The Kilchattan Bay and Kingarth Improvements Committee organised the meeting after a specially convened public debate at St Blane's hotel - at which the project had been greeted with suspicion and concern by local residents.
The meeting was an op
portunity for Bute Estates, the proposals' main backers, to outline the plan for a fruit orchard with some two hundred trees at a cost of £8,480.
The project would be entirely paid for by a government grant recently awarded to the village as part of the Commonwealth Orchard initiative, a Scotland-wide scheme to create a positive grassroots legacy for the 2014 Commonweath Games.
Many of the concerns raised during the meeting centered on the maintenance of the site, which many Bay locals believed would be a big commitment to ask a community with a large majority of retired residents.
"The organising and maintenance really isn't a big issue" said John Hancox, director of the Commonweath Orchard scheme. "An orchard is less maintenance than a garden. I don't anticipate that this will take a lot of time and effort."
One of the main goals is to get children involved in the project and the residents were informed that three local schools have already voiced their support towards the project.
But some in the audience raised concerns over the accessibility of the site and the safety of the children.
"The primary children would love to be involved in a project such as this," said Katheen McIntyre, head of St Andrew's School, to the people in attendance.
"There is the question of transport but it is not an unsurmountable problem."
Maureen Shaw, the deputy head of Rothesay Primary, also expressed her school's desire to take part as she believed her pupils could reap many benefits from the project.
"We are really keen that the project not only plants trees but also gets people involved in the upkeep of these skills and traditions."
Mr Hancox continued. "It is also a chance to get kids involved in keeping these skills going.
"I like the fact that the simple idea of planting trees around Scotland can leave a legacy like this for the Commonwealth Games.
"It's a cheap and cheerful way for everyone to get involved."
The often tense meeting concluded with an anonymous written straw poll, which suggested a distinctly bleak outlook for the project after only a narrow margin were in favour.
The final decision, though, was made on Monday, and the project will no longer be going forward.
"The main reason was that they were concerned about its maintenance," Neil Lamb, one of the project's supporters, told The Buteman after the decision.
"It's a shame and also a personal disappointment the project isn't going ahead."
