To quote a famous Labour Party line: "It's a good day to bury bad news."

Right now, everyone is focused on the waterfront being sold to allow the probable move of the Co-op from Sinclair Street.

Opponents have already signed up more than one in 10 residents of Helensburgh within days - far more than the 83 people Argyll and Bute Council boasts of having consulted.

That is partly down to the information vacuum left by the council and developers.

It took two weeks for council officials to publish a Q&A online about the site, which still only contains one line of information about the winning bid that is set to transform the town's waterfront for decades to come.

The impact of the decision by council officers, backed by councillors, is far more consequential than a single sentence of detail.

READ MORE: Helensburgh has a pyramid of power over waterfront

But they have effectively said that's all the public will get, until a formal planning application is submitted.

The first planning bid seems likely to be moving the skate park out of sight to the edge of Helensburgh, away from those currently using it.

When youngsters struggle to get to it, that will allow the council to claim it isn't used enough and they don't have to fund it.

With the public already having to pay to use the toilets at the pier, the skate park was the only free thing on the seafront, other than the view.

As was said at last week's community council meeting, residents view Helensburgh as a "cash cow" for the council, where they provide the income that goes to benefit other parts of the local authority.

The sale of the waterfront is going to bring in about £1 million to the council. But that will go down once the infrastructure work required to make it possible is taken into account.

So what's the economic benefit? If it forces smaller shops on West Clyde Street to close, the council is putting a heavy bet on the economic benefits from 2007-era big-box retail.

And that was the backing for this plan, ignoring the fundamental change to shopping that has happened since a time before smart phones.

Could the real benefit be from the potentially empty land at the corner of Sinclair Street and East King once the Co-op moves? What will go there instead?

We don't know if that was part of the bid to the council, or if the council was planning two steps ahead.

And ultimately, with so much secrecy, residents and their representatives on the community council, are left to wonder what the game plan is?

Does the council have a board where they move businesses and facilities around like a game? There is a formal Masterplan for the waterfront, but maybe someone has their own?

In the information vacuum over the town's future, someone clearly knows more than the public. So each piece of information is a potential distraction from whatever those plans may be.

Residents, meanwhile, are expected to simply sit back and wait for planning applications, that we can be fairly sure will all be approved. And to cross their fingers that they bring in enough revenue to help the rest of Argyll and Bute.

With potentially big cuts to services required this year to balance the council's books, debating the use of a piece of land could just be a good way to bury bad news.