A CONCERT and art exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the Clydebank Blitz will still go ahead, councillors have been told.

Commemorations of the attacks in March 1941 were largely cancelled earlier this year because of Covid restrictions, with events restricted to small, unpublicised ceremonies at Dalnottar Cemetery and the Polish war memorial opposite the Town Hall.

Members of the cultural committee at West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) heard this week that a concert with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, will still go ahead, though a date for the event has yet to be determined.

The planned concert has already received funding of £10,000 from Creative Scotland.

The RSNO held an online premiere in March of a specially-commissioned orchestral work composed to mark the anniversary and honour those who died in the Luftwaffe raids.

And the cultural committee agreed on Monday to ask local artist Tom McKendrick to recreate his acclaimed art exhibition on the subject at Clydebank Town Hall.

Chairman Bailie Denis Agnew said: “I am delighted the RSNO concert will proceed and that Creative Scotland has given us that award. 

“I do believe that we should ask officers to approach Tom McKendrick and ask him to recreate his Blitz exhibition in the garden gallery in the town hall which is a perfect location for it.”

The committee also heard that work is continuing on the production of commemorative medals which will be presented to various organisations in recognition of the support they provided to the people of Clydebank during and after the Blitz.

A civic reception will be held in Clydebank Town Hall in March 2022 to present them.

Monday's meeting was also given a progress report on the proposed 'friendship agreement' between Clydebank and Letterkenny, in County Donegal, and on a proposed partnership with the Polish city of Gdynia.