Concerns parking spaces could be lost to build Kilwinning’s new engineering college hub have been raised – with a councillor advising people can ‘park over the bloody road’.

The new engineering and construction hub in Kilwinning to help train skilled trade workers, is set to be built at the college campus next year after a near £500,000 donation from Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) funding.

However fears of parking spaces being removed were raised during a meeting of the town’s community council last month, with chair Colin Hedley saying: “I am looking forward to the planning application as we do have concerns that we’re going to lose car parking spaces at the college.”

Conservative Cllr John Glover added: “A woman had come and said to me, ‘where am I going to park my car,’ and I said you can park it across the bloody road – we’re going to produce 300 apprentices here, produce employment for all these people.

“Kilwinning could be on the cusp of a great building boom after this pandemic.”

Cllr Glover earlier told the meeting: “They wanted to move the apprentices to Kilmarnock but I managed to get them to agree to extend the Nethermains lease.

“I kept plugging away and met the director of Hunterson. I managed to persuade him, instead of turning Kilbirnie into the Benidorm of the north or whatever, to spend it on Kilwinning college for apprentices. I’m delighted the half million has been granted, I was euphoric.”

Some £499,999 has been committed to Ayrshire College for a new Future Skills Hub in Kilwinning, which is due to open in late 2021.

The hub will deliver a curriculum in engineering, construction and SMART technologies for employers, primary schools, secondary schools and college students.

Ayrshire College Principal Carol Turnbull said: “The Future Skills Hub will impact positively on key skills and employability opportunities for so many people.”