PLANS to bring life back to the iconic Cumbrae Watersports Centre have hit the rocks after the project was deemed not to be 'financially viable' by the charity set up to save it.

The news has caused disappointment among campaigners after being revealed to the community, as the Cumbrae Wave charity now looks for a way forward for the island.

The group was first formed by concerned locals and ward councillors in late 2020, to try and find a way to save the centre following sportscotland’s withdrawal from the site.

Carol Campbell from the charity says that despite spending eight months trying to make it work, the figures just don't add up.

She said: “We were formed originally with aim of acquiring ownership of the watersports centre for the benefit of community.

“We wanted to use the site primarily to support the provision of watersports, but also to offer catering and holiday facilities to offset the costs of running the centre.

“We registered as a charity in December last year and have spent the last eight months looking at the financial feasibility of the site to get a community asset transfer off the ground.

“However, following thorough market research, the numbers have shown that we can’t get a financially feasible business plan together at this point.

“It is a very demanding project and would be very expensive to run, and as a result we just ran out of time to do a deal with sportscotland."

Carol believes that despite the setback, the charity can still look at running activities on the island, but use a different model.

She said: “We had really good input from residents to our original surveys, and a number of things were highlighted as potential opportunities for us.

“We need to look at whether we can deliver an alternative elsewhere on the island, something that doesn’t have the centre itself attached to it.

“We now need to go back to the community and consult on different models, to see what we can achieve.

“Whether the Cumbrae Wave is the appropriate vehicle to do that we will have to wait and see as well.”