One of the big, unanswered question in Ayrshire is: What the f*** are they planning to do with the Ardeer Peninsula?
Situated between Irvine, Kilwinning, and Stevenston, the peninsula sits between the sea and the estuary of the Garnock River and has one of the longest beaches in Scotland. This should be prime real estate.
However, it was also once the site of a large explosives factory owned by the same guy who came up with the Nobel Prize. That facility was spread out over a very wide area for obvious safety reasons. Since then it has been something of a post-industrial wasteland.
There is supposed to be a plan to develop the site and realise its full potential. The Daily Record reported on it back in 2016:
Ambitious plans to transform Irvine harbour and Ardeer peninsula were revealed today. Another leisure centre called the ‘Aqua Dome’ could be built alongside plans to build Scotland’s tallest climbing wall and thousands of homes.
"Could be built"....hmmm, that doesn't sound too precise. Is this really a plan or is it just a council seance? Anyway, let's read on:
North Ayrshire Council and the NPL Group outlined the multi-million pound plans to transform the area at Irvine’s abandoned Big Idea facility this morning. Plans would also include a new 'iconic' bascule road bridge uniting Irvine harbourside and Ardeer peninsula. The exciting proposals form a key component of the Ayrshire Growth Deal (AGD).
Described as aspirational by Council Leader Joe Cullinane, the vision is to connect the two areas, build world-class cultural and leisure facilities. This should unlock the potential of Scotland’s longest most accessible beach and will be one of the largest regeneration projects in Scotland.
At the Harbourside, the council is keen to work in partnership with the Scottish Maritime Museum to try and bring a Maritime Mile – which will include a range of exhibitions, cafes and other attractions – to the area.
There are also plans to create Scotland’s biggest outdoor climbing wall which will be part of an iconic new structure and activity and play area.
It’s hoped this will put Irvine on the map in the same way the Kelpies have with Falkirk.
The former watchtower, called the Pilot House, will also be redeveloped, while there will be plans to have regular Water and Light events at the Beach Park.
Core to the plans is an iconic new road bridge that will connect Irvine to the Ardeer Peninsula. The Ardeer Peninsula has a 964 hectares brownfield site where there are plans to develop a new marina and create hundreds of coastal and community houses – that utilise low-cost, sustainable power supplies. The council and NPL Group – who are the area’s main landowner – are also exploring the possibility of developing an Eco Park at land that is identified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The national-scale leisure facility is also being considered, along with the redevelopment of the Big Idea.
Really, this sounds a wee bit pie in the sky, a sort of "all or nothing" scheme. Remember, the Big Idea museum that was built on the peninsula for the Millennium cost £20 million, 85% of it taxpayer's money, and that bombed, closing after 3 years. And this sound like more of the same.
My advice is to build the road and the bridge, connecting Irvine to Ardeer and open up the peninsula to commercially driven development, like housing and maybe a caravan park or two, and a site for birdwatching. Then how about a golf course? I've got a feeling Trump would be interested.
If that starts to create positive returns, then look at other ways the area can be developed and enhanced. The thing to do, however, is to avoid big, stupid plans that threaten to eat up and waste tens of millions in government spending that merely develops our corrupt banking sector and debt economy rather than our land and people.
Anyway, that optimistic if airy Daily Record story was four years ago, and nothing at all has happened since. Things are, as usual, moving slowly in North Ayrshire with its moribund public-sector-driven economy.
The most recent update I could find on this was a piece in the Irvine Times from July 2020 which mentions objections from people in Stevenston to the plan to build merely a footbridge to the peninsula.
Representatives from Stevenston’s community council wrote to North Ayrshire Council asking that they remove the Ardeer side from their Ayrshire Growth Deal plans to develop the Irvine Harbourside area....Treasurer Don Campbell said: “A footbridge is essentially a physical and economic bypass of Stevenston. Local people want visitors to the Ardeer Peninsula, and the associated spend, to come through Stevenston rather than Irvine.”
Yes, so instead of just walking across the bridge from Irvine and being on the peninsula in seconds, the good burghers of Stevenston want you to get in your car, drive all the way to Stevenston, via the busy and often congested Morrison roundabout, park at Ardeer, and then walk the three or four miles down the coast to reach the tip of the peninsula. Really!
“These plans represent the kind of Irvine-centric thinking that has severely disadvantaged Stevenston over the years. The council’s bias towards Irvine is so entrenched and so implicit in their thinking that I’m not sure they even realise how inappropriate it is to propose making Irvine the main access point to the southern Ardeer Peninsula.”
Lol, this is rampant Nimbyism of the worst sort.
Chair Ian Winton said: “This is not regeneration. Taking a critically important asset and damaging it is the opposite of regeneration –it’ll damage the area and its prospects. The community are keen for the southern peninsula, with its forests, sand dunes and heathery heathlands, to be protected from any development and used as the basis for green tourism in Stevenston.”
In other words, the Ardeer Peninsula is set to remain a post-industrial wasteland for some time yet.
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