IN a recent visit to Ayr, Prime Minister Theresa May made agreements that her government would enter talks about the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

The potential for inward investment in Ardrossan could lead to jobs, regeneration and other boosts.

But former Independent Councillor, John Hunter, isn’t convinced. He said: “I don’t think we would get the lion’s share (of the Ayrshire Growth Deal) and remember it is the Ayrshire Growth Deal, not the North Ayrshire Growth Deal.

“I suspect the bulk of the investment will go to the aerospace cluster and it is not surprising as it is a big thing and we will have to fight hard to get a share of this.

“I’m hoping we don’t need to worry too much about the harbour side of it though, as it seems to be a done deal.”

Cllr Joe Cullinane is more positive about the deal and he told the Herald: “The only people that have committed any money to the Ayrshire Growth Deal are the councils so far. My ask now is to them to show us the colour of the money, we are not a fictional growth deal, we’ve been working on this for three years.

“What we tried to do is look at all of the assets of Ayrshire and there is a lot of industry stuff there, like the spaceport at Prestwick, but in terms of Ayrshire one of the biggest assets is the coastline and it is pretty unique that we have emphasis on the coast and we make sure that we can join that up and make the greatest economic benefit from that and that’s where a lot of the stuff in terms of Ardrossan comes in.”

Patricia Gibson has long been an advocate for the deal and she said: “We need the Ayrshire Growth Deal and investment in the port. We need to find ways. When you think about the growth deal, any benefit for Ardrossan is focused on the harbour and that route, that’s why it was important to keep it. “The job of politicians is to make sure the Ayrshire Growth Deal has inclusive growth,

“I am not interested in a growth deal that leaves behind communities that have been left behind for too long, we need to make sure people in Ardrossan, Saltcoats, the Garnock Valley, they get their piece of that.”