We now have a good functioning interim committee, chaired by John Geates, who is a retired former Chief Constable for Scotland. Esther is Secretary and Wallace Guthrie is Treasurer. We are working our way through a constitution acceptable to the various agencies involved with the new Community Right to Buy (CRTB) legislation as well as for OSCAR so we can be registered as a charity and become a Company Limited by Guarantee. This would allow us to purchase, compulsorily purchase, asset transfer from public bodies and to do this with historic buildings and land.
We are thinking in terms of the historic, neglected and or abandoned area around the Fish Cross and the old Affleck's land which needs to be conserved and redeveloped to be used for amenities for vulnerable groups or for the community in general. We would try to find out what people need and want, ideas around already include: a community centre for senior citizens to replace in some way the old Carrick Street Day Centre or a museum about people's lives in Ayrshire.
This means that we have to work on the abandoned and neglected buildings to see which are suitable for redevelopment, to work out how people could use some of the land as gardens, how we could perhaps develop the upstairs of the buildings and also some of the land for parking to provide an income stream to subsidize the running costs of the community benefits.
We also have to get the local community to be involved in deciding what we want and need and in positively agreeing about decisions on this people's project.
We also have to work in partnership with the Council and all the other groups and agencies involved. This includes funding agencies, planners etc. etc. etc.