THE new devolution powers for Scotland were discussed on Friday as the Secretary of State for Scotland visited Irvine.

David Mundell MP held a meeting with North Ayrshire Council representatives at Cunninghame House and revealed in an interview with the Times that there are plans to invest heavily in a joint enterprise involving all three Ayrshire regions.

The visit comes as the Scottish Secretary explains the controversial Scotland Bill across the whole country, with the SNP accusing the Conservative Government of 'breaking the vow', the pledge made by David Cameron before the independence referendum to give more devolved powers directly to Scotland.

Mr Mundell was pleased with the tone of the meeting in Irvine and believed that the measures were fully appreciated by council members.

He said: "I had a very productive meeting with North Ayrshire Council as part of my visits to all of the local government authorities in Scotland.

"This new Scotland Bill will introduce big changes for councils and will give them more responsibilities in many issues.

"The meeting was very positive as councillors and individuals involved want to have more responsibilities and newer powers."

The Conservative MP has criticised the SNP Government recently for stalling over the introduction of the Scotland Bill, but believes the SNP-led North Ayrshire Council have the right intentions.

He said: "Councils tend to be much less involved in the day-to-day politics and it was clear in the meeting that they wanted to work together to deliver for the people of North Ayrshire.

"I have a good relationship with all SNP-run councils and North Ayrshire is no different as we all want to help people and especially get people back into work."

The Scottish Secretary also revealed that there are plans to unite all three Ayrshire regions in a move similar to the 'City of Glasgow deal' which saw an extra £1.3billion of investment in the city.

He said: "The UK Government have plans to work with all three Ayrshire councils in a similar deal that we made with Glasgow recently that saw a significant sum of money put into the city.

"We would be looking to invest in the infrastructure of Ayrshire and the feedback which I received in the meeting was positive."

The Scottish Conservatives recently moved their conference for the west region of their party from Largs due to planned protests, and Mr Mundell was disappointed that they had to make the decision.

He said: "We were told by police that protests were going to be made at the event and because it was planned to be quite a small conference, the costs to security would have been too much.

"This was only going to be local members attending an event and it is wholly unacceptable that in today's democracy we cannot express our views without aggressive protestors becoming involved."

The Scottish Secretary also visited the Scottish Maritime Museum in the town and enjoyed meeting with apprentices.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Maritime Museum and the facility is superb.

"It was great to also meet the apprentices who are working hard on repairing boats in the area and to see their enthusiasm for the fantastic job that they're doing.

"I hope to one day return to the museum and view everything in the facility as a normal visitor in the future."