Ailsa Horizons

We aim to be a 'green company' and we have developed proposals for what we believe will be the first and only community owned rail freight facility in the UK.

For several years, slowed down by a lack of development funds, Ailsa Horizons has been developing proposals for a railhead to serve Grangestone Industrial Estate. To date, over £90,000 has been spent on developing the concept and operational arrangements, testing the proposed site, designing the track and sidings layout , confirming feasibility in terms of access to the main line, securing support from potential customers, and so on. All the indications are that this will be a viable business.

This £3m development has: approval in principle for up to 75% of the capital costs from the Government’s Freight Facilities Grant Scheme; approval in principle for loan finance to fund the balance of the capital costs; strong working relationships with rail freight logistics providers; engineers and consultants.

We have a letter of intent from a large business at the industrial estate and a letter of intent from another company that plans to locate there. Together, these two companies will provide the baseload traffic needed to make the facility viable.

The baseload traffic involves the transfer from road to rail of at least 100,000 tonnes/annum of cargo. Discussions with other potential customers tell us that other traffic flows are likely and that this business can grow and have a significant impact on the local economy and environment. Even with just the baseload traffic, the facility will remove at least 4,000 lorry journeys from our roads each year and will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 6,000 tonnes/annum.

STOP PRESS:

The application for Full Planning Approval for this project has been submitted. (Last year, the planning authority gave a positive screening opinion on the proposal so we have reason to to be confident about the full planning application.)

In November 2010, the Scottish Government proposed that the Freight Facilities Grant scheme would be closed to new applicants as part of the draft 2011-12 budget. Ailsa Horizons has been part of a campaign to have this proposal reversed. Our local MSP secured a debate on the issue in Parliament and there was cross-party support to have the fund reinstated. Negotiations on the Scottish Government budget continue and we are hopeful of a successful outcome.