Station Hotel update: Ayr Is Open For Business

The Scotsman

Ayr Is Open For Business.  Ayr is open for business! Council to provide a range of support to drive footfall to Ayr town centre during festive season South Ayrshire Council has confirmed that they are planning a range of additional festive activities and an advertising campaign that will help drive footfall into Ayr town centre and support local businesses in the run up to Christmas.  Each weekend from Saturday 25 November, the extended programme of festive entertainment will see an exciting range of activities at the top and bottom of the town.  What's more - they'll all be free!  The Grain Exchange, Cutty Sark Centre and Ayr Central Shopping Centre will all play host to some fun, seasonal attractions for everyone to enjoy. From 12:00noon to 4:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays in the run up to Christmas, children and families can take part in a range of activities including snowflake making, Christmas clay modelling, face painting and Christmas themed games.   There's nothing better than some festive music to help you get into the spirit of the season while you're in town doing a bit of Christmas shopping.  So, make your way to The Grain Exchange and enjoy listening to some local choirs perform some Christmas classics and favourite yuletide hits.   All this on top of the Festive Family Fun Day on Sunday 19 November, with its Christmas market, Santa Express Train, dance extravaganza and much more - there's a lot to look forward to!  From Sunday 19 November there's also the added bonus of all day, unlimited free on street parking in and around Ayr town centre and in Council car parks. This free parking will be available every day until Monday 8 January 2024.  We're also set to launch a brand-new promotional campaign to make sure that people in South Ayrshire and the wider area know that Ayr is open for business!  With the essential safety works continuing at the Station Hotel building, resulting in the temporary closure of Ayr Train Station and Station Bridge Road, we're creating a programme that will support eligible businesses in the immediate area.  Officers from our Economy and Regeneration team will soon contact all of the businesses that fall into the criteria directly, to talk about the additional business support that's available to them.   Leader of South Ayrshire Council, Councillor Martin Dowey, said: "Ensuring public safety is at the forefront of our concerns.  This means that temporary road closures at Ayr Train Station and Station Bridge Road are essential to keep everyone safe during the ongoing safety works. A key objective is to get both rail and road transport moving again as soon as possible, however, with the closures expected to last until around 10th January, I want local retailers to know that the Council is here to support them.  Our extended range of festive activities is just what the town centre needs ahead of Christmas. Plus, we'll soon be launching our promotional campaign so that everyone knows Ayr is open and ready.

Transcript

00:00 I'm Jane Bradley, I'm Director of Strategic Change and Communities for South Asia Council.

00:11 The air is open for business. We have been struggling over recent weeks, business have

00:16 been really struggling because of the closure of the railway station and the road restrictions

00:21 around the bridge adjacent to the building that was on fire. That has really impacted

00:27 businesses and we are very aware of that and we want to support them as much as we can.

00:32 We don't have any funding to do this, there is no funding being given to the council and

00:35 we don't have any specific funding for this and partly that's because we don't actually

00:39 have a statutory responsibility to do anything. However, we recognise that businesses in the

00:44 town are really struggling and we have been putting together a package of measures to

00:47 support them. From this afternoon, officers will be visiting those businesses who are

00:52 eligible to apply for small grants from us. The grant line will be open from Monday morning

00:57 but they will be given a letter today to advise them how to apply through that process to

01:01 get a small grant. It may go some way to try and alleviate the problems they have been

01:06 having. However, the most important thing we think we can do is to try and drive footfall

01:10 into the town. That's the most important thing for our businesses, they need that footfall

01:14 to increase, particularly in the run up to Christmas which is their busiest time normally.

01:19 What we are doing for that is, first of all we are giving free parking on street and in

01:24 council car parks. That will be from this Sunday and it will go right through to Sunday

01:29 the 8th of January. We are going to put out a marketing campaign, it will again start

01:34 this weekend. This is an extensive campaign covering channels like Google, Sky, YouTube

01:43 but also local press, national press, local and national radio, digital screens and a

01:49 significant social media campaign all to give that message. Airs open for business, we've

01:54 got a lot to offer. We've got great shops, we've got great destinations for restaurants

01:59 and we want people to come to the town and enjoy what Air has to offer. We feel it's

02:04 really important to make Air something that is a bit special, that gives people something

02:09 that they maybe wouldn't get elsewhere. So we are investing in a significantly increased

02:13 festive entertainment programme. We are going to have, particularly around Air Central,

02:17 which is right next to the train station, free activities every Saturday and Sunday.

02:23 That will start next Saturday and they will be free for all children and families to enjoy

02:28 a whole range of different activities, making Christmas decorations, glitter painting, there

02:37 will be choirs around the town at various points to add to the festive feel. There will

02:43 be some make your Christmas mocktails, there will be some VR headsets for older children

02:49 to experience the VR experience. So there's lots and lots that were planned over the course

02:55 of the next few weekends to make sure that there's lots to invite people into the town

02:58 to come and take part and enjoy. There's other partners as well, Air Gaiety, the theatre

03:03 in Air, they've got work happening in the town for people to come and see their activities.

03:08 At the Cutty Sark and the Green Exchange, which are the two buildings towards the bottom

03:11 of the town, we've got markets and entertainment on throughout December. So there's really

03:16 a lot to offer for people who want to come to Air and spend some time in the town.

03:20 Can you talk about figures, how much has been set aside for that and do you feel that the

03:24 government should be stepping up and helping out with that?

03:27 I think the real challenge that we've found around the whole incident with the station

03:30 hotel is that it would seem, which would seem rather strange, but the council is responsible

03:37 for that dangerous building and therefore we have to make sure that that building is

03:41 safe regardless of the cost to the council and regardless of the economic impact that's

03:45 having to the town. There is no national response in place to address that.

03:50 In terms of the funding for the businesses, because we're spending public money effectively,

03:55 we have to follow very strict procedures around approvals and around best value and around

04:01 evidencing that the money that we are paying out to businesses is valid. So we have to

04:05 go through approval processes to make that happen. So we are going to a cabinet next

04:10 week to seek approval for a sum of money to allow us to deliver grants to our businesses.

04:19 The government has helped out flooding victims, it was mentioned. Do you feel that it would

04:25 only be fair, considering the effect, the damaging effect that the fire has had to the

04:32 local shops, that the government steps up and maybe put some funding forward?

04:38 I think the leader of the council mentioned earlier that it's just by the fact that the

04:45 hotel is in our council area that that now makes us responsible and another council who

04:52 has no such buildings and none that would impact on road safety or commuter safety like

04:58 this one has, they don't have to find that funding. I think what the leader had said

05:02 earlier was it's significant. The work since the fire up until about Christmas will have

05:07 cost around £1.5 million alone but this has been going on for years and years and years

05:12 and this is all public money that's having to be spent from South Ayrshire. So my personal

05:18 view would be it would seem more appropriate that there would be a national response to

05:22 these types of situations but unfortunately that's not the case. The building was bought

05:25 several years ago by a Malaysian businessman and has really been just left to deteriorate

05:31 to the point where the building's fabric started to become loose and therefore was dangerous

05:36 to the public who were using the train station. So the council at that point had to take responsibility

05:41 because at that point it was then declared a dangerous building. We had to secure the

05:45 perimeter of it and we had to put encapsulation round it that you will have seen in the presentation.

05:51 So that, the scaffolding and the encapsulation, the council had to pay for and that again

05:55 was a revenue cost, thousands and thousands of pounds every month to have that in place

05:59 to prevent the building from, the fabric of the building, causing any potential serious

06:06 damage to people or property round about the actual building itself. So that's been in

06:11 place for a long time and separately we have been pursuing the owner of the building through

06:16 the appropriate legal channels. I think as you'd heard today we have, under the Dangerous

06:22 Buildings Act, we can take the building down until it is safe and that may include demolition.

06:28 We don't know that yet, that's a process that we have to work through. But if we get to

06:32 a point where the building can be declared safe but it's not yet demolished, we have

06:37 no powers to then take that down. And I think that's what the public maybe aren't quite

06:41 aware of. We want to be able to take it all away immediately, we want to open up the railway

06:46 as quickly as possible, but we have to follow the legal channels to allow us to do that

06:51 safely. Speaking about legal channels, can, the council have spent a great deal of money

06:57 on this building which it doesn't own. Can you and will you pursue this absentee landlord

07:04 for the funds? Yes, absolutely and we have been doing so. But again it's very challenging

07:08 when we are dealing with someone who's in Malaysia, who we are dealing with solicitors

07:14 over there and challenging his solicitors. So the processes will absolutely be followed

07:18 but the problem is it's very, very time consuming, very long drawn out and there really is no

07:24 clear sight of when this will come to an end. And the longer we pursue that, again the more

07:32 costs we are incurring in terms of legal costs and anything else associated with the building.

07:37 So it is a very challenging situation and one that does feel very unfortunate that this

07:43 could happen to any council who, as the leader said, could potentially be bankrupt because

07:48 of something like this that they have to continually manage for a long number of years. I believe

07:54 that the council have a plan in creating a transport hub, is that right? Yes, so the

07:58 council have been working with Network Rail, ScotRail, Stagecoach and other partners to

08:02 look at options to create a new transport hub at that end of the town. It's part of

08:08 a much wider master plan for air to degenerate Ayr Town Centre which includes an accessible

08:13 air project which is about making air more accessible for people to travel in and around

08:18 of and work to develop the Burns Tacky Square at the top of the town. So there's lots of

08:25 plans that have been developed and the one around the transport hub is going to our cabinet

08:31 in the next couple of weeks for approval to go out to consultation on that. So we will

08:34 be going out early in the new year and consultation to get people's views on what that would look

08:40 like and how they would use it and how they would move around Ayr as a result of that.

08:44 [Music playing]

08:49 [MUSIC]

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