Unless stopped at the ballot box, Ayr will lose its most iconic landmark

After a decade of thumb-twiddling and navel-gazing by all THREE main parties in South Ayrshire – it looks like something is about to happen at Ayr Station Hotel.

SAC has given it the name “permanent safety works”. They might as well have called it the “final solution”.

“Nothing is off the table now. The feeling is decisive action needs to be taken for good”, says a senior figure. After four years and nine months of their five year term, the SNP- led coalition that promised “urgent” action has finally realised the game’s a bogey. Rather than limp into May’s elections with the centre of a doughnut as their Station Hotel policy – the SNP/Labour coalition have gone for yet another ‘consultation’, costing £25,000 , that will kick the can down the street until a new council is in place in August.

I even recall Labour’s Brian McGinley pledging to “save” Ayr Station Hotel. How’s that one going, Brian?

One man who knows more about the building and its issues than most is former MSP Chic Brodie.

He thought he had a deal in place that would have saved the building years ago. SAC kicked the plan into touch over a £150,000 ‘charge’ that had to be removed from court.

Here we are - £2 million of scaffolding charges later – and the only option appears to be demolition.

SAC councillors argue that they have “run out of options”.

The truth is that they didn’t have the will or the wit to properly consider any options.

Or come up with an option of their own.

And unless stopped at the ballot box, the price Ayr will pay for their indecision and incompetency is the loss of one of its most iconic landmarks.