The PDCC has been battling with Asda for more than 18 months to get the suuperstore to play a bigger role in the community. Chairman Gordon Munn said he had had no response to any of his appeals.

He said: "We have made a number of approaches and they have been ignored or turned down. They haven't contributed to anything. We have had no support from them whatsoever in terms of raffle prizes, donations or requests to do fundraising."

The PDCC have written a letter to the local store and the head office to say that: "PDCC are no longer willing to tolerate Asda's lack of support."

Vice Chairman Ron Sharp said: "I feel we should be taking Asda to task. I wrote to them last year asking them to come and have a meeting with me to discuss various aspects of community life and how they could help us and how we can help them. I am still waiting for a reply. We are being shunned by them."

The decision to take action comes after community councillor Dorothy Main approached the company to sell raffle tickets in their foyer to raise funds for Portlethen's Christmas lights. The request was denied and the PDCC were told they would receive a £20 gift token to use as a prize, although they have yet to receive it.

Ms Main said: "I was quite taken aback with the response."

Community Councillor and editor of the local newssheet Clochandichter, Dorothy Foreman, was also surprised at the response as a previous request to Asda for a £20 gift voucher prize for a competition in her magazine was ignored.

Mr Munn said: "If we do get the £20 voucher, then we are returning it."

He added: "When we did the community survey, they took a box to collect them. They stuck it in a corner behind the lottery table, so you couldn't see it, and people didn't know it was there. We are not very happy."

Mr Munn said that people view Asda as Portlethen's centre as it is the one place everyone in the town visits. He said: "Portlethen doesn't have a town centre. They're the biggest store in the area. Asda really is the town centre that Portlethen doesn't have."

A spokeswoman for Asda said: "We are a big store with a lot of charity commitments. We do support a number of charities in the area, and the slots for selling raffle tickets is booked until November. We gave them the £20 gift card for the raffle, which is quite generous as we get a lot of charities asking for donations. We can't support everyone but we try to do the best we can.

"It's not that we don't support the local community, but we have to balance things with everyone else."