Academics, artists, authors and stage and screen celebrities are among the 4000 people who signed a petition opposing plans to build a bar and nightclub in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens.

The petition, handed in to senior councillors and officials yesterday by residents living near the gardens, also includes support from India, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, France and Switzerland.

Among those supporting the campaign are artist Alasdair Gray, author of the novel Lanark, and his fellow professor of creative writing, poet Tom Leonard. The rump of Glasgow University's bio-sciences departments have also signed, along with botanists from across Britain.

Other signatories include Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch, stand-up comic Phil Kay, the stars of Still Game - Paul Riley, Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan - and members of the cast of BBC Scotland soap opera River City, including Gilly Gilchrist.

In addition to the petition, letters opposing the plan from scientists and the directors of other botanical gardens across the UK were also submitted.

Although campaigners have been keen to play down the luminaries backing their call for the case against the scheme to be heard, they claim it illustrates the disquiet against the proposed bar and nightclub.

The delivery of the petition - to Councillor Ruth Simpson, political head of land and environmental services, by Professor Keith Vickerman, chairman of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, and Jean Charsley, of Hillhead Community Council - follows the revelation on Monday of deepening rifts in Glasgow's ruling Labour administration over the plans.

One constituency branch has voted against the scheme, while at least one Labour councillor, Hanzala Malik, who sat on the committee that approved the project, has now publicly stated his opposition.

Opposition councillors also called into question the transparency of the processes that led to the leisure chain G1 Group being awarded the right to build and operate the bar and club at the entrance of the gardens.

LibDem and SNP members pointed to the council's call for a full public consultation when a publicly owned visitor centre was planned for the site, a process yet to take place since a more controversial, privately owned scheme has been on the table.

But, despite being passed by committee in November 2005, the visitor centre scheme was never referred to publicly again, lack of money cited for its disappearance, and by the following September G1 had applied to run a bar and nightclub.

The council has insisted the public will have a say at the planning stage and claims a consultation on the general principle of more facilities in parks provides the justification for the bar and nightclub within the gardens.

Ms Simpson said: "We accepted the petition and have made clear that should a planning application come forward a full public statutory consultation process will be carried out by the council's development and regeneration services."

Last night Mrs Charsley said: "The delegation was sympathetically heard by Ms Simpson who assured us the petition, the letters from scientists and directors of other Botanic Gardens, would be given to the Lord Provost and council leader Steven Purcell, and that they would also be made aware of all the points made by the delegation."

The G1 Group was unavailable for comment.