HELENSBURGH residents are being asked to turn out in force to show their opposition to plans for a supermarket on prime waterfront land.
Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) announced at their meeting last week that they would be holding a "celebration" event on the pierhead site later this month to share their views.
And crowdfunding will soon begin to prepare for legal challenges against Argyll and Bute Council over their plans.
Protest signs quickly appeared on the site after the local authority named Forrest Developments as the preferred bidder to take over the land. It would include a supermarket, believed to be the Co-op.
Since then, an online petition against the plans has gained more than 3,500 signatures, with paper copies pulling in another 450 out of the town's roughly 15,000 residents.
The council have been approached for comment.
The bidding process for the site was entirely secret and the decision taken behind closed doors. And when the Helensburgh and Lomond Area Committee met on the issue, no answers were given in public.
Instead, council officers offered responses individually in writing weeks later.
Community councillors slammed the ongoing secrecy and lack of public engagement on what will be the most central public spot in the town.
HCC's meeting, with 60 people attending, heard that a number of questions remain about the process undertaken by the council to reach their decision.
Dr Peter Brown, convener, said only 32 people gave feedback to the 2012 masterplan for the site, and just 83 were consulted about the waterfront bid process in June 2023.
He quoted Willie Miller Architects, who were commissioned by the council in 2002 to report back after the Scottish Government turned down a waterfront supermarket bid.
They stated such retail "could be no more eloquent testimony to the collapse of confidence and poverty of aspirations".
He said either the Co-op moving from Sinclair Street to the waterfront or another retailer there, "would only result in a net gain to Argyll and Bute Council of £53,000 per year", which did not justify the cost to the community.
Polly Jones, vice convener of HCC, encouraged residents to keep signing the petition to the "stop the supermarket". Everyone who has will be asked to write to their local councillors, meaning the politicians could be flooded with thousands of letters of objections.
Most councillors have either refused to offer a view because they might consider future planning applications or have welcomed the plans.
A public "celebration of the waterfront" would be held on Saturday, October 26 including music and community groups to show ownership of the site.
Cameron Foy, another member of HCC, told the meeting last week there were outstanding questions about the ownership of the waterfront. He said it was originally gifted to Helensburgh "burgh" in 1838 "for the community".
Ms Jones told the Advertiser after the meeting: "I think Helensburgh is doing itself really proud in supporting the pier regeneration, the Save the Tower campaign and opposition to a supermarket.
"Argyll and Bute Council are really failing its community in not supporting us to do that."
Forrest Developments have been approached for comment.
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