MEMBERS of New Cumnock Resilience Group staged a public drop-in event to give residents an update on their activities.

In addition, they displayed new equipment they invested in, community resilience kits, which will help identify the volunteers if and when emergences arise.

Residents were encouraged to go along to the town hall along with representatives of the various community groups in the village.

New Cumnock Community Resilience Group was set up after the village was flooded twice in as many years, causing devastation to households and businesses.

They were given £750 funding in the Afton Awards programme to ‘provide a team of local volunteers with the necessary equipment to work and access training to enable them to assist the community in any emergency’.

So far the group have registered with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Emergency Register which will put a plan of action into operation to deal with stricken communities. Through the participatory budgeting (PB) opportunity in New Cumnock in 2017 they were also able to secure funding to buy a community resilience kit.

Part of the New Cumnock Action Plan, the resilience team work with partners including East Ayrshire Council, Scottish Government, Princes Trust, Princes Foundation, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Historic Scotland, Job Centre Plus, and Ayrshire Leader.

Councillor Jim McMahon said: “In winter weather, it is impossible to grit every single road and path on demand.

“This is where the community resilience scheme comes into its own.”