A LONG-TERM plan to re-invigorate Irvine and make it the key town for investment and aspiration in North Ayrshire is set to go before council chiefs.

Members of the NAC cabinet are due to meet today (Wednesday) to consider a draft proposal for an Irvine Vision which will make the town’s fortunes a main priority and ensure that in the coming decade it will be able to compete with the likes of Ayr, Kilmarnock, and even Glasgow.

The so-called 'Irvine Vision’ contains a range of suggestions for improving Irvine over the coming decade, including dividing the town into 'urban quarters’, securing a cinema and perhaps even overhauling the Rivergate Mall.

The draft strategy takes its lead from work carried out in 2013, which recognised Irvine as the principal town in which investment should be priorities in North Ayrshire.

In the latest report, going before cabinet members this week, Craig Hatton, corporate director of development and environment, comments: “As the key town within North Ayrshire, with a population of 38,380, Irvine offers the scale of population, infrastructure, skills and resources not available to other centres within North Ayrshire.

“The Irvine Vision advises that Irvine, as the primary residential centre, administrative and business capital of North Ayrshire has a critical and leading role to grow as a successful regional hub, create employment, become an economic driver for North Ayrshire and become a place with a strong, distinctive and aspirational appeal.

“If Irvine does not develop to realise its potential as the principal town with North Ayrshire, it is very likely to lose out to the neighbouring Ayrshire towns and to the wider Glasgow metropolitan area.” The 'Irvine Vision’ highlights seven key challenges that the town will need to address in the coming years, spread across five geographical locations: town centre, beach park, harbourside, retail park and enterprise area.

According to the report, the goal can be boiled down to the following: “A coast that offers opportunity to breathe, enjoy and be all you can be. A town to grow, share, succeed, and develop. An enterprise location in which to invest. A confident and aspiring community.” What this means in practical terms will be under discussion for some months to come, but some solid suggestions are contained within the draft strategy, including the construction of a new pedestrian bridge, correcting IDC’s misguided decision to demolish the Auld Brig and replace it with the Rivergate Mall in the 1970’s.

This, the report says, “severed connections within the town and lost an easy, open connection that historically served the town well.” One alternative suggested to building a new bridge is to “radically refresh, renew and redesign the Rivergate Mall to re-energise its retail role and create a more open, legible and user-friendly connection.” Pending the approval of councillors at Wednesday’s meeting, the draft Irvine Vision will be placed on the council’s website for three months and made available at key public buildings, inviting comments and suggestions from members of the public, before going back before the cabinet after the summer.