Building work on a new residential care home in Dumbarton can’t start until a site contamination report has been approved by the council.

Planning permission has been given for Langcraigs residential home on Gooseholm Road to be demolished to make way for a new single storey care home with landscaped grounds and a car park.

The care home is located on the former site of a hospital, so due to this, no work can start until a detailed report about any possible contamination has been approved by the council’s planning authority.

A report from Mark Walsh in the council's environmental health department, said: “Our records show the site as a former hospital and as such I would comment as follows.

“No development, other than investigative works, shall commence on site until such time as a detailed report on the nature and extent of any contamination of the site has been submitted to and approved in writing by the planning authority.”

The report will have to identify the extent, scale and nature of contamination on the site, even if it doesn’t come from there.

It will also need to assess potential risks to human health, buildings, crops, livestock, pets, woodland, ground and surface water, ecological systems, archaeological sites, ancient monuments and service lines and pipes.

One resident also has concerns about three trees on the grounds because branches have fallen off them and they shadow her home.

Linda Liddell said: “I am concerned about the trees that overlook and shadow my home, and that due to the height of them, this will affect my house insurance should anything happen.”

She says large branches have fallen off the trees in recent high winds and she would like the top of the trees to be cut off or for them to be taken away completely.

The car park will have a capacity for 25 cars.