The BID business group have expressed delight that their new park and ride scheme has been given the all clear by North Ayrshire Council - and could be up and running in time for the ‘Largs Food Fest’ on the weekend of 23 May.

The greenfield site in land adjacent to Largs Yacht Haven, next to the A78 trunk road between Largs and Fairlie, will be used for the site which will have room for 220 cars, eight buses, motorcycling parking, and six disabled spaces. Additional signage on the access roads to Largs will point the way to the new Park and Ride facility.

The access point will be 115m south of the marina entrance, just outside the 30mph sign entry, to comply with Transport Scotland guidelines, and offers good sightlines, according to BID director Eric McMillan.

It will be a free parking facility, and the ground is being leased by Largs BId from Kelburn Estates.

Mr McMillan said: “It is aimed to be a seasonal facility, and will hopefully reduce the pressures on the town during peak season and when hosting big events, and also, we hope it will attract more events to the south area of the prom at the Pencil, and it will also be beneficial for the likes of the Pencil fireworks display, and the Largs fun day at Broomfields.” “There will be signage to direct people to the facility prior to them passing into Largs to encourage them to use the new car park, and at peak times, we have plans to have marshals out encouraging people to use the facility.

“We hope that it will be up and running for May, and we are about to get moving with the construction work.” Mr McMillan explained that the facility would be given a trial run throughout this year and an appraisal will be carried out at the end of the year as to whether it is considered successful or not, and could be possibily expanded in future. “It is testing the water initially,” the director explained, “and there is more ground to extend it to accommodate 500 cars on the grounds depending upon the uptake.” “We are hoping that over time we will encourage private individuals to provide some facilities associated with it including bike hire, or a boat service, in and out of the town centre, and convince local bus operators to extend their route to include the car park so that it would be a true park and ride facility. At present, it will have good access, as it is positioned next to the bus stop at Largs marina, or you can walk or cycle into town. The pathway from the Pencil to Anthony Road has been a fantastic facility, and there is an increased awareness of healthy activities such as walking and cycling. It is hoped that there could be more events focused around the Pencil, and it will also be beneficial for Largs marina, and Kelburn. It will be very visible.” The opening area will be tarmac, with a hardened area to allow buses and cars to turn, while the parking area will be grass surface.

Mr McMillan said: “As it is based on grass, it might not be used during winter periods or heavy rain, and that is when we need to make a judgment whether to open it or not, although those are the days when the tourism side won’t be as a dense, and people can find parking in town.

“If you go to any outdoor event, like The Open golf, you have marshals who direct you when there is high pressure for parking on grass, and we hope it will be very similar.

“We may put down pins with plastic taped off areas as we see fit for where to park, and where not to, but there would be signage for that. We hope to position people coming down the Haylie Brae, so that they could go to the facility direct. It has been a real team effort behind the scenes with the planning sub-committee of the Largs BID group to get to this stage, and well done to all of them.”