AN up-market grocery chain wants to build a store and petrol station in Helensburgh.

Waitrose will showcase its plans at a public exhibition in the Victoria Hall next month for a supermarket, fuel station and 190 car parking spaces on a site opposite the new Hermitage Academy.

Residents will get their chance to have a say on the plans - which would create 180 jobs in the area - before a formal planning application is submitted to Argyll and Bute Council later in the year.

Waitrose - the food shops of the John Lewis Partnership - says it hopes to gather views from as many local people as possible before the application is submitted.

If successful, Helensburgh would become the fifth Waitrose store in Scotland.