The Partnership, which is made up of representatives from the three Ayrshire councils and public and private sector partners, met earlier this week to discuss the Deal and a range of other issues at its quarterly meeting.

The in attendance heard that progress on the Deal is continuing despite the uncertainty of COVID-19, with both the UK and Scottish governments firmly in support of the plans.

The official documents will confirm the financial details of each programme, timescales and set out the objectives for each.

Last year, the South, East and North Ayrshire councils and both governments signed the Heads of Terms on the £251m Deal.

Now business cases have been developed taking account of feedback from the UK and Scottish governments.

Councillor Joe Cullinane, chair of the Partnership, said: “We have been working very hard, in difficult circumstances, to turn our aspirational ideas into real business plans that we can take forward.

“We are now at that stage, and it’s great that both UK and Scottish governments remain fully committed to the Growth Deal programmes across Scotland, and to work in partnership with us as we move into the delivery phase. We have been working with both governments to maintain a ‘business as usual approach’ to the work of the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

“To ensure that we are ready to sign and able to respond to any early call from government to do so, considerable work has been progressed in recent months to further develop project proposals; build strong partnerships around project implementation; review risk registers and potential impact on capital projects; and further update business cases.

“We look forward to moving forward in the coming weeks.”

As part of the meeting agenda, the Partnership considered the new Ayrshire Wide Community Wealth Building approach, approved by the Joint Committee in June, support for the tourism sector during the COVID-19 crisis, and plans for a new Regional Spatial Strategy for Ayrshire. There was also discussion on the food and drink industry, aerospace and clean energy.