The council has been accused of “throwing good money after bad” over the Whitesands flood defence scheme after agreeing to pay £200,000 to consultants.
Campaigner John Dowson accused the local authority of “insensitive spending” after the communities committee agreed to recommend the funding for “necessary development work” to the finance committee.
According to a report to councillors the cash will be used to “appoint external project, cost and other advisors to progress with detailed project and cost planning”.
Mr Dowson, of the Save Our Sands group that opposes the project, said: “I think they’re throwing good money after bad.
“This has been going on for 10 years. I submitted a Freedom of Information request years ago asking how much had already been spent on fees and it came back at over £2 million. That money had gone to architects, hydrologists and the like.
“Then there was the public inquiry at £1 million and the council spent £530,000 on lawyers fighting us and the community at that.
“Just in those points there they’ve cost the taxpayer £3.5 million pounds and now they want another £200,000 for exterior consultants again. Where does this end?”
Councillor Ian Blake raised concerns over the issue at the communities committee and said “this isn’t the time” for the spending and asked members to reject the spending proposal but his amendment was defeated 10-7.
Committee chairman Archie Dryburgh said: “We need to be prepared for capital spending in the future and this will allow us to do this.
“We do have a cost of living crisis and the administration, along with support in the budget setting process, is looking at that but we need to be prepared for the flood prevention scheme. It’s already went through a public inquiry so we’re in a position to move forward with this and we want to move forward with this.”
Mr Dowson added: “It was quite pleasing in as much as there’s still opposition to this from certain councillors.
Council co-leader Stephen Thompson said: “The council agreed to get on with the work needed for flood protection schemes at the communities committee. This has long been in the pipeline and members were keen to bring this forward.”
