A casual survey of the pedestrian traffic patterns in Helensburgh would identify the section of Sinclair Street between Princes Street and Clyde Street as the hub of the town. In Sinclair Street, Tesco Metro is the one shop which attracts and drives the pedestrian traffic. This particular Tesco store must be the most profitable in Britain in terms of sales per square foot.

The great challenge in town planning in the twentieth century was locating grocery stores without destroying the traditional town centre. Out of town Superstores draw trade from the town centre and the town centre withers and dies. It is difficult to locate large grocery stores in the middle of a town and retain easy car access for the store customers.

Essentially, the grocery business in this country is a distribution problem. If the Supermarkets can save on distribution costs, they keep the competitive advantage over their rivals. Build a big shed, stack it high, cut prices and pass the distribution costs over to the customer who spends his/her time driving to the Superstore, parking, finding what they want in the giant shed, queuing at the check-out, finding the car and driving home.

Logically, there is an optimum size to a grocery store. A balance between the Supermarkets saving money on distribution and the customer saving time and money buying what they need. If the Supermarkets know the answer to this question, they aren't saying.

By some miracle, Helensburgh has survived with one of the most efficient Supermarkets in the country. Its big enough to stock most of the essentials, small enough for customers to find what they want quickly, and located right in the heart of the town. The challenge is how to make it even more efficient.

A simple rearrangement could achieve that. The centre of the block is underutilised. There is vehicle access from West Princes Street. This could be continued through to Colquhoun Street. This would give car access to the rear of the Tesco store and allow grocery loading without disrupting traffic in Sinclair Street.

The other problem is the lack of hotel space in the core of the town. The Imperial Hotel should be rebuilt. The existing building makes inefficient use of space. A rebuilt hotel could be extended to the rear. The buildings on either side of the existing hotel are low quality and there is the opportunity to have hotel space over three or four times the area of the present building. There is no reason a new hotel should be restricted in height to the present three stories and attic. A new design could include a shopping arcade on the ground floor. A quality building in the centre of town offering visitors comfortable accomodation with dramatic views of the Firth of Clyde. Open access to the rear of the building would facilitate guest registration and goods deliveries.

People staying in the town spend money in the town. Sufficient hotel beds and convention business becomes a reality. It's not now.