Tory leader calls for centre to be scrapped
Conservative group leader Martin Dowey has reiterated his plans to scrap Ayr’s new leisure centre and use its £41million budget across South Ayrshire.
The Ayr West councillor slammed the plans for the centre, claiming that his party would take a ‘back to basics’ approach with investment spread across the whole of the region.
Councillor Dowey said: “We dont really need a masterplan, we need to get back to basics and the basics aren’t happening.
“The High Street is horrendous, the worst I have ever seen it.
“Who thought of putting a swimming pool in the centre of town when we have a perfectly good swimming pool that would only take a few million to revamp.
“I don’t know many folk that go to a high street to go swimming.”
Cllr Dowey said the Conservative plan would see the Citadel refurbished at a quarter of the cost of a leisure centre that will not accommodate a main hall.
He also explained that the concentration of investment into Ayr alone would be detrimental to the area’s other communities.
He said:“If they are investing £41m in a leisure centre, and it is probably going to be more than that, everywhere else suffers.
“We would spend that £41m to revamp the High Street. We would retain Hourstons and put up flats behind it. “Obviously, we couldn’t leave a building like that empty, so that would become a council building.
“Five years ago, if you had said we are going to buy Hourstons and make it into a council building I certainly wouldn’t have. The problem we have got is that we don’t want another Station Hotel.
“It is important that we have regeneration that folk can actually see. We would put cars back in the High Street. Some say that it wouldn’t be green, but everyone is moving to electric or hybrid cars.”
The former policeman said that the condition of the High Street was partly down to the traffic situation.
“The reason folk ignore the state of High Street is because you don’t drive down there anymore.
“We need the place to look good. Road surfaces need to look good. We can’t have trees growing out of the buildings.”
Cllr Dowey turned to the plans for the gap site on the High Street, arguing:“You can still have the bit at the back. But I would see flats that are reminiscent of what it looked like 100 years ago.”
He cited the example of Wroclaw in Poland, which was razed during the Second World War and then rebuilt.
He said:“You would think that the buildings look like they had always been there.”
As well as spending part of the earmarked leisure centre budget on Ayr’s esplanade and harbour, Cllr Dowey said that every other ward, bar the Ayr West, would get an additional £1m to spend on enhancing their communities.
“This should be what is best for the town, the whole of South Ayrshire,”he added.