Stop the Supermarket - Save our Waterfront

Help us mount a legal challenge to Argyll and Bute Council’s supermarket decision

Update 12th June 2025:

On behalf of Helensburgh Community Council, thank you very much for contributing to our Stop the Supermarket crowdfunder last autumn. With your help, we raised enough funds to begin a legal challenge to stop Argyll and Bute Council’s plans to develop a supermarket on Helensburgh’s special waterfront – a decision that goes against the views of at least 5000 people across Helensburgh and the surrounding areas.

We have reached the next significant stage, and we need your help again.

On 4th July, our judicial review into Argyll and Bute Council’s plans to develop a supermarket on the waterfront will be heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

We have saved money by representing ourselves in the early legal stages, and sought out the most affordable legal support we can. Now we need to fundraise for court fees and a contribution to the legal fees. We estimate this could be as much as £30,000, on top of the £8,670 that we previously raised.

If the judicial review is successful, we expect Argyll and Bute Council will have to re-run the process to choose the plans for the waterfront, including a genuine public consultation. This could stop the supermarket development in its tracks.

We have therefore set a new crowdfunding target of £38,670 and would ask, if you feel you are able, to contribute to our campaign?

We know this is an expensive process and, at a time when money is tight, we know this is a big ask. If you have friends or family from the area who have moved away or enjoy visiting please forward this on to them as well; every little bit helps.

If you have any questions about this, or can help in any other way, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Our original ask, from October 2024:

Helensburgh Community Council needs your help in opposing Argyll and Bute Council’s decision to put a supermarket on the town’s waterfront. The community has repeatedly opposed supermarkets on this site over the past 30 years.

Over 4000 people have signed our petition opposing a supermarket on the waterfront since Argyll and Bute Council announced they had approved a supermarket developer for the site on August 15th.

Argyll and Bute Council have not listened to the community over the past year and continue to ignore the town’s opposition to their decision. Council meetings, where key decisions have been made about the supermarket's site, have been held in secret. Questions from the public have gone unanswered. Requests for meetings with Councillors have been ignored. The leader of the Council also refused to meet with the Community Council.

However, we can oppose Argyll and Bute Council's decision on the supermarket's site with a legal challenge. We have not come to this decision lightly, but the strength of community concern and opposition needs to be heard by Argyll and Bute Council. By stopping the process now we could prevent Argyll and Bute Council entering a time consuming and expensive planning process that may ultimately be referred to the Scottish Reporter for a decision anyway (which was how a supermarket application in 2000 was rejected).

We know this is an expensive process and, at a time when money is tight, we know it will be hard to raise money for the costs that this will incur. We are aware of other cases, such as the local campaign for St Fittick’s Park in Aberdeen and the costs in these cases are around £30,000.

The money raised through this crowdfunder will be used by Helensburgh Community Council for:

If we are successful in opposing this supermarket development then we will work with the community to enable a Community Asset Transfer so that the waterfront can stay in public hands. The community can then create a space which can be used by all our residents and visitors.

Any money raised which is not required after the conclusion of the legal proceedings will be distributed to the following causes:

We have set ourselves a target of 10th November to raise the necessary funds, which will allow time to raise a judicial review.

We are grateful for any contribution you can make to this cause.