A NEW housing development at the east end of Helensburgh is likely to look very similar to the home builder's other products across Britain, the town's community council has been told.

Developer Bellway has been chosen as the new preferred bidder for a development of 145 homes on a site at Sawmill Field, off Cardross Road, east of Hermitage Academy.

As reported in last week's Advertiser, the company unveiled indicative designs for the new development at an event at the town's Commodore Hotel on September 18.

Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) was represented at that event by members Nigel Millar and Stewart Noble.

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Mr Noble told HCC members at their September meeting last week: "The Bellway product is the same everywhere – it's a run-of-the-mill design.

"It's attractive, but you could see the same style of house in Kent, Devon or Sutherland.

"We couldn't get too excited about it. If Bellway go ahead, I very, very much doubt we will be able to get them to think again about their design."

Mr Noble drew parallels with Persimmon's development on the former Dobbies garden centre site at the west end of Helensburgh, where HCC tried, without success, to persuade that firm to come up with a more distinctive design for its first homes in the town.

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However, he said that the drawings on display at the Commodore Hotel event were "by no means cast in stone" in terms of the detail of any future planning application.

And he praised Bellway for proposing that the number of homes on the site should not exceed the allocation in Argyll and Bute Council's local development plan.

"One aspect I thought was good was that the number of houses proposed – 145 – is the number in the local plan," he said.

"Given the number of houses on the site, however, the issue of safe access on to Cardross Road will have to be addressed in the planning application."

No formal planning application to develop the site has yet been lodged with Argyll and Bute Council; when an application is lodged, it will be publicised in the Advertiser, when members of the public will have a chance to comment on the proposals.

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