Campaigners fear plans for Alexandria will turn town centre into a 'housing estate'
dailyrecord.co.ukDisappointed campaigners say long-awaited plans to develop an eyesore will leave Alexandria town centre “like a housing estate”.
Janice Ross of the Vale of Leven Trust has warned that history is repeating itself, after long-awaited plans for 25 new flats and a Lidl store were submitted to West Dunbartonshire Council’s planning department.
She feels the views of residents have been ignored as there are no additional shop units, leading to fears that the plans will drive more people away from the Main Street.The application is for a range of one and two-bedroom flats in a four-storey development, a new Lidl supermarket and car parking.Glenesk Homes will work with Lidl on the development if the plans are given the green light.However, Janice hopes that councillors will think long and hard about the long-term impact of the proposals, which she fears could lead to the Vale being left with another white elephant in years to come.She told the Lennox: “I’m concerned about it on a range of levels.“It feels like this is the ‘anything’s better than nothing’ approach, but actually I think we need to be careful not to sell ourselves to the devil.“The people who live here will be left with it for the next 45 years until it all falls down again.
It’s history repeating itself.“I understand people’s frustration that we have a town centre that looks awful. I get that.“But are we jumping out the frying pan into the fire here?“The buildings on Mitchell Way will be demolished anyway, the council have committed to that, but are we so desperate to get rid of them that we’ll take anything.
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