The winners of the 2011 awards were announced by compere Kaye Adams at the Gala Dinner on Thursday 13th October at the Gailes Hotel, Irvine. Joint winners of the 2011 Awards in the Rural Enterprise category were Craft Town Scotland (West Kilbride) and
Yipworld.com
(based in Cumnock).
The categories have been judged by a panel of experts who have drawn up the shortlist of finalists for each of the Award categories. The quality of the entrants for the 2011 awards was extremely high and the short listed nominees reflect the sheer breadth of business success throughout the county - from small start-ups and individual entrepreneurs to long-established businesses.
Craft Town Scotland (West Kilbride) was one of three Ayrshire Businesses shortlisted in the “Rural Enterprise” category of this year’s awards.
Other businesses on the shortlist for this category were Straiton Village Stores and
Yipworld.com
(based in Cumnock)
There are fears that Ayr Film Society could be forced to abandon their 2011/12 programme due to the closure of the old lecture theatre on the Craigie Campus and the delays in the University of West of Scotland responding to the group's request to hire the facilities available in the new buildings.
The Film Society has been using the facilities at Craigie College since 1967. Their season normally starts in September, but so far they have been unable to secure facilities at UWS. Now, Treasurer Ron Currie has explained that the group’s future is in doubt since the closure of the Beechgrove Campus, which was always used by the society.
He said: 'The university is not accepting external bookings for their new facilities. We were originally advised that the bookings diary would be open by the end of September but this hasn't happened and it now looks that could be a further couple of months down the road before they will even consider external bookings.'
The film society wishes to use the university facilities during the winter months and anticipated paying the university a hire fee of £4000 for the Season of 20 films. So far, representatives from the society have not even been allowed in to make sure the new university is suitable for their needs.
Ron continued: 'The director originally told us that the university wants to be involved in the community and with groups like ours. But then the attitude seemed to change to 'well, we are an education facility. But we are an education group with discussions taking place about every screening. So much for lifelong learning.'
The University claims that the process of commissioning their new facilities is not yet completed and any discussions must be delayed until any problems are resolved. Thay did not comment on the view that Ayr Film Society was an educational group.
This item is based on an article in The Ayrshire Posted dated 14th October 2011.