It’s numbers up for West Kilbride’s community lottery as the village initiative celebrates its first birthday.

The lottery was set up last year as a way of raising funds for local community groups, with £1,500 set to be dished out in the coming weeks.

Organiser Adam Lennox reveals they are pleased with the uptake after the first year, but says the ambition is for many more to join.

He said: “At the moment we are selling over 100 tickets every month, which is a good amount for our first year.

“A lot of credit goes to Kay Hall for getting this going because she knew it would be good for the village and got everyone on board.

“We got a lot of support from the organisers of the community lottery in Darvel who sell thousands of tickets every month, so we’ve still got some way to go.

“The village was ready for something like this and the community took it up, so now it’s just a numbers game to try and boost the money raised.”

Each month one winner claims the £200 top prize, with two further prizes of £25, and residence have a much higher chance of winning than in the national equivalent.

Adam says calling the winners is one of the best parts of the job, and hopes to be making similar calls to well-deserving groups in the near future.

He explained: “We take the money from the pot every month and divide it in two, with half going to prizes and the other half to local good causes.

“People are always delighted to win, and phoning them up and hearing their shock is one of the best parts.

“We are just about to give out our first community grants, with three groups going to be awarded £500 each.

“Our lottery members decide where the money should go to, and the groups in the village will be so happy to get it.”

The organiser has hailed the community for its ongoing support, and hopes to see numbers rise as villagers see what their lottery money means for local organisations.

He said: “We have a village about the same size as Darvel so the intent is to get to a similar level of success.

“Unfortunately the lottery was launched at the worst possible time with the cost of living crisis and covid just passed.

“People don’t have a lot of money at the moment however we have still had a fantastic level of support from the community.

“We are hoping that when people see local groups benefitting from the lottery then the numbers will shoot up.”

To join the lottery email numberswkb@gmx.com, where you will be given instructions on how to set up your standing order.