NEARLY 7000 people have signed a petition supporting a drive for Govan's Graving Docks to be restored and transformed into a heritage site, creating up to 250 jobs.

Campaigners want to create a maritime shipping heritage park with visitor centre, business complex and nature reservation at the site, which has been standing empty since 1988.

The proposal, led by photographer Iain McGillivray, executive director of the newly formed Clyde Docks Preservation Trust, has attracted more than 6500 signatures on a Change.org petition.

The trust wants to raise £40,000 through a crowdsourcing campaign for administration costs for the project, including research and consultation, travel, materials and management fees, despite the fact that the site is still privately owned.

The plans would see the old pump house turned into a visitor centre and cafe and one of the docks would be used as a berth for visiting ships.

Mr McGillivray said they wanted to consider applying for the site to be declared a World Heritage Site, "further down the line."

He and his fellow directors, Jimmy Stringfellow and Liz Gardiner, led tours of the Graving Docks last month for Doors Open Day, which they said attracted more than 100 people.

Mr McGillivray said he emailed the council suggesting the move initially but "it became clear that if anything was going to happen I would have to start a campaign."

Built in 1869 for the Clyde Navigation Trust, two of the three docks where ships from around the world came for repairs were once the deepest in Britain. The site is described by the Buildings At Risk register as "without parallel" in Scotland.

Pat Cassidy, managing director of Govan Workspace, said: "It's obvious that the city of Glasgow has been missing a trick for a long, long time.

"It has one of the biggest shipbuilding heritages in the world. There are people who would flock to Glasgow if there was a significant heritage centre there.

"But I really think that this demands the kind of action to deliver it that can only be achieved with the support of the Government, either local or otherwise.

"You are looking at a lot of money and resources."

Glasgow City Council has indicated that it favours retaining the docks as a heritage site but is developing separate proposals.

The Graving Docks is one of two sites being proposed by the Central Govan Action Plan to be used for Glasgow City Council's Stalled Spaces scheme, which aims to bring disused land back into use.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "The Govan Graving Docks are an important part of the city's industrial heritage and will hopefully play a role in Glasgow's future.

"There have been a number of proposals for the development of the docks in recent years and we would welcome any proposal that would further regeneration of the waterfront."