The Scottish Government has awarded East Ayrshire Council £60,000 to an initiative to address the impact of population decline.

The local authority is one of six which will benefit from funding through the Addressing Depopulation Fund, which has been doubled to £360,000 to enable a broader range of local authority areas to take action.

The south of East Ayrshire saw a 10% decrease in its working age population from 2011 to 2022. The plan will consider how policy changes in areas like housing, employment and education could encourage more people to live and work locally.

Speaking at a launch event at Cumnock Town Hall, Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart said: "East Ayrshire is a brilliant place to live, work and raise a family, but the working-age population is not evenly balanced across all parts of the local authority area.

"This strategy will set out ways to attract and retain the people needed for the local economy and public services – particularly in acutely affected places like Cumnock, New Cumnock, Ballochmyle and Doon Valley.

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"Encouraging young people to stay and settle here will be an important part of this, and it has been great to hear how the Children & Young People's Cabinet think the area could be made more attractive for them.

"This is all part of our Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, which sets out our steps to strengthen communities facing population decline across Scotland."

Councillor Jim McMahon, Deputy Leader, East Ayrshire Council said: "We recognise that depopulation presents a significant challenge to our rural communities and we're delighted that our area is being recognised with this funding. This money will help us run some exciting pilot projects which will bolster the great work already being carried out to create the kind of opportunities which will help people stay and thrive in our more sparsely populated areas.

"Together with the educational and career opportunities offered by our Barony Campus, and all the work being done to support apprenticeships, social enterprise and local business by 9CC, Dumfries House and Ayrshire College, we're running a New Cumnock Housing Survey to assess current need and future demand.

"We're also making tremendous progress to create a just transition to net zero from a fossil fuel based local economy with our CoRE project and other initiatives.

"This new funding will go a long way to help drive forward new projects to help keep our population healthy and prosperous and help them make the most of living in this area."

Morgan McPherson, Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, said: "We hope that this fund will help to address depopulation in East Ayrshire by looking at the role of much needed services that we young people find essential such as leisure activities and transport which can be put under pressure.

"We are excited to see the positive impacts this will have on young people across East Ayrshire and are eager to see more opportunities for our young people and young people across the country thanks to the fund."