Housing plan for explosives site

The site borders the coastline towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston

A former explosives site in North Ayrshire could be transformed into a business park and housing estate if a £500m development proposal goes ahead.

NPL Estates said its 15-year plan for the Ardeer Peninsula would create 1,000 jobs, benefiting the coastal towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston.

Plans for the 1,700 acre area also include a golf course and a marina.

The proposal, for Scotland's largest brownfield regeneration site, has yet to be submitted for planning consent.

NPL Estates commissioned architecture and planning practice Keppie Design to develop the proposal.

Their recent projects include the Ravenscraig development in North Lanarkshire.

Simon Towers, managing director of NPL Estates, said the development would turn around the fortunes of the local community.

What it does mainly is give people in my area hope that something is happening Jim Clements Former local councillor

He said: "This exciting plan is the culmination of over five years design and consultation work and will deliver unprecedented regeneration in an area which has experienced a decline in socio-economic conditions following the downturn of heavy industry.

"This plan will reverse those conditions and will deliver real benefits to the local community."

The area was formerly owned by Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize, and was the site of the world's largest explosive plant.

At its peak, during the 1950s and 1960s, about 15,000 people worked at the site.

'Few hurdles'

There are currently about 200 staff employed by companies in the area.

Jim Clements, a former local councillor in the area, said he hoped the regeneration plan would succeed where others had failed.

He said: "They have a few hurdles to get over yet, but hopefully in the next 15-year period it will come to fruition.

"But what it does mainly in my view is give people in my area hope that something is happening.

"That there is hope for the youngsters in the area, and that can only be good."