A major milestone has been reached in an ambitious plan to bring marine manufacturing and support industries back to the Upper Clyde.

Malin Group, a Glasgow-based engineering company with a world-wide operation, wants to create a marine manufacturing hub at Old Kilpatrick (www.malingroup.com).

Planning consent has been granted by West Dunbartonshire Council for Phase One of the Scottish Marine Technology Park
(SMTP) in the shadow of the Erskine Bridge, to include a large fabrication facility and a deep-water jetty with a ship hoist.

If the plans are fully realised, an economic impact study suggests that the SMTP will result in almost 1,000 new jobs.

Malin Group managing director John MacSween said: “We are excited to have planning permission for the first batch of buildings and quayside equipment.

"It is an important step on the journey, and it clearly demonstrates a willingness from the local authority to have industrial businesses, and the employment they bring with them, back on the Clyde riverside.

"We believe that the Clyde has much to offer to the wider marine manufacturing community, and we are committed to making land and marine facilities available to any companies that can make use of them on a fair and equitable basis.

"As a show of faith, we will be bringing our own fabrication division to the SMTP to kick-start the development.”

The SMTP will be built on a long-derelict 47-acre site — formerly the Carless oil storage facility — that suffered extensive damage during World War Two.

Unlike locations further up-river, which are being developed for housing and leisure facilities, the site is land zoned for industrial use, and it has direct access to a deep-water channel via an 80m-long deep-water quayside berth.