967 people filled in Helensburgh Community Council's (HCC) questionnaire on a new supermarket for the town. "This has been the largest public consultation exercise ever mounted by the Community Council." said HCC Convenor Darrel Hendrie. "The results are clear. It is an overwhelming YES vote for a new supermarket. A large majority are happy with the site opposite the new Academy. I would like to thank everyone who took a couple of minutes to fill in our survey."
To be as representative as possible the survey was carried out in the following locations:
| Location | Responses |
|---|---|
| At the 2/3 June Waitrose public exhibition | 496 |
| In the Helensburgh Advertiser | 212 |
| In Colquhoun Square, Churchill and Kirkmichael | 158 |
| On FACEBOOK (a first ever for the HCC) | 111 |
| With 2 local groups | 50 |
Looking at the results in detail we see :
| Yes | 97% |
| No | 3% |
Comments included Bring It On : Definitely : Please
| YES | 89% |
| NO | 11% |
Pretty conclusive, but with a number of people wanting the new store closer to the town centre. Either on the Pier Site or the old Academy Site. These comments have been passed on to Waitrose to consider. There were a few suggestions for a shuttle bus service into town.
| MORE | 21% |
| LESS | 6% |
| THE SAME | 73% |
This indicates that there could be little negative impact on local shops with some at least of the reported "lost" £22.4M food shopping coming back to the town.
| 1st | Morrisons and ASDA Dumbarton |
| 2nd | Local Co-op and Tesco |
| 3rd | Other local shops |
ASDA in Clydebank, Sainsbury in Drumchapel and Braehead were barely mentioned.
| YES | 81% |
| NO | 6% |
| NOT SURE | 13% |
Again this points to some of the "lost" £22.4M coming back to the town.
The questionnaire also asked people where they lived. The distribution of postcode districts is:
| G84 7 | Helensburgh East | 28.4% |
| G84 8 | Helensburgh West, Rhu and Shandon | 26% |
| G84 9 | Helensburgh North | 27.2% |
| G84 0 | Garelochhead and Rosneath | 18.4% |
Darrel summed up the survey saying: "I feel our questionnaire was pretty representative of Helensburgh and the surrounding area. Residents and our neighbours want a new supermarket. Most are happy with the proposed site although some would like to see it closer to town. As to the impact on our wide range of high quality local shops the survey shows that any impact it might have could well be slightly positive."