“It may not seem like it but it is twenty years on from the start of the miners strike. Most people will want to forget because it was a very hard period in their lives, they had to struggle to provide food and clothes for their families.

The leaders of other unions did not understand, or want to understand, that the Tory government at the time was out to change the way that unions represented their members, a way that had been fought for and won by our forefathers with the same determination that was present during the 1984/5 strike. The NUM at the time was led by Arthur Scargill. Like him or loathe him he told the truth about pit closures and the ruthless way Maggie had planned to break the unions.

She took on the miners first knowing that if she could beat them she would then be free to take on the others one by one.

Unfortunately we are left with the aftermath of devastated pit villages and towns. After sitting back and feeling sorry for ourselves the community is now coming together to fight back and build a new spirit in Auchinleck, a spirit that was present when I first came to the village in 1968, a spirit of a proud mining community and the most friendly people in the area.

There are plans to build a ‘One Stop Shop’ as a new place where the people of the village can meet and can once more get the feeling of a new beginning. The One Stop Shop will not close the Community Centre or any other place in Auchinleck but will complement the facilities that are already there.

The time is now right to start again and get back the title of Friendliest Village in Ayrshire.”