Centre of community is a real town crier ...
The state of Girvan High Street was mentioned by every voter when we asked about the big issues ahead of next month’s council elections.
Billy Campbell, who works at Grants Distillery, said he didn’t have to travel far to find an example of what Girvan needed.
He said: “I was on holiday in Kirkcudbright, at Gatehouse of Fleet. The streets are stunning with lovely clean shops that are kept clean and tidy.
“Then you come back to Girvan and it’s like this.
“I would say the last five or six years it has gone downhill and Covid has just made it worse.”
Billy, who has lived in the town his whole life, didn’t simply point the finger at South Ayrshire
Council. The community itself has its part to play, he said.
“When you go to places like
Kirkcudbright, they tell you it is the community that is doing the work.
“There is a caravan site down there run by the swimming pool.
The money that comes in goes back into the community.”
Billy, who ran the Girvan youth football club for 16 years, also criticised opposition to an all weather pitch at Victory Park.
“They are trying to get an all weather pitch but the locals are all against it. I’m sorry, we need this for the youth of the town.
“Some of the people objecting, some of their kids were at the club when I ran the club so why would you not want this for your grandkids?”
Phyllis Calderwood and her husband left Girvan for South
Africa in 1989, later moving to
Eastbourne in Kent before returning to the town just last
November.
She was saddened by the deterioration of the town. She said:“It has gone downhill. My mother was always here so I came back regularly. It is only lately that it has disintegrated. It is terrible.
“Even in Eastbourne it is the same. The shops are shutting so people are buying online.
“I just feel that if the Main Street had another couple of nice shops it would do a bomb.
“It looks like they [the councillors] are just sitting on their bums doing nothing.”
Dougie Gordon has lived in Girvan for about three years, having set up a self employed cleaning business after leaving the military.
He said that there were“loads of issues”in the area. “The Main Street needs a bit of money pumped in, some refurbishment.
“For me in the Main Street it is the speed of vehicles, especially the HGVs. You see lots of towns where the speed is dropped to 20mph, so why it is 30mph here I don’t know.
“There was scope for a bypass years ago, but they have built houses now.
“Henrietta Street as well. It is just too fast. It needs speed enforcement.
“The other one is basically littering. I have alerted the school and the council to the mess schoolkids leave at lunchtimes. Wrappers left, they walk past loads of bins, but the school isn’t interested.
“I see the occasional police officers patrolling, but it isn’t enough.”
Paula Freitas, who has lived in Girvan for five years, wants the council to return the old bandstand to its former glory.
She said:“It would be nice if they did it up. Everyone would love it. Even if the council did it and leased it to someone. It is a lovely old building.”