YEARS of delays to plans for a dedicated cycle path between Dumbarton and Helensburgh risk turning the council-led project into “a total farce” – according to the authority’s own Provost.

Councillors heard last week that a consultation with community groups on the route of one section of the path may be delayed for a third time.

People living in Cardross were first due to be consulted in March, but the exercise was then delayed until June, and is currently due to take place this month.

Councillor David Kinniburgh, who represents the village and is also the Provost of Argyll and Bute, was told by an authority official that it was “absolutely a risk” that the consultation may not take place this month either.

A report to a meeting of the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee last week predicted that the route – plans for which were drawn up in the early 21st century – will not be fully complete until the spring of 2028.

Provost Kinniburgh said: “This is becoming a bit of a farce. Everything seems to get held up.

“I note now it has slipped to the end of 2027, which, when you think about it, with elections coming next year, is past the lifetime of the next council.

“This has been an ongoing project since 2000, and it just takes one slippage after another.

“The bridge being constructed at the moment [in Cardross, linking Geilston Burn with the railway station] was again delayed, and you had a couple of vans parked on site behind fences.

“They then disappeared for weeks, with no work carried out. For me, this is becoming a total farce.

The recommendation of the report is that the community engagement will be in September.

“But we cannot give a date, so does that mean there is a possibility that it is not going to start in September?”

Council official Colin Young said: “That is absolutely a risk. The report was written about six weeks ago. Things do change in that time.

“But officers are doing their best to get it started as soon as we can, because there is a lot of community interest and we really want that input.”

An online petition launched in December calling for “no further delays” to the project has been signed by 1,840 people.

The petition was launched after Dumbarton cyclist Colin McCourt, 40, died in a crash involving a car on the A814 west of Cardross.