Search for Gypsy site starts again - Kilmarnock

A NEW cross-party initiative to choose the location of a Gypsy/Traveller site in East Ayrshire has been agreed by the council’s cabinet. Councillors voted to set up a member/officer working group – which will include the authority’s SNP, Labour and Conservative leaders – to come up with a new system for selecting a site. But the move was opposed by Labour members of the cabinet who argued that it was up to East Ayrshire’s SNP administration to come up with a policy. Last week’s decision follows the collapse of an earlier attempt by the council to choose a suitable site. In May cabinet members opted for a site in Muirkirk – selected from a shortlist which also included Ayr Road, Holmquarry Road and Queens Drive in Kilmarnock. But, after the decision was referred to the council’s governance and scrutiny committee, it was sent back to the cabinet with the recommendation that the ‘scoring mechanism’ used to consider potential sites should be reviewed.