The examination report into Glasgow City Council's proposed City Development Plan, by The Scottish Government Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals Reporter, has been published this week. Govan Graving Docks was listed in the development plan as Housing Proposal H015. This identified the site for 700 owner occupied homes and 100 affordable homes. http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=19338&p=0 (Page 15) Representations were made to the City Development Plan consultation in 2014 calling for Housing Proposal H015 to be deleted from the proposed plan. The Scottish Government Reporter has now recommended that no modifications be made to this proposal. Thus the City Development Plan to allocate Govan Graving Docks as part of the city's housing land stock still stands at this time. However to build 800 homes on the site would likely be impossible without filling in the dry docks and the basin. To give some context the North Kelvin Meadow site in the West End (Housing Proposal H023), which is proposed for housing by the same developers as Govan Graving Docks, has been recommended for deletion from the proposed plan. The reporter had acknowledged the campaign to save the North Kelvin Meadow in their report as well as an associated petition. However the reporter made no mention or acknowledgment of the graving docks campaign or the petition - which now has more than 7,300 signatures. This is despite the Clyde Docks Preservation Initiative having put forward a concise outline proposal for a maritime heritage park. Thus how much confidence can we have in the process by which the City Development Plan is being taken forward? However the reporter’s conclusions have acknowledged the barriers that exist to planning consent for the graving docks given the A-listed status of the site and it significance in terms of the historic environment. http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=115843&T=25 Govan Graving Docks is on page 281 of the report. The case for saving the graving docks as a maritime/heritage park has strengthened remarkably and the campaign and maritime park proposal have become more formally organised since the City Development Plan was open for public comment. The priority now is to ensure there is no attempt to fast-track a planning application for housing and to ensure that any application that is submitted is called in by the Scottish Government. Whatever happens with the graving docks Glasgow will have to live with it for a long time. If the last major piece of our shipbuilding and maritime heritage is lost to yet another housing development then we’ll never get it back.