Ayr Central and South Ayrshire Council will join forces to stage Ayrshire’s Earth Fair this Saturday.

The event, now in its second year, will take place on Saturday, March 24 between 12pm and 4pm.

It is designed to coincide with Earth Hour is billed as ‘free family fun day to learn about protecting our beautiful planet’.

The Fair will host exhibitions and interactive displays from local environmental organisations, council programmes and commercial enterprises with goods, services and causes that address the environment and quality of life.

There will also be plenty of fun children's actvities including hands-on crafts and face painting to educate, entertain and inspire.

In the spirit of Earth Hour Day, the team from Creation Station will be running sustainable lantern making workshops, it’s hoped the lanterns will be used later in the day during earth hour, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, to light the way as businesses and households across South Ayrshire switch off their lights, to support climate change action.

"No matter where you start there are many ways to make a difference and they all add up," said George Reader, centre manager at Ayr Central.

“We are delighted to host the Earth Fair and hope it is the place to discover how to make a difference to the rest of the year.”

He added: “At Ayr Central, we are very aware of our social responsibilities and we aim to inspire the local community.

Part of this means employing ‘best practice’ to minimise the environmental impact of our operations and being open to new initiatives that help educate our visitors to take action on climate change.”

Visitors on the day will be encouraged to share their promise to the planet across social media using #AyrEarthPromise with the most inspiring shared pledge winning £50 shopping voucher to spend at Ayr Central.

This year’s event follows a Council pledge to stop buying plastic straws alongside a commitment to review the purchases of all single-use plastic items by 2022 to ensure sustainable items are bought in future.

Councillor Ian Cochrane, South Ayrshire Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sustainability & the Environment said that this year’s Earth Hour said: “We're commited to protecing our environment and this pledge to eliminate single-use plastic items is a great way to reduce unnecessary waste, much of which ends up dumped in landfills.

"We're starting the process by moving to paper straws and in the next four years, we'll be looking to source items which cut down waste and ultimately encouraging a culture shift in people's use of everyday items.

"Through this year's Earth Hour we'll also be promoting our approach and asking partners to consider whether they too could do more for the environment and sign-up to the Final Straw campaign and say no to single-use plastics."

For more informaBon on the Earth Fair and South Ayrshire’s Earth Hour Day’s events.

Visit https:// www.ayrcentral.com/earth-fair/ and hUp://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/earthhour/.