MONTROSE'S Curlie Shelter could soon be removed if the recommendation to take it down is approved by Angus councillors this week.
After 10 months of discussion and consultation, the four Montrose councillors have decided to recommend the removal of the shelter.
Angus Council's neighbourhood services committee will make a final decision on Thursday, on whether to agree or d
isagree with the councillors' advice.
The debate over the shelter began in April when neighbours of the Curlie Park urged the council to tear it down as it was being used by delinquent youths as a den for drink and drug use.
After consultation with the neighbours, Montrose Community Council, Montrose Together and local police, the four town councillors met to make a decision. But as the shelter is a common good asset, any decision on its future has to be approved by the local authority.
Councillor Paul Valentine said: "It was being used by under-age drinkers and was getting vandalised – the cost of repairing it was getting prohibitive so we decided to just remove it."
The report by the director of neighbourhood services, Ron Ashton, which goes before the committee on Thursday, states: "The seating within the shelter has been vandalised and the exterior walls and shelter are covered in graffiti, the entire structure requires to be painted and the gutters, down pipes and roof require attention."
Although the shelter has been recommended for removal, it has also been suggested that the grass is reinstated and a galvanised steel seat and base is installed.
The total cost of removal and the installation of new seating is £3,300, which would come from the Montrose Common Good fund.
During the consultation, Montrose Community Council voted by majority that it would like to leave the shelter.
Chair of the community council, Joan Stott, said she thought the situation should be monitored to see if the problem still existed, as the presence of Tayside Police's Community Task Force in the town for three months late last year may have improved the situation.
Mrs Stott said: "I personally, and the majority of the community council, wouldn't like to see it knocked down. I don't see the point in that at all.
"Sadly a few nights there is some trouble and that is very sad, but I think the goodness of it outweighs the bad bits."
One of the biggest critics of the Curlie Park shelter, nearby neighbour Denis Rice, reiterated his hope that the structure would be demolished in October, when residents were still awaiting a decision by the councillors.
He said that the shelter was ugly for Montrose and thought it should be knocked down as it was "a blot on the landscape".
