COMPULSORY purchase orders still may not be needed to complete the long-awaited, and long-delayed, cycle path linking Helensburgh and Dumbarton, according to a local authority official.

Colin Young, strategic transportation delivery officer with Argyll and Bute Council, told councillors on Tuesday that a compulsory purchase order (CPO) had been factored in to the timetable for the project.

But Mr Young said setting aside the time needed to complete a CPO was only a contingency plan in order to set a timescale, and no decision has yet been made on whether to proceed on that basis.

Helensburgh and Lomond South SNP councillor Math Campbell-Sturgess expressed concern at how long the process could take if it did happen.

The debate took place at a meeting of the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee on Tuesday, June 14.

Councillor Campbell-Sturgess said: “I know it is about two and a half years. Is there any scope to shorten that part, or just get the ball rolling, rather than waiting?

“If we have to wait, then it will take another two years to build the path, so is there any way to start the process pre-emptively?

"I think this is the biggest roadblock.”

Mr Young replied: “There has not been a decision to go for that. There was a CPO process in 2015 relating to an old route, which has since been discarded and was never progressed.

“The reason a CPO has been put into the programme is simply to attach a timescale to it. If I had left it at 'land negotiations', they are open-ended and I could not put a definitive timescale on it.

“The CPO timescale is effectively a worst case scenario. If members were minded to apply for a CPO, and it was opposed by one or more land owners, it could take two and a half years to get through.

“If not, it could be nine months to a year; potentially quicker if owners went for a fully-negotiated settlement.

“But on the question about whether it could be expedited, not particularly. It is a legal process and it could only happen faster if people do not oppose it.

“The challenge of a CPO is that you have to identify the land as required right from the start of it. You can take land out, so if one owner agrees, you would simply take them out.

“However, once you start the CPO you are locked into the land you identify, and also have to demonstrate that you are not taking any more land.

“You have to show that the public good outweighs the owners’ right to their land. We need to complete the design process and identify exactly what land is needed before any CPO process starts.”

Funding for the route was first pledged by the then Scottish Executive in 2001; the current project timetable says the path isn't likely to be complete until the spring of 2028.