Helensburgh's newly restored skate park could soon be ripped away as council officials plan a rushed bid to move it.

It is alleged Argyll and Bute Council will put in a planning application to move the popular skate park from the town's waterfront to Kidston Park.

Helensburgh Skatepark Project, which fought to return the facility to the pierhead site, revealed the proposal but said they had no involvement at all.

They also said the waterfront remained their preferred site.

But the council has just announced they are selling the property to Forrest Group to put a supermarket, understood to be the Co-op.

Bids for the waterfront were to include space for the skate park. But when council officials announced preferred bidder status to Forrest, they added an asterisk that they wanted to move the park to Kidston or Hermitage parks.

READ MORE: PICTURES: Helensburgh Skate Park reopens to young people

Argyll and Bute Council had to return the skate park to the waterfront as one of the planning conditions for the new leisure centre.

But just months after it re-opened and its daily use and popularity, it could be moved 1.2 miles away.

Officials are seeking to move it to the furthest point of the town - away from local schools and with limited transport access. It would make it less accessible to the young people who would use and benefit from the free sport facility, argue waterfront supporters.

The planned move was revealed at a packed Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) meeting on August 29 and strongly opposed there.

Jackie Hood, of Helensburgh Skatepark Project, in a message to the meeting said the application would be submitted in mid September.

She said Glasgow-based DB3 Architecture had carried out a feasibility study and were to conduct a decibel test of the current skate park on Friday.

She said: "Council representatives have been along to Unit 23 Skatepark recently to ask how much it would cost for them to relocate the equipment.

"Their intention is to secure planning permission to site the skate park on the grassy area to the left of the road as you approach Kidston car park, concrete the area and relocate the wooden ramps.

"Although I have been loosely kept up to date with progress, Helensburgh Skatepark Project is not involved in the planning application or any future relocation of the equipment.

"This is being driven entirely by the council.

"From previous communication, the council's stance has always been: if the skate park remains on the waterfront it must be restricted to 350 sq meters (ie half the size of what is there currently) with no run offs, seating, spectating area, etc.

"This is what the previous temporary planning permission was for. The area at Kidston would be roughly double with additional room for expansion and additions, although I do not have any definitive dimensions.

"These will only become public when the planning application is submitted."

Ms Hood said £80,000 allocated by the council has been used to pay for the planning application and, if approved, for the preparation of the ground and moving the current ramps.

Anything left over could go to the skate park project towards new equipment.

She said spending to date has now been £50,000 to tarmac the pierhead site, £40,000 to build and install the current temporary tamps, and £80,000 for a feasibility study and planning application and potential ground works.

But that would still only provide temporary ramps at Kidston.

Ms Hood concluded: "I anticipate massive bad feeling when the planning application is submitted so want to reiterate that the only involvement anyone on the skate park project has had in this is to give our opinion on preferred locations.

"These have always been one, the current location of the pierhead, two, Hermitage Park, three, Kidston Park.

"The skatepark project will still have to fund-raise for a permanent park unless more funds become available from the council.

"I have always said that the HSP would be happy to raise the funds as long as we had a suitable site with a long-term peppercorn lease to allow us to access substantial funding.

"However, I have to question if money has been used up to this point as well as it could have been."

Soon after skate park reopened, council officials blamed litter and damage to the public toilet pay stations on those using the facility. That was vocally disputed by users and advocates, who instead pointed to drunk adults along the seafront.

The pierhead skate park is currently the only free facility on the waterfront with both the leisure centre and toilets requiring money for access.

A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council said: "The previous skate park was compact and temporary in nature and this is what we were required to reinstate at the waterfront development.

"Therefore, any new facility at this location would be limited to the scale and nature of that previously approved under the original, temporary, planning permission.

"As part of ensuring the best location for a skatepark, and the ambition of the local skatepark group to enlarge the facility, the Helensburgh and Lomond Area Committee (December 12, 2023), agreed that officers should investigate further the option of developing a new skatepark at Kidston Park and also consider Hermitage Park as a secondary alternative.

"These investigations are ongoing and the findings will inform any planning application."