One Thousand New Social Rented Homes For WDC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strong and brave decisions taken by Labour in June 2012 to retain and invest massively have improved all our houses and allowed the first Council Houses to be built by this council.

Significant investment is being made in affordable and private housing across Dumbarton and the Vale.

The Council has built 121 new homes for social rent since 2013 – the first in West Dunbartonshire in a generation. In addition, a further £19.8m is committed to the new build programme over the next five years.

The Council has also formed a strategic housing partnership with Wheatley Group, and a number of partnerships with local housing associations which will see over 1,000 new social homes built over 10 years.

This pioneering arrangement helps to ensure there is the right mix of housing throughout the area to meet the needs of West Dunbartonshire residents.

A number of other sites have also been identified for both private and social development, and these will be outlined when the updated Strategic Housing Investment Plan is presented to Councillors in November.

Councillor David McBride, Convener of Housing and Communities, said:

“The housing situation across Dumbarton and the Vale is extremely positive.

Unprecedented levels of house building have been carried out over the last few years and are set to continue.

In Westcliff, the houses in Talisman Ave will be demolished and there will be around 50 new, modern homes built which will all meet the West Dunbartonshire design standard – meaning they will be more energy efficient.   

This design standard has been shortlisted for a national award and WDC is the first Council in Scotland to introduce the silver standard. 

In Bellsmyre too, we took the opportunity to demolish the low demand flats and will be developing around 100 new replacement homes in the area. 

The flats which required to be demolished in Bellsmyre, have not added to the cost of the School as they required demolition no matter what was going to be built on the site. 

However as the site will host the new OLSP site the site of the former Aitkenbar School has been transferred to the HRA account so further 100 social housing units can be built. 

Our partnership with Wheatley Group, (the first Council in Scotland to enter into a strategic housing partnership) is going from strength to strength and it’s also pleasing to see local housing associations carrying out significant capital investment programmes in the area.

As well as all the new homes which are being built across the area, the Council has invested more money than ever before on improving our current homes. 

Our £81m project upgraded more than 9,200 homes to meet the national housing standard, improving the lives of thousands of tenants by ensuring their homes are warm, dry and free from serious disrepair.

We are making real progress on the Council’s waiting list too, which has dropped by almost 50% in the last six years.

Even now, the majority of those on the waiting list are already Council tenants awaiting a move to another property.

High waiting lists are an issue faced by Councils across Scotland as a result of the Right to Buy scheme introduced by the Thatcher Government.

That’s why I’m pleased this scheme is now at an end and we are taking the necessary steps to reverse the problems caused by this policy.

The Council is committed to improving local housing and we have certainly made significant strides to do so.

We will continue to work hard with our tenants and residents to ensure that our available housing meets their demands and needs, whilst developing stronger, safer communities.”

 

Council developments (completed)

• Miller Road, Haldane – 15
• Central Bellsmyre – 36
• Hillstreet Square, Brucehill – 37
• Granville Street, Clydebank – 33

Registered Social Landlords (completed)

• Cube HA – Scholars, Clydebank – 33
• Cube HA – Beardmore Place – 55
• Dunbritton HA – Turnberry Place – 13
• Bield HA – Glenfinnan Gardens, Dumbarton – 33

 

WDC/Wheatley Strategic Partnership (planned)

• Carrick Terrace, Dumbarton – 31
• Bonhill Primary School – 44
• Dumbain Road, Balloch – 26
• Stirling Road (as part of a private development) – 8
• Westcliff – around 50
• Auld Street, Clydebank – 24
• Former St Andrew’s High – 100

 

Registered social landlords (planned)

• Caledonia Housing Association, in partnership with Dunbritton Housing Association and Cordale Housing Association – 55 in Central Alexandria
• Caledonia Housing Association – 31 in Renton
• Dunbritton Housing Association – 100 at Dumbarton Harbour
• Link Housing Association – Dalmuir

 

Leaders Column Lennox Herald July 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a busy few weeks, with lots of activity going on across West Dunbartonshire.

I was delighted to hear the news that the Council has been successful in attracting a £2.8 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for our £3 .7m Levengrove Park Restoration project.

This park is already a fantastic, well-used public space and the work which is planned will help to enhance it even more.

The new café and pavilion will be a welcome addition, and restoring many of the historic features will attract even more visitors to our area.

 

We are also investing £1.65m into Posties Park in Dumbarton for a community sports facility, centre around athletics.

This significant investment in one of the area’s favourite parks will also be complemented by our plans to create three new play areas in Haldane, New Bonhill and Overburn Crescent, Dumbarton,

Other capital projects across the area are progressing well, with the steelwork at the new Dumbarton Care Home now complete and our school developments on track.

Just next month the new primary school campus in Bellsmyre will open its doors, providing a modern, fit-for-purpose facility which will meet the needs of our pupils.

The co-location of Aitkenbar and St Peter’s primaries, along with new nursery provision within the same facility, will ensure that these young people have the right teaching environment to help them to succeed.

These pupils are at the start of their school journey, but I was delighted to recently have the opportunity to attend the Vale of Leven Academy senior awards event.

I am always so impressed with the fantastic achievements of our pupils and it was great to have the chance to hear some of the success stories from throughout the year.

Another awards event that I had the pleasure of being invited to was the Council’s Amazing Things scheme which recognises pupils’ achievements in eight different categories.

Now in their fifth year, the standard of the award winners just keeps getting better, which goes hand-in-hand with the increased attainment levels we are seeing across the area.

The Loch Lomond Highland Games were on Saturday and as always it was an excellent event. Every year, people travel from far and wide to enjoy all the competitions on show so I hope everyone who went along enjoyed themselves.

Now all attention turns to the biggest event in the West Dunbartonshire calendar – the Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Levengrove Park on 30 July.

It’s spectacular seeing all the pipe bands performing in the shadow of the Rock, so if you’ve never been along I would highly recommend it. Let’s hope the sun shines and we can attract another record-breaking crowd.

 

Working4U Update July 2016

 

 

 

 

 

The West Dunbartonshire Council Working4U service brings together the Employability Service, Advice Service and Community Learning and Development service.

It was established to improve the quality of lives of West Dunbartonshire residents by assisting them to overcome barriers to social and economic inclusion.

The revised Working4U structure contains 62 (FTE) posts and has a significantly reduced management team in place with one manager, two coordinators and eight team leaders.

The integrated service is built around supporting people with debt issues and maximise income, to support them to address skills deficits, and to address issues that prevent them from accessing employment and training opportunities.

This represents a shift to a more integrated support service that ensures joined up access for residents, avoids duplication of effort, and secures better outcomes.

The approach is consistent with the Council’s aim of achieving efficiencies by focusing efforts on maintaining ‘frontline’ positive outcomes and at the same time achieving necessary savings. The new Working4U service was expected to contribute towards these efficiency savings by reducing expenditure over a two-year period to June 2016.

The changes introduced over the past two years reflected areas where service demands are already experiencing change.

For example, within W4U money in 2013-14 the service represented at 405 appeals.  In 2015-16 this number reduced by 70% to 125.  In the first quarter of 2016-17 there were 27 appeals and this lower figure of appeals is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future.

However, some new areas of work have emerged to replace the appeal volume including “mandatory reconsideration”, but the technical and resource requirements of this work is lower than with previous appeals.