South Ayrshire council have listed 11 new properties for sale as it took the decision to make another purge of excess assets. Authority holdings across Ayr and Girvan have been made available to bidders over the last month with former shops, industrial sites and disused land being hived off.

The sale is driven by referrals from the Council’s Asset team that put forward properties to the council that are surplus to requirements. If Councillors are unable to find a use across any departments for the property is then sold off.

The sale of council land and holdings is in part driven by continued restrictions to council budgets. Delays to the British Government budget because of Brexit has led to a domino effect all the way down to local council budgets. There is confusion over the size of grant that they could receive from the Scottish Government who recently abandoned procedure and published their financial plan before finding out the size of their own budget from Westminster.

Long-term leases and selling property can provide business opportunities for start-ups in Ayr. Kustom PCs got the opportunity to expand their trade through the purchase of a council property. While still a young business, founder Graeme Clark believes the process can be a good way of rejuvenating the area.

“It took a lot of work to refurbish it but it allowed an opportunity that probably wouldn’t have presented itself otherwise … taking a building that was simply you know looking derelict and falling apart and improving the view of that you know has to be a positive benefit to all”

Opposite the business, public toilets are also up for sale. Depending on the outcome of the bids that come in for it, one option could be for Ayr to follow in the footsteps of Bristol, who’ve been converting their disused public loos into cafes.