Promises were made to the people of Stranraer when the ferries left. After 150 years as the main ferry port to Northern Ireland , the economy and the infrastructure of the Galloway town had been shaped by the needs of passengers, cars and lorries. Each day a steady ebb and flow of people brought with them a need for food, fuel, entertainment and a bed for the night.
Then, in 2011, it all stopped. “We couldn’t believe the magnitude of the impact when the boats left,” said Romano Petrucci, owner of Central Café and Chair of Stranraer Development Trust. “Stranraer had everything and we took it for granted.
” The £200m relocation of the ferry terminal from Stranraer to Cairnryan, six miles up the coast of Loch Ryan, made the route financially viable for the ferry companies but it gutted the local economy of Stranraer. It left behind a visible wound in the town’s scenic waterfront – a 29 acre pier that no longer served a purpose. After a funding bid by the local authority to kickstart marine leisure regeneration failed, the Scottish Government promised £6 million.
But nearly a decade on that money remains out of reach and unspent. “Failed, despondent, endless promises, endless false horizons, we just got absolutely sick of it,” says Romano. “I remember sitting three yards from John Swinney in 2015 and I remember him promising we would see the £6m in 2017.
We still don’t have it. It’s now worth about half of what it was worth when it was first promised, .