A villager in Fairlie said at a public meeting that she would be willing to offer MSP Kenneth Gibson bed and breakfast to hear for himself the impact of lorries passing through the village.

Around 50 villagers attended a Fairlie action meeting last week in relation to coal lorries, and road safety - as a call was made for lorries to be banned through the village.

Caroline Briggs, who chaired the meeting said that MSP Kenneth Gibson would be very interested to see the number of people attending.

And Mrs Nancy Wray of Ferry Row, Fairlie said: “I would offer him bed and breakfast - so he can hear for himself the lorries that come thumping through at 6am.” It was agreed at the meeting to present a joint letter to NAC, MSP Kenneth Gibson, Fergussons Coal and Keith Brown, Minister of Transport, concerning road safety in the village.

A petition has also been set up in the village, and has already attracted 500 signatures, and MSP Kenneth Gibson has been invited to the next action meeting which will take place at the Village Hall on Tuesday 22 July at 7pm. The public are welcome to attend.

Caroline Briggs, who chaired the meeting, said: “Everyone can prepare a personal statement for inclusion into the letters stating how the road safety and coal lorries are affecting them - please send these to me to collate by the 20th July - email fairliesaferoads@gmail.com” Fairlie community councillor John Riddell said he had spoken to Cunninghame North MSP Kenneth Gibson in relation to bringing in 20mph limits for lorries over a certain tonnage, but the matter would have to go before Transport Scotland, which could take a lot of time.

Another community councillor David Telford argued that the coal lorry companies have paid their road tax, and any protest on the road would be pointless, but did say that obtaining a legal opinion on the operation at Clydeport and that the general operation of coal lorries could be challenged, as he questioned how they actually had received permission to transport coal materials to and from the site by this method.

He said: “The original planning brief was that coal materials could only leave by ship and by rail and vice versa - this is where the difficulty arises.

“I don’t understand when this changed - why does nobody look at the operational consequences and whether the original planning conditions have been breached.” Since the meeting, Mr Telford has written to Conservative councillor Tom Marshall after he pointed out at Monday night Fairlie Community Council meeting that North Ayrshire Council planners were of the view that no breach of the original planning conditions for the Hunterston Port had taken place by the introduction of a significant road and lorry based movement of bulk material.

Mr Telford commented: “I personally find that very hard to believe! That being the case, I have asked Cllr. Marshall for a chapter and verse explanation from the NAC officers of why they did not feel it necessary to revisit the original planning consent for the port when the lorry based operation was initially proposed.” However, Mr Riddell pointed out that there are open cast coal mines that do not have rail links.

Questions from the floor about a Fairlie bypass were answered by Mr Telford who stated that Fairlie Council’s bid to the bypass line to be maintained was blocked, and was taken to the courts, but ‘we were eventually turned down on the most spurious of grounds’, and housing for Dawn Homes is now to be built on the original bypass line.

Community councillor Rita Homes stated that something should be done about the excessive noise of the empty lorries coming through the village, and asked for noise protection to stop them ‘rattling about’, and added: “I don’t even thing the doors are fixed shut properly.” Village Ron Cooper said that while there were certain areas of the road that had been recently upgraded, within a number of months after each revamp, the same problem develops. He said: “The road actually needs dug-up and re-bottomed. It can’t take the weight of the heavy vehicles.” Mr Telford agreed and said: “It is not up to the modern trunk road standards - it is an upgraded horse and cart track.” Fairlie man Graham Murray disputed that Seamill and other areas should take on the burden of the lorries, and said that Seamill was in a similar predicament, and had narrow stretches of road, He said: “We have got to hit this matter on the head - there should be no lorries running through these villages - Clydeport have got to be told that we are no longer prepared to put up with lorries coming through the village - there has got to find another means. We have got to go all the way.” Mr Riddell did confirm that speed warning flashing signs would be introduced to the village after the Commonwealth Games.