We need visionaries

Apr 3 2009

YOUR correspondent by email, A real need for a Top Vision, hit the nail on the head with his letter.

He might be interested to know that as long ago as 1910, Oculeus, a writer for the Ayrshire Post, was suggesting that the proposed Pavilion be built opposite the County Buildings site, with a pleasure pier stretching out into the waters of the Firth.

What is needed for the present day is a breakwater out into deep water for a quay to be built to allow large modern cruise liners to moor alongside. The council official who went to Dubai would see what has been done there on a huge scale, but nearer to home the port of Peterhead is extending a pier out into the North Sea so the large cruise liners can moor there. The Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium has two breakwaters built, doubling the size of the Port, and making it a major ferry and container and cruise port. Two cruise liners are due to come to Ayr this summer, but if the weather is not good or stormy, they will pass us by. Associated British Ports (ABP), who can own Ayr Harbour, do a sterling job in their brochure presenting Ayr as a cruise destination but, because ships can’t dock, their scope is limited. Cruise ships bring hundreds of tourists, which would revitalise South Ayrshire’s economy.

As a boost to the airport (which should be renamed Robert Burns Airport) Fly/Cruise passenger could join their ship at Ayr.

The New Breakwater would enclose a huge area to the present pier, large enough for a full 18 hole golf course to be built, ringed by bungalows and a luxury hotel with, like Gleneagles, have stables so that you could gallop along the sands, the inner harbour could be developed for yachts.

The breakwater would also permit huge land reclamation and deep water facilities on the Newton side of the river.

Your correspondent wants vision, such as that possessed by Oculeus. What a hope, they are small minded, squabbling politicians. I have always been amazed that no shopkeepers or hotel keepers are councillors in South Ayrshire, in Blackpool and Brighton, it is they who run the councils, with tourism, theatres, parks etc.

What kind of visionaries give nearly £4m to restore the Walker Hall in Troon and close Ayr Gaiety. What is the use to South Ayrshire tourist-wise and moneywise of these halls. All I can think of is that they are used for a history fair once a year, which uses on its publicity handouts a picture of 17th century Ayr. If you were to conduct a poll as to how many people have been to the Walker Halls, it would be very few compared to how many have been to the Gaiety.

So Ayrshire Post have you another Oculeus to lead us with vision on a crusade against South Ayrshire Council?

John Russell

Honest Man

Ayr.