Summer`s over

Well that`s it over for another year - the summer that is. What summer I hear you ask. I hope you managed to get away on holiday without your travel company or airline going bust.

I wasn`t so lucky. Off to New York, my daughter and I were originally booked on the ill-fated Silverjet. Luckily we booked by credit card. The company went down the tubes about a month before our departure date and we managed to a) get our money back and b) get another flight. Makes you think twice about taking up those great deals on the internet though. Are the days of cheap travel numbered?.

New York was great, hot and cheap but the memories have long faded into the distance. Returning to the council after the recess tends to do that - brings you back to earth with a bump.

And it is going to be a bumpy ride I fear over the next months, if not years.

First jolt was the news that the Ayr United/Barratt Homes deal had fallen through. That is seriously concerning both for the town and of course the football club and their fans. Ayr United needs a new stadium and Ayr could do with the additional housing, particularly the affordable variety that was part of the deal.
Accusations have been hurled around over who was to blame - apart from the current mortgage drought and the poor state of the building industry - and the council haven`t escaped criticism from the Ayr United chairman over their handling of the planning aspects of the deal.

Another major development, if not heading for the buffers, is facing major change. Ayr Racecourse is up for sale and in this present economic climate buyers may not be queuing up. And obviously the major improvements are on hold. Again implications from the owners that the council took too long (five years) over the planning process.

We are easy targets of course.

Is the future of the new West of Scotland University and Scottish Agricultural
College secure? This is a multi-million pound deal with a lot hanging on it. Watch this space - but I certainly hope so.

There is also the major housing plan for Barassie - around 600 houses - will it too but put on hold?

It`s at times like this I am glad to be a humble `back bencher` and not one of the council`s Leadership Panel faced with these major headaches.

Facing us too in the near future is what to do with Ayr Gaiety. The historic old theatre needs a lot of tlc - and a lot of money spent on it to mainly meet Health and Safety demands. Decisions have been put off for years - now we are facing D-day. One option, of course is closure - one I personally can`t comtemplate - and I regularly remind colleagues who weren`t around at the time, what happened the last time they tried to close the Gaiety - street protests, massive nationwide bad publicity, Johnny Beattie threatening to lie in front of bulldozers! We don`t want to go through that again. I also remind them how unforgiving you, the public, can be!


And to top it all the Audit Scotland is currently in the building carrying out their inspection to see how well we operate. That report when it comes out should make interesting reading!

However to strike a brighter note, not to leave you thoroughly depressed, we have the Year of the Homecoming almost upon us - a year of celebrating all thing Scottish and it is kicking off in Ayr with a Burnsfest on January 24 and 25.

With the spectre of the disastrous debacle that was the 200th anniversary celebration (or non event as it turned out after spending a fortune))of the poet`s death in 1996 hovering in the background, I think we can expect a much better effort this time around when we celebrate the 250th anniversay of his birth. (It is difficult typing with fingers crossed!)