Council staff racked up a mighty million steps as they did their bit for the environment.

More than 150 North Ayrshire Council employees joined in activities as part of Clean Air Day, which aims to highlight the effort to improve our air quality and reduce pollution.

Staff were encouraged to leave the car at home and walk, cycle or take public transport to work.

And dozens of staff also took part in a ‘step count challenge’ where they were encouraged to keep active and walk whenever possible.

Eleven teams and 21 individuals took part in the challenge and their final tally saw them clock up an amazing 1,386,316 steps – which is equivalent to saving 102,078.29 kg of CO2.

The team with the largest number of steps, 172,164, comprised the Council’s chief officers – chief executive Elma Murray, and executive directors John Butcher, Laura Friel, Craig Hatton and Karen Yeomans.

Other Clean Air Day activities delivered in partnership with Sustrans included a guided lunchtime walk and a smoothie bike to get staff cycling while making a refreshing smoothie. This forms part of the Council’s Clean Air Day project for which £22,000 has been secured from the Scottish Government’s Air Quality Action Plan fund. This will deliver a range of activities to employers and schools across North Ayrshire.

Councillor Alex Gallagher, Cabinet Member for Economy, said: “Although Clean Air Day is celebrated one day a year, we promote better health and environment all year round through North Ayrshire’s Active Travel project, Travel Smart, which is hugely popular with our pupils.

“The initiative gets a serious message across in an enjoyable and informative way. We hope events such as Clean Air Day help people consider how they get to work and how they can reduce air pollution, encouraging long-term changes to how we travel.”