Campaigners against the Whitesands flood protection scheme are calling on the council to shelve the plans for two years.
They say the money should be diverted to reinflate the region’s economy once the coronavirus has cleared.
Save Our Sands attacked the recent announcement of the project’s approval by the Scottish Government during the Covid-19 crisis.
The group’s spokesman John Dowson said: “People are disgusted that faceless civil servants in Edinburgh released the approval letter as the virus really began to take hold in Scotland.
“The general feeling is that this will work against the project as every single penny of public money will now be required to rebuild the Dumfries and Galloway economy right across the region from Stranraer to Gretna.
“Our councillors should take a brave decision to postpone this project for at least two years and use the money saved in that period to regenerate our economy.
“Every penny will be needed to help our region get back on its feet after this terrible illness.
“By doing this the council could free up millions of pounds to invest in the regeneration of our town centres in Dumfries, Stranraer, Kirkcudbright, Annan, Lockerbie, etc.
“Regenerated economies in our town centres can then flow out across the villages and smaller towns of our region.”
Mr Dowson added: “Compare this to the idea of spending millions over the next two years on a project that very few want and would involve spending all of the available money in Dumfries at the expense and disadvantage of all these other towns.
“I call on councillors from across the region to support this strategy and secure investment for their own areas.
“If councillors do not support this strategy, they will be turning scarce resources away from their own communities.
“The Whitesands in Dumfries has flooded for thousands of years. Another two years will not make a great deal of difference.”
He was backed by Tory councillor Malcolm Johnstone, who said: “I am very much in favour of postponing this for Dumfries and Galloway.
“One issue is that the council’s capital budget is being cut by the Scottish Government anyway and the other issue is that similar flood protection schemes are going fantastically over budget, sometimes three or four times, so we cannot afford it.
“When we eventually get through this crisis there are other issues that need addressing before a flood protection scheme, such as Dumfries High School is needing replaced.
“Why pay money on a flood scheme when there are things of top priority, especially helping the economy back on its feet.”
She said: “All we have right now is planning approval and we cannnot do anything without money from the Scottish Government.”
