COMMUNITY Spirit and admiration is still prevalent in Ardrossan, a year after the town held its collective breath as the Scottish Government announced that it would continue as the home port for the Arran ferry.

And now, as one million passengers get set to travel between Ardrossan and Brodick, we spoke to some of the key players to see where things were 12 months on.

The campaign was cross-party, non-partisan and saw a wide range of locals banding together to warn off Troon’s predatory bid to poach our ferry service.

Community activism was key and this has been recognised as one of the main driving factors behind the campaign.

North Ayrshire’s MSP, Kenneth Gibson told the Herald: “I think in the last few years there has been a real upsurge in community spirit in Ardrossan.

For example, the castle, it is amazing, from the carnival days, their Easter event and their lantern event, I think the community spirit is developing and there is a lot more conference on the future of the town and I think that people do realise that things are going to get better than they did two, three, four or five years ago. There’s a lot of people in the community who want to see things change.”

Former Independent Councillor and Interim Chair of the Ardrossan Town Centre Initiative, John Hunter, spoke to the Herald about the campaign and spoke highly of other locals in the town.

He said: “I think the people need to keep doing what they are doing. There is a lot of goodwill in Ardrossan and a lot of people who are prepared to give up their time, energy and expertise to try and make Ardrossan a better place, it doesn’t bother me that they are small groups like the Three Towns Growers, the Whitlees Centre and the Castle Heritage Society.

“I am involved in the plans for the Ardrossan Community Sports Club and I am interim chair of the Ardrossan Town Centre Initiative.

“I wouldn’t like to see all of their energy dissipated by an overarching body. The goodwill is there. I think you could fritter that away if it was under an overarching umbrella. I don’t think that should be taken away from them.”

Council Leader Joe Cullinane added: “That was absolutely key to us to make sure it was about community spirit and get that behind the campaign. We had a chat in here when things were being said behind the scenes. There was a real opportunity for the campaign to continue to breed community activism in Ardrossan and I think that opportunity is there for some of the groups still in Ardrossan.

“Giving people the platform to come up with more ideas and the decision has been made and we will get to see the work starting but it is how do we get people involved in more community led regeneration or community led solutions to some of the challenges that they face.

“If there is anybody looking to get involved in getting Ardrossan or North Ayrshire better then get in touch with us and we will certainly try and support it.”