Troon: Multi-Level Governance in a Post-Industrial Town

Abstract

The original plan for the town of Troon was by the 4th Duke of Portland creating, arguably, the first railway town in Scotland, serving both as a coal port and a resort for Georgian sea-bathers. The coal trade expanded, shipbuilding was added as was the manufacture and repair of railway carriages. Troon became a burgh run by a council, abolished in local government reforms in the 1970s, becoming of two-tiered councils, later part of South Ayrshire Council, under a devolved Scottish Parliament and Ministers, all under a United Kingdom Parliament and Government. For almost fifty years these structures existed within the evolving governance system of the European Union, together with a growing number of treaties of the United Nations. The result is a remarkably complex system of multi-level governance (MLG), varying by issues, depending on the treaties, statutes, ministries and agencies. A small town lies under many formal levels of government, plus agencies and authorities that often span different levels in ways that can be opaque and even obscure. Today, economic growth in Troon is largely a matter of initiatives by local businesses and of national firms seeking to build as many houses as they can persuade South Ayrshire Council to approve. It harbour has some fishing, a modest timber trade from Argyle and a saw mill. The Council has limited resources after many years of austerity and has to concentrate on its most pressing issues. Tourism has stagnated and the airport at nearby Prestwick seems in terminal decline, while its iconic golf courses face economic threats. Despite promises of a town plan for Troon it has failed to adopt one, despite the complex challenges of retail decay, the dominance of commuting and the challenges of climate change.