A RETAIL study for Helensburgh has mistakenly reported that a local toy shop is a branch of a Glasgow store which closed more than 20 years ago, community councillors have said.

Dr Peter Brown, acting convener of Helensburgh Community Council, addressed members of Argyll and Bute Council at a meeting regarding the development at Helensburgh Waterfront.

And having dug into a recently-commissioned retail study by Colliers, Dr Brown said community councillors had found that Val’s Toy Shop was reported to be linked to The Jolly Giant Toy Superstore in Glasgow.

The latter ceased trading in 2002, while the Helensburgh business - The Toy Shop on West Clyde Street - was founded in 2006 and is still in business today.

Dr Brown called for members of the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee to recognise the opinion that additional retail at the Waterfront would “adversely affect” existing shops in the town.

The discussion took place during public question time at the area committee’s meeting on Tuesday, March 12.

Dr Brown said: “Our primary concern with the Retail Study Update is that Colliers have significantly underestimated the existing retail floorspace in the town centre.

“Colliers said that they had taken the floorspace figure from an Experian Goad Category Report, and that the list of shops and their individual floorspaces ‘do not materially impact the conclusions of the retail impact assessment’. But they do, if the list of shops and floorspaces is wrong.

“We obtained the underlying Experian data yesterday. This data, supposedly specifically created for Helensburgh, said that Val’s Toy Shop on the front was part of The Jolly Giant Toy Superstore and therefore was a significant multiple retailer.

"Unbelievably, The Jolly Giant Toy Superstore went into receivership in 2002.

"Given this kind of hole in the data, it may come as no surprise to the committee that we can demonstrate definitively that the floorspace figure that Colliers have used for 2023 is too low, for both convenience and comparison shops.

“What that means is that their conclusion is wrong and, in fact, that any expansion of food (convenience) stores will close down some of our existing shops.”

Dr Brown also made reference to another retail study in Northern Ireland in 2022, by a company which was voted the UK’s Town Planning Consultancy of the Year in 2020.

He remarked that the study calculated capacity in a different way to Colliers, and that their approach showed that Helensburgh Town Centre will need 600 square metres less of comparison retail by 2033.

He added: “My underlying question is this – given the holes and inconsistencies in Colliers’ underlying data and resulting conclusions, will councillors accept that there is clear evidence that additional retail in Helensburgh’s town centre will adversely affect our existing shops?”

David Allan, the council’s estates and property development manager, said: “They [Colliers] have decades of experience in dealing with this type of study.

“For a town centre site, there is no requirement to do any sort of retail study. This is an additional area of work we have undertaken to give a bit of support and comfort.”

Ross McLaughlin, the council’s head of commercial services, added: “The underpinning principle of the Waterfront has been about missed use leisure with retail to stimulate footfall in the town centre.

“This is an additional layer of information. There is leakage to other towns outside Helensburgh for retail spending at the moment.”

Colliers has been contacted for comment.