New Cumnock Community Action Plan gathers ideas for future ambitions

With the newly redeveloped town hall and outdoor swimming pool already open for business, NCAP invited the public along to the town hall on Thursday, July 13, to come up with new priorities to take the plan forward.

The Action Plan Group’s chair Ian Harper said: “New Cumnock has moved on since it was claimed to be the worst town in Scotland. The people who live here have pulled together and managed to move things forward faster than we though they would. We cannot lose momentum and must keep the project going to achieve better goals.”

Ciss McCreadie from East Ayrshire Vibrant Communities said: “What we wanted to do was look at what we have done and what we have achieved and look at what New Cumnock wants to see as its next projects.

“It’s impossible to work on every single priority at the same time so New Cumnock really has to be quite clever at choosing which ones they want to do. At the very beginning it was the quick ones so they did some litter picks and tidied up the river.

“What else does New Cumnock want to do?”

Members from the NCAP committee along with members of the public were split into three groups to discuss three of the plan’s five themes: Group one – community and recreational facilities; Group two – local economy, tourism and jobs and; Group three – environment, heritage and recreation.

After their discussions, a representative from each group outlined what they felt was the next priority for New Cumnock.

Group one’s representative said: “We need an outdoor gym somewhere in the village. It is somewhere for the people to meet and it contributes to the health and wellbeing of the people.

“What we would like to see being developed next is the derelict buildings. That is the main problem with this place.”

For group two, better clarity was key issue. Their spokesman said: “The two things we wanted were public toilets – we never knew that you could use the ones in here, that they were public toilets – that gives on to a sort of secondary first subject and that’s signage. We need decent signage because if there are toilets here we should tell people.

“That then leads on to that we need somewhere for a cup of tea, a cafe or decent restaurant or pub and that creates jobs and is good for the economy.

“We would agree with the others about a sports centre. We think there should be something done about that.”

For group three, the environment was the main concern. Their representative said: “We spoke about an adopt a street scheme where members of the community can take pride in their street and to expand on the work at the river.

“The other thing was the pursuing of the heritage centre and keeping that on the agenda and at the forefront to make sure it doesn’t get put t the side and forgotten about.”