies store has lain empty since Hospice shop closed; must be infested with rats … trees growing out of roofs etc , just saying , and wondering who decides where the money get spent?”
Theresa Marie Toward – “Looks ridiculous.”
The councillors decide where the money gets spent. Their election leaflets tell the public to vote for them because they are the best persons for the job. They have no one to blame but themselves. The buck stops with them. Ed
As ever there was at least one person who disagreed.
Sharon McLeish wrote: “I love it…great that the old library gifted by Andrew Carnegie is being re-purposed and fantastic the historical Glencairn House has been restored and will be used as a focus point for our town in the centre of the high street. I think the tiles and their colour make it look a bit like a painting.”
She maintained: “The funding ring fenced for this could only be spent on this project. That’s the way central government and grant funding works.
“This will bring much needed footfall and tourism into our town centre and hopefully kickstart a regeneration of the high street.
“What we also need is for non present landlords to look after their buildings and tenants and help support the current businesses in the high street by buying from them!
“The town only owns this one property in the high street and the town centre, which was recently bought back and is going to be redesigned and redeveloped. The rest are privately owned and rented out.
“The townspeople need to do their bit.. but will they?”
* None of these assertions for and against have been checked for veracity. None of them is defamatory. But at least what The Democrat has done here is provide a platform for people to have their say, unlike West Dunbartonshire Council, who have banned us from speaking to them. Editor