It is 20 years since the people of Millport fought to save the historic Garrison building

The famous Garrison building on Millport has had a chequered history, none more so than during the past two decades, with a dramatic protest to save the building, a damaging blaze, and its marvellous restoration.
This year is the 20th anniversary of a special episode in island history which has largely gone unrecognised - a sit in protest by a group of fearless local residents when the building was at great risk of closure.
A glance back in the Largs and Millport News files finds little about this story at the time, due to the secret tactics employed by the protesters; the element of surprise was an important factor in their bid to save the building.
If you type in ‘Millport’, ‘Garrison’ and ‘protest’ into Google, again, no details of any such event, so it is only right 20 years on that we cover the story and look back at the incredible battle to save the building from rack and ruin.
The only reference is a book which was produced by one of the protesters John Burtt several years ago ‘Sit in to Move In - How the Garrison was Saved’, and a photo on the entrance to the Garrison of some of the protesters, who went on to become early board members, on the opening day of the Garrison after renovation in 2008,
Former island bookie, John Burtt recalled: “It was important that the protest happened. North Ayrshire Council had said that they were going to close the Garrison down - it was about the last week in January. The proposal was raised at one of their council meetings, and one of the councillors said ‘Let them sink’ and they all had a good laugh. That was the rock they perished on. The bottom line was that the Garrison was going to close, and we, as an island, had to do something about it. There was no way it was going to close if that was their attitude. We just got some guys together, and thankfully everyone had the same mindset. There was pressure put on us, but despite this, nobody buckled.”
The main reason for the closure was that the insurance company required £55,000 of work to be carried out to meet their renewal requirements. A meeting was held in Fraser’s Bar on 31 January 1997 after the council meeting, and MP Brian Wilson was enlisted to find out exactly what the insurance company required for renewal of the building. However, it was found that the insurance company was requiring much less, mainly relating to the floor covering up to and in the main office, amounting to just a few hundred pounds. This knowledge re-inforced the stance of the islanders’ commitment to save the Garrison. They believed the closure wasn’t necessary - and this was the proof. 
John said: “We didn’t do any shouting or big placards, we just decided to go and sit in the Garrison and said ‘You are not closing it’. It was good to be a part of. There were eight protesters in all - and when the day came that they were going to take the books away from the library, we made sure we were there, and we told them we weren’t allowing them to take any of the books out.”
When the library staff arrived on Wednesday morning, they were informed by the protesters that not one book would allowed to be taken from the building to which they replied they would have to alert their bosses. A number of phone calls followed between North Ayrshire Council, Brian Wilson and the protest group. 
John recalled: “You have to remember that there were no mobile phones back then, I got called up the stairs, and Brian Wilson turned up on the scene. He agreed with us. We were not willing to budge - and we managed to get assurances that the matter would be looked into, and something would be sorted out. We had said to them that we were ready to fax our story with details regarding the insurance findings to four national newspapers, the BBC, and STV, and that was it, ten minutes later, they phoned back and it was only then they realised how important it was to not just us, but the island itself.”
“There were no big signs or music or anything - we just sat there. Everyone did really well, and not one of them wavered. Nobody was for moving. And from that day on, we concentrated on getting new funding for the Garrison.” 
However, the fervent hope to restore the Garrison to a modern build for the community hit a major setback in 2001 with the blaze. Tears were shed by some of the oldest residents on the island, but Jim Hamilton of the steering group vowed to the ‘News’ that day that efforts would be re-doubled to resurrect the Garrison - like a Phoenix rising from the flames.