South Ayrshire Council to consider demolition options at Ayr's Station Hotel amid new safety report

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Bulldozers could be sent into the Station Hotel after council chiefs finally lost patience with the saga in the centre of Ayr.The Victorian pile, which is draining the public purse of £60,000 per month in scaffolding costs, is now on borrowed time, the Ayrshire Post understands.Another consultant will be employed — at a cost of £25,000 — to prepare a report on “permanent safety works” at the site.Options discussed behind closed doors include flattening the building entirely, or even chopping off the hotel’s top two floors.It follows years of desperate wrangling over the B-listed building — which is privately owned — but has seen South Ayrshire Council blow almost £2 million on safety contracts.Officials now want the issue off their books with no potential buyer in sight.A proposed deal that would have seen the hotel sold by current absentee owner Eng Huat Ung to a fellow Malaysian businessman has since collapsed.Council chiefs say they now consider that matter “closed”.It leaves County Buildings with a massive financial headache in facing up to the eye-watering scaffold bill.An internal report has acknowledged the ongoing monthly cost is “financially unsustainable”.Councillors were set to rubber stamp the new £25,000 safety works report at a meeting this week.A senior source said: “Nothing is off the table now.“The feeling is that decisive action needs to be taken for good.“The hotel cannot go on costing the taxpayer £60,000 every month — at some point we need to to say enough is enough.“It has long since become an embarrassment to Ayr and regardless of the blame game, we need a permanent resolution for the sake of the town.“For plenty, that idea won’t be popular, but nor is the status quo a realistic option.”A study