FACEBOOK and Twitter has been set alight with complaints after the decision was made to axe the Ayr Flower Show.

The news was broken on Tuesday after Chairman John Walker confirmed that the historic summer flower extravaganza would be no more due to South Ayrshire Council not funding the event.

The Flower Show has been a regular feature of the South Ayrshire calendar for decades.

John Walker said in a statement: “Ayr Flower Show has a great success for the last 56 years with only one hiatus in 2000 when the then administration of South Ayrshire Council decided they could no longer afford to stage it.

“This is a sad day for all involved but in retrospect what has been achieved has been about much success built out of an empty field and from empty pockets.

"Congratulations and thanks are due to our many sponsors, patrons, contractors, societies, supporters, suppliers, exhibitors and volunteers over the years, but this sad outcome is a loss to the community effort and spirit, the fabric of our town and its heritage as well as the contribution to the economy.”

Many on social media began to point the finger at South Ayrshire Council after it was revealed they could no longer fund the event.

Kenneth Henry said: “The chief executive of SAC could afford to stage it single handedly out of a couple of weeks of their bloated salary.”

However, Darroch Gilchrist defended the decision to axe the Flower Show.

She said: “The flower Show wasn’t that great. It was poorly located out in Rozelle. If it was going to survive it needed to be more like the bigger flower shows instead of somewhere nurseries gathered to sell over-priced plants. It was also far too expensive to get in.

“I wish Ayr would stop losing events but at the same time the events put on need to be something worth going to.”

Lesley Bloomer, South Ayrshire Council’s Executive Director for Economy, Neighbourhood and Environment, said: “We wholly recognise the huge amount of work the Board of Ayrshire Horticultural Society has undertaken in running Ayr Flower Show over the past 16 years.

“The council – and our predecessor authorities – have supported the Ayr Flower Show for a number of years, running the event from 1960-1999 before the decision to withdraw the funding, in 2000, for financial reasons.

“We continued to support Ayrshire Horticultural Society – primarily in kind – when it reinstated the event in 2001 and worked closely with them to build a successful event.

"At their request, and to minimise any risk to the event, we agreed a three-year funding package for 2013-15 specifically for the purpose of underwriting the event – for example, if there was poor weather that impacted on visitor numbers.

“There was a full draw down of these funds (£20,000 per year) in each of these years. In fact, in 2015, the funding was provided, exceptionally, in advance due to the Flower Show’s cash flow difficulties.

“During this period, we worked closely with the board to provide support for them to look at alterations to their business model to improve the sustainability of the event; however, this did not lead to any significant improvement in their financial position.

“In 2016, the decision was taken not to underwrite that year’s Flower Show; however, we did provide marketing support worth around £2,500 and also provided, prepared and cleared up the event site – worth an estimated £9,000.

“The board’s statement today is disappointing as it’s fair to say that our support allowed the Flower Show to continue for longer than may have been feasible otherwise and masked financial difficulties that had existed for some time.

“However, we appreciate how sad and difficult it must be for them to take the decision that the current model cannot continue.”