THE end of the October school holidays is possibly not the time when our thoughts automatically turn to sunny days on the Isle of Cumbrae, but those of us who have spent many a happy holiday there might want to do just that.

Despite the excellent coverage by The Herald in late August, I was unaware of the threat hanging over Millport’s iconic Old Pier until I saw a social media alert for a Save Millport Pier online petition.

North Ayrshire Council mooted its demolition as far back as 2014 and the wooden structure has had no maintenance since then. The Save Millport Pier campaign, however, seems to have grown greatly in momentum with both locals and visitors alike as can be seen on its Facebook page.

In this time of austerity, a couple of million pounds seems like a lot of money for some summer visits by PS Waverley, the berthing of smaller boats that ply the Firth of Clyde and, of course, its integral role in the panoramic vista of Millport Bay until, that is, we compare it with the £61 million (and growing) cost of repairing Big Ben.

While the council insists that “there is no current plan to demolish Millport Pier” and that “any decision on the future of the pier is contingent on the final design of the Millport Flood Protection Scheme which is currently in process”, the tone is not optimistic for the future of the well-known wooden structure.

As we move between two significant anniversaries of Scotland’s most renowned architects – Alexander Thomson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh – surely there is enough creativity left in the field of Scottish engineering where essential flood defences and the future of Millport’s historic pier are not mutually exclusive.

I wish the campaigners well in their endeavours.

Jim Thomson,

Cauldstream Cottage, Keirhill, Balfron.

I WOULD appreciate if your readers could help me resolve a childhood memory. Every Christmas in the late 1940s to the mid-1950s my mother would treat my brother and me to a day trip to Glasgow to visit the “shows” and circus at Kelvin Hall and also Santa and the menagerie at Lewis's.

We set out from Irvine to St Enoch Station by steam train this was both an exciting and and a terrifying experience for a child as well) and after Johnstone on the RHS line we always looked out for a small engine, which may have been steam, perched on a gantry outside a factory. The engine could obviously travel on the gantry rails internally to the factory building. I wonder if anyone could throw some light on this mystery? We would always speculate on the name and business of the factory and the purpose of the engine.

Edwin England,

20 Alderston Avenue, Ayr.