Campaigners fighting the proposed closure of Helensburgh's Royal Bank of Scotland say they're pleased at the success of a petition protesting against the plans.
Local residents who haven't yet signed the petition are being urged to do so soon in the hope of persuading the NatWest group to rethink its plan.
The banking group announced on April 17 that 18 RBS branches, Helensburgh among them, will shut within the next five months.
The Colquhoun Square branch is set to close its doors for the final time on September 25.
A petition by the Helensburgh Business Group and local Labour councillor Fiona Howard went live online last week.
It was officially launched by Helensburgh and Lomond's MSP, Jackie Baillie, in Colquhoun Square on Saturday.
All of Argyll and Bute's councillors have given their backing to the local protests.
READ MORE: Royal Bank of Scotland closure plans sparks furious response in Helensburgh
The cross-party nature of the campaign was underlined when fellow Helensburgh councillor Graham Hardie, a Liberal Democrat, joined Cllr Howard and Ms Baillie to help gather signatures from residents on Saturday.
Councillor Howard said: "The bottom line is that we won't stop fighting. The petition launched was great as we had a lot of people coming down just to sign. There were plenty of people having a rant about the situation too.
"The closure will be a big deal for the whole of the Helensburgh and Lomond community.
"This bank helps people who are living as far away as Arrochar. Now Royal Bank of Scotland wants them to travel to Dumbarton. That is absolutely not feasible."
As we reported earlier this week, the banking group has also lodged plans with Argyll and Bute Council to remove two ATMS, a night safe bezel and signage attached to the building.
A design access and heritage statement, which can be publicly viewed on the local authority's planning portal online, states that the work will not affect the condition of the building.
"We really need to get a lot more signatures from the community," Councillor Howard added.
"The petition won't be closing any time soon and I really encourage people to sign it.
"It will give us ammunition to show that people in Helensburgh are really angry at the decision.
"We need to have that proof at the next stage of the fight, which is to try and get a community banking hub in the town.
"The logical solution is a banking hub. The Royal Bank premises are the perfect place for it, but I can imagine they would want to sell it after the recent application."
If the RBS closure goes ahead it will be the third Helensburgh bank branch to be shut in the last five years, following the closure of the Santander and TSB branches in West and East Princes Streets respectively.
It will leave the Bank of Scotland as the only bank with a physical presence in Helensburgh - though the Lloyds Banking Group is still set on closing its other local branch, in Kilcreggan, in mid-August.
As this article was published more than 400 people had signed the online petition at change.org/p/stop-rbs-save-our-bank.
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