£50m leisure centre axed
Plans to build a £50 million leisure centre in the heart of Ayr have been scrapped by the new-look council leadership.
Council leader Martin Dowey will take the proposals off the table with immediate effect.
His minority Tory administration will invest £10m on a Citadel revamp and spread the remaining unspent budget across South Ayrshire .
He added: “This was a project doomed to failure from the start and the costs were spiralling by the day. Had this gone ahead, we would have been looking at costs of £60m in the current market - and that is simply unacceptable. Despite a groundswell of public opinion which didn’t want it, they pressed on and came close to leaving the taxpayer with a massive and costly white elephant.”
Cllr Dowey says his leadership will spend £6m revamping Ayr town centre and send another £1m to each ward in the region.
He added: “I totally understand the argument that we need to do something with Ayr town centre and make progress - but it has to be the right thing.
“We want to do things like bring back crazy golf on the esplanade, make the most of our natural resources and drive people back to the town. There will be an increase in cleaning teams out in the town.
“We need to spend money on improving the ambience. Is there deprivation in the area? Yes there is. But there’s a lot of money in the region and we need to encourage people to spend it and invest it here instead of leaving to go elsewhere. These are not overnight fixes but they are things we are going to set about doing as quickly as we can.”