I FAIL to see how using the £21m Levelling Up windfall to actually lower the A78 back to its former level, constructing a ‘learning quarter’, whatever that is meant to mean, demolishing the eastern side of the Oak Mall and perhaps creating a further college campus will help the town?
Wouldn’t the demolishing of the east side of the Mall be what the owners have been crying out for for years? Will they (Mall owners) be receiving any of the Levelling Up money?
As for the ‘campus’ idea, wasn’t one constructed down by Custom House Quay but is now being rented out to all and sundry?
I fear this money will be swallowed up by councillors' vanity projects and perhaps Mall owners and very little actual benefit will be seen or gained by the people of Greenock.
As for the proposals to demolish half the Mall: surely that should be down to the owners? I would hope that any further re-development of the land would be overseen by council planners as to its usefulness and suitability to the townsfolk.
Making the town attractive to visitors etc. whilst demolishing half of a sadly underused and decidedly unsafe Mall seems counterintuitive to me.
What would the visitors come to see...how to eviscerate the beating heart of a once-thriving town while the councillors all give themselves a pat on the back?
Why attractive to visitors, why not attractive and functional to the people that actually live here?
Hardly what Levelling Up means I would have thought.
I just pray that Ferguson Marine have no part in this ‘super-duper’ project or we will be waiting til kingdom come before its fruition.
Bryan Wright
Greenock
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