BARRHILL Thriving in the 21st Century - the Community Futures work over the previous 9 months resulted in this Action Plan being written and published, graphic design by Malcolm Pool, 500 copies of the plan were printed, each local household (approx 150) received a copy, the plan was launched at an open meeting in the Memorial Hall on 28th August 2008, about 80 people participated in the launch meeting.

All the information that the Community Futures work brought forward – through the survey, the profile, the interviews and the Community Open Day – has helped to shape this action plan. In this section seven main development themes and priorities that the community is aiming for have been set down. We will move these forward both through our own efforts and in partnership with a range of agencies and supporters. The order in which they are set down is not significant but alphabetical; all of these are priorities!

This Action Plan is a clear statement about the type of place the community wants Barrhill to be – and what needs to be done.

There are five sections:
An outline of our community profile
A summary of our community’s views
A vision for the future
The issues that matter most, and
Priorities for action

Within Barrhill, the type of housing available has frequently been taken for use other than continuous occupation, such as second homes and holiday lets. The demand for affordable housing, suitable for young residents wishing to have a home of their own, or for younger people wishing to move in, needs to be established.

There are 99 people in Barrhill district who have a limiting long term illness which is 25.58% of the total number of residents. This is a few percent higher than the figure for South Ayrshire (21.19%) or the national average (20.31%).
This average figure for the district however, conceals the high proportion of residents within the village who have long term illness (about 30%).

400 million years ago, two land masses crashed together and Scotland became part of Britain. One local sign of this early geology is the Southern Uplands, created as one plate was forced beneath the other and sediment on the surface was scraped into a heap to form a line of hills. These hills are the southern boundary of our Barrhill area. ..........................August 1980 Barrhill Flood
Just after midnight, as customers were leaving the Commercial, water came over the top of the bridge and came gushing down the Main Street. Jock Strain told the Gazette “I have never seen anything like it in my life.” Water flooded down as far as the Memorial Hall and up to the Galloway and cafe opposite.

Over the period from 1851 to 2001, the populations of Girvan and Maybole have fluctuated, but they have not experienced the same long term decline of the villages.

Within the Scottish Index of multiple deprivation, the Barrhill/ Colmonell datazone has an index of 4 for Education, skills and training which is below national average- (1 is most deprived, 10 is least deprived). This trend is also reflected, to some extent, in the data for the 4 output areas that make up Barrhill.

The SIMD Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, ranks datazones in sequence of their degree of deprivation. The SIMD rating for our local communities and the crime rate is given in the table.
Barr in particular, but also Barrhill and Colmonell, have a low crime rate compared with more urban datazones

In rural areas where the population is by definition widely dispersed, the datazones are also geographically large. This gives rise to a wide distribution in access times in any one datazone and average figures conceal a proportion of our residents who, living in the more distant regions, are significantly more disadvantaged than the data indicates.

The population of most developed countries increased dramatically during the twentieth century which was mostly due to a fall in mortality rates. In Scotland, there was a progressive fall in infant mortality from 130 per 1000 in 1901 down to 10 per 1000 towards the end of the century. This was coupled with a steep fall in mortality for women of a child bearing age, particularly in the 40's and 50's. The impact of reduced mortality to bring about population growth, was slightly lessened by a fall in birth rate throughout the century, from 4-5 children per married woman down to 2-3. The overall effect however, should have been a significant increase in population, but instead, the population remained almost constant throughout the century at a little below 5 million.

The most recent census data is that of 2001 which is available for small areas- referred to as output areas. In sparsely populated regions such as ours, each output area includes several post codes and the area boundary is defined by the boundaries of those postcodes.

The Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway company ran the first trains through Barrhill in October 1877 and this rail service, as well as its construction, must have had a considerable impact.

About 173 dwellings in total for a population of 1043
67 dwellings in the village for 373 people, about 6 per dwelling.

Income, employment, health, education, access, crime and housing on a scale of 1 – 10 where 1 is most deprived (in the bottom 10% of Scottish datazones.)

Barrhill Development Association (BDA) is about to start the preparation of a Community Action Plan for the future of our village and the surrounding area.

We will do our best to involve as wide a cross section of the community of Barrhill as possible ~ young and older, long term residents and new-comers, working people and those who have retired.

As part of the Barrhill Community Futures Project, Barrhill Development Association is seeking at least 4 or 5 local people to work as part time Community Agents. Community Agents will work on behalf of the whole community to carry out the majority of the work involved in the preparation of Barrhill’s Community Action Plan.