Not the best of starts

It`s a bit late I know - but Happy New Year.

We haven`t got off to a very good start. It`s seems as if it has been one protest aftr another.

I have been heading up a campaign to save Ayr Gaiety from closure. We started a deliberate publicity pusg before Christmas, when I became aware that closure of the theatre at the end of January `for refurbishment` could in fact be closure of Ayr Gaiety, full stop. It needs a lot of money spent on it - at Health and Safety insistence (residents of Girvan will be familiar with that justification)- money that the council just doesn`t have.

But a small group of us argued that the shortage of council cash didn`t need to mean the curtain coming down for good. We decided that out there, there must be someone who would want to take over a theatre - and the council shouldn`t be running it anway - thus began our campaign which I am happy to report (fingers crossed) has attracted interested parties and talks are going ahead.

Sad thing is the same can`t be said about Girvan Swimming Pool. The decline has been going on for years (like the Gaiety) but I guess councillors just didn`t want to face up to the inevitable. Maybe they were hoping for a miracle - but Health and Safety saw it differently.

It was, of course, the way the closure was announced that particularly incensed local people. One day it was open, the next it was shut. No reassurances of future developments, though I believe talks are now going on.

It is not a good start to the year and as I write this Council leader Hugh Hunter is in Dubai along with Enterprise staff promoting South Ayrshire`s Homecoming events and its golf courses. The invite to go came from Leisurecorps, new owners of Turnberry Hotel and while they paid for the Council Leader to go (the Provost though invited was unable to attend) the council had to meet the £15,000 cost of the workers - the enterprise staff who will man the council stall at the big golf tournament.

The argument, of course, is that we will get back a lot more than £15,000 with the number of tourists we can attract to play our courses and attend the Open in July.
Let us hope so. Though the timing could have been better.

To end on a happier note, the big launch weekend for the Year of the Homecoming and Burns` 250th anniversary went with a bang - literally at Alloway where there was an amazing light and firework display depicting Tam o` Shanter`s ride. From concerts and poetry readings to exhibitions and the I Robert Burns Show in the Gaiety - not forgetting dozens of Burns Suppers including one attended by First Minister Alex Salmond - it was a superb showcase for Ayr and South Ayrshire and hopefully a taste of what is to come for the rest of the year.