The success of a Dalry Summer sports hub, which at times saw up to 300 people attend in a single a night, has resulted in the programme continuing.

Project Kilbirnie, the Beith Trust and Dalry Community Sport Club (DCSC) worked together to run the 16-week programme, which saw around 7,000 participants from all over North Ayrshire.

The success of the project has led to it continuing at DCSC over Autumn and Winter with the help of coaches from KA Leisure and volunteers.

Allan McGinlay, chairperson of DCSC, said: “To align ourselves with North Ayrshire’s priorities, which was social inclusion and food with dignity, we started introducing free food with some of the free activities we put on. What’s really good about it is if you go down to the school on Wednesday night you see a lot of parents mixing as well. They get together and have a chat over a cup of tea, so it’s bringing a lot of people together as well as giving the kids the chance to take part in sport.

“There was a boy at a recent session who had not long joined the school and you could see he was very shy. Within about half an hour you could see him running about with the other kids and having a ball.

“We’ve had more volunteers stepping forward to help us recently, we get a lot of good feedback from kids and parents on the nights.”

Scott Robertson, KA Leisure Community Sport officer (hubs), added: “We launched the ParkLives project four years ago with the support of DCSC. The initial project was a simple family activity programme based in the local park. It’s been fantastic to see the club take ownership of the project and develop the initiative to other areas in the Garnock Valley. They have recognised local priorities which included dignified food provision and have integrated its inclusion into the programme.”

Community Sport Hubs are one of sportscotland’s key legacy commitments from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Chief executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, said: “We know from experience the life-changing effect of sport participation and that can be seen in hubs across the country. It is fantastic to see such a successful partnership working well to benefit so many people in North Ayrshire.”