by Bill Heaney
A project that started at no cost to West Dunbartonshire Council has now soared to over £40 million, which will have to be met by hard-pressed local Council Tax payers.
The Labour Council – it’s only Labour because the SNP and others do not take on the responsibility – invested another £3 million in April this year.
Esso, the giant multinational oil company that owned the highly contaminated site, saw the Council coming and gifted them the land at no cost.
The heavily contaminated soil remains onsite at Milton, which is why no houses could be built on the land.
Community Party councillor Jim Bollan, pictured left, who was the only elected representative to vote against helping to finance the Balfour Beatty project from the outset, told The Dumbarton Democrat: “Major disruptions are likely in 2027 on the A82 as the white elephant vanity project continues.“There has been little or no economic benefit to West Dunbartonshire as a result of this development in terms of income or jobs.
“WDC agreed to various loans for this project, which, as most people know, is supposed to be creating a new industrial estate at Bowling.
“We’ll see in time how that takes off.”
Despite Council assurances that there would be little or no disruption to traffic on the main A82 Glasgow-Loch Lomondside road, that has been far from the case.
Numerous delays have plagued motorists, and there have been numerous accidents since the project began, including one at Dunglass when a policeman was knocked down in the chaos.
It was initially delayed for months because the Council could not agree with a local woman who kept ponies on the site.
Now, insiders at the Balfour Beatty site are preparing for the avalanche of complaints that are bound to come from drivers when they are faced with the inevitable lengthy delays that will follow stretches of the dual carriageway being closed completely.
One said: “This is a nightmare we can expect to wake up to in the not-too-distant future. West Dunbartonshire already have an elephant on their coat of arms.
“There should be a whole herd of white elephants on their flags and shields, given the number of disastrous decisions they have made, and the vast amounts of public money they have squandered.
“The media focus at the moment is on Nicola Sturgeon’s husband having ripped off £400,000 from the SNP, but there is more heading down the drain that is West Dunbartonshire.
“We can only hope that the newly elected Scottish Government – even though it is SNP – will move to inquire into this costly debacle.”
* At West Dunbartonshire Council, the secret service, aka communications department, refuses to speak to The Dumbarton Democrat, which seeks to reveal the truth in the news.
Artist’s impression of what the Exxon site at Bowling would look like when the work is finished.