REGIONAL REPORT: DUNBARTONSHIRE
http://www.insider.co.uk March 2020 INSIDER 89O
N THE site of a former
fuel depot bombed in the
Second World War the
most ambitious economic
project in West Dunbartonshire is
slowly taking shape.
Work is inching forward on
transforming the brownfield site
near Old Kilpatrick to a Scottish
Marine Technology Park hosting
marine manufacturing and support
industries and up to 1,000 jobs.
The plan is the brainwave of
John MacSween, the managing
director of Malin Group, and his
senior colleagues. He says: “Since
we started Malin Fabrication about
seven years ago we’ve always been
looking for a base on the river. The
most economical way to ship stuff in
the sub-100-tonne range is to crane
it straight into a vessel that takes it
straight to sea.
“We wanted a site on the Clyde,
but brownfield land on the Clyde
with access to deep water channel is
not readily available. Most of it has
been built over and developed.
“The Old Kilpatrick site we’ddismissed previously but it came back
on to our radar and it was the right
time for the owners to sell. So we
spent about a year doing feasibility
studies to understand what we were
getting involved with in terms of the
remediation that would be required.”
The site’s history had left it with
quite a lot of oil in the ground so it
would involve a lot of remediation,preparing it for its planned new use.
MacSween says: “We decided it
was something that we would take
a punt on but we didn’t need all of
the 40 acres, we only needed about
five or six acres for our wee facility
but because of the remediation
requirements local planning required
it be sold as a single site, it couldn’t
be carved up. It had to be part ofa grander vision, so that’s how the
Scottish Marine Technology Park
was born.”
The idea is for a common facility
on the riverside that everyone in the
park could use.
“If you looked at other places
where this has worked whether in
Finland or over in Cove in Canada
or Adelaide in Australia, you create
this ecosystem of businesses that
are all doing similar work whether
competing or supporting each other.
These things work better as an
ecosystem rather than disparate parts
spread all over the place.”
The idea is for all site businesses
that require it to have access to the
deep-water jetty and 1,100 tonne
ship hoist on the Clyde that will
be one of the largest in the UK.
MacSween hopes that this will help
create “a home for businesses all with
a common view” which will remain
operating on the site rather than the
more transient business you get at
a port.
This is very long-term thinking,
with MacSween saying they are
not going to see a return for five or
10 years. But this is an absolutelyThe proposed extension will maximise
the stunning views of Loch Lomond
whilst respecting the architectural
integrity of the original house
Andy Roger, Cameron HouseFROM DEEP WATER TO
DANCING... PROJECTS
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By KEN SYMONin association within association with