Festive message from Councillor Douglas Reid: December 2019
I’m sure you’ll agree that 2019 has flown by and as I look back over the last twelve months, I’m so proud of everything that the Council has achieved with, and for, its residents.
It’s very gratifying to see the results of so much hard work, time and energy coming to fruition such as our new council houses at Andrew Nisbet Place in Hurlford and Carskeoch Drive in Patna, and we’ve still got over 800 more houses due to be built over the next five years including 67 at Tinto Avenue in Bellfield which should be completed in early 2020.
We’ve been working hard to tackle child poverty and as part of our efforts, over 22,000 free lunches were provided to 5000 children over 400 sessions at 60 different venues during school holidays.
We’re excited about developments happening in education, especially in early years where we have 26 establishments either already open, being refurbished or under construction all the way from Kilmaurs and Nether Robertland to Netherthird. We’re also particularly looking forward to the opening of the Barony Campus in Cumnock next August and I’m pleased to see work progressing well at the new Loanhead Primary School in Kilmarnock, which I used to attend just a few years ago myself!
In our communities, we supported the development of a number of projects including Ochiltree Community Hub. The new £1.8 million facility opened in July following a successful community asset transfer and has already won a SURF award just this month for the positive difference it is making to the whole community. This project is a perfect example of what can be achieved when a community is empowered to make its own decisions and we look forward to continuing to support projects like these next year.
We have also progressed well with regeneration plans for Kilmarnock and Galston which we hope will encourage others to invest in these towns, and our ‘Vow to Wow’ campaign has been creating a real buzz in Kilmarnock town centre with residents and local businesses pledging to use their skills, talents and passion for Kilmarnock to make it a more attractive, safer and more vibrant town.
2019 has also been a year in which we have celebrated football, a topic very close to my heart! We helped Kilmarnock Football Club to mark its 150th anniversary and we welcomed members of Bill Shankly’s family to the village of Glenbuck which has been redeveloped as part of the overall restoration of opencast sites across East Ayrshire. The famous Shankly memorial has been relocated to the plot where the Shankly family home once stood and a new memorial now commemorates the famous Cherrypickers. The whole site is one of great sentimental significance to the Shankly family, the local community and the footballing community, and we will be exploring some exciting proposals for the area over the coming months.
I am very much looking forward to another exciting year in East Ayrshire in 2020 and would like to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Councillor Douglas Reid
Leader of East Ayrshire Council