SEVERAL communities in North Ayrshire will receive a share of £1million of grants to help town centres recover from the economic devastation caused by coronavirus.

The money has come from The Towns and Business Improvement Districts Resilience and Recovery Fund, financed by the Scottish Government.

The fund has supported a raft of schemes to help town centres including to help pay for vital PPE supplies as well as funding local marketing campaigns.

Schemes receiving grant across the wider Ayrshire region include a programme by Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce covering Largs, West Kilbride, Irvine, Ayr, Troon and Girvan.

They will be given £13,000 as part of the recovery.

However, as well as South, East and North Ayrshire Councils all being granted money too, there are a number of other business projects across the region benefitting.

These include the Beith Trust, who will use the money to develop a community town centre hub app to help with general business support among other plans.

Largs Events SCIO and the Isle of Arran Community Council will also gain cash from the scheme.

Phil Prentice, chief officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, said: “Businesses in our town centres are showing remarkable resilience and innovation in how they are responding to the consequences of COVID-19 to best serve their customers and communities.

“From rapidly accelerating their online offerings to moving quickly to ensure that safeguards are in place to ensure that staff can work safely and customers shop responsibly, their work is playing an important part in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.We are delighted to have been able to support communities across Ayrshire and pleased that the work will touch on so many towns as we encourage everyone to think local first.”