The library and the sports centre were vital to the community.

If there was one message Darvel residents wanted the authorities to hear loud and clear, it was this: the town's community buildings matter.
The Darvel Community Action Plan 2014–2019 recorded a strong view that the Town Hall, the library and the sports centre were vital to the community. Retaining them was named as one of the plan's two top priorities, alongside tackling the town's derelict buildings.
Concern about their future came through clearly in the Community Views Survey, where residents listed worries about the future of the Town Hall and sports centre among the things they disliked about the state of the town. A smaller but notable 6% of respondents cited a decline or threat to public services as a key concern.
The plan did not simply call for the buildings to be kept as they were. Residents wanted them retained, developed and placed at the centre of the town's regeneration, with each taking on a bigger role.
The Town Hall was described as key to the Darvel Music Festival, and therefore central to the ambition of making Darvel a music town.
The library, already valued by residents as friendly, was suggested as a possible visitor information centre, helping walkers, cyclists and festival-goers make the most of their visit.
The Gavin Hamilton Sports Centre was put forward as a potential hub with facilities for visiting cyclists, tying it into the plan's ambitions for the walking and cycling network.
Under the theme of Community Facilities and Activities, the plan set out three steps:
• campaign to retain these important facilities
• develop plans for improvements and for additional roles and uses for the Town Hall, library and sports centre
• take action to implement those plans
The organisations named to lead the work were local community groups and users, the Community Council, East Ayrshire Council and East Ayrshire Leisure Trust.
The plan's vision for 2020 described a town with good community facilities, events and activities, with facilities retained and developed, well used and well run, and with strong community organisations working well together.
The message running through the plan was that these buildings are not just services but the places where Darvel's community life happens – from the music festival to the clubs, groups and gatherings listed throughout the town's community profile. Losing them, residents feared, would mean losing part of what makes Darvel Darvel.