As I mentioned a few months ago, the former Barony St John’s church building on Arran Place in Ardrossan has finally been saved by Al-Farooq Education and Community Centre, which bought the building last October and plans to bring it back to life as a community centre.

In July this year, you may have noticed scaffolding appearing around the building as the new owners attempted to assess the extent of damage to the roof.

Unfortunately, this scaffolding didn’t remain in place for very long as just over a week after it was erected, half of it was stolen.

The scaffolding was around three sides of the building – down the side on Church Place, along the front of the building on Arran Place and down the side of the building in the courtyard of our Barony St John Centre.

Some brazen thieves came along one Saturday afternoon with a large truck and removed all of the scaffolding down Church Place. The thieves were so bold that they took a break for a cup of coffee offered by a neighbour who felt sorry for them, toiling away in the hot sunshine.

This incident prompted the scaffolding company to remove all of their existing scaffolding for fear the rest may get nicked.

A few weeks ago, another company replaced all the scaffolding, including the back end of the former church.

For added security, they added a fence around the front of the scaffolding and a CCTV camera. But this didn’t deter a couple of vandals from gaining access to the scaffolding and then kicking in some of the church windows on Wednesday August 23. This was followed by another incident involving the same two teenagers on Sunday, August 27.

Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald: Vandalism on the scaffolding

One of these teenagers was dressed in light blue track suit bottoms with a matching hoodie, the other in black track suit bottoms and matching hoodie. The owners have already been given the name of one of them, so hopefully, with police involvement, that will be an end to it.

More CCTV cameras were installed last week and security guards are now on site every night.

It’s such a shame that honest people trying to make something that would benefit our community have been given such a negative impression of Ardrossan.

I would like to ask all readers if they could be vigilant when passing by the former Barony St John’s church building?

If you see anything untoward or suspect any unauthorised people on the scaffolding or notice anyone trying to gain access or damage the building, please contact the Police on 999 and call the new owner on 07528 764066.

In the meantime, as always, stay safe.