By Calum Brown and Dale Eaton

Local junior football club Whitletts Victoria look set to depart current home ground Dam Park, with rugby side Ayrshire Bulls about to take over the stadium.

Victoria are in the process of securing an open site, formerly Whitletts Activity Centre, as their new home in a potential £500,000 project.

Chairman, John Dalton, believes that, if successful, the move will have a very positive impact on both the football club and community as they aim to return to their roots.

He said: “We’ve entered discussions to move to Whitletts. The key thing for us was being back in our local community. Dam Park is an excellent facility, but this brings us back to where the club was formed and where the club belongs.

“We’re looking at a new astro-turf pitch, pitch surround, fencing and floodlights. The pavilion here, which has laid dormant for 25 years, we’ll be looking to turn that back into a clubhouse.”

Vics in the Community, a local charity and partner of the junior side, have been working hard to create youth teams for the Whitletts area.

Vice-Chairman of the charity, Blair Monaghan, believes that the new facility can only be positive as it puts all levels of Whitletts Victoria under one roof:

“It will be great. Most of the kids are training at Ayr Academy or other facilities round about the town at the moment and having this would enable us to bring everybody together.

“It will be better and we’ll get a wee atmosphere for the club as well.”

Dalton is very ambitious about the future of Whitletts Victoria at their new home, and believes the move could help the club become more successful.

He commented: “I think it would give the club a tremendous boost. It gives us a home. We’d have our kids, youth teams and amateurs playing here, as well as the juniors. The whole idea is that, for Ayr, this would become a community hub.”

“Our ambition is to get to the top flight and be up there challenging the likes of Auchinleck Talbot”