REVISED plans for Helensburgh’s controversial £18 million waterfront development have been published – but the leisure centre at the heart of the proposals remains in its location at the south end of the pier head site.

Argyll and Bute Council’s latest amendment to the application shows that a sea wall along the seaward edge of the site has been raised in height to 1.3 metres to protect the building from flooding.

The updated information on the height of the proposed wall was published on the authority’s website a week before the application is due to go back before councillors for a final decision.

Members of the council’s planning, protective services and licensing committee will consider the plans at a meeting in Lochgilphead on Wednesday, December 19.

But the revised sea wall proposals have met with disappointment from Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) – who objected to the original plans, and had hoped to see the leisure centre moved further north on the pier head site, alongside the pier itself, in line with the council-approved 2012 Helensburgh Masterplan, rather than directly facing the sea.

HCC’s vice-convener, Dr Peter Brown, said: “The seawall along the southern edge of the carpark is now to be raised to a height of 5.9m AOD [above ordnance datum] – that is 50cm more than previously planned, and is around 2.5m more than it is at present.

“This, unfortunately, matches what HCC had predicted as a necessary height to prevent wave overtopping damaging the building within its lifetime.

“It is unfortunate because the top of the sea wall will now be 1.3m above the level of the car park. The prized views of the Clyde which the leisure centre’s ‘Design Access Statement’ is right to be proud of will now only be visible when peering over a 1.3m high wall.

“It certainly won’t be visible to people sitting in their cars, children or people in wheelchairs.

“It appears that the applicant – the council – has changed the plans in the minimal way to satisfy the crucial issue of flooding but, in doing so, they have highlighted the absurdity of putting the leisure centre right by the sea wall.

“In persisting with this location, the council are now proposing to spend yet more money on the sea defences than the original budget of £2.1m; creating a significant physical barrier between users of the car park and the sea, which will be unsightly and, worse, unnecessary; [and] attempting to hold back climate change using an approach which has proven to be expensive and fragile in many locations around the coast.

“Restoring the leisure centre to its 2012 Masterplan location would remove the need for the additional expense, the unsightly wall and the uncertainty over the future.

“But the council seem determined to stick to their unviable approach, and appear to want to join Mr Trump in building a controversial wall.”

The changes to the plans are included in a technical memo from Kaya Consulting, dated December 5, and an addendum to that memo, dated two days later.

An updated comment from the council’s flood risk and drainage impact officer on the revised sea wall proposals states: “From the submitted material, including the recent technical memo and its addendum, the proposals now include protecting the building from a one in 200 year flood event with allowances for climate change through 2060.”

That comment also refers to “crest levels” of 5.9m AOD for the southern end of the site, stating: “This is 0.5 m higher than the 5.4 mAOD proposed in the previous submission.”