Ardrossan: Glen Sannox not coming here is big loss, the whole town will be neglected

Greig Peters opened a bar and bistro in the seaside town of Ardrossan just nine months ago.

His business, the Rendezvous Bar & Bistro, relies heavily on regular customers travelling to the Scottish mainland from Arran who like to pop in for a drink after doing some shopping.

However, local businesses won’t benefit from the new Glen Sannox ferry as it will ply a route between Troon and Brodick.

The MV Caledonian Isles will still run from the North Ayrshire town – but she’s out for repair until at least March. That means there now no scheduled ferries at all from Ardrossan to Brodick for the next two months.

“It’s a major loss to Ardrossan. It’s a lot of footfall,” Greig told STV News.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people a year who come through Ardrossan to go to Arran. Visitors, sightseers. I feel the whole town will be neglected.

“If the ferry is cancelled, they pop in here because the train station is next door, so they all have a wee drink, or have something to eat. Then wait for the replacement buses.”

That fear for the future is shared by many in the town and prompted some locals to start a campaign called “Save Ardrossan Harbour”.

Campaigner Francis Gilmour said: “Absolutely devastated that the ferry is going to go to Troon. It should be going here. We have the links here.

“We started this campaign about five months ago and the amount of support we got is utterly amazing. So lots of peopel feel like us.

“We have a petition coming as wll. But we’re just devastated. In fact we had somebody down here at our rally last month and she was in tears, absolute tears watching the ferry come in and the thought of it going elsewhere.”

The Glen Sannox is going to Troon because it is too big to fit Ardrossan’s harbour, which is privately owned by Peel Ports.

The town was promised a new harbour back in 2018 but no progress has been made amid deadlock over who pays for the upgrade.

Pamela Campbell has been grooming dogs here in Ardrossan for the last seven years, with many of her clients coming from Arran.

She said: “We’ve been grooming the dogs for a lot of years and we are a reliable service for the islanders to come and go and this is the nearest groomer to the island and we’re going to lose a lot of business.

“The traffic to and from here is bringing us passing trade, not just for myself as a groomer, but for the shops and cafes. We’ve just had a new restaurant open along the road. So for the town itself, it’s going to be a huge, huge loss.”

Transport Scotland say they want the Arran ferry service fit for the future and insist they want to find a solution at Ardrossan that can be “delivered in a cost effective way”.

The town has been linked with Arran for almost 200 years, but locals say it now feels like they are in unchartered waters.

Campaigner Matthew McGowan said: “I’m sure you’ve seen the plans for the very fancy development, nobody cares. Nobody wants that.

“We want the boats to be able to come into the harbour. the ferry terminal building is fine as is. We don’t need any extras. Nobody wants that in this area. We just want the boats to come in. All the nice things can be fixed down the road.

“Throughout all this I’ve been thinking it’s going to be alright. It’s all going to come together.

“But I’m getting to the stage that I think that’s it. That I’ll see the Glen Sannox passing as it goes to Troon. I’m getting really close to the stage and getting very concerned that I think this is it for Ardrossan.”