What can Ayr Renaissance do?

Feb 6 2009

I WAS irritated by the picture, on page 36 of your issue of Friday, January 30, of the members of the new board of Ayr Renaissance.

They are assembling at a time when assets such as the Centrum and the Civic Theatre stand boarded up, never to re-open, and when the council, unless threatened by overwhelming public anger, seeks to close one of the town's few iconic institutions, the Gaiety Theatre.

What pathetic tinkerings, around the edges of the fabric of the town, can this new board offer to compensate citizens for the closure of the par three golf courses in Craigie Park and Rozelle Park, the Conservatory and Pets' Corner in Belleisle Park, the boating pond and miniature railway on the promenade and practically all public toilets in the town? Will the new Renaissance board be able to rescue the town from having some of the worst maintained roads in Scotland, as identified by an independent survey?

It is not only physical assets that have been destroyed or allowed to fall into ruin. The closure of the Civic Theatre led to the cessation of the annual summer visits of the touring repertory theatre groups. It also led to the demise of the long established Ayr Players, the move to Maybole of the Compass Club and a restriction in the repertoire of the one remaining dramatic club, Ayr Fort Players, forced to play in a venue too large for its potential audience. The closure of the Gaiety Theatre could well result in the extinction of Ayr's two famous musical theatre groups, Ayr Amateur Opera Company and Ayrshire Philharmonic Operatic Society, as well as the end of touring opera, ballet and drama if the Council of South Ayrshire were to opt to become one of the very few Scottish areas without a theatre.

Almost 3,300 people attended Ayr Amateur Opera Company's production of Calamity Jane during the week ended 17 January 2009. Some of them came from as far away as Glasgow, Bute and Port William, which bears testimony to the quality of the show the company presents.To all who came from within Ayrshire, North, East or South, please appeal by post, telephone and email to South Ayrshire Council and individual councillors, to keep the Gaiety Theatre secured and heated until the next meeting of the full council on 11 February 2009. If in doubt, telephone 01292 612000. Remind the councillors that they are entrusted with the past as well as the present and that they cannot keep closing things down.

It is fully accepted that the present council has inherited a very bad situation exacerbated by the present global financial turndown.

However, two significant bodies have publicly expressed a willingness to relieve the council of the financial burden of the Gaiety Theatre. Iain Brown fronts a public trust type body whose funding and programming have yet to be revealed. On the other hand, the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow offers a hard-headed professional approach with strong financial underpinning which may offend susceptibilities with councillors and officials who would prefer to retain control.

Let us wish all of them a fair wind in their negotiations, so as to retain the Gaiety Theatre, an exceptional civic amenity, for the long-term future.

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