By Steve Warburton

How often do we bemoan the lack of coordination between land use planning and provision for public transport? Here at TAS, and for many of our clients, it often provokes nothing short of utter despair at times.

Well, let me take you off to the western edge of Inverclyde. Way back in 1951, an outfit specialising in office machinery called IBM opened a factory alongside the A78 just beyond the western fringes of Greenock in the delightfully named Spango Valley. Over time, the factory grew as IBM became the computer-producing megalith we all know and also inevitably, it progressively transferred its production overseas and finally left the site in September 2016, although it retains a presence in Greenock.

Transport provision adapted slowly. The railway got around to opening a halt on the Wemyss Bay line (named IBM) in as little as 27 years. The highway engineers took only slightly longer to turn the main A78 past the site into dual carriageway in the early 1980s, which also catered for heavy traffic to Inverkip Power Station, which has also since closed. In response to the almost totally derelict site and average patronage of two passengers per day, Scotrail withdrew its service at IBM in December 2018. In a vain effort to attract new tenants, the site was rather uninspiringly renamed ‘Valleypark’.

Spango Valley Currently

The main IBM office block and main entrance were close to bus stops on the A78 served by four buses an hour each way, two each of McGill’s and Stagecoach, but the dualling of the road turned pedestrian access to and from Greenock-bound bus stops into a ‘take your life in your hands and run’ manoeuvre, twice, interrupted by a spell in the narrow central reservation. (Try Google Streetview and search IBM Factory Stop ID 46823528 to see for yourself). Given its size, there were once probably ‘specials’ that ran into the site at works times but my local knowledge fails at that point.

So forward to December 2018 and the news that the site had been sold for redevelopment and in October of last year ‘Inverclyde Now’ reported that the new owners were none other than the Easedale brothers, owners of local bus company McGill’s[1].

The report included a map of a mixed use sustainable development including a residential development for 1,000 people with its own ‘village centre’. It also includes, so the story reported rather irresistibly, a “de-culverted and daylighted” Hole of Spango. Public transport is addressed by a proposed Park and Ride site at a properly functioning IBM halt. Knowing how long the railway takes to reinstate anything, good luck with that one. No apparent mention of buses, but maybe the owners have more interest in promoting the half hourly ‘Clyde Flyer’ to Glasgow than the Scotrail offering.

Spango Valley Development

But what a dream combination this is – site developer and bus operator in the same ownership. The site plan shows a nice through road east to west across the site with none of the sharp radius twists we have come to expect and detest in new developments. Can we take it then that bus provision is assumed from the outset? We wish it luck now that the full planning application has been submitted.

How nice it would be for new occupiers to be enticed by a free month’s ‘GoZone’ smartcard, promotional material or even an invitation to one of McGill’s’ tea dances! Is the idea of an entry by smartcard luxury waiting lounge too much of a step into fantasy?

Looked at the other way round, the presence of ‘Clyde Flyer’ – a thriving, quality operation by anyone’s measure – must surely be a selling point for the dwellings themselves. Twenty five or so miles to Glasgow, fight your way along the Port Road, then the M8, tackle city centre traffic and pay for all-day parking or £33.50 a week to be chauffeur driven almost from your door?

It’s perhaps a shame that there isn’t more of this. Bus operator as property developer sharing the spoils for long term mutual benefit. Or even working together. Even more of a shame that in many cases the two don’t even communicate. Worse still the feeling that developers not only don’t think seriously about bus provision but actively don’t want the nasty big things anywhere near.

[1] https://www.inverclydenow.com/news/local-news/easdale-brothers-plan-to-transform-spango-valley-into-sustainable-mixed-use-village-of-450-homes