Take a long hard plook at yourself

THE people of Port Glasgow have hit back after their home received a notorious Carbuncle award which ended up in a public bin.

- BY PAUL ENGLISH

The Inverclyde community was incensed when architecture journal Urban Realm foisted its snobbish Plook on a Plinth gong on them last week.

Sharon Gemmell, manager of gardening charity Parklea Branching Out, said: "They said Port Glasgow wasn't taking advantage of the amazing waterfront. We operate right on that waterfront in Parklea Park.

"We've been able to transform an unsightly, underused gap site and have created a new building which operates a training cafe and gives a community access to that space on the waterfront."

Parklea's cafe overlooks tidal mudflats, a breeding site for seabirds. The building's windows were designed to give visitors a view of the Argyll mountains, lochs and Highland boundary fault line across the Clyde.