WHY on earth is this consultation on the future of Ardrossan as the ferry port for Arran even taking place –and what possible case could there be for coming to any decision other than confirmation of its status?

This is nothing more or less than an audacious bid by a commercial interest, Associated British Ports, to muscle in on something to which they have no legitimate claim. That is the way it should be treated – and dismissed.

The history, some of which I played my part in, is highly relevant and should not need restating. But it apparently does.

Ardrossan is one of many Scottish towns to which recent history has not been kind. The big employers departed – Shell, the Irish ferries, the shipyard and ICI at Ardeer which employed thousands until the 1980s.

Unemployment and its symptoms set in. When the patronising Carbuncle Awards were introduced by an architectural magazine to sneer at Scotland’s unattractive towns, Ardrossan was an easy hit, without regard for physical inheritance or the huge efforts to turn the place round.

One asset that gave Ardrossan hope was its role as terminal for the Arran ferry. This brought in trade and became the rationale for substantial public and private investment. Without the “gateway to Arran” status, Ardrossan would have become another dead-end town, of which Scotland has plenty.

In the 1990s, Clyde Marina made a courageous decision to invest in Ardrossan, utilising a disused part of the harbour. The sceptics were confounded when it became a great success. This encouraged Clydeport to make an equally important investment, with no guarantee of success, in housing development around the harbour.

Enterprise Ayrshire responded with a substantial contribution to transform the approaches to the harbour. The case for the Three Towns Bypass was also closely linked to the needs of Arran-bound traffic.

Public sector investment has continued through the Irvine Bay Development Company. More businesses and amenities have been drawn into the area.

I can testify from my own involvement to the certainty that little or none of this would have happened without Ardrossan’s status as ferry port for Arran. Regeneration is a slow process anywhere but why, after so much investment, would anyone contemplate its undoing with the inevitable consequences?

That is why I am bewildered that the claims of Troon are even being given house room. Where is the evidence of public demand? Can any commercial interest which fancies poaching someone else’s business knock at the door of the Scottish Government and be granted a “consultation”?

Crossing to Arran would be one-third longer in distance, time and cost. Winds which sometimes inhibit Clyde ferries would be no tamer. But Ardrossan would be devastated with its raison d’etre removed and the role it has occupied for 180 years pointlessly abolished.

Communities have rights and Ardrossan was entitled not to have such uncertainty visited upon it for no reason other than the ambitions of a commercial predator. Scotland’s transport minister should now bring this unnecessary exercise to a rapid and decisive conclusion.

Brian Wilson was MP for Cunninghame North, 1987-2005.