A FAIRLIE community councillor is calling for a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the horrific lorry crash that devastated the village to be reopened.

David Telford believes that there is new evidence regarding the history of the roads and the area which should now be taken into consideration as the sixth anniversary of the tragedy nears.

Mr Telford believes important information about original planning decisions going back to the 1970s in terms of lorry use and the local roads network was never allowed before the presiding sheriff.

Village resident Catherine Bonner died in her house while she was watching the television on the afternoon of 14 February 2013.

The lorry driver blacked out and the crash could not have been prevented, a sheriff ruled at a fatal accident enquiry in January 2017.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry heard from a consultant neurologist who said driver George Marshall had a medical condition he was unaware of.

Sheriff Iona McDonald said the accident was a "tragic conjunction of circumstances."

However, Mr Telford has called for the probe to be re-opened and called on MSP Kenneth Gibson to step in.

Mr Telford said: "In my view it could not be clearer that new evidence exists and that every attempt was made by Fairlie Community Council to have that evidence heard at the original inquiry.

"It is not in any way clear to me why the inquiry refused to hear it."

He added: "When the FAI was eventually announced, Mr Gibson was clear in his view that the community council should be allowed to give evidence at the same. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that the sheriff specifically denied Fairlie Community Council the opportunity to give evidence at the FAI and thus guaranteed a whitewash of the oft repeated concerns as to why there had been no operational safety control whatsoever of commercial coal lorries travelling North from Clydeport. This traffic was in clear breach of existing planning permission for the Hunterston Port.

"If all of this seems an unnecessary and a painful reflection on past events, then it may also be worth noting that North Ayrshire Council’s recent planning permission to allow the decommission of oil and gas platforms at Hunterston will again lead to thousands of lorries, carrying many thousands of tonnes of potentially dangerous waste, once more traversing the Victorian streets of the village."

Abigail Bremner, of the Scottish Government's Justice and Social Affairs Research Unit, said: "The Lord Advocate has to consider whether there are circumstances giving rise to serious public concern when deciding whether to hold certain FAIs. This gives more leeway for external interests to demonstrate serious public concern.

"Ultimately the Lord Advocate has the power to re-open an FAI if he considers that the statutory requirements are met.

"No MSP can demand that the Lord Advocate does anything."