At a special meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) on Wednesday, councillors agreed to move forward with a planned relief road which will be built on the former Exxon site in Bowling.

This is part of a wider, more long-term £27.897 million re-development of the site, which WDC intends to buy from Exxon once the former petroleum plant has been de-contaminated.

The funding for the new relief road is part of a £1.13 billion City Deal investment in the Greater Glasgow region across eight participating local authorities, including West Dunbartonshire Council.

The UK Government and Scottish Government will each give the City Region £500 million in grant funding while the local authorities involved, including WDC, will borrow a further £130 million as part of a scheme that is expected to give the region an uplift of £2.2billion per year and unlock private sector investment of £3.3 billion.

The creation of 15,000 construction jobs during the construction period is also predicted as well as a further 28,000 permanent additional jobs once construction is complete.

At the meeting, council leader Martin Rooney put forward a motion to agree to the recommendations of the report which will see WDC move forward as part of the City Deal, accepting the funding and working together with the other participating local authorities.

In addition, a project plan and business case will now be put together for the council’s currently proposed project.

The council leader added: “The flagship proposal of a £1.13 billion infrastructure fund which will unlock development and regeneration sites; improve transport networks; improve public transport.

“It will also help to further growth in the life science sector; financial services; creative and media industries; and support our successful universities and research institutes “There will be additional business support for small and medium sized enterprises strengthening the private sector across the city region.

“It will also bring together existing support for thousands of unemployed young people and Employment Support Allowance claimants across the Clyde Valley.” Opposition leader Councillor Jonathon McColl asked if an amendment could be added to the motion to ensure councillors are regularly updated on how the City Deal is progressing to which the council leader agreed.

Dumbarton councillor George Black, however, questioned several aspects of the City Deal and said he was “uncomfortable” with, what he claimed, were “aspirational politics”. Cllr Black said: “How can we move forward without a proper project plan? Overall it’s clear the Exxon site is ‘pie in the sky’ thinking.

“We’re talking about a site we don’t own, a site we might not own in the future and a site that’s heavily contaminated.

“These are realistic aspirations, they’re not overblown, but the plan for a relief road has not been properly thought through — it just seems to be a bit ‘airy fairy’ to me.” However, Cllr McColl urged his colleague to weigh up the risk involved in not getting involved against the risk of being involved and the Bowling project falling through. He said: “There’s a lot of risks with this, we do agree on that.

“If the project falls through, then our only contribution will be something like £324,000 over a 20-year period. But that’s against the potential for the 84 per cent investment on offer and the hundreds if not thousands of commuter jobs that could be made available to us, surely that’s a risk worth taking?”