Council chiefs have scrapped the annual Provost's awards dinner - the Times can exclusively reveal.

The Provost's Civic Pride Awards, which shines a spotlight on community champions across North Ayrshire, will no longer be happening with the red carpet rolled out for the last time at The Portal back in March.

Despite the big glittering gala dinner being ditched, Provost Ian Clarkson told the Times plans to celebrate local legends across North Ayrshire in a different format are to be finalised for next year.

Provost Ian Clarkson said: “I’ve been incredibly proud and honoured to have hosted three really successful events.

“We are now just considering different ways of recognising local people and looking at ways we can reward more individuals and groups within their own community.

"While there will not be the big one-off Provosts Award, we will still be celebrating our community champions and that, for me, is hugely important.

“We haven’t yet finalised how we are going to do this but it is likely that we will host smaller events within our six localities across North Ayrshire. I’m very excited about the plans and will share the full details when we have them.”

The final Provost's Civic Pride awards event shone a spotlight on some tremendous talent across North Ayrshire - including Irvine Clean-up Crew and Lauren Caldwell and Brogan Morrison of Kilwinning Academy Active Schools team.

It also raised almost £10k for Cash for Kids and The Ayrshire Hospice, bringing the total charity amount raised from the event to almost £164k in nine years.

More in next week's Irvine Times.