LABOUR councillors were jeered last night after approving a plan for
Cardwell Bay, Gourock.
Berkshire developer Mr Mike Stone was granted planning permission in
principle to fill in part of the bay to build a marina with 300 berths,
a 100-bed hotel, and 150 houses, some three storeys high.
The approval, by seven votes to four, ended residents' three-year
fight to block the plan.
Gourocks's three Liberal Democrat councillors were outvoted by the
Labour members from other parts of Inverclyde district.
The meeting had to be moved into the main hall in the council
headquarters after 500 objectors arrived to fill the public benches.
Gourock Councillor Ross Finnie said the proposals would destroy the
foreshore and deny public access to the only remaining urban beach in
Inverclyde.
''We want Gourock regenerated and the bay improved, but there is a
better plan,'' he said.
The Labour leader of the council, Councillor Harry Mulholland, was
jeered and booed when he said the plan was a ''wonderful opportunity and
must be grasped''.
The director of planning, Mr Tom Ridding, recommended the plan. He
said the council could keep control of the development.
After the meeting, residents queued up to thank Councillor Finnie for
fighting the plan. He said: ''The full council will rubber-stamp
tonight's decision on Thursday and we must admit defeat.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article