Malin Group gains planning consent for Phase One of 1000 job marine industry park on the Clyde

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 worldwide operation whose Clydeside roots go back to the Victorian era, wants to create a marine manufacturing hub at Old Kilpatrick – one of Scotland’s highest unemployment areas.Now 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.Phase One includes a large fabrication facility, consent for a deep-water jetty with a 1100Te ship hoist – the largest of its kind in Scotland – and a remediation strategy required to develop the former oil storage site.If fully realised, an economic impact study has found the SMTP will result in almost 1000 new jobs.The SMTP will be built on a long-derelict 47-acre site, formerly the Carless oil storage facility which suffered extensive damage during WW2.Unlike locations further up-river which are being developed for housing and leisure facilities, the site is land zoned for industrial use and has direct access to a deep-water channel via a 80-metre long deep-water quayside berth.MacSween said he believed the hub would be a “magnet” for marine engineering and technology organisations and “a centre of excellence” for the sector.Malin commissioned respected land development and infrastructure consultants Peter Brett Associates (PBA) to carry out an economic impact assessment of the development.The findings make happy reading for West Dunbartonshire, which has an unemployment rate of 4.9% compared with the Scottish average of 3.9%, and for the future of Clydeside industry.PBA envisages an economic impact that will create 986 jobs if the plan is fully realised and add £125.4m annually to West Dunbartonshire’s economy. The construction phase of the project will also see over 600 additional short-term jobs created.Bodies involved in a consultation were Scottish Canals, West Dunbartonshire Council, Crown Estates, Marine Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and SEPA.