Station group update

The Station Hotel Action Group attracted interest from the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust ( SHBT) which is wonderful. IF all goes okay with the Structural Engineers Report , they would take over purchase, assessment of what the buildings best functions would be to pay for its running, what the community wanted and needed and could raise funds.

The big parties involved want a glass and steel station, to last 25 years only, which will cost around £ 23m with demolition.

It was going to cost the Malaysian owners about £ 3m to repair and convert it to a student residence about five years ago when the plan fell through. Even now, to get a range of amenities for the townsfolk or even a restoration of the hotel, it would still be likely to be cheaper than new build. Expenses so far seem to be covered by the government. While SHBT usually raise their project costs, the government had spent no money on Ayr Station in ages, as it does not even have proper access which itself would cost £ 2m. We have lobbied a lot and we hope that the government will fork out much of money required in addition to Heritage grants.

The authorities have sat on this while legislation and grants could have helped a lot. Ayr has been let down at every political level . The Action Group has now delayed a third public meeting because of the Structural Engineers Report which we wanted . Now it seems it will be March before it’s complete. We have just applied to Heritage Environment Scotland to have the Listing of the Hotel reviewed to “A “and asked a second prominent conservation group to help . We want to ensure pressure continues. Esther Clark, Action Group