Keep the ranger service and Country Park status at Eglinton Country Park

Eglinton Country Park, near Kilwinning, is the only country park in North Ayrshire. As part of its annual budget review, North Ayrshire Council has put forward the park's ranger service as a possible saving, and a decision is expected when the council meets in February 2025.

The rangers are what make Eglinton a country park. Without them, the site would lose that status and become ordinary open land, with the council under far less obligation to look after it. Paths, woodland and wildlife habitats that are managed today would be left to take their chances.

The cut would also end a great deal of work that local people rely on. School and group education visits would stop, several volunteer programmes would close, and years of practical knowledge about the park would be lost. The community garden, built up over the last four years by the rangers and a dedicated group of volunteers, would be shut and left to go wild.

For many families in Kilwinning and the surrounding towns, Eglinton is where children first learn about nature, where people walk, run and meet friends, and where wildlife still has room. Without professional management we fear more litter, more vandalism and slow neglect.

We are asking the council to find its savings elsewhere and keep the ranger service in place, so that Eglinton remains a well cared-for country park for everyone who uses it today and for the generations who will use it next.