THE National Lottery has awarded grants worth more than £35million to North Ayrshire projects in the last 20 years, it was revealed this week.

And Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has hailed the contribution the lottery has made to the area, as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Established in 1994, the National Lottery has raised over £31billion for good causes and supported over 400,000 projects throughout the UK.

Across North Ayrshire, 1215 grants have been awarded, totalling an astonishing £35,601,080.

Bigger projects include a grant of more than £1million through the Big Lottery Fund to West Kilbride Community Initiative Limited to develop the C-listed Barony Church in the centre of the town.

The grant breakdown revealed that £8,473,179 went to heritage projects in North Ayrshire, with another £19,370,000 on health, education, the environment and charitable expenditure.

A further £4,579,000 went to sport in the area, with £3,157,000 on the arts and £20,000 on Millenium projects.

In all, there was £2.5billion of support for over 50,000 individual good causes across Scotland. With around 70 per cent of the UK adult population playing, the UK National Lottery is able to offer big prizes and large amounts of funding for good causes. Mr Carmichael said: “The National Lottery is made in UK, played in UK, loved by the UK.

"It has improved our arts, protected our heritage, regenerated our communities, supported some amazing charities provided better sporting facilities for everyone and helped finance some of our greatest sporting heroes.

“People in Ayrshire have helped make the National Lottery what it is today. "Together with communities all across the UK they have helped all sorts of good causes.

"It’s a brilliant example of what we can achieve together as part of the UK.”