A KEY road near the fire-scarred Station Hotel in Ayr has fully reopened to traffic.

Council bosses say Station Bridge Road fully reopened on Wednesday, December 20.

It had been closed to vehicles since the devastating fire that caused major damage to the B-listed building on September 25.

The news comes as a shuttle train service between Ayr and Prestwick Town - introduced as a stop-gap earlier this month following the blaze nearly three months ago - suffers a second day of cancellations.

ScotRail announced cancellations to the shuttle service on Tuesday, blaming an "unsafe building".

But South Ayrshire Council says that while the fire-damaged structure is safe enough for Station Bridge Road to reopen, a weather warning for high winds makes it too risky to run the train service.

A Met Office 'be aware' weather warning is in place for Ayrshire - and the whole of Scotland - from midnight until 9pm on Thursday, December 21, with wind speeds in Ayr forecast to reach up to 56 miles per hour.

However, gusts of 30-40mph are expected during Wednesday, with winds of 30mph or more expected to persist until Christmas Day.

A council spokesperson said: "We can confirm that all four lanes have now reopened at Station Bridge Road to allow traffic to cross to and from Ayr Town Centre.

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"We’ll continue to keep you updated on the safety works at the former Station Hotel building as more information becomes available.

“Our priority during these safety works is to protect the public at all times.

"As part of the monitoring of the safety work, concerns were identified that the wall of the building on the trackside was now presenting a potential risk during high winds.

"With this in mind, until the matter can be fully assessed and resolved, the decision has been taken by ScotRail to temporarily suspend the shuttle diesel train service between Prestwick Town and Ayr.

"In the meantime a ScotRail bus service will run passengers between Prestwick Town and Ayr and back."

Work on stabilising the former hotel building means ScotRail is unable to run its full electric train service between Ayr and Glasgow, while buses are also replacing trains between Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer.