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.
West Dunbartonshire Councillor Martin Rooney 