EXTRA cash is set to be spent on carrying out improvements to Helensburgh pier – though the money will fall far short of the long-term fix many in the town are hoping for.

Writing in the August 5 print edition of the Advertiser, Helensburgh Central councillor Gary Mulvaney – Argyll and Bute Council’s depute leader – reveals that he and his colleagues will be asked next week to back spending £163,000 on the lighting and surface of the stone section of the pier.

More detail on the proposed work is expected to be revealed in a report, due out today, for a meeting of the authority’s policy and resources committee on Thursday, August 12.

READ MORE: Plans for Helensburgh pier repairs get the fgreen light (from July 2020)

It's understood that the money is part of a sum of £561,000 as yet unallocated from Argyll and Bute’s share of the Scottish Government’s ‘place based investment programme’ for 2021-22.

The council received £821,000 from the programme for the current financial year but has already committed £260,000 of the cash to projects in Rothesay and Lochgilphead as well as an Argyll and Bute-wide programme to help small shop owners improve the frontages of their premises.

The pier has been closed to all marine traffic since October 2018 due to the deterioration condition of the wooden section at the far end of the structure.

Councillors agreed in June 2019 that the authority should not pursue “high cost” options for the repair of the pier in view of the likely low return, with the paddle steamer Waverley having been the only vessel to regularly use the facility in recent years – though officers did decide that same month to allocate £85,000 towards pedestrian access enhancements.

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