A HOLIDAY pilot programme has been given the green light for the October school break after its summer success.

In June this year, the South Ayrshire Council agreed to the provision of lunches in Ayr North and Girvan working with third sector partners funded by a drawdown of £10,000 from the Lintel Trust.

Now, it was proposed at a recent council meeting to extended the pilot onto the October school holidays.

Claire Monaghan, head of communities at South Ayrshire Council, said: “Over the six-week period, we delivered over 7,500 lunches to 270 activities at a rounded cost of £11,500 and the feedback around the lunches have been fairly positive.

“Lunches are comprised of a roll, fruit, water and a treat item and the approximate unit cost for the food element was 76p.

"There were two different approaches for the delivery of the lunches, with Ayr North we worked alongside Lochside Mission who provided the lunches and with Girvan, it was our own staff that made it.

“What we now want to do is take this programme into the October week. The unit cost of the lunches will remain the same.

“The October week is obviously a smaller scale, over one week rather than six and what we want to do after that is use the experience that we have to develop a profile for the summer and map out what our options are to take the delivery beyond Ayr North and Girvan, what the cost would be and how it would fit in to the initiative.”

The programme will run between Monday 16 and Friday October 20 and is expected to cost around £1,200.

Cllr Douglas Campbell, commented: “The feedback we had following the popular summer pilot was extremely positive, and I’m pleased that we will be extending the programme into the October school holidays.

“We’re committed to helping families during the holidays and this latest programme is a great example of responding to an identified need in our community, and is one which I’m sure will be warmly welcomed.”

Cllr William Grant, added: “I must admit, I am very happy with the progress that has been made and the main thing that I look forward to is seeing it being spread out to other parts of South Ayrshire and not just Ayr and Girvan.”

A report outlining the impact of the project and its possible extension to other areas in South Ayrshire is scheduled to be presented to councillors in March 2018.