Craig meets staff making a difference during Three Towns visit

The visit was part of a series of Locality Visits that Marie and Craig have been involved in over the past three years.

The aim of these visits is for them to meet council staff, and also people working in partnership with the council, at a variety of programmes and projects.

The projects visited included:

• Fitzsimmons Wynd – £5million housing development of general needs houses, amenity bungalows and homes suitable for wheelchair users. It was supported by £2m of Scottish Government funding. The development, at the site of the former James McFarlane (ASN) School, was officially opened in June and includes 19 new energy-efficient council homes. The development was delivered alongside partners hub South West and construction partner Ashleigh (Scotland) Limited. The development is called Fitzsimmons Wynd after the last Provost of Ardrossan, John Henry Fitzsimmons.
• Ardrossan Low-Carbon Hub – was established to improve local active travel routes and install low carbon transport facilities in Ardrossan. This includes: electric vehicle charging hubs at Ardrossan Harbour and Ardrossan South Beach, cycle hubs at Ardeer and Ardrossan South beach with ebike charging, cycle storage, and bike maintenance equipment, Active Travel information and signage, with 1km of new and upgraded paths, creating a more cohesive town path network.
• Ardrossan Coastal Path – The path has been designed and constructed in partnership between North Ayrshire Council and Sustrans, through £1.5 million Scottish Government funding via Sustrans’ National Cycle Network Development programme. The new link extends to approximately 850m in length with wider active travel connections of over 1.2km.

Craig said: “Our locality visits have proved extremely rewarding and we were delighted to visit Ardrossan to learn more a number of key projects for the area. It was great to visit Fitzsimmons Wynd, meet the contractor and have a look around one of the properties. I was really impressed at the properties both visually and from a practical perspective.

“Speaking to one of our tenants was also really helpful and she had only positive things to say – it was great to hear and testament to the hard work and expertise of our teams.

“The Low Carbon Hub is part of our sustainable council journey and it was again great to see the growing network of paths and active travel infrastructure within our communities. The new Coastal Path is another fantastic addition with some amazing views for people.

“The northern end connects the recently constructed North Crescent Coastal Path. To the south, the path provides a safe, off-road route to Ardrossan Harbour, complemented by the recently improved path to Ardrossan Harbour Station.

“The new revetment wall was extremely impressive and it was great to learn that  revetment rock armour was sourced in Ayrshire instead of the norm of Glensanda, in the Highlands, or further afield in Norway.

“It was great to chat to the staff involved in all these projects and a massive thanks to them for their hard work in making projects a reality.”