Ayr will wave goodbye to a decades-long sporting legacy that has helped championship level athletes to make way for an ‘inferior’ leisure centre.

Plans for the town centre facility will see no replacements for the diving board and sports hall at the Citadel – spelling the end of Ayr Diving Club, whose association with the town stretches back decades.

It will mean that there will be no diving facilities anywhere in the West of Scotland, with the nearest one in Edinburgh.

The loss of the main hall will also mean that there will be no room for big events, antiques fairs, football, basketball, volleyball, functions or concerts at the new centre.

Just recently the Citadel promoted the opportunity provided by the refurbishment of its café to “reintroduce the availability of the main hall for external bookings, birthday parties and casual football/basketball/badminton bookings”.

Peter Smith, a former Commonwealth Games diver, who is now president of Ayr Diving Club, said the diving community are “deeply disappointed” that diving facilities won’t be part of the ambitious scheme and spells the end of diving in the West of Scotland.

He said: “There are no plans that I know of for facilities to be built anywhere else in the West, not even in Glasgow.

“It (the decision) will also have a knock-on effect on diving in Scotland as a whole, as there will only be three clubs left in the whole country (Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen).

“This doesn’t make for a very interesting, or competitive, inter-club scene.

“The Citadel may have only had very modest diving facilities compared to the other clubs in Scotland, but in spite of that the club has produced Commonwealth-level divers and Scottish champions in years gone by.”

He added: “My own view is that the Citadel seems to be being replaced by an inferior facility, with less to offer than the Citadel itself.

“There will be no sports hall, squash courts, diving pool/boards or sauna/steam room.

“This begs the question, why bother replacing it at all? Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend money upgrading the existing Citadel?”

For the council, the matter has come down to numbers.

In its response to the consultation earlier this year, the council stated: “When reviewed from an operational perspective, it is not felt that diving is economically sustainable nor does it form part of the council’s sports/leisure development focus going forward.

“The inclusion of diving facilities into the design would have a significant impact on the ability to increase participation levels for dry and swim-based activities/lessons and would not contribute to the flexible approach we are aspiring to.”

It added that the sports catered for at the Citadel’s main hall “can be accommodated within existing sports facilities and education estate.

“This will ensure that these facilities which are based within our communities are used more effectively to widen participation.”