Tradespeople in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire

Clydebank is a town of around 30,000 people on the north bank of the River Clyde, immediately west of Glasgow, with a proud industrial heritage centred on shipbuilding and engineering.

The town's identity is inseparable from John Brown's shipyard, where some of the world's most famous ocean liners were built - the Lusitania, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and QE2 all slid down the slipways here. The Titan Crane, a 150-foot cantilever crane preserved on the waterfront, is a monument to that era.

Clydebank suffered devastating damage during the Blitz of March 1941, when two nights of German bombing destroyed or damaged almost every building in the town and killed over 500 people. The town was rebuilt in the post-war decades and the Clydebank Blitz memorial stands as a reminder of the community's resilience.

Today Clydebank has a large retail centre at Clyde Shopping Centre, good rail links to Glasgow on the Dalmuir line and the Forth and Clyde Canal runs through the town, connecting to the towpath network that stretches across the central belt.

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West Dunbartonshire is a council area on the north bank of the River Clyde, stretching from the western edge of Glasgow at Clydebank through Dumbarton to the southern tip of Loch Lomond at Balloch.

The area has a proud industrial heritage shaped by shipbuilding, engineering and manufacturing. Clydebank was one of the great shipbuilding towns of the world - the Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth 2 were built in John Brown's shipyard - and the town bore devastating damage during the Clydebank Blitz of March 1941, one of the most destructive bombing raids on any British town during the Second World War.

Dumbarton, the administrative centre, sits at the confluence of the River Leven and the Clyde, overlooked by Dumbarton Rock and its ancient castle - a volcanic plug fortress that has been a stronghold since at least the fifth century and served as the capital of the medieval Kingdom of Strathclyde.

The Vale of Leven - Alexandria, Bonhill, Renton and Jamestown - runs north along the River Leven to Balloch, the gateway to Loch Lomond. The area is well connected by rail, with services from Balloch, Dumbarton and Clydebank reaching Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central in 30 minutes or less and the A82 providing the main road route to Loch Lomond and the Highlands.

The proximity to Loch Lomond and the Kilpatrick Hills gives West Dunbartonshire immediate access to open countryside and the national park, while the ongoing regeneration of Queens Quay in Clydebank is bringing new housing, healthcare and public spaces to the waterfront.