North Ayrshire Council is to launch a consultation event over the proposed route of the new Fairlie shore path.

Local Fairlie resident, Cllr Alan Hill took the opportunity to discuss the proposed plans with members of the Fairlie Community Trust (FCT) at their recent AGM.

Council officers have been working closely with FCT on this project. The aim is to deliver the new shore path along a route from the south car park to Bay Street in two phases. Phase I will see a new path built from Bay Street to the foot of The Causeway. Phase II will then run from The Causeway to the south car park and also include improvements to the cycle track all the way to Hunterston Power Station.

Commenting Cllr Alan Hill said, “Following the recent tragic accident within our village, we resolved to do what we could to deliver a safe all abilities route through Fairlie that will allow local residents and those in wheelchairs or pushing prams to get from one end of the village to the other without having to travel along the extremely busy A78. I am very pleased that we are now starting to see some real progress here and am certain that this will be welcomed by local residents.

Fairlie Community Trust have been working on a section of this pathway for a couple of years and the council very much hopes to be able to deliver this project in partnership with them. I am delighted that we are now at a stage where we can launch a public consultation over the proposed plans. This will be held around the end of this month, most probably in the village hall.

The proposal is subject to delivery of external funding from SUSTRANS. The result of our application for funding which will be announced by them in late Spring and with a fair wind we will see phase I delivered in the course of this year.

I’d like to pay tribute to the officers of North Ayrshire Council who have been involved in this project for all of their hard work and hope that this will shortly start to bear some fruit.

I’d very much like to thank John Riddell and the members of Fairlie Community Trust for the hard work that they have put into developing this proposal over the last few years and also to the Fairlie Safe Roads and Pavements Group who have been campaigning for safe routes through our village. I was very pleased with the positive reception that the proposals received at the FCT AGM and hopefully by continuing to work together we will see some real progress very soon.”