Welcome

Welcome to our website. Parts of the site are still under construction but we will add content over the next few months so please come back often!

Ailsa Horizons Ltd is a social enterprise and a charity established to build on the experience and track record gained since 2002 when we were set up as 'Girvan Horizons' - a Social Inclusion Partnership project.

We are the rural regeneration company for South Ayrshire and we run a range of projects and offer services to community groups, social enterprises, and public and private sector organisations.

Services include:

• Project development and management
• Business planning
• Support to access funding
• Training
• Community engagement and capacity building
• Administration of funds

Core business for 2009 – 2010 is to implement the “Enterprising Communities” project. Grant funding for this comes from Leader, South Ayrshire Council, and the local Horizons group. The project is helping 6 communities to assess their needs and aspirations and to produce action plans for the development of their villages.

At the same time, we are working to reduce Ailsa Horizons' dependency on grant funding by taking on commercial contracts and by creating profit making subsidiaries. A unique initiative is the company’s proposed railhead to be built at Grangestone Industrial Estate, by Girvan. Over the past few years we have invested time and money into developing this idea. If successful, the facility will open in May 2011 and it will contribute to all 4 of Ailsa Horizons'‘bottom lines’:

• Economic Benefit – by helping to secure existing jobs and encouraging new businesses into the area
• Social Benefit – by demonstrating that any (and all ) business sectors can be open to community ownership
• Environmental benefit – by transferring at least 100,000 tonnes of freight from road to rail: reducing traffic problems, noise, and carbon emissions
• Financial benefit – by generating profits to fund the company’s ongoing regeneration projects.

The rest of this site gives more information on what we do. Please contact us if we can help with your project or business.