Plan to save Station Hotel

I write in response to recent comments in your paper favouring demolition from a current and a past councillor.

I suppose anyone who realises that demolition could cost £ 3m ( or £ 4.5 m depending on whose estimate you prefer), ought to realise that this would be a long and difficult process.

They seem to think it is easy. This is something that our council should have been trying to address since 2011 when the first Dangerous Building Notice was being sought by NetworkRail. South Ayrshire Council ( SAC) has a responsibility to the town whether it owns a building or not. We could have avoided this fiasco.

There are two estimates which I have for a new glass and steel station, £ 20m and £ 17m. This would be for a glorified bus shelter just like others cropping up, would add nothing to Ayr’s amenity or appearance and would be as disruptive as demolition would.

It would be designed to last 25 years. The money would come from government sources.

One councillor seems to suggest that Council Tax Payers would have to pay if we kept the hotel. Why should anybody think that SAC would pay to conserve the hotel when it is a B- Listed building of national importance and when government money would pay for a new build replacement station?

There would be conservation and other grants plus other government money and there could be some private investment.

The current position is that we have a great deal of information now about the history of the hotel, that it opened in 1886 to great acclaim, and at the time was as grand as Glasgow City Chambers, and that its success led six years later to Turnberry being built by the same Glasgow & South Western Railway Co. It was described as “A Castle In Ayr” in the paper The Chiel.

We had a well attended public meeting with a small exhibition in Ayr Town Hall and our committee has since consulted, campaigned, and lobbied . We pushed the council for a Dangerous Building Notice and for a Structural Engineers’ Report.

NetworkRail have commissioned the Report due to last 10 weeks.

The building had to be emptied of passengers and made safe for the engineers to assess the building.

Seven of our committee met with the two council leaders and proposed they take out a Compulsory Purchase Order to facilitate the splitting of the hotel for smaller developments, perhaps three.

We thought they might be forced into a CPO anyway, but saw that we could make plans if they agreed.

The Action Group were to find all finances and acceptable plans. The council would act as a mechanism to split and pass on the building to new owners. This was agreed in principle.

We then contacted the Compulsory Purchase Order ( CPO) Policy Unit at Scottish Government level, having had previous contact with Ministers and various agencies.

This CPO Unit is arranging a meeting with ourselves, council officials and the other agencies with an interest quite soon .

Our concern currently is that the building has been neglected too long.

Further it is also obvious that NetworkRail, Abellio Scotrail and council officials favour new build.

As NetworkRail are paying for the Report from Mott Macdonald who are not a conservation company, we have obtained names of three conservation minded structural engineering companies so that we can consider another opinion, an expensive thought. We have also discussed this issue with Heritage Environment Scotland. We do not want the problems magnified. At the public meeting we discussed how to temporarily sort the hotel roof mainly to give time for drying out of the building and getting the funds needed . We have discussed options for development including social housing, a community centre, a bijoux hotel, offices, with possible income streams from a community restaurant to serve the station.

At the moment some of our committee who are professionals are working on alternative developments and costings, so that when we get a business plan/ prospectus we can assess it critically. We already started a paper petition and are planning an on line one. We would welcome any supportive campaign.

I note a suggestion of an enquiry into what has gone wrong. I made a Freedom of Information Request and obtained papers from 2012 to date passed between SAC and NetworkRail.

They are about three inches thick. Esther Clark

2 Ronaldshaw Park, Ayr

Welcometourists I read with interest page 39 in the Ayrshire Post of 4/ 7/ 2018. James Knox has forgotten that Ayr is a seaside resort and that as such we should welcome the tourists and cater for needs.

We should have a river area car park. The tourists shouldn’t find parking a problem, they should find the Town Hall traffic lights to their advantage by turning left into the High Street and turning left into the Riverside area with parking . It is a welcome the tourists would want. It would be an advantage, the buses would bring shoppers into town. The roundabout would be replaced by traffic lights and the buses would go down the Sandgate to the Town Hall lights, with other traffic to on the New Bridge in a matter of minutes.

Ayr town has been badly needing a revamp, it is overdue, let’s remind James Knox we are a seaside resort and wish to welcome visitors to Auld Ayr especially as we have a serious parking problem. What will it be like in say, two years?

John Mechan