A surplus of £650,000 from the budget for Helensburgh's CHORD project is set to be spent in the local area.

Helensburgh and Lomond councillors are to be given responsibility for deciding how best to spend the cash left over from the town centre's regeneration after Argyll and Bute Council's policy and resources committee agreed that decisions on how to spend any surplus CHORD cash should be devolved to local area committees.

More than £7 million was spent in the town on widening pavements, providing better access to shops, creating new parking bays, installing new street furniture and creating better links between the seafront and the centre of the town.

Council leader Dick Walsh said: “This decision comes directly from public consultation. People have told us they want more say in what happens in their local communities. We said in February that we would be working on ways to give more power to local areas we are now delivering on that promise.

“If there is a surplus when the Oban, Rothesay and Dunoon projects are completed then the same rules will apply – the local area committee will decide how that money is best used for the benefit of local people.

“The money will support the original aims of the regeneration programme – improving our towns and creating jobs for the benefit of all.”

The council agreed in November 2008 to allocate more than £30 million to the regeneration of Argyll and Bute's five largest waterfront towns - Campbeltown, Helensburgh, Oban, Rothesay and Dunoon.

The Helensburgh work has already attracted national recognition in the form of no fewer than three awards - a Scottish Design Award in May, a prestigious RIAS Scotland prize in June and, this month, a Saltire Society Arts in Public Places award for the Outdoor Museum in Colquhoun Square.

The project was also recognised by short-listings in the FX International Design Awards, the Civic Trust Awards and the Scottish Property Awards.