BIN lorries serving Helensburgh should not be asked to go on the motorway to Linwood to dispose of rubbish, a councillor has said.
Argyll and Bute Council scrapped plans for a waste transfer station for the town in March 2025 after deciding that it was not value for money.
But Councillor Maurice Corry (Conservative, Lomond North) told a council official it was “crazy” that vehicles were being sent across the Erskine Bridge to Linwood for disposal.
The discussion took place at a meeting of the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee on Tuesday, September 8.
Cllr Corry said: “We have big bin lorries going to Linwood, and to me that is crazy, because they are not designed to go on motorways.
“We are trustees of the capital spend on these vehicles, and I believe they are being driven into the ground. We have a phenomenal amount of delays on collections.
“If whoever wrote the consultation said it would be better to have the trucks do it by going to Linwood then that is crazy.
“I see them every day tearing up and down, saying Argyll and Bute Council. They are not for that; they are made for local delivery and collection, and we are not tying this together. They go wrong and residents do not get their bins emptied.
“It is wasting good capital money to the council and I cannot for the life of me think how that review was done and came up with the result it did.”
Mark Calder, the council’s project manager, responded: “There was a report about a potential Helensburgh waste transfer station which went to the environment, development and infrastructure committee last year.
“£3 million had been set aside for a new transfer station and there was a significant amount of work put into that.
“Before committing the amount of public money, there was a further review of the business case and waste disposal options, because in terms of circumstances originally leading to the project, it was felt there was better available than had been predicted.
“The review said it was not the solution, so we recommended that it should not proceed.”
Cllr Corry then said: “I am well aware of the report, but it is to be fit for purpose, and the vehicles asked to go on that road are not.”
