PLANS to breathe new life into Ayr town centre will point the way towards a "bright future" for the town - and will put "myths to bed" amid rumours of a ban on cars and road closures, according to a senior councillor.

Councillor Alec Clark, who is the tourism portfolio holder for South Ayrshire Council, waxed lyrical about the work being planned for the town following the announcement of £20m in funding for the town.

The money has been allocated to the town centre after the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund announced the award of cash for a major new facility at Prestwick Airport - freeing up the £20m for other purposes.

Cllr Clark was speaking as a council meeting discussed a report on the authority's Ayr Town Centre Framework and an imminent public consultation on the proposal.s

He insisted that sceptics will come round once they see work taking place on the ground.

"I can understand a lot of cynicism, which you can see on social media quite often," he said.

“When you put it all together, there is a really bright future for the county town.

“When people actually see something happening, I think the cynicism will turn around.

“Ayr will have a very bright future.”

Councillor Martin Dowey, the local authority's leader, said that it was important to make the action a reality.

He said: “This is a very good paper for the town centre.

“We have talked about this, and talked about this, from before I was a councillor.

“We have got funding for it now, and we have a plan and things are moving.

"The last thing the public needs is another plan that gets put on the shelf.”

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Councillor Dowey added that the public consultation, which will run for eight weeks, gives the council the chance to "put some myths to bed".

“The amount of emails I get saying the town is going to be shut and there aren’t going to be any cars, which is nonsense," he continued.

“If they don’t know, it they make it up. We need to get the proper information out there for that.”

Councillor Bob Pollock was positive about the plan, but said it wasn’t a simple piece of work.

He said: “One of the things you need to understand is the complexity of this. To get this right is going to take time and effort, particularly in engagement with the public, to get their buy-in and bring them along with what we are proposing to do.

“Getting a fully functioning hub for transport around the railway station is key. 

"There are lots of moving pieces around this and the sooner we start to explain what we are trying to do with this and can get their response, the better.

“I totally agree that we have talked about redeveloping the town for a long, long time.

“It is time to start delivering, and I am confident this administration is going to do that.”