IRVINE’S Portal Leisure Centre was visited a quarter of a million times more than Harvies in 2018, we can exclusively reveal.

During last year, 624,395 visits to Harvies were clocked in by both members and visitors alike but this was overshadowed by the Portal, who had 874,037 – despite Harvies being home to North Ayrshire’s only ice rink.

The figures were obtained by the Herald through a Freedom of Information request and come at a time where a question mark hangs over the Stevenston home of Auchenharvie, with proposals which could see the swimming pool and fitness suite moved in to a planned campus which will replace Ardrossan Academy.

Around 34,000 members use Harvie’s on average each month, the vast majority of these using the gym and fitness classes whereas the Portal averages around 58,000 a month, with more people using the swimming pools there by more than 10,000 across the year.

The Ice Rink at Auchenharvie was used 75,000 times during 2018.

Comparing the population of the Three Towns and Irvine shows very little difference with Irvine home to 34,090 people (not counting Dreghorn, Springside and other villages) and the Three Towns home to 32,540 people.

The Portal has also become notorious of late for issues with the drainage causing headaches for pool users but the newer centre still outperformed the forty-year-old Stevenston centre.

North Ayrshire’s two other main leisure centres welcomed 228,808 (Garnock Community Campus) and 330,799 (Vikingar) during the year 2018.

North Ayrshire Council are currently consulting with residents about plans for the Ardrossan Campus.