NORTH Ayrshire’s Secondary Schools Athletics Championships may be held in North Ayrshire in the near future - after 10 years of kids travelling out of the area to compete.

And the St Matthew’s track could be the new permanent home of the event, despite concerns over shelter and facilities at the Saltcoats venue.

Ordinarily, kids from the North Ayrshire secondary schools travel to Dam Park in Ayr or to the Ayrshire

Athletics Arena in Kilmarnock to take part meaning travel costs and extra time out of school for those taking part.

But that could all change, and the ball started rolling when North Ayrshire Athletics Club hosted the North Ayrshire Primary School Championships in Saltcoats last month.

Blair Pettigrew, President of North Ayrshire Athletics Club told the Herald: “Although we are not involved in the organisation of the North Ayrshire schools secondary championships we would be happy to support the event in future if requested and would be delighted to see it held here in North Ayrshire.

“We have a great working relationship with the various departments within the council and would be more than happy to talk to the organisers about our experiences of hosting events at the track including the primary school championships and #NAAC10k.

“The club in the past five years have raised and spent over £50,000 in improving the athletics facility at St Matthew’s Academy with the support of the senior management team in the school and the private contractors who manage the school owners. We are passionate about making the club and the facility the best it can be and continue to work hard to raise funds to try develop the environs of the track and the capacity of the athletics facility to enable more people to enjoy our sport here in North Ayrshire.”

A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said: “All school events of this scale are organised by an Ayrshire Schools Athletic’s Committee.

“They are of the view that the facility at St Matthew’s is unsuitable as it does not have toilets, shelter or changing facilities for an event of this size.

“As the event takes place during the school day, there would also be a number of logistical issues to consider.

“We will look at these issues and see if they can be addressed to open up the potential of using St Matthew’s in the future.”

Saltcoats Labour Councillor Jim Montgomerie is right behind moving the event to the town.

He said: “As soon as I got asked about why the Championships were not in our town, especially with our wonderful facilities, I contacted the director for education to ask why? I told him that to me this didn’t seem right and he agreed.

“After some investigating I was contacted and told the reason why were that there are no public toilets, no PA system, no effective wet weather shelter and not enough changing facilities.

“One of the senior managers told me that the secondary school championships are organised by local teaching staff who select the venue based upon their requirements for the secondary events.

"Since the St Mathew’s venue opened they have chosen not to make use of this facility which forms part of the St Mathew’s Academy site. I really don’t get why they can come up with this decision? I would like to chat to them about this to get their reasoning on this.

“To be honest it wouldn’t matter to me what they said, it still wouldn’t make sense to me when we have these fantastic facilities on our doorstep.

"Strange that they have the local Primary School Championships here?

“I really hope it will be sorted for next year."