AYR ADVERTISER: AYR IS TOP OF THE LIST FOR SEX OFFENDERS IN AYRSHIRE

From the Ayr Advertiser:

AYR tops the list for the highest number of sex criminals in Ayrshire – with 74 offenders recorded as residing in the community.

Shocking new figures reveal that as of February this year, 340 paedophiles, rapists and sex pests are currently known to be living in Ayrshire.

Figures, released by Police Scotland under the Freedom of Information act, state Ayr tops the list for registered sex criminals living in the community – higher than both Kilmarnock and Irvine.

However, the MP for Ayr, Carrick, and Cumnock has said only a small number pose a risk to the public.

There are currently 74 registered sex offenders in Ayr, with the KA7 area, including Alloway, housing 24, while the KA8 area has 50.

The Annbank and Mossblown postcode area (KA6 5) has three.

Three sex offenders live in Prestwick (KA9 1) with another three resident in Monkton (KA9 2).

Nine sex offenders live in the Troon and Barassie postcodes, with six in KA10 6 and three in KA10 7, while another four live in Symington (KA1 5).

A total of 17 registered sex offenders live throughout the Carrick area.

Maybole has nine offenders, with eight in the KA19 7 area, also including Kirkmichael, Crosshill and Straiton, with one in KA19 8 area, which also covers Kirkoswald and Minishant.

In the south of Carrick, the Girvan postcode of KA26 9, including Maidens, Turnberry, Barr, Daily and Old Daily has two, while the KA26 0 postcode, which also takes in Barrhill, Pinwherry, Pinmore, Ballantrae, Lendalfoot and Colmonell has six.

Dalrymple and Coylton postcode area of KA6 6 has two, with another two in Tarbolton (KA5 5).

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information act give numbers of Registered Sex Offenders resident in the post code area as of February 9, 2018.

Conservative MP Bill Grant said: “I realise that the thought of someone being a risk to a loved one or family member would be distressing.

“The figures appear to reflect the population spread in Ayrshire, rather than to indicate that a particular community has a greater problem than another.

“Anyone with information indicating a child could be at risk of harm should contact the police or social work department.”

They Serve Us: Ayrshire's MPs (2) Alan Brown, SNP

"Best no tae smile, Al."

Alan Brown is a 47-year-old ex-civil engineer and father of two who has been the Westminster MP for the Kilmarnock and Loudon constituency since the SNP landslide of 2015, when the party won almost all the Scottish seats in Westminster.

The most obvious point about Brown is his sheer nondescript appearance. In fact he is so bland, boring, and unremarkable that I suspect even his immediate family members have trouble remembering who he is, although the comically dark eyebrows probably help to remind them.

He is neither handsome nor ugly, neither young nor old, and wears the same kinds of boring suits that say "jumped-up local councillor," which is more or less what he is, having been washed into the Westminster Parliament, along with a lot of other SNP driftwood, on the 2015 electoral tsunami.

Brown has never distinguished himself in his political career in any way, and his name is also boring and forgettable. Indeed, with a name like that, he may as well be called "John Smith". The fact that he is married with two children and is a life-long supporter of the local football team makes him seem even more dull. 

If there was a competition to choose the dullest MP at Westminster, he would be in with a great chance, even though his wife is reportedly American. 

Probably the most noticeable thing about him for people not from Ayrshire is his thick Ayrshire accent, which was even commented on by Russia Today.

This makes him sound somewhat unintelligent to outsiders, an impression reinforced by his limited input into parliamentary debates, where he never says anything of interest or out of the ordinary -- or maybe the journalists just can't pick it up.

Most of his fellow members of Parliament probably put him in the same mental pocket as Mhairi Black, the young SNP MP from Paisley, as yet another unintelligible Scottish MP sent South by the SNP merely to make the point that Scots don't belong in the UK.

Sadly, Brown is too boring to even reinforce this impression much. Now, if only he were a sour-faced, lesbian school leaver with a voice like an echo in a coal mine, like Ms. Black, he might stick in the English craw much more and help widen the schism between the two nations. But alas he is only a grey shadow with a pair of eyebrows on the SNP benches. 

Anyway, this is no way to represent the constituents of Kilmarnock and Loudon.

AYR - A TIMELINE

1197 A castle is built by the River Ayr

1205 King William the Lion creates a burgh at Ayr. The town has weekly markets.

1230 Dominican Friars (Black Friars) establish their monastery in Ayr.

1261 Ayr is granted an annual fair. Ayr is a busy port with a population of about 1,500.

1301-1312 Ayr is occupied by the English.

1315 A Scottish parliament meets in Ayr.

1534 Loudon Hall is first mentioned.

1545 The Plague strikes Ayr but it soon recovers

1647 The Plague strikes Ayr again. The town now has a population of over 2,000.

1652 Oliver Cromwell's men build a fort at Ayr to control the West of Scotland.

1760 Sir Thomas Wallace creates Wallacetown. Wool and linen are produced in Ayr.

1788 The New Bridge is built.

1796 Ayr Academy is founded.

1801 Ayr parish has a population of almost 5,500. Newton has a population of 1,700, giving a combind total of 7,200.

1823 The Burns Monument is erected.

1826 The streets of Ayr are lit by gas.

1830 The Town Buildings are erected.

1840 The railway reaches Ayr from Glasgow.

1842 Ayr gains a modern water supply.

1893 The Carnegie Library is built.

1901 Ayr has a population of 31,000.
Electric trams begin to run in the streets of Ayr.

1911 A pavilion is built.

1931 The trams stop.

1936 McAdam's Monument is built.

1951 The population of Ayr grows to 44,000.

1965 Craigie College is founded.

1971 The Ayr by-pass is built.

MAP OF AYR IN 1775

Click to enlarge

The 1775 Armstrong map shows the town of Ayr as a developing market town with a military past and a few budding industries.

The dominant feature is the Fort, which was constructed in the Commonwealth period in the 1650s when Cromwell's troops occupied the town and used it as a key base to control the West of Scotland. Following the Restoration in 1660, the Fort was closed and fell into disuse, with its buildings being dismantled or gradually becoming part of the town.

On this map we can see some of the buildings inside the fort have been converted into a brewery.

Between the fort and the river, the sugar house testifies to Ayr's far-flung trading connections, as sugar was imported from the West Indies.

Another notable feature of the town are the twin piers on each side of the River Ayr that protected the harbour mouth from shifting sands. This river harbour, like the one further North at Irvine, would have had to have been regularly dredged.

It also noticeable on this map that the New Town of Ayr, on the North of the river, is almost as big as the Old Town. This was an area that grew up around the town's coal trade, which "fuelled" its exports and led to other industries, like the lime kiln shown on the map that produced quicklime. Ayrshire is rich in shells and limestone which can be used in making quicklime.

When Daniel Defoe, the famous writer, visited Ayr around 70 years before this map was made, he saw the town as run-down and decayed:

"The capital of this country is Air, a sea-port, and as they tell us, was formerly a large city, had a good harbour, and a great trade: I must acknowledge to you, that tho' I believe it never was a city, yet it has certainly been a good town, and much bigger than it is now: At present like an old beauty, it shews the ruins of a good face; but is also apparently not only decay'd and declin'd, but decaying and declining every day, and from being the fifth town in Scotland, as the townsmen say, is now like a place so saken; the reason of its decay, is, the decay of its trade, so true is it, that commerce is the life of nations, of cities towns, harbours, and of the whole prosperity of a country: What the reason of the decay of trade here was, or when it first began to decay, is hard to determine; nor are the people free to tell, and, perhaps, do not know themselves. There is a good river here, and a handsome stone bridge of four arches."

However, it seems by this time the town was enjoying growth with a successful mixed economy and an industrious population of between four and five thousand.